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Memory Before Language: Preverbal Experiences Recoded Into Newly-Learned Words

Infantile "amnesia" refers to the apparent absence or weakness of memories formed at ages younger than 3 or 4. Some evidence indicates that these early-life memories are not actually lost or forgotten, but are rather merely mislabeled or otherwise inaccessible to adult cognition. One potential reason for this inaccessibility is that adults tend to use language in encoding and retrieving memories, and this strategy may not be sufficient for retrieving memories formed in early-life, which may have been encoded before language is firmly entrenched in the developing brain. A recent study in…

Smarter Than the Average Primate?

In 1948, Alan Turing wrote: "An unwillingness to admit the possibility that mankind can have any rivals in intellectual power occurs as much amongst intellectual people as amongst others: they have more to lose." Accordingly, comprehensive comparisons between the intellectual powers of great apes and humans are rare - perhaps because we feel safe in assuming that the human intellect is superior to that of other primates. But recent work suggests this assumption may not be entirely sound, as described below. For example, a recent New Scientist article (via NeuroEthics) contains a provocative…

Chronic Pain: Glia As Information Processors

To the extent that the cognitive sciences actually consider the brain, the focus is clearly on neurons. Even the name of the field "neuroscience" suggests that neurons take the center stage. However, neurons are vastly outnumbered by glia, a different type of cell that is now known to be involved in sleep, memory, the fMRI signal, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, although many neuroscientists are still resistant to the idea that glia are involved in information processing per se. In a recent review article, Watkins et al. focus on the role of these cells in the experience of chronic pain.…

Asymmetric Architecture in the Left and Right Hemispheres

In their 2003 Trends in Neurosciences article, Hutsler & Galuske refer to the well-known history of hemispheric asymmetry research as too focused on large-scale morphological differences, at the expense of microanatomical and connectivity differences. An understanding of these more detailed structural differences might translate into a more detailed understanding of hemispheric differences in computation and function. Hutsler & Galuske identify three levels of structural analysis in cerebral cortex: the microcolumn, the macrocolumn, and the functional column. Microcolumns contain…

On the Origin of Zombie Species

Credit: Revenant Magazine The origin of zombies (Genus: Zumbi) is well understood today, but this wasn't the case when they were first discovered in the early 1800s. Charles Darwin was the first to recognize that zombie "reproduction" results in a process of descent with modification in a way analogous to that of non-undead species. Darwin's insight was that, even though zombie's don't reproduce sexually, random mutations in hereditary material can be passed along after a zombie bite. Each "daughter zombie" then inherits the traits of their parent and pass those traits along to their…

An unexpected visit

Returning phone calls isn't my strong suit. I'm not sure what it is, but I'd rather just take the calls as they come, whenever possible. I usually let my patients know to have me paged if they need anything important, so it's not unusual for me to hear from my patients at odd times. It's a bit more unusual for me to have patients show up at the office without an appointment. I always squeeze people in if they call, but it's a little harder if they just walk in (and the staff hates it---I guess it throws them off their game). So when Mr. Y showed up one morning, it was a bit of a surprise…

Low back pain---the scourge of Homo sapiens

It started a few weeks ago---a dull ache in my lower back, more on the right, worse with sitting for prolonged periods of time. I did my usual stretches, although not as much as I should have. The pain waxed and waned, until a few days ago, when the pain escalated suddenly, preventing me from standing up straight, and making even a trip to the bathroom an unwelcome adventure. Two nights ago, I lay in bed awake, pillows wedged at strategic points, hoping to find some comfort, any comfort. And then all hell broke loose. My back spasms loosened up a bit last night, so I got a few essential…

String Theory, Part One

The following blather is the first part in a continuing series of essays addressing the inherent pragmatism of modern physics. Let's call this a "Primer" on String Theory. So, string theory is in trouble. For those readers who haven't watched the excellent NOVA special "The Elegant Universe" in the form of streaming Quicktime movies on the PBS website, and hence do not know what is meant by the phrase "string theory:" more power to you. You are exactly in the same place as me on this plane of understanding, and I've spent the last week and a half pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose,…

