May 4, 2007
In last night's Republican candidates debate, the topic of evolution was briefly mentioned. As I discussed here, McCain said plainly that he “believed in” evolution, but then quickly qualified his answer by adding that he also believed in God. Three other candidates (Brownback, Huckabee, and…
May 3, 2007
Moving on, we then had an interesting exchange with Governor Romney:
MR. MATTHEWS: Governor Romney, what do you say to Roman Catholic bishops who would deny communion to elected officials who support abortion rights?
MR. ROMNEY: I don't say anything to Roman Catholic bishops. They can do whatever…
May 3, 2007
The New York Times has posted a transcript of the big Republican candidates deabte. So, as promised, let's have a look at some other items of interest.
Here's Governor Huckabee trying desperately to avoid saying he believes global warming is a real problem:
MR. VANDEHEI: Governor Huckabee, this…
May 3, 2007
There were a number of interesting tidbits in the Republican candidates debate tonight. There was the spectacle of Mitt Romney desperately trying to explain away his flip-flop on abortion. There was the stampede to declare embryonic stem-cell research immoral and unnecessary, culminating with…
May 3, 2007
Ed Brayton, Orac, and the Hoofnagles have already covered this story (click here, here, and here, respectively.) But why should they have all the fun?
Over at Uncommon Descent, Salvador Cordova discusses the MacCallum essay, Now, I've seen several of Salvador's public presentations. So I am…
May 3, 2007
Writing in PLoS Biology, Catriona MacCallum offers these wise words on the subject of evolution and medicine. The article describes a conference MacCallum attended on the subject. MacCallum writes:
One reason that evolution doesn't figure prominently in the medical community is that although it…
May 3, 2007
In a pleasant change from the ordinary, Slate has been posting a lot of good stuff lately. Today they have this review of a new book by Janet Browne entitled Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography. The review is by Jonathan Weiner:
In 2009, On the Origin of Species will be 150 years old. On Feb…
May 3, 2007
Via Larry Moran I came across this article, from the journal Cell, about the growth of the science blogosphere:
There are close to 50 million weblogs or blogs for short. Blogs provide an online discussion forum for issues of current interest and are updated regularly with new short articles on…
May 2, 2007
Writing at Slate, Ann Hulbert offers some thoughts on the use of chess as an educational tool in elementary schools:
In January of 1958, three months after Sputnik triggered an educational panic in America much like today's angst about the global talent race, a 14-year-old boy from Erasmus Hall…
May 1, 2007
The all-encompassing, all-devouring, Science Blogs combine has assimilated another member. Be sure to say hello to the brothers Hoofnagle (if that's really their name) who write the denialism blog. Only a few posts so far but all of them worth reading.
And I notice one of the Hoofnagles is a…
May 1, 2007
Reviews of Hitchens' book are already appearing. Here's one from Bruce DeSilva of the Associated Press. I found two items of interest.
The first is an amusing instance of an error in word choice. DeSilva writes:
Hitchens is the reincarnation of H.L. Mencken, the penultimate social critic of the…
May 1, 2007
Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris have had things to themselves for too long. Now it's time for Christopher Hitchens to join the party. His new book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is now available.
So, my summer reading list just got one title longer. In general I…
April 26, 2007
Bill Maher showed up on Scarborough Country yesterday to explain his problems with organized religion. Since I can't improve on his eloquent and spot-on comments, I will simply reproduce them beneath the fold. Enjoy!
BILL MAHER, HOST, "REAL TIME": I've always had it out for religion, for very…
April 26, 2007
I am happy to report that the little dust-up between Shelley Batts and Wiley has ended peacefully. Wiley has apologized for their rather heavy-handed treatment of the matter. When I read the good news over at Shelley's blog, I had a number of reactions. Happily Rob Knop has saved me the trouble…
April 25, 2007
Commenting on the recommendation of the Vatican International Theological Commission to eliminate the concept of limbo, Michelle Tsai, writing for Slate, offers some interesting thoughts on past efforts by church leaders to resolve the final destination of baby souls in the afterlife. It's nice…
April 25, 2007
From the Catholic News Service:
After several years of study, the Vatican's International Theological Commission said there are good reasons to hope that babies who die without being baptized go to heaven.
