November 2, 2009
Michael Ruse has a very bad op-ed in The Guardian. Jerry Coyne and P. Z. Myers have already laid into him (here and here respectively), but why should they have all the fun? Ruse writes:
If you mean someone who agrees that logically there could be a god, but who doesn't think that the logical…
November 2, 2009
As a coda to the previous post, have a look at this post from Jerry Coyne. Since some of his blog posts have been at the center of the recent dust-ups about accommodationism, he elected to provide a clear statement of his views on this topic. He presents things in a list of six numbered points,…
October 30, 2009
I had intended to leave this subject behind, at least for a while, but Josh Rosenau has a lengthy post up that I think merits a reply. See also this post and the ensuing comments.
On several occasions at this blog (here and here for example) I have endorsed the efforts of the NCSE and other…
October 29, 2009
What with all the general business and the ample supply of recent blog fodder, I seem to have gotten away from my Blogging Dawkins project. That state of affairs ends now.
In Chapter Two Dawkins laid out the case that artificial selection can and has caused enormous changes in the physical…
October 23, 2009
OMG! A new Tony Jaa movie:
Back in 2003, a little Thai movie called Ong Bak introduced the world to an elephant-herder-turned-martial-artist named Tony Jaa. Directed by Prachya Pinkaew, the movie became a global sensation and rocketed Pinkaew and Jaa into the international celeb-o-sphere. They…
October 21, 2009
I'm sure we all remember the book Unscientific America, by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. I found the book to be very disappointing, for reasons I explained in my epic, three-part review (Part One, Part Two, Part Three.) In short, I felt the book was superficial in its analysis of the…
October 20, 2009
So says NPR:
Last month, atheists marked Blasphemy Day at gatherings around the world, and celebrated the freedom to denigrate and insult religion.
Some offered to trade pornography for Bibles. Others de-baptized people with hair dryers. And in Washington, D.C., an art exhibit opened that shows,…
October 19, 2009
The trip to California went well. Suspiciously well, in fact, to the point where, even though I am now back home, I am still waiting for something to go wrong.
I first became suspicious during the two-hour drive over to Dulles Airport. There was no traffic. How odd. My rule of thumb when flying…
October 15, 2009
For my San Bernardino readers, I will be flying out to California tomorrow to deliever one of the keynote talks at the big MAA meeting. The talk will be at CSU San Bernardino at 9:00 am on Saturday morning. Nine am on a Saturday? They didn't mention that when they invited me!
The title of my…
October 15, 2009
So wonders Razib Khan over at Secular Right::
In any case, I'm on the record as saying that predictions for 2012 are very premature. But, it looks like 3 of the front-runners for the G.O.P. nomination are rather frank Creationists (Palin, Huckabee and Pawlenty). I'm skeptical about any of these as…
October 15, 2009
You are probably familiar with the Bloggingheads website. The site, founded by Robert Wright, features conversations between various bloggers, journalists and scholars on whatever issues it amuses them to talk about. The site has long featured scientists among its participants.
Two recent…
October 12, 2009
I only have time for quick blogging today, so how about a brief observation.
Here is Paul Krugman's latest column. It is a characteristically lucid and informative column about some bad economic ideas that are circulating around Washington these days. Here's a sample:
What ideas am I talking…
October 9, 2009
And mostly favorably, too. You might need a subscription to read the review, alas. The reviewer is Donald Granberg, a sociologist (now retired) at the University of Missouri. He published several papers on the MHP during the nineties.
I liked this part of the review:
The author does a…
October 8, 2009
Richard Dawkins stopped by the NCSE the other day. Josh Rosenau writes:
And no, blog drama did not spill over into the real world. It was a great visit, with Dawkins and Genie getting along swimmingly.