Day in the life of an institutional(ized) repository librarian

There's a string of "day in the life" librarian posts happening, so I thought I'd throw one in. Today wasn't a typical day, I suppose… but I don't really have typical days, especially these days. 6:00-ish am: Wake up, kick the cat off the bed accidentally, get out of bed. 6:20 am: Dressed and etceteraed, sit down with laptop to check out the daily news and a few webcomics. (What? It's my routine. It works for me.) 6:50 am: Feed cats before they kill each other. Or me. 6:55 am: Pick up bag and leave house to walk to work. 7:28-ish am: Arrive at work. Show early-admission pass. Trundle up the…

Irreplaceable data

And we're back! (With a four-note theme. Wait, that's Peter Schickele on Beethoven. Never mind.) So yesterday before our enforced break, I asked what we could learn about e-research from a big chunk of space flotsam hitting Jupiter. What had caught my eye was this passage: … the planetary astronomy community has been filled with excitement—emails are flying, with people exchanging information about the new discovery and its development. Major observatories are canceling their scheduled observations so that they can point their telescopes at Jupiter. Why are they doing this? Because this is…

Back, kind of, but slowly recovering

So as you can probably tell, since I've gotten around to posting the Scientiae carnival, I'm feeling better. Well, I'm out of bed, at least, so that's something. I think it's going to be a long road back to feeling like my "normal" self, though. I'm still tired all the time. Case in point: Yesterday I washed the kitchen floor and cooked dinner, and then had to spend the rest of the evening on the couch, because I was totally wiped out. I basically go to work and then come home and sleep. Because I'm tired all the time, my thinking has been a bit fuzzy at times, too. (case in point: I'…

My dreams are a microcosm of my life

Last night I had a bunch of dreams (or mini-dreams?) in quick succession, all with the same themes. Come to think of it, they all had pretty much the same plot, too, just different settings, situations, and characters. The dreams are pretty reflective of how I feel my life is going right now, so I'll share one of them: In the dream, I'm in my office on campus. I've just gotten in, it's late(r) in the morning, about an hour later than I normally get in, and I have office hours starting in five minutes. I've been away from campus for the last few days due to some unexplained family crisis,…

Using the fact that sometimes scientists look at the pictures first

I was happy to see that the authors published this article in PlosOne. I was following their work a while ago, but had lost track (plus, when asked, the last author implied that they had moved on to new projects). So here's the citation and then I'll summarize and comment. Divoli, A., Wooldridge, M., & Hearst, M. (2010). Full Text and Figure Display Improves Bioscience Literature Search PLoS ONE, 5 (4) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009619 The authors created a prototype information system that used Lucene to index the metadata for open access biomed articles, the full text, and the captions…

Annihilation

It happens when matter meets anti-matter. That there is such a thing called anti-matter never ceases to amaze me. Paul Dirac, when he arrived at the famous equation for electron-, realized that the equation predicted two particles: one was the electron and the other a as yet unknown particle which he called the positron. Great physicists are guided towards Truth by the subtle hand of Beauty. Dirac's equation was exquisite. Hence, it must be true, he declared in 1928. The positron was discovered in 1932. (Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics the following year.) The positron is…

Big Bang, a variation

Folks, this an experimental post (for me, that is). It is slightly incoherent. Written in five minutes. No corrections made. My typing hands decide not to pause. Enjoy if you can get through the muddle. Big Bang, a variation I watched Brian Cox present an excellent BBC TV programme on the LHC (on iPlayer, UK only). He covered a great deal and did it engagingly. As I watched the Big Bang being presented as garguntum explosion, I wondered if this is a true picture of the beginning of the Universe. The explosions seemed to pander to the shockjocks in us. Explosions: good. Explanations,…

Did Orlando gun training reduce rapes?

In article none+1 stratos@crl.com Janine K. Johnson wrote: Recently, several postings discussed the Orlando Florida phenomena of 1966/67, in which a drop in the rape rate was noted after a much publicized program co sponsored by the local police and the Orlando Sentinel, in which 6,000 women were trained in the use of firearms. Knox, and other experts who have analyzed the Orlando phenomenon, contend that the rape rate decreased because of the media publicity, and because women were armed and trained. (Paxton Quigley, Armed and Female, St. Martins Press.): Mr. van Meurs rebutted this…

Murder Rates and Race

D. Deming wrote: For those interested in statistical criminology, there is an interesting article that appeared in the scholarly journal "The Mankind Quarterly", vol. 35, no. 4, summer, 1995. The article is titled "Ideology and Censorship in Behavior Genetics" by Glayde Whitney of Florida State University in Tallahassee. A most, umm, interesting journal. If I was looking for one word to describe it I think that word would be "racist". In one of the other issues I found an absolutely glowing and entirely uncritical review of JP Rushton's "Big dick = little brain" theory about the…

