Provided you don’t ask for much: Today, we often hear that these non-random mechanisms of evolution are consistent with Darwinian evolution (the Modern Synthesis). So, nothing has really changed after all! Not so fast. Darwinian evolution (Darwinism) had better be consistent with all demonstrated mechanisms of change. Unlike horizontal gene transfer, it has proven difficult […]
Month: August 2015
The Economist replies to Steve Meyer, seemingly
From the Economist: In the fourth of our series of articles on scientific mysteries we ask why, a mere 542m years ago, animal life suddenly took off Oh, we mean Steve Meyer, author of Darwin’s Doubt, about the Cambrian explosion of life forms over half a billion years ago. Just look at how Darwin’s Econo followers […]
“Self-Evident” Does Not Mean “Apparent”
Many of our materialist friends do not seem to know the difference between the epistemological categories of “self-evident” and “apparent.” I am providing this primer on the difference to help them understand. Here is a typical exchange where a materialist makes this category error. Barry: It is self-evident that torturing an infant for pleasure is […]
Smart crows DON’T show strong evidence of social learning
From ScienceDaily: “We don’t know whether the crows have cumulative technological culture, and one of the reasons is that we don’t know how they learn,” said Logan. “There’s a hypothesis that says in order for cumulative technological culture to occur you need to copy the actions of another individual. And we don’t know whether the […]
FYI-FTR: P burns down rationality in order to save “critical rationality”
Sometimes, it is a sad necessity to make a public example. In this case, P has been attacking not only inductive reasoning but chains of reasoning in general, in order to try to make the generic chaining of warrant illustrated in the following infographic — and especially its focus on the trichotomy, (i) infinite regress, […]
Hallelujah! 2nd vol Dawkins’ autobiography
As usual, we close off our religion coverage for the week with inspirational messages from the new atheists. As many new atheists appear to have gone to relationship counselling (possibly why they are no longer threatening to sue each other or creating scenes in elevators for a global public?), we are once again proud to […]
Prof opposes “infantizing” college students, but…
… it turns out that he mainly means the ones from religious families: TPP’s basic philosophy was that while you are entitled to your beliefs you are not entitled to avoid discomforting or contradictory ideas, you are not entitled to a free-pass when it comes to a critical analysis of beliefs like yours (individuals were […]
A 14 Week Old “Red Pen”
Here is a “red pen” for all of those who insist that unborn babies are not human. Deny that baby’s humanity until you are red in the face. Your denial is insane. You know the truth.
Big science can only explain small gods
From Science: Feature: Why big societies need big gods, by Lizzie Wade, Science’s Latin American correspondent: Although much of Egyptian cosmology is alien today, some is strikingly familiar: The gods of today’s major religions are also moralizing gods, who encourage virtue and punish selfish and cruel people after death. But for most of human history, moralizing gods […]
I get mail: Cavin and Colombetti redux
In December 2013, I wrote a post on the subject of miracles in response to Professor Robert Greg Cavin and Dr. Carlos A. Colombetti, titled, Cavin and Colombetti, miracle-debunkers, or: Can a Transcendent Designer manipulate the cosmos? Today, I received an email from Professor Cavin, who claimed I had totally misconstrued his (and Colombetti’s) argument. […]
10 Key Ways To Break The Mass Delusion Machine
Great article up at The Federalist. Excerpts: Political Correctness is all about Propaganda Compliance. PC is the engine of the propaganda machine that produces mass delusion. PC is basically a calculated process of molding public opinion through psychological manipulation. The process is twofold: saturation and suppression. Saturation is the practice of repeating a deception relentlessly […]
Science journalist suffers chronic abuse syndrome
First, only one-third of published psychology research is reliable. How do we respond? We sort of knew that but, from the Conversation: What does it mean if the majority of what’s published in journals can’t be reproduced? Publishing together as the Open Science Collaboration and coordinated by social psychologist Brian Nosek from the Center for […]
Is it better not to know the truth?
From Aeon: Curiosity about trivial things might have evolved. Not because it’s likely to be adaptive, but maybe as a necessary by-product of a drive to understand the world, which is itself useful. … But even if the truth is valuable in itself, that doesn’t mean it’s always better to know. There might still be […]
What Must We Do In the Face of Insane Denial?
In the combox to a prior post KF brought this article to my attention: On the Nature of Debate, Denial and Refutation by Robert L. Kocher. It could not have come at a better time. In the past few weeks I have noticed an increase in