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David Coppedge is Guilty (Again)

Must we sift through the entire sordid affair of David Coppedge yet again? Although we have repeatedly and conclusively proved Coppedge’s guilt (which everyone already knew anyway), some dim-witted judge has now decided that the case has the merit to move forward. Recall that we provided iron-clad proof (and yes, our sources are very reliable) that while in college Mr. Coppedge, then in his Sophomore year, once argued late into the night with his roommate and one other student (from down the hall) about various political issues. Furthermore we proved that Mr. Coppedge was seen entering a bookstore on campus. Our source, who was naturally curious, ascertained that Coppedge browsed several controversial books in the Philosophy section of that bookstore.  Read More ›

Evolutionists Aren’t the Only Ones: More Climate Emails

Scientists, as Del Ratzsch has pointed out, are people. And qua people, they sometimes have non scientific biases. These biases and motivations are crucial for they guide and restrict the science. Some answers are acceptable and other answers are not acceptable. It is that simple. There are those who are blackballed, and there are those who do the blackballing. It all depends on whether one is interested in truth or in dogma. You know who you are.  Read more

Planetary Habitability Index: Conjuring life on other planets

From “Planets’ life-hosting potential ranked” (CBC News, Nov 24, 2011), we learn, Plugging in parameters such as a planet’s mass, radius, and average temperature generates a series of measures in the Earth Similarity Index, which “provides a quick screening tool with which to detect exoplanets most similar to Earth,” said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., in a statement. He added that scientists know empirically that Earth-like conditions can support life. Amazing! How did they figure that out?!! But the researchers noted that some conditions that aren’t Earth-like — such as those found in oily lakes on Titan, a moon of Saturn — could theoretically also be conducive to life — albeit not the kind Read More ›

Adam, Eve and the Concept of Humanity: A Response to Professor Kemp (Part 1)

I’d like to put three hypothetical questions to my readers. They might sound rather silly, but as we’ll see, they have profound implications for the very concept of what it means to be human. Let us assume that the very first creatures on Earth who possessed a natural capacity to reason – i.e. the first people – had primate parents who lacked this capacity. Let us also assume for argument’s sake that there were only two people in the beginning – Adam and Eve – who later went on to have several children. Adam and Eve’s parents were therefore non-rational animals. Here are my three questions: (1) Would it have been possible for Adam to have had an identical twin Read More ›

Eric Alm: It’s A Plausible Idea

plau•si•ble  /’plôzəbəl/ 1. (of an argument or statement) Seeming reasonable or probable. 2. (of a person) Skilled at producing persuasive arguments, esp. ones intended to deceive. When one thinks of MIT one thinks of engineering and hard sciences. No nonsense academia that doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But now MIT Professor Eric Alm tells us that the spontaneous generation of a super progenitor is “plausible.” That’s an interesting choice of words because, in fact, that is precisely what evolution is not and it is difficult to imagine how Alm could have arrived at such a strange conclusion.  Read more