September 26, 2007
Janet Stemwedel is not the only one around here applying for tenure. I am likewise in the process of making the best argument I can for having my school keep me around for a while. Sadly, this is a time consuming process. That, coupled with all the work that isn't getting done because I'm too…
September 24, 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University earlier today. Judging from this clip, it looks like he made a fool of himself. According to the New York Times, it seems something vaguely evolution related came up:
He then gave a speech that meandered from science and religion…
September 22, 2007
According to The New York Times, Russia is having some church / state issues:
One of the most discordant debates in Russian society is playing out in public schools like those in this city not far from Moscow, where the other day a teacher named Irina Donshina set aside her textbooks, strode…
September 22, 2007
Tim Lambert over at Deltoid links to this article, by Aaron Swartz, about the relentless right-wing smear campaign against Rachel Carson. Carson was the author of the 1962 book Silent Spring, where she argued, among other things, that pervasive use of pesticides such as DDT was leading to long-…
September 21, 2007
Received your latest letter today, and while it was just shy of coherence, I think I can see where your bewilderment lies. From your enclosed diagram, it has become apparent to me that for the past six weeks we have been playing two completely different chess games--myself according to our…
September 21, 2007
We now continue our discussion of Ian Hacking's wide-ranging essay on evolution and ID. We left off with Hacking having just completed several paragraphs on the uses of tree metaphors in human history. So far my main criticisms have been with the style, not the substance, of Hacking's essay. His…
September 20, 2007
Here at ScienceBlogs we often debate the best way of promoting science literacy generally, and an understanding of evolution in particular. Is a calm recital of the evidence a good approach, or does that merely come off as an uninspiring “data dump” to non-scientists? Does the vocal atheist wing…
September 20, 2007
We have a new Science Blogger! She is ScienceWoman:
What I do write about are my experiences as an early career scientist who also happens to be a woman.
I share my life as the mother of a spunky seven-month old girl who has already “helped” with field work and seminars. I describe the dramas of…
September 20, 2007
I've just started reading Jonathan Chait's new book The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics.
One of the more remarkable developments in the last twenty-five years of American politics is the takeover of the Republican party by the lunacy of…
September 19, 2007
ERV has a must-read series of posts up (Part One, Part Two, Part Three) about William Dembski's latest bit of performance art, this time delivered at the University of Oklahoma. Sounds like things went well for the good guys. Lot's of choice nuggets:
See, the major theme of Dembskis talk was '…
September 19, 2007
Maybe evolution is not the front line in the fight for good science education. Judging from this clip, from Dan Abrams' show on Tuesday night, it would seem there are more pressing problems in that area:
ABRAMS: It's time for tonight's “Beat the Press”, our daily look back at the absurd and…
September 17, 2007
Okay, I'm back. Prison Break seems to be off to a rip-roaring, if extremely implausible, start. Guess I'll keep watching. I've followed it for this long, I suppose I should hang around to find out what happens to these guys. Really, though, I'm just marking time to the season premiere of House…
September 17, 2007
I only have time for a quick blog post (Prison Break comes on in twenty minutes!), but do have a quick look at this post over at Richard Dawkins' site. (Hat tip to Larry Moran for directing me to it).
It's a diagram showing all of the book length responses that have been inspired by the recent…
September 13, 2007
My first published piece of writing on evolution and creationism was a review of Ken Miller's Finding Darwin's God for Skeptic magazine, published in 2000. In light of my recent posts at this blog, you might find it hard to believe that I actually wrote the following:
Like Miller, I deplore the…
September 13, 2007
In the comments to Jake's post from yesterday, Russell Blackford left a comment that perfectly summarizes my own views on Richard Dawkins and The God Delusion:
This is what I find obnoxious about atheists who want to attack Dawkins for writing a book like The God Delusion, which is not actually…
September 12, 2007
Over at Pure Pedantry, Jake Young weighs in with a lengthy essay on the subject of promoting atheism. The essay makes some interesting points, and is centered around a 1922 article by John Dewey in The New Republic. Sadly, Jake takes the Matt Nisbet line on this issue.
I have already left a…
September 11, 2007
According to Newsweek there's trouble brewing at Olivet Nazarene University:
There may be some battlefields where the gospel's “blessed are the peacemakers” holds true. But despite the work of a growing number of scholars and millions of dollars in foundation funding to find harmony between…
September 11, 2007
Over at blogfish, Mark Powell has a little challenge for me:
Scientists opposed to “framing” science keep asking for an example of what framing science looks like when done well. Here's a very good example in Carl Safina's description of an effort to raise awareness of climate change.
I challenge…
September 7, 2007
Bill Maher turned up on Hardball the other night. As usual, he had some insightful things to say.
Here's the first item I especially liked. Matthews' question was about the surge in Iraq:
MAHER: Well, you know, when you have to make a secret trip to Iraq, I think probably your surge plan isn't…
September 6, 2007
D. James Kennedy died earlier this week.
Shortly after I moved to Kansas I discovered the local Evangelical radio station. This was my introduction to precisely what Christianity means to very large segments of the South and Midwest. Preacher after preacher blared forth from my speakers, each…
September 4, 2007
As a companion piece to yesterday's post have a look at this essay in the religious periodical First Things, written by Amanda Shaw. The purpose is to draw a parallel between imaginary numbers and belief in God. You see, for centuries mathematicians scoffed at the idea of imaginary numbers, but a…
September 3, 2007
I think my calculus students would probably not think so. But as John Allen Paulos reports, not everyone agrees:
Consider first a Baptist school in Texas whose description of a geometry course begins:
Students will examine the nature of God as they progress in their understanding of mathematics…
September 3, 2007
I had not intended to do another post on this subject. But in response to P.Z.'s post , my fellow Panda's Thumber Burt Humburg left a lengthy comment that I feel requires a response. So I'll ask your patience as we go one more round...
Burt wrote:
You know what audiences really love PZ? The ones…
August 30, 2007
Chris Mooney has a link to this analysis of recent polling data. The analysis was written by David Masci. The subject: How Americans feel about science and faith. Mooney thinks the data supports the Matt Nisbet line that people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens hurt the cause. I…
August 29, 2007
And while we're perusing the Hardball transcript, here's Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee commenting on the causes of cancer. Huckabee, recall, was one of three Republican candidates to raise his hand to affirm his rejection of evolution. Take it away Guv'ner:
I believe God…
August 29, 2007
God is Not Great author Christopher Hitchens and Catholic League president Bill Donohue showed up on Hardball yesterday to mull over the issues raised by the Time article. I'd write some commentary, but some things simply defy comment. I have taken the liberty of putting certain choice nuggets in…
August 29, 2007
Time's cover story this week is about Mother Teresa. Specifically, it's about her newly released personal correspondence in which she repeatedly expresses grave doubts about the truth of Christianity, even to the point of questioning whether God exists.
It's a little hard to nail down from the…
August 29, 2007
Last night's edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews provided more than its fair share of strange moments. There was an amusing exchange between Christopher Hitchens and Catholic League president Bill Donohue regarding the current Time magazine cover story about Mother Teresa's religious doubts.…
August 27, 2007
Perhaps you saw this article from The New York Times last week. It describes some significant new findings in protein evolution:
In work published last year, Dr. Thornton reported how his group reconstructed an ancestral protein of two hormone receptors found in humans. The two, once identical,…
August 27, 2007
Have a look at this op-ed from today's Washington Post, by Susan Goodkin and David Gold :
With reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act high on the agenda as Congress returns from its recess, lawmakers must confront the fact that the law is causing many concerned parents to abandon public…