The Machine Stops

The Machine Stops is a short story by E M Forster, which he wrote as a reaction to one of H G Wells's optimistic stories. I have read through part of the story and I must confess I find the vocabulary outdated, but that should not surprise anyone, since all science fiction stories run that risk. Here's an interesting section where Vashti, mother of Kuno, is asked by the forlorn son to visit her. They live on either side of the planet, underground in honeycomb like rooms that are plugged into The Machine. The Machine is the all pervading, life sustaining system, a new god created out of…

Who you gonna believe, me -- or my lyin' fMRI?

Would you believe this brain? Every few months, sometimes more often, someone tries to ramrod fMRI lie detection into the courtrooms. Each time, it gets a little closer. Wired Science carries the latest alarming story: A Brooklyn attorney hopes to break new ground this week when he offers a brain scan as evidence that a key witness in a civil trial is telling the truth, Wired.com has learned. If the fMRI scan is admitted, it would be a legal first in the United States and could have major consequences for the future of neuroscience in court. The lawyer, David Levin, wants to use that…

I am horrified at what goes on in philosophy departments, personally

A couple of vegetarian philosophers with no knowledge of biology are alarmed…no, horrified at what's going on out there in the wilderness. The animal welfare conversation has generally centered on human-caused animal suffering and human-caused animal deaths. But we’re not the only ones who hunt and kill. It is true (and terrible) that an estimated 20 billion chickens were born into captivity in 2013 alone, many of whom live in terrible conditions in factory farms. But there are estimated 60 billion land birds and over 100 billion land mammals living in the wild. Who is working to alleviate…

Freud is dead (Well... except in english departments)

Whenever I meet someone new and I tell them I'm studying psychology I inevitably get asked the ever annoying question "Are you analyzing me right now?" which of course always leads to the same response from me, "I'm as qualified to analyze or give therapy as an engineering student." Which is not at all. I'm thinking of changing that response to "English majors are more qualified to do that than any psychology student." After all, the humanities and other social sciences seem to be paying much more attention to the classic analysis of old, namely psychoanalysis than any self-respecting…

Vaccination Conspiracy - Adding ADHD to the Mix

There has been a whole lot crap floating around the press in the last couple weeks since the trial started that is seeking to link vaccination with higher incidence of autism. Now a survey funded by one of these anti-vaccination groups is correlating, through a random telephone survey, more mental health issues like ADHD with vaccination. So why do you think this correlation exists? Is there a simple way of simply explaining away this correlation (think less pirates = more global warming). Here's some of the info from medical news today: The survey, commissioned by Generation Rescue,…

One Week Until SIZZLE TUESDAY, July 15

As far as anyone that I've spoken with in Hollywood knows, this has never been done before. No one has ever organized 50 bloggers to post their reviews of a small movie all on the same day, which is what will happen next Tuesday, July 15, for my new film Sizzle. Turns out it's an interesting idea. The reason it's so interesting: Independent film distribution is in absolute chaos. I've been hearing this for the past year, but last month it came to a head when Mark Gill, the former president of Miramax, gave a very important speech at the L.A. Film Festival titled, "Yes, the Sky Really is…

From Greenpeace's John Hocevar: Hoping to Win the Battle and War for This Water Planet

I am looking forward to a World Oceans Day where I can kick back with a beer and relax, knowing that the oceans are in great shape. I sincerely hope this won't involve time travel or an inter-galactic voyage. Anyone paying attention knows that the oceans are in serious trouble, and that overfishing - and use of destructive and indiscriminate fishing methods - is at the heart of the problem. Climate change is starting to make a run for the ocean enemy # 1 prize, but for now unsustainable fishing is safely in the lead. The good news, I suppose, is that in theory we should be able to do…

FROM RANDY OLSON: Sicko Films and Attention Whores: Conformity versus Independent Thinking

We have a social trend in this country that is sloshing back in forth in the past few months. It is the question of whether you are allowed to criticize the movement you are part of (or at least share the same goals with). Last year I made a film, Flock of Dodos (still airing this week on Showtime), that had a double message to it. The first message met the expectations of my presumed "peer group" of evolutionary biologists, which is that intelligent design is not science and anyone advocating it is probably part of a flock of dodos. But the second part of the message was that scientists…

