Policy and Politics
tfk | June 21, 2011PZ writes: Not the puppy dog!:
Religion really does make people crazy. Here's a story about a dog who walked into a Jewish court.
"The dog entered the Jerusalem financial court several weeks ago and would not leave, reports Israeli website Ynet."
"It reminded a judge of a curse passed on a now deceased secular lawyer about 20 years ago, when judges bid his spirit to enter the body of a dog."
So, obviously, this stray mutt must contain the displaced, reincarnated soul of a dead lawyer. At least, that's what somebody steeped in magical thinking would assume.
If you have an animal possessed by…
tfk | June 20, 2011Astronomer Phil Plait notes a webcomic addressing testability and the supernatural, and makes an odd endorsement of this position:
there's no such thing as the supernatural. Either something is natural -- that is, part of the Universe -- or else it doesn't exist.
If you posit some thing that has no perceivable or measurable effect, then it may as well not exist. And as soon as you claim it does have an effect -- it can be seen, heard, recorded, felt -- then it must be in some way testable, and therefore subject to science.
Not quite. The issue with the supernatural is not whether it's part…
tfk | June 20, 2011Daniel Loxton does the yeoman work of unearthing much of the history of Skepticism's Oldest Debate: A Prehistory of "DBAD" (1838-2010). It's too good throughout to even try pulling out a summarizing quote, so seriously, read the whole thing, and see how skeptics have been telling one another not to be so dickish since around the time Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle was published.
That year, 1838, David Meredith Reese published his Humbugs of New-York: being a remonstrance against popular delusion, whether in science, philosophy, or religion, and wrote:
Unhappily, however, those who have…
tfk | June 20, 2011
I taped this back in April, and forgot all about it until I just found it online. Enjoy!
Dr. Kiki and I chatted about science education, controversies in science classrooms, and related issues. It was inspired by this presentation.
tfk | June 19, 2011Sir Charles says he's glad he didn't come to Netroots Nation this year. Reading about a panel on LGBT rights and immigration, he sees too many people claiming the President failed, rather than realism about the political system's current state:
It seems pretty clear to me that Obama is moving toward a pro-marriage equality stance. In the meantime, though, he has done more than enough to earn the spirited support of the gay rights community. However, even if you don't agree, a quick look at where the Republicans are on these issues and it seems to me that this should generate a sense of…
tfk | June 16, 2011I'll probably be blogging here and there from Netroots Nation in Minneapolis, but you're likely to see much more action on my twitter account: @JoshRosenau
tfk | June 15, 2011The National Center for Science Education is hiring a Climate Change Programs and Policy Director:
NCSE seeks candidates for our Climate Change Programs and Policy Director.
The Climate Change Programs and Policy Director's duties will include:
* counseling teachers, administrators, parents, and other concerned citizens facing challenges to climate change education;
* providing information on climate change, climate literacy, and related issues to the general public, the press, and allied educational, scientific, and environmental organizations;
* developing materials pertaining to climate…
tfk | June 14, 2011Chris Mooney's Republican War on Science is an important look at a pattern of anti-science policies by Republican politicians. When it came out, my review's main concern was "the only paths available to a Republican party that wants to promote a religious/corporate agenda contrary to the values of the public at large is to attack the details of programs or to attack the policy process. ⦠I wish Mooney dug deeper into that part of the story, but perhaps we can hope for a sequel. Mooney is certainly meticulous in his research, and this study presents the problem starkly. The epilogue, which…
tfk | June 14, 2011There's a lot of good value in You Are Not So Smart's take on the Backfire Effect:
The Misconception: When your beliefs are challenged with facts, you alter your opinions and incorporate the new information into your thinking.
The Truth: When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.
Lots of people are blogging and tweeting about it, so it's worth remembering that the excellent Bob Carroll did a nice piece on it at the Skeptics Dictionary a while back.
tfk | June 13, 2011Hitchens on the Art of the Feud - NYTimes.com:
according to some famous combatants, the death of the literary feud has been greatly exaggerated: the fighting will go on as long as there are writers willing to defend high principles, or at least able to pull off some devastating lines.
Perhaps no one has distinguished himself as a feudist in the past few decades more than Christopher Hitchens, who in an e-mail gave some helpful hints on how to start a feud â and, more important, how to keep it going.
