jrosenhouse | March 7, 2007I realize there's nothing Earth-shattering about documenting right-wing bias on the Fox News Channel. But yesterday's panel on Hannity and Colmes really had to be seen to be believed. To discuss the conviction of Scotter Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice they had three guests. They were right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham, right-wing pundit Robert Novak, and David Boies, who has forsaken the noble work he did defending Al Gore in 2000 to become just another right-wing pundit. He seemed content to parrot every one of Hannity's talking points at any rate.
jrosenhouse | March 6, 2007On a recent trip to the local Barnes and Noble, I noticed a remarkable thing. On the main kiosk, the place where the Stephen King and John Grisham books are located, there were two prominently placed volumes that caught my eye. One was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, the other was God: The Failed Hypothesis, by Victor Stenger.
I live in Western Virginia. These are not the sort of books you would expect to be popular here. Yet the folks at B&N, who I have no doubt are motivated solely by their desire to sell books and not by any particular political or religious bias, placed them…
jrosenhouse | March 6, 2007File this one under, “It's my blog and I'll post what I want to post!” Late last year world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik got married in Paris. Some photos of the wedding have now been posted at Kramnik's website. No real news here, but one of the pictures includes former world number one Boris Spassky, who is apparently close friends with Kramnik. Spassky, of course, was the fellow who lost the world championship, in pretty humiliating style, to Bobby Fischer in 1972.
jrosenhouse | March 6, 2007My parents have been in town for the past two days, so I'm a bit behind on my blogging. So how about we get back into the swing of things with a little chess news.
Sunday's New York Times had this article about a protest held in St. Petersburg against the government of Vladimir Putin. The leader of the protest? None other than former world chess champion Garry Kasparov:
The rally was held in advance of local elections scheduled for March 11. Opposition events typically draw no more than several hundred people, but several thousand gathered for the rally in Vosstaniya Square.
Two leaders…
jrosenhouse | March 2, 2007On February 24 there was a pro-ID confab. in Istanbul. Among the attendees was David Berlinski, whose boneheaded essays for Commentary appear with depressing regularity. The conference website includes a brief abstract for Berlinski's talk. So, how about we wrap up the week's blogging by having a look:
Charles Darwin completed his masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, in 1859. At once, the theory that is introduced became popular. One hundred years later, it was widely celebrated as an outstanding success. Thereafter, the time of troubles began. For the past forty years, the great global…
jrosenhouse | March 1, 2007Christianity Today has published this lengthy review of The God Delusion. The review's author is Alvin Plantinga, who is often described as America's foremost philosopher of religion.
As regular readers of this blog are aware, I find the central truth claims of Christianity to be rather implausible, to put it kindly. I am also aware, however, that rather a lot of people feel differently. I have no trouble with the idea that all of those people are mistaken, but I do find it difficult to dismiss them all as fools. So I keep reading religious literature, in the increasingly vain hope that I…
jrosenhouse | February 28, 2007During my recent hiatus Phillip Johnson emerged from his hidey hole and posted some new expectorations regarding the current state of ID. I realize other bloggers have already ripped into Johnson's ill-considered comments, but why should they have all the fun!
He begins with his standard tripe about finch beaks:
The claim that evolutionary science has discovered and verified a mechanism which can account for the origin of biological information and complexity by involving only natural (unintelligent) causes is supported by an immense extrapolation from limited evidence of minor, cyclical…
jrosenhouse | February 27, 2007If there's one good thing about spending an extra night in Buffalo, without access to a computer and with a rather limited selection of channels on the television, it's that you get a lot of reading done. I managed to plow through all of Edward Humes' book Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion and the Battle for America's Soul. It's mostly a blow-by-blow account of the big Kitzmiller v. Dover case. It also provides a fair amount of historical context.
Overall it's an excellent book, difficult to put down. The trial scenes are especially compelling. I was following the trial…
jrosenhouse | February 27, 2007I'd like to thank Barry Karr of The Center for Inquiry for the invitation to speak at their Darwin Day event. The event itself went off smoothly, and I was well taken care of during my travel woes. All in all, a highly successful weekend.
The afternoon began with a screening of Inherit the Wind. The last time I saw the movie was in high school, long before I had developed any serious interest in this subject. I liked it then, and I like it even more now. It's impressive not only as a movie, but is actually more historically accurate than I remembered it being. The only really big thing…
jrosenhouse | February 27, 2007My quick little jaunt up to Buffalo ended up being not so quick. The plan was to fly up on Friday, do my thing on Saturday, then fly back on Sunday. Quick and painless!