Duck to avoid parasites

During the summer, strange formations can be found on some species of Goldenrod. The stems become enlarged and form a hardened golf-ball like object called a gall. Cut into this weird sphere and you'll quickly find what causes the plant to create such a strange object: the larvae of the Goldenrod Gall Fly. The Goldenrod Gall Fly (Eurosta solidaginis) is a parasite which uses the Goldenrod for protection and nutrition for a whole year while it grows and pupates. When it does, it can seriously damage the Goldenrod, even prevent the plant from flowering and producing seeds. This is a serious…

This Week's Sci-Fi Worthy Parasite: Naegleria fowleri

Ok - I confess. There's only one reason this parasite is even remotely sci-fi worthy. Though, to be fair, it's a pretty good one: it kills you by eating your brains. Meet Naegleria fowleri. A happy, free-living protist that lives in warm fresh water - at least until a very unlucky person dunks their head in it. Naegleria has three stages of its life: a flagellate, and amoeba, and a cyst. In the water, it is in its infectious, flagellate form called a "trophozoite". It reproduces asexually, and swims around quite happily if the water is fresh and warm (over 75 degrees). If conditions are poor…

What's a "leading evolutionary biologist"?

The Guardian just announced that it's brought on four new columnists. These particular columnists are unusual, in that three of them are working scientists, and the fourth is an ethicist specializing in science and medicine. All in all, I think this could be a good move. The coverage of science by the mainstream media has not been outstanding of late, and giving working scientists a platform to talk about science might just help. If I sound less hopeful than you expected, there's a reason. Unsurprisingly, the Guardian is describing their new columnists in glowing terms. Unfortunately, one…

Some London Thank Yous

As I write this, I'm sitting bouncing up and down in a sardine can high above the Atlantic Ocean. If I'm lucky, this state of affairs will continue for another few hours, and be followed in rapid succession by two repeats of the experience, a car ride home, and re-familiarization with my own bed. The last week has been absolutely fantastic, and there are quite a few people that I'd like to thank for contributing to the experience. In no particular order: Matt Brown for composing and conducting two spectacular tours of London - one that focused on pubs, and a second that took us to…

Links for 6-30-2008

The comics rawked last week! Gracie signed off as the engineer on plans for the bike ramp she constructed for her brother Baldo and his friend. Gracie, you are awesome! Read the strips for June 24 and 25, too. I want more Gracie with my Baldo! The Chronicle News Blog reports that India will now have quotas for faculty positions at its prestigious engineering universities, for members of the so-called lower castes and classes. You can tell we really are living in a global society; the same whiny rhetoric about how the entry of those unmeritorious Others will destroy all we hold sacred you…

Scientiae May and June...

I missed contributing to the last Scientiae, which is up over at Flicka Mawa's pad, and deals with Career Paths, Perspective, and Changing Self Image. Scientiae is always great; go and read. I am the host of the June carnival, and finally got my call for posts up at Scientiae. The call is reproduced here after the jump. Posts aren't due till June 6. Hi folks, Zuska here. I suppose I should start with an apology for getting the next Scientiae topic out so late. But hey, the good news is you don't have to turn in your submission until June 6! The new topic is: Added Weight. "Huh?" I hear…

Calendar Girls

What is it with the techie women pin-up calendar business? First, we had the loathesome Geek Gorgeous calendar. Then came the misbegotten IT Screen Goddess calendar. Now Skookumchick brings us news of young women engineers at the University of Illinois who have posed, scantily clad and nearly naked in some cases, for a pinup calendar. Here's what I had to say in the past about such calendars: The participants think they are saying to the world, "Look, I'm smart AND sexy!" But what they are actually saying to the world is, "Look! No matter how smart I ever am, you can count on me not to…

Razib: Head Up His Ass On The Women, Intelligence, & Beauty Issue

So I'm cruising about Scienceblogs to catch up on my Sciblings and I come across this on Aetiology: So, razib relates a recent observation of the apparently rare species hottus chicas scientificas at a local wine bar. Shelley's ticked: Not sure whether to be more irked that Razib suggests that smart women aren't hot (and vice versa), that hot women don't like sci fi, or than sci fi somehow denotes intelligence. Booooooooo. While razib tells her to "focus on the science fiction part. not the intelligence," I agree with Shelley's later comment that who cares exactly whether he was talking about…

