razib | August 18, 2006In response to my post about Heather Mac Donald and her debate with others on the Right about the fundamental role of religion within "the movement" Steve Burton has offered his own thoughts. Roughly, I see Steve's points as being this:
The misery of the historical record does not exhibit man's natural goodness, simply, basal a morality.
Mac Donald's innate morality is not so innate after all, but is bathed in the sensibilities of a Christian culture. Take away that Christian culture, roughly, anything is permissible if there is no savior.
I think there are multiple ways to respond to…
razib | August 18, 2006Over at my other weblog there is a post titled Reconstructing human origins in the genomic era, a commentary on a review paper in Nature. Here are the two bullet points I want to highlight:
These genome-scale patterns could be best accounted for by models that involve low levels of gene flow among archaic populations before the emergence of anatomically modern humans - that is, they imply the existence of ancestral population structure.
There is also growing evidence that some highly divergent genetic lineages might have entered our genome through hybridization between an expanding…
razib | August 18, 2006Many people have posted on this, so I'm going to give a quick link round up.
I linked it early, and then Kawfee Mugg posted a follow up on my other weblog. John-too-good-for-10-assertions then offered up his commentary, and then RPM kicked in his 3 cents. He pointed me to Carl Zimmer's smackdown on the issue.
I think the insight this gives us is similar to FOXP2, yes, we are a lot like other animals (whether it is 98% identity to chimp or not is irrelevant), but, in some ways we are a special breed all our own (i.e., in this case, a lot more evolution seems to have occurred on the human…
razib | August 17, 2006Update: Heather offers a follow up. Mario Loyola offers an interesting response. Here is what I find worth noting:
One of them expresses a weirdly postmodern view: We cannot know the nature of the Gods, but a good person knows in his gut the difference between right and wrong, and good people should venerate the religious rites and beliefs of their ancestors and fellows.
The problem with this assertion is that I suspect the issue here is that a particular sort of evangelical Christianity is not about the custom and tradition of the ancestors. It isn't about silent respect for the forbears…
razib | August 16, 2006So it seems that many bloggers here are talking about whether Pluto is a planet. Well, all I gotz to say to that is this: whose the stamp collecter now Orzel!?!?.
razib | August 16, 2006It's been nearly a month since I last posted on The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. I've been holding off because I didn't know how to approach chapter 2, in many ways it is the most important and ambitious chapter (though not technically the most taxing). I think I will likely post twice on this chapter, and in this entry I'll avoid talking about the difference between "average effect" and "average excess" and what not. Rather, I'll focus on two issues:
1) The Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection.
2) Fisher's view on the nature of adaptation
Both of these are rather simple…
razib | August 15, 2006I will "house" responses to my 10 assertions about evolution query in this post.
So far, only RPM has taken the bait. He asks some interesting questions in regards to the rather vague scope & nature of this query...but this was purposeful. If you examine RPM's list you see that it is clearly more focused toward the general public than my own list, which ended up highlighting possible differences of opinion within the Faith (e.g., Bora's & my own longstanding debates about levels of selection and what not). This is good, my overall aim is to synthesize a list which focuses on the…
razib | August 14, 2006Seems like I am no longer the undisputed champion of "brownest ass amongst ScienceBlogs," as Scientific Brown has joined the pack. That doesn't mean that my ass isn't still the brownest, just that it isn't a no contest situation when it was just Nick Anthis & Steinn Sigurðsson offering up their melanically challenged derrieres as tokens against the all powerful rich wood colored tone of mine own buns.
Update: Texas-born Nick Anthis isn't pasty, just for the record he has produced convincing proof on the comment boards.
razib | August 14, 2006My post asking to define evolution in less than 10 words elicited a lot of response (some of it outside the parameters I set in regards to length). So I figured I'd give this sort of thing another shot, again, with parameters which all are welcome to violate, but which I set for myself to prune my tendency toward qualifying verbosity. Below the fold are "10 assertions of 10 words or less" which I believe that the public should know about evolutionary science. I did this in 3.5 minutes, typing out what came to mind and checking word count in M$ Word. Obviously the assertions reflect my…
razib | August 13, 2006Dienekes points me to a new paper in Science which purports to add an archaeological layer of data to the "Out of Africa" paradigm which initially burst onto to the scene in the 1980s due to the molecular clock & mtDNA (though Chris Stringer and others long argued for a form of "Out of Africa" based purely on fossil morphology). The Independent has a good summary of the major points. The short of it is that this paper seems to suggest
a) One major Out of Africa event via the "Southern Route" (i.e., along the coast of southern Eurasia out of East Africa)
b) Subsequent radiations from…
razib | August 11, 2006The headline says, Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds, but here is the money shot: "The only country included in the study where adults were more likely than Americans to reject evolution was Turkey." My liberal friends often make fun of the "inbred" Creationist yokels who inhabit the hinterlands of this great nation, and contrast them with the sophisticated secularity over the waters. On the other hand, many Americans, especially culturally sensitive progressives declare that the EU should let Turkey in to show that it is "open minded" and not a "…
razib | August 10, 2006The American Conservative is having a symposium on the nature of Left & Right, and Heather Mac Donald of the The Manhattan Institute offers up an eyebrow raising piece which is a jeremiad against the perceived necessary connection between conservatism and religiosity. It seems likely that this was prompted by the muddled direction of George W. Bush's directionless religious conservatism.
razib | August 10, 2006Blogger NuSapiens offers an intriguing comment on my post about Neandertal introgression:
It's been shown that some mtDNA lines are associated with metabolic adaptations related to climate. This is a serious violation of the neutrality requirement for tracking things, especially far back in time. Adam and Eve are cute stories, but I wonder whether they will be around after another generation.
Neanderthal disappeared during a climate shift in Europe. If Neanderthal mtDNA was adapted to Euro-tundra, I wouldn't expect that to stick around very long during a thaw period. If at all, it might be…
razib | August 9, 2006This week:
What movie do you think does something admirable (though not necessarily accurate) regarding science? Bonus points for answering whether the chosen movie is any good generally....
Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis. Cinematically it is an early masterpiece, but, it also features a protagonist who is a robot. The term itself was invented in 1920, and the massive field of robotics which exists today was still but a seed in the imaginations of pulp science fiction writers. I admire the fact that this is case a where a science fiction film did anticipate a major trend in…
razib | August 8, 2006Over at Gene Expression Classic MC Kawffee Mugz throws down 10 questions with neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux. I wish I knew more about neuroscience, but I can recommend LeDoux's The Synaptic Self, since I've read it....
razib | August 7, 2006More political blogging from me over at Neo-neo-centrist weblog Nation Building on political & foreign policy issues. The short form is this: I am fast becoming convinced that many "hawks" are coming to resemble the child who beats up the nearest warm human body after being hurt from falling off a bike. From the Left every citizen born at home is equally capable of being a college graduate, while from the Right every enemy abroad is the potential seed for Götterdämmerung. I am haunted by the specter of looming potentialities never realized....
razib | August 7, 2006Greg Cochran and John Hawks have a hypothesis about the possibility of a population today that are "living Neandertals." I don't know which population it is, but below the fold, I think I've found strong evidence....
The Boston Irish!