Anyone surprised by this? Let's face it, the blog drama hasn't really been that dramatic,…
October 5, 2009
Andrew Sullivan has posted several more blog entries on the subject of theodicy. Here's one written from a theistic perspective. It gets off to a bad start:
The emails you have received regarding the theodicy problem are, I think, very telling. Most striking to me is how few of your…
October 5, 2009
Via Andrew Sullivan I came across this article, from the Canadian magazine The Walrus, on the subject of science and religion. The article's focus is on Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit astronomer. It was the article's conclusion that really caught my eye:
Consolmagno has little patience for…
October 1, 2009
As a companion to this post, I would like to put forth Alan Grayson, a first-term representative from Florida, as a candidate for Speaker of the House. On Wednesday Grayson said:
Now, the Democrats have a different plan. The Democrats say that if you have health insurance, we're going to make…
September 30, 2009
Dawkins begins his case for evolution in the same place as Darwin himself: by discussing the myriad successes of plant and animal breeders. Whereas Darwin was very taken with pigeons, however, Dawkins prefers dogs, cabbages and cattle.
The chapter opens with a brief discussion of essentialism in…
September 27, 2009
Here's Kevin Padian, paleontologist and President of the National Center for Science Education, commenting on the science/religion issue:
The two kinds people who believe that religion and evolution can not coexist are extreme atheists and extreme religious fundamentalists. Everyone else doesn't…
September 24, 2009
The other day I sallied forth to the local Barnes and Noble to pick up my copy of Richard Dawkins's new book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. As I walked into the store I noticed a person stacking books on the main kiosk. She asked me if I was looking for something in…
September 23, 2009
Andrew Sullivan takes another stab at the theodicy question. His new gambit plays off of this heartbreaking report of a young child with CIPA (Congential Insensitivity to Pain). As a result of not being able to feel pain, the child is constantly hurting herself without realizing it. Sullivan's…
September 22, 2009
There is bloggery afoot on ye olde problem of evil. Russell Blackford got the ball rolling with this post, an admirably succinct essay on why evil and suffering pose serious problems to tradtional notions of Christian theism. Andrew Sullivan demurred here, and then elaborated here. Jerry Coyne…
September 18, 2009
In yesterday's post I mentioned a chess combination that arose during a tournament game I played a while back. For the benefit of my chess-playing readers I thought I would conclude the week by showing it to you.
This was played at the World Open a number of years ago. I was black. I had…
September 18, 2009
The other day I mentioned the book The Unlikely Disciple, by Kevin Roose, about a Brown Univeristy student who transfers to Liberty University for a semester. The book has all sorts of quotable nuggets, but I especially got a kick out of the following one. I should mention that Roose changed all…
September 17, 2009
Spend any time immersing yourself in science/religion disputes and you will quickly encounter the idea that “science is not the only way of knowing.” Nearly always this is intended as a way of carving out intellectual space for religion. For atheists like me this claim raises a red flag. I want…
September 16, 2009
For my Virginia readers, I have just learned that Judge John Jones, of Dover trial fame, will be speaking at Bridgewater College on Thursday, September 17. Bridgewater College? That's about twenty minutes from Harrisonburg! Looks like I have plans tomorrow night...
September 16, 2009
I'm currently reading the book The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose. Roose was a student at Brown University (my alma mater!) when he decided he wanted to learn more about the culture of evangelical Christianity. So he transferred to Liberty…
September 13, 2009
The Wall Street Journal recently hosted an exchange of essays on the subject of evolution and God. The participants: Richard Dawkins and Karen Armstrong. Here's your first question: Which of them wrote this:
Evolution has indeed dealt a blow to the idea of a benign creator, literally conceived.…
September 11, 2009
The main reason I haven't been blogging lately is that I have been seriously under the weather for the past week or so. These days people are seeing swine flu in every case of the sniffles, but I am unconvinced.
My symptoms: fever, cough, general achiness, fatigue, sore throat are certainly…
September 11, 2009
By now I assume everyone has heard that South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson heckled President Obama during the latter's big health care speech on Wednesday. When Obama claimed that there was nothing in his bill that would extend health insurance to illegal aliens, the congressman yelled out “You…
