jrosenhouse | September 26, 2007Janet 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 busy moping about finishing my tenure file, suggests that this would be a good time to take a blogging break. See you in two weeks or so.
jrosenhouse | September 24, 2007Iranian 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 to creation of human beings and the misuse of wisdom. But it was during the question-and-answer session that he was confronted about some of his most controversial positions.
I haven't found a transcript of his precise remarks, but somehow I think I can guess what he said.
The right-wing…
jrosenhouse | September 22, 2007According 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 before her second graders and, as if speaking from a pulpit, posed a simple question:
“Whom should we learn to do good from?”
“From God!” the children said.
“Right!” Ms. Donshina said. “Because people he created crucified him. But did he accuse them or curse them or hate them? Of course not! He…
jrosenhouse | September 22, 2007Tim 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-term, harmful effects on the environment. DDT was eventually banned in the US in 1972, in part because of the influence of Carson's book.
More recently, DDT spraying has been adopted as a cause celebre among many politicians and journalists. Swartz writes:
“What the World Needs Now Is DDT”…
jrosenhouse | 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 correspondence, you more in keeping with the world as you would have it, rather than with any rational system of order.
That's from Woody Allen's short story “The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers”. It pretty well sums up my reaction to John Wilkins' lengthy reply to my two previous posts on Ian Hacking's essay…
jrosenhouse | September 21, 2007We 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 points are good, but his writing style is confusing and offputting.
Alas, now we come to more substantive criticisms.
After praising Kitcher for his explanation of the aptness of the tree metaphor in evolution, Hacking writes:
Nevertheless, it is useful to reflect on difficulties in the present…
jrosenhouse | September 20, 2007Here 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 of the party scare off moderates, or are they an essential part of any long-term solution? And what role does proper framing play in the public's acceptance of evolution? All worthy questions, and while I certainly have my opinions on the subject, I don't pretend to know the answers.
But there is…
jrosenhouse | September 20, 2007We 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 being a first-year assistant professor, scrambling to write lectures and grant proposals and figure out what “service” means, while trying to be home for a little playtime before my daughter's 7 pm bedtime. I write blog posts while pumping breastmilk and strategize research ideas over the course of…
jrosenhouse | September 20, 2007I'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 supply-side economics. Chait explains how a view of the economic world that is absurd on its face (that the behavior of a large, complex economy can be predicted solely on the basis of marginal tax rates) and has been proven to be false over and over again (for example, the uniform, and uniformly…
jrosenhouse | September 19, 2007ERV 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 'evilution cant do this' 'evilution hasn't shown that', 'you know, if someone would just SHOW me the evidence, I'D be an evilutionist!' The other theme was “POOOOOOOOOOOR MEEEEEEEE! POOR CREATIONISTS! EVERYONE IS OUT TO GET US!! I SUFFER SO MUCH BECAUSE OF MY MESSAGE OF TRUTH! POOOOR MEEEEEEEE!!!”…
jrosenhouse | September 19, 2007Maybe 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 sometimes amusing perils of live TV. First up: A lot of the time, conversations on ABC's “The View” aren't exactly intellectual. But one interchange today would suggest that their new co-host needs to review her 3rd grade color-coded books.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, THE VIEW: Do you--is the…
jrosenhouse | September 17, 2007Okay, 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 next week.
Towards that end, have a look this interesting article from The New York Times. It discusses a new book called The Happiness Hypothesis, by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt, that discusses the evolution of morality:
Where do moral rules come from? From reason, some…
jrosenhouse | September 17, 2007I 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 books by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.
Two things struck me about this. The first is simply that there are quite a lot of books out there responding to Dawkins and Harris that I didn't know about. Some of them even seem to have been written by reputable people and published by serious houses. I'll…
jrosenhouse | September 13, 2007My 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 rhetorical excesses of people like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett who would blur the line between methodological and philosophical naturalism. Though I would quibble with a few of his specific examples, the chapter Miller devotes to these excesses is one of the best in the book.
Needless to say…
jrosenhouse | September 13, 2007In 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 strident and angry at all, but careful, fair, and good-humoured. Dawkins is not beyond specific criticism (e.g., I think he underestimates the force of the problem of evil and perhaps overestimates the force of the ultimate 747 gambit ... and a few specific sentences in The God Delusion could perhaps…
jrosenhouse | September 12, 2007Over 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 lengthy comment over at Jake's blog indicating some points of disagreement with his essay. But there was one item I felt deserved a post of its own. Jake writes:
Further, embracing a big-tent approach will not prevent scientific or even atheistic values from taking over. While the majority of the…
jrosenhouse | September 11, 2007According 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 science and faith, evolution still isn't one of them. Just ask biologist Richard Colling. A professor at Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois and a lifelong member of the evangelical Church of the Nazarene, Colling wrote a 2004 book called Random Designer because--as he said in a letter to students and…
jrosenhouse | September 11, 2007Over 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 PZ Myers, Jason Rosenhouse and other haters of framing to consider what Carl is doing and respond. And...for those who say what is this about...the question is how can we get scientific information to play a bigger role in public policy. Some say “frame” the science so people can hear the message.…
jrosenhouse | September 7, 2007Bill 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 really working. Is it working in the sense that we can stop violence in different pockets because we have a kick-ass army? Yes. Yes, they can do that. But this has always been about forming a government in Iraq and having an Iraqi army that could back up the will of that government. And that's…
jrosenhouse | September 6, 2007D. 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 one doing his darnedest to out-stupid his predecsessor.
And from out of this maelstrom of malarkey came one preacher who towered over all the others. That was D. James Kennedy. With that combination of ignorance and arrogance so typical of his breed, Kennedy would stand before his distressingly…