David Bentley Hart is one of my favorite writers. I can only wish my prose were as lucid and beautiful as his.  I am reading his The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss, and he makes powerful points from the very first chapter. Consider: Naturalism – the doctrine that there is nothing apart from the physical order, and certainly nothing supernatural – is an incorrigibly incoherent concept, and one that is ultimately indistinguishable from pure magical thinking. The very notion of nature as a closed system entirely sufficient to itself is plainly one that cannot be verified, deductively or empirically, from within the system of nature. It is a metaphysical (which is to say ‘extra-natural’) conclusion regarding the whole of Read More ›

There is always some water in ice. NASA has a mantra of “follow the water,” based on the general idea that where there is water, there is life, and that cells require water to grow and metabolize. But it’s important to remember, Christner says, that even in ice there is nearly always a small amount of liquid water. As I sit in his office, he pulls up a microscope image of ice crystals on his computer monitor. The ice crystal structure looks like an opaque jigsaw puzzle made up of large hexagonal pieces. But Christner points out clear, narrow gaps between the edges and points of the ice puzzle-pieces. (And microbes are probably sneaky.)

Unearthed from 2000 years ago in a clay jar: Story: Today, the living archeological treasure continues to grow and thrive; In 2011, it even produced its first flower — a heartening sign that the ancient survivor was eager to reproduce. Maybe heartening. Some of us have spent a lot of time we will never see again killing useless weeds with similar ambitions. 😉

Wow, the article News found contains one of the most cogent and succinct arguments I’ve read. Here’s more: First Averick quotes Bertrand Russell Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of skeptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that since my assertion cannot be disproved [no one can doubt its truth], Read More ›

Quoted in the article to which News refers below: The origin of life is one of the hardest problems in all of science…Origin of Life research has evolved into a lively, interdisciplinary field, but other scientists often view it with skepticism and even derision. This attitude is understandable and, in a sense, perhaps justified, given the “dirty” rarely mentioned secret: Despite many interesting results to its credit, when judged by the straightforward criterion of reaching (or even approaching) the ultimate goal, the origin of life field is a failure – we still do not have even a plausible coherent model, let alone a validated scenario, for the emergence of life on Earth. Certainly, this is due not to a lack Read More ›

Here: It is precisely in the area of medical treatments that the science-pseudoscience divide is most critical, and where the role of philosophers in clarifying things may be most relevant. Our colleague Stephen T. Asma raised the issue in a recent Stone column (“The Enigma of Chinese Medicine”), pointing out that some traditional Chinese remedies (like drinking fresh turtle blood to alleviate cold symptoms) may in fact work, and therefore should not be dismissed as pseudoscience. Especially not by the turtle.