In a document published April 20, the commission said the traditional concept of limbo -- as…
April 25, 2007
In this post, my SciBling Shelley Batts, of Retrospectacle, analyzed a recent paper claiming that fruit becomes healthier when consumed with alcohol. Something about boosting the antioxidant properties of the fruit.
Interesting stuff. Even more interesting was what happened next. The paper in…
April 24, 2007
Ooblog presents a fascinating exchange that he had with Discovery Institute blogger Michael Egnor.
The exchange centers on Egnor's oft repeated challenge to Darwinists to explain how it is possible for naturalistic processes to explain the growth of information during evolution. This nonsensical…
April 24, 2007
Via P.Z. Myers, I came across this post, from George Shollenberger. He is the author of a book entitled The First Scientific Proof of God, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him.
He seems vexed by the number of atheists here at ScienceBlogs. He writes:
I am a retired…
April 23, 2007
If you're curious, in an interview lasting just over four and a half minutes, Bill O'Reilly uttered 609 words, while Dawkins uttered a mere 342. Considering the way O'Reilly usually treats his guests, that's a pretty good ratio.
At the start of every show, O'Reilly gives the headlines of the major…
April 23, 2007
Well, Richard Dawkins had his little run-in with Bill O'Reilly tonight. No doubt surprised to have an A-list guest on his show, O'Reilly managed to keep the stupidity to a minimum (though, as we shall see, he certainly did not manage to eliminate it entirely). He was also on his best behavior.…
April 23, 2007
For my Virginia based readers, Nikhil Rao, founder of the group Conservatives Against Intelligent Design, will be speaking to the Alliance for Science tomorrow, April 24. The talk will be held at the Arlington Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy Street in Arlington, VA. More information is available…
April 22, 2007
Over at William Dembski's blog, GilDodgen asks the following:
Even the most vociferous and vehement ID opponents (e.g., Richard Dawkins) admit that design in nature appears to be self-evident. Why then, the heroic efforts to explain design away, with such silliness as random variation and natural…
April 22, 2007
With everything else that has been going on lately, I never got around to discussing Pope Benedict's latest statements on evolution.
Here's what Reuters had to say on the subject:
Pope Benedict, elaborating his views on evolution for the first time as Pontiff, says science has narrowed the way…
April 19, 2007
Some of the commenters to my previous two posts have suggested that they are tired of this subject. But since Matthew Nisbet himself stopped by to alert me to this post over at his blog, I figure the least I can do is reply to it.
The bulk of the post consists of comments from Steve Case, an…
April 18, 2007
In my previous post on this subject, I described the main faults I see in the Mooney/Nisbet thesis regarding the importance of proper “franimg” in presenting science to the public. In this post I would like to focus specifically on their Washington Post article. In particular, I would like to…
April 18, 2007
My SciBlings Chris Mooney and Matthew Nisbet have created quite a stir recently, first with this article in Science and later with this article for the Washington Post. The basic premise is that scientists need to become more effective communicators, especially on controversial issues like…
April 17, 2007
Here's Franklin Graham, from last night's Scarborough Country, reminding us of what's important about the VA Tech shooting:
First of all, we know that God loves us and God cares for us. And there is a devil in this world. There is evil, and we have seen this manifest itself today in the life of…
April 16, 2007
In light of the events today at Virginia Tech, I'm suddenly not in the mood to talk about framing, or Imus, or the Pope's statement on evolution. At this point the death toll is up to thirty-three people.
Blacksburg, VA, where Tech is located, is a roughly two-hour drive from my home in…
April 9, 2007
First, the good news: I will be attending the spring section meeting of the Mathematical Association of America this Friday and Saturday. The meeting is being held at Roanoke College, and as you can see here, I'm giving one of the Big Shot talks. Lucky me! I'll be talking about the Monty Hall…