A proper feud, Mr. Hitchens wrote, requires one of at least two things: a clash of strong…
tfk | June 11, 2011Shepherd Book â Serenity:
Why when I talk about belief, why do you always assume I'm talking about God?
Interfaith prayer meetings face opposition; some religious leaders fear pluralism:
Interfaith dialogues and worship services spread across the nation following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, ⦠But now, some Christian leaders are reacting publicly against acceptance of Muslims and even other Christian faith traditions.
Dwayne Mercer, the newly elected president of the Florida Baptist Convention, ⦠would not attend an interfaith meeting. Mercer ⦠feared that his church members might…
tfk | June 9, 2011Just a reminder, Haeckel's embryo drawing were not fraudulent. He did the best he could with the resources available.
tfk | June 9, 2011Politico reports on on Rick Santorum mixing it up with Rush Limbaugh:
"I believe the earth gets warmer and I also believe the earth gets cooler," Santorum said. "And I think history points out that it does that and that the idea that man, through the production of CO2 ... is somehow responsible for climate change is, I think, just patently absurd when you consider all the other factors, El Niño, La Niña, sunspots, moisture in the air. There's a variety of factors that contribute to the Earth warming and cooling." ...
"It's just an excuse for more government control of your life," Santorum…
tfk | June 7, 2011I'm super-excited for the panel I'm organizing at this year's Netroots Nation conference. As you may know, Netroots Nation is an annual gathering of progressive bloggers, policy wonks, policymakers, activists, and groupies. It's an amazing event, featuring senior officials in the Democratic party, and fascinating discussions of the movement's future, not to mention serious partying.
This year, the event is in Minneapolis, June 16-18. And I'll be organizing a panel on the 17th, in the afternoon. We'll be talking about ways to work science and science policy discussions into unexpected…
tfk | June 6, 2011Jerry Coyne is trying to do math. A new survey out from Pew finds that, as in 2007, 61% of Americans say they'd be less likely to vote for someone who did not believe in God. Coyne thinks:
The unchanged level of disapprobation is a bit disconcerting, but at least gives the lie to accommodationist claims that vociferous atheism is turning people off. And we know that lack of religious belief is still increasing everywhere in America.
Several problems arise here, exacerbated by the generally handwavy attitude Coyne-as-blogger takes towards data and logical argument. We have to guess what…
tfk | June 6, 2011NCSE's Glenn Branch is known for his nigh-omniscience, and today he got a great scoop: the production company behind schlockumentary Expelled is going bankrupt. You'll recall Expelled: No Intelligence... as a movie so full of crap that even frontman Ben Stein acknowledges it's best watched while high. It's so bad that the New York Times called it "One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time," Roger Ebert said "This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions, segues between…
tfk | June 6, 2011I'm incredibly proud of my Cubbies, who are taping a video for the Dan Savage-organized video project targeting anti-LGBT bullying:
The Chicago Cubs will become only the second team in professional sports to produce an "It Gets Better" video, taking a stand against anti-gay bullying and homophobia, supported and led by Cubs owner Laura Ricketts -- who, along with Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, appeared on the Cubs' float in the Chicago Pride Parade last year.
I love the Cubs, and will do so until my dying day. But a team that hasn't won a championship since 1908 is perhaps not the best choice to…
tfk | June 6, 2011John Pieret is a snark genius, and you should read his latest, especially checking his links.
And check out his recent WTF moment, not to mention his non-snarky, but moving and thoughtful essay on respect.
tfk | June 5, 2011Tom Rees reports on a smart new study which tests the effect of religiosity on attitudes toward torture in the US. Using two different large surveys, the researchers first simply examined the correlation between religiosity and support for permitting torture. Realizing that conservative political ideology can also induce greater support for torture and can itself be driven by religiosity, they then compared the direct impact of religion on torture support with the indirect effect as mediated through political ideology.
What they found is that religiosity (measured in one case simply by how…
tfk | May 31, 2011Nadia El-Awady, who you'll recall as a science writer in Egypt who helped chronicle the revolution from Tahrir Square (she's also organizing this year's World Conference of Science Journalists in Doha), tried an experiment:
I experimented last week. I took off my hijab - the headscarf many Muslim women wear to cover their hair.
I have been wearing a headscarf when I leave the privacy of my home for 25 years, since I was 17. That's a long long time in human years.
I took my hijab off during a recent trip to Europe. I wanted to know what it would feel like. I wanted to know how people's…