Sadly, a snowstorm in Buffalo coupled with an even bigger storm in Washington DC left me stranded for an extra day in Buffalo. Heavy sigh. Things looked scarcely better when I woke up on Monday to find that it was still snowing pretty heavily. My hosts, however, laughed at my suggestion that such a pathetic flurry would close the airport. If that's all it took to shut down the Buffalo Airport, then the airport would…
jrosenhouse | February 19, 2007Just a reminder that this Saturday, February 24th, I will be speaking at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. The festivities start at 3:00 with a screening of Inherit the Wind, Then, after a dinner break, I will be speaking at 6:00. More information can be obtained by contacting Barry Karr at (716) 636-4869 Ext 217, or by email at bkarr@centerforinquiry.net. Hope to see everyone there!
jrosenhouse | February 19, 2007I'm afraid I'm going to have to extend my blog vacation a bit longer. Too many deadlines this week. Sorry about that. Try to solider on without me!
jrosenhouse | February 16, 2007Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. A combination of life being busy, busy, busy and the outside world being icy, icy, icy.
I did, however, manage to wander down to Bridgewater, VA last night to attend an evolution/ID debate between Skeptic Magazine publisher Michael Shermer and longtime ID flak William Dembski. I have just posted this detailed account of the goings on over at The Panda's Thumb. Go have a look!
jrosenhouse | February 12, 2007From today's New York Times:
There is nothing much unusual about the 197-page dissertation Marcus R. Ross submitted in December to complete his doctoral degree in geosciences here at the University of Rhode Island.
His subject was the abundance and spread of mosasaurs, marine reptiles that, as he wrote, vanished at the end of the Cretaceous era about 65 million years ago. The work is “impeccable,” said David E. Fastovsky, a paleontologist and professor of geosciences at the university who was Dr. Ross's dissertation adviser. “He was working within a strictly scientific framework, a…
jrosenhouse | February 10, 2007Alon Levy of Abstract Nonsense has posted the inaugural edition of the Carnival of Mathematics. If you're looking for some great math blogging, I recommend having a look.
jrosenhouse | February 9, 2007This Monday, February 12, I will be giving a talk to the JMU Freethinker's Club on the subject of evolution and creationism. The talk will be from 7:00-8:00 in room 303, Taylor Hall on the James Madison University campus. If you live anywhere Harrisonburg, VA, stop on by!
Then, on Saturday, February 24, I will be speaking at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. There will be a screening of “Inherit the Wind” in the afternoon, followed by my talk in the evening. The topic: Legal Developments in Evolution and Creationism. This assumes, of course, that upstate New York is not buried under…
jrosenhouse | February 9, 2007Sam Harris has replied to the Andrew Sullivan essay I discussed in Wednesday's post. Let's consider some highlights:
I am, of course, unconvinced by your response. But this can hardly disappoint you, as it was not intended to convince me. You simply wrote to inform me that you have never doubted God's existence, cannot account for how you came to believe in Him, and are well aware that these facts will not (and should not) persuade me of the legitimacy of your religious beliefs. I now feel like a tennis player, in mid-serve, who notices that his opponent is no longer holding a racket.
You…
jrosenhouse | February 9, 2007American Society for Microbiology has now issued this statement in support of evolution and against intelligent design:
Knowledge of the microbial world is essential to understanding the evolution of life on Earth. The characteristics of microorganisms--small size, rapid reproduction, mobility, and facility in exchanging genetic information--allow them to adapt rapidly to environmental influences. In microbiology, the validity of evolutionary principles is supported by [1] readily demonstrated mutation, recombination and selection, which are the fundamental mechanisms of evolution; [2]…
jrosenhouse | February 7, 2007The blogalogue between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan on the subject of the reasonableness of religious faith continues. We pick up the action with Sullivan's latest salvo. He is responding to the following question asked by Harris: “What would constitute “proof” for you that your current beliefs about God are mistaken? (i.e., what would get you to fundamentally doubt the validity of faith in general and of Christianity in particular?)”
Let's consider Sullivan's reply in full:
I have never doubted the existence of God. Never. My acceptance of God's existence - of a force beyond everything…
jrosenhouse | February 7, 2007From CNN comes this useful article about a planned display of fossils at a museum in Kenya:
Deep in the dusty, unlit corridors of Kenya's national museum, locked away in a plain-looking cabinet, is one of mankind's oldest relics: Turkana Boy, as he is known, the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human ever found.
But his first public display later this year is at the heart of a growing storm -- one pitting scientists against Kenya's powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement. The debate over evolution vs. creationism -- once largely confined to the United States -- has arrived…