October 7, 2009
We had a special guest at NCSE today. The photo below shows NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch, me, some guy who writes about blind watchmakers, and Steve Newton.
It turns out, my shirt was rather appropriate for the occasion:
And no, blog drama did not spill over into the real world. It was a…
October 7, 2009
I still don't know if I'm using that word right, but Science and Religion Today asked me a question about the award Chad wants to give me. They wonder "Do moderates have a responsibility to be more vocal in science and religion discussions?"
It's an admittedly vague question, and they left off my…
October 6, 2009
The Disco. 'Stute is upset. Not only has disco been overtaken by that rap music, but you can't even hear the good stuff any more. Also, no one returns their phone calls.
Atheist Richard Dawkins dodges Debate Challenge:
Ray Comfort, author of the Amazon.com’s best seller, You Can Lead an Atheist to…
October 6, 2009
This has inexplicably been marked for deletion, but the author deserves a pat on the back. Genesis, the opening to the Conservative Bible:
1 In the beginning, God did a cost/benefit analysis and decided that social collectivism was the only sustainable economic paradigm and that the only people…
October 6, 2009
LARGE GOLD OCTOPUS CIGARETTE / CREDIT CARD CASE by CosmicFirefly:
Now that mine has arrived, I can mock anyone else who doesn't have their own octopus-themed cardholder/cigarette case.
October 5, 2009
An anonymous lurker in Wyoming sent a generous contribution to help me recover from the loss of my laptop, etc. Since all I know is that you live in or near Cheyenne, WY, I just have to thank you publicly.
Of possible relevance to ongoing discussions here, the note accompanying the generous gift…
October 5, 2009
Conservapedia is the gift that keeps giving. Recall that Conservapedia formed to correct the nefarious liberal bias of the collectively edited Wikipedia. That is, they kept losing edit wars because they could support their claims, and since they couldn't conform reality to their beliefs, they'd…
October 5, 2009
Jerry Coyne is right:
Nobody who has followed Dawkins’s work and writing could possibly think he’s an accommodationist
Or rather, he's probably right. I've never been clear what "accommodationist" means, it seems to adapt itself in perfect Calvinball style to suit whatever enemy someone might have…
October 4, 2009
As discussions have heated up, more people have been getting trapped in moderation due to excessive links in their comments. I believe that you can get around that by signing in using TypeKey, using OpenID or various other online authentication systems.
Try it (this post is a good testbed!) and let…
October 1, 2009
Newsweek interviews Richard Dawkins:
Are those incompatible positions: to believe in God and to believe in evolution?
No, I don't think they're incompatible if only because there are many intelligent evolutionary scientists who also believe in God--to name only Francis Collins [the geneticist…
September 30, 2009
Disco. clubber Bruce Chapman, a former census director who ought to have learned something about demography and perhaps accounting along the way, writes that the Public Doesn't Know the Truth About Social Security:
â¦how many Americans (may we see a poll?) understand that â¦we really are at point (…
September 29, 2009
I've gotten distracted recently from a couple of topics I desperately want to return to. A look at Jason Rosenhouse's sensitive and personal essay on "Ways of Knowing" will have to wait a bit longer, because I finally got ahold of Erich Auerbach's Mimesis, a copy I've had since high school and…
September 28, 2009
Darwinism and popular culture: Darwinists resort to whining when they are not popular (Also, this just in, water runs downhill):
In responding to a news item from two weeks ago, I'll assume Creation still has gotten a distributor. Therefore it's crummy and boring and will never get a distributor,…
September 28, 2009
Last Friday I made some remarks about polling and evolution and atheism that got some knickers in twists. To summarize: Kevin Padian was asked to comment on a stupid stunt by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron, who are passing out copies of the Origin of Species along with a foreword that alleges Darwin…
September 26, 2009
FDA Admits Politics Trumped Science on Knee Device:
For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has publicly admitted that politics has trumped science. The agency acknowledged yesterday that it approved a device to help with knee-replacement surgeriesâa device the agencyâs own…
September 25, 2009
Jerry Coyne, 9/21/2009:
Kudos to the National Center for Science Education for putting up these videos [of Texas science standards hearings], and for their tenacious defense of evolution in Texas.
Thank you, Jerry. Since I shot those videos, and was present in Texas as part of that defense, I…
September 24, 2009
I've finally gotten around to reading through hundreds of comments on my posts about truth claims and ways of knowing and whatnot, and posted replies to as many commenters as I could manage (hopefully touching on themes raised by some commenters I didn't respond to by name). I'll be monitoring…
September 24, 2009
Nicholas Beaudrot defends the (second) bag fee against Atrios's opposition to any fees, and against Matt Yglesias's defense of all fees for checked luggage. Atrios rightly notes that the fees are part and parcel of the generally crappy air travel experience, Matt argues that the fees discourage…
September 23, 2009
Apologies for the unusually crappy blogging this week. With the arrival of a replacement from my lost/stolen laptop, I should catch up on the 12,000 unread items in NetNewsWire soon, and return to normal crappy blogging.
In any event, Chad Orzel replies to last week's ruckus over "ways of knowing"…
September 18, 2009
Several commenters on earlier posts have suggested that I am claiming that religious truth claims are the same as literary truth claims.
I understand how that misunderstanding could be reached, but it is a misunderstanding. I think that religious truth claims would include aspects of literary…
September 18, 2009
As promised, I've put a few tentative definitions below the fold, in hopes of clarifying questions in comment threads here and elsewhere. These definitions represent a starting point, not gospel. I'm not a philosopher, I haven't spent much time reading epistemology, and I may mangle things badly.…
September 18, 2009
Jean Kazez, a philosopher at SMU, blogs a nice critique of the bone I picked with Jerry Coyne. She sees in my argument:
a kind of defense by decimation. First you cut down the pretensions of religion; then you say religion is alright.
Rosenau says that if religious scripture doesn't deliver…
September 16, 2009
On Monday I posted a reply to Jerry Coyne's clique-ish and philosophically naive report on a talk he didn't see. I thought this would be a useful exercise because:
Coyne is a former professor of mine, I respect him, and don't want to see him embarrass himself.
High school-level cliqueishness seems…
September 14, 2009
Jerry Coyne is nervous. He isn't sure if NCSE's Genie Scott will sit next to him at lunch, and he's not sure if he wants to sit next to her, when you get right down to it.
Why? Because in a talk at DragonCon (a talk Jerry didn't attend and only has second-hand information about), Genie said that…
September 10, 2009
Well, it looks like Professor Steve Steve, my laptop, my iPod, a plush octopus, and various other precious papers are not to be recovered. Insurance will help some, but I've put together an Amazon.com wishlist to collect a list of things I need to replace. Anyone who wants to help out would be most…
September 4, 2009
Some douchebag walked off with my computer bag, including my iPod, my computer, and most troublingly, Professor Steve Steve. My heart is filled with rage. Rage and distinct mourning for my lost computer.
If anyone at DragonCon finds a Timbuktu laptop bag with my goddam computer in it, my goddam…
September 3, 2009
Anyone attending Dragon*Con this weekend should totally stop by NCSE's booth, at the Skeptic Track.
September 2, 2009
Dear internets,
Why does anyone read Megan McArdle? The debunking of her silliness is clogging my RSS reader, and I'd like you all to just stop reading her already.
I tuned her out way back when she went by the name "Jane Galt." I consider it entirely fair to treat Ayn Rand fandom as an…
September 2, 2009
Brad Monton, creationists' newest favorite atheist, is upset. Carl Zimmer and Sean Carroll, upset that BloggingHeads allowed and utterly bungled an interview between conservative linguist and apparent ID sycophant John McWhorter and creationist Michael Behe, have declared that they will not…
August 28, 2009
According to various sources, including Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Cohen, posting at Young Philly Politics, Larry Frankel passed away recently. The cause is unclear.
Frankel was the ACLU's chief lobbyist in state legislatures, guiding state civil liberties unions through the thickets of…