L. A.Engineer! Almost.

Many women in science and engineering have long suggested, only half tongue in cheek, that if we could only have an L.A. Engineer t.v. show it might do wonders to increase the number of young girls choosing STEM careers. Zuska, of course, thinks we'd still have to do something about the morons, cretins, and sexual harassers, but maybe if we did become a significant minority, they'd have to think twice about some of their behavior. Well, L.A. Engineer isn't here, but the Discovery Network via Beyond Productions has come a-knockin'! Diane Matt, Executive Director of WEPAN, just posted this…

The parallel universes of the Zeller family

I know that many people read the suicide note of Bill Zeller — it's terrible story of an intelligent young man who was racked with internal demons, and who finally ended his life. The primary causes of his torment were memories of sexual molestation, but there was also another significant factor: his family's fundamentalist religion, which provided him no comfort and was apparently more of a straitjacket to limit family interaction. He wrote this: I'd also like to address my family, if you can call them that. I despise everything they stand for and I truly hate them, in a non-emotional,…

Science, "Faith", and the New York Times.

Verse one of Chapter 11 of the Letter of Paul to the Hebrews reads (in the King James translation of the Bible): "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I mention this not because it is Sunday, or because I intend to offer a sermon, but because when I hear the word "faith," the definition that comes into my mind first is "the evidence of things not seen." By that definition, I have a very hard time thinking of science as requiring faith. If anything, "science" is the exact opposite of "faith". The body of knowledge that we call "science" consists of…

DonorsChoose Roundup and Next Steps

It's now the day after the DonorsChoose Challenge, and several things are clear. First, you people rock. This blog is not one of the highest-readership blogs in the Scienceblogs network. Most months, we're not even in the top half. But there's no way that anyone would guess that looking at the final results of the DonorsChoose challenge. At the end of the challenge, we had collected over $3,300. That was the third highest total among the participating Scienceblogs, and it put us into the top 25 of all participating blogs on the interwebs. Thank you all. Second, you people rock.…

More On Political Speech in Uniform

John Lilyea of "This Ain't Hell" just left a comment on yesterday's post about political speech in uniform. He brings up a couple of points that I'd like to address in some detail. First, here's Lilyea's comment in full: Funny, you picked the one quote I made in jest and nailed it to your cross. Now, answer me this - is the YearlyKos a political event or is it a blogger convention (as it was billed)? Did the sergeant make a political statement, or was he just asking for a little clarification? Did he bring discredit to the uniform, or did Solz just discredit himself as a non-partisan actor…

Monday Morning Roundup.

The theme for today is "accidental humor." In that category, we have a potential television entry later on today, a product that gives new meaning to "invigorating showers," the Kremlin trying to prove that they've got less of a grasp on reality than we do, the President upping the ante on the Kremlin twice in two questions, and an Uncommon Descent speculation on meaninglessness. Oh, and in the unfunny category we've got some helpful suggestions on how to manage pdf files. Must-See Fox TV: Later tonight (8 pm EST), Richard Dawkins will be appearing on Bill O'Reilly's Spin Zone show. PZ's…

Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot - but what else is new.

Jim Lynch, in an apparent attempt to see if he could get my blood pressure to break new ground, just sent me a link to this discussion of Rush Limbaugh's latest bit of verbal flatulence. Rush appears to have some rather interesting views on women in the military, and he decided to express some of those views on his radio show yeaterday. Actually, I wasn't nearly as annoyed by The Big Fat Idiot's comments as I think Jim expected. The remarks are assinine, stupid, and reflect a perspecitve on society and gender that was obsolete a very long time ago, but they were also exactly the type of raw…

Why astroturf disclosure legislation is needed:

In a post earlier today, I discussed a case where an astroturf group is attempting to stir up popular objection to a clause in a bill before the Senate that mandates disclosure of this type of lobbying activity. In a comment to a post over at Bora's blog, MattXIV raises a point that requires a more detailed response than I could make in a comment there: The point of restricting direct lobbying of congress is to prevent quid-pro-quos being worked out between lobbyist and congresspeople. I don't see how attempts to influence the views of individuals independent of direct lobbying of congress…

Remember This

It's been five years and a day since the terrible reality of international terrorism came crashing down on our heads. In that time, our nation has changed a great deal, and not all for the better. I say that we have changed, and not that we have been changed for a reason: many of the changes are things that we have, collectively, inflicted upon ourselves. Some, right about now, will want to argue with that. A few will insist that all of the changes were caused by the enemy without, by the terrorists, and that we had nothing to do with it. Others will be able to be honest enough with…

Plan B - This is NOT a "win."

Plan B has been approved, and the right-to-lifers are screaming bloody murder and threatening to sue, but they aren't the ones who lost. We are. We, in this case, means anyone who has an interest in good healthcare. We, in this case, means anyone who thinks that politics should not be involved in the approval of medications in this country. We, in this case, means anyone who believes that someone else's faith does not belong in their bedroom or body. We, in this case, means everyone who isn't part of the reactionary Christianist wing of the Republican Party. We all lost. They are crying…

Nation Building versus Nation Rebuilding, part 2

Joseph responded to my last post with a thought-provoking comment on my blog, and added a brief post to his own noting the exchange and wondering if there is any neutral third party who might want to weigh in on our exchange. I'd like to second that request. Of course, since I'm incapable of just letting things rest where they are without further, I'd also like to address a few of the things that Joseph brought up in his comment. Regarding the question of whether we should stay in Iraq, he writes: Just looking at the situation in Iraq, I would say that I used to hold the same view as you: we…

Retrospective crimes

David Hicks, the Australian held without trial or charge for five years and tortured in Guantanamo by the American military at the behest of the clearly criminal administration in the United States (there! I feel much better now) is being charged and tried for "providing material support for terrorism", a crime that did not exist when the acts he is alleged to have committed occurred. This raises the spectre of retrospective legislation, which is a running sore on democracy for some time now. Retrospective legislation is the passing of laws at t to cover acts made at <t.…

Anime film characters: Do we perceive the intended race, or our own?

One of my favorite cartoons as a child was "Speed Racer." It featured an all-American boy (first name, "Speed," last name, "Racer") engaging in that most American of pastimes: driving fast cars. Except that "Speed Racer" wasn't really American; it was made in Japan, and the original Japanese voices were crudely overdubbed in English. Perhaps I can be excused for not noticing the Japanese origins of the show -- I was only 10 years old. Even now, as an adult looking back at those cartoons, the characters do seem awfully American-looking. Or perhaps that's just my Caucasian bias. Does everyone…

Liveblogging the conference: Jim Griesemer

Jim Griesemer is one of my favourite philosophers. Here he's discussing the work of Herbert Simon on dynamical boundaries. What Simon said was that subsystems are nearly decomposable - systems are hierarchical and their internal relations are stronger than their cross level relations - and that this is a criterion for the dynamic specification of such systems. He discusses the Hora and Tempus example. Jim asks, how do either of them make watches at all? He asserts that scaffolding - any structure or element that facilitates the development of a system's skills or capacities - is…

Traditions in academe

PZ Murghl has challenged me to explain why there are theology departments in universities. Of course, most universities lack theology departments, and some, like the Princeton Theological Seminary, have been hived off their home institution. Back when I actually did theology, at Ridley College at the University of Melbourne, the theology was run independently of the university under the aegis of a nationwide theological umbrella institution, and its entire connection with the university was as a domiciliary college. But that's not what PZ is asking. So I will give a reason and limited…

Physicists on science

I have a rule (Wilkins' Law #35, I think) that if any scientist is going to draw unwarranted metaphysical conclusions, it will be a physicist, and in particular a cosmologist. Witness Paul Davies in the New York Times. Davies wants to argue something like this: Premise: there are laws of the universe and we cannot explain the existence of laws Premise: the assumption that laws are to be found is the basis for doing science Conclusion: Ergo, science rests on an act of faith Can anyone spot the enthymeme? That's very good, children. You spotted the easy mistake. Davies moves from "assume…

On extremes

Thinking some more about PZ's latest comedic act, I think I see what the problem is. People do not change their beliefs just because someone offends them. They change their beliefs because opponents offend them. If someone is a Muslim, they won't become an Islamist because another Muslim teaches something different, but because that Muslim is a member of an opposing sect. The friend of my enemy is my enemy. There is not exactly a continuum of ideas between theism and atheism, because there is not a single dimension or variable along which a continuum might be drawn as a spectrum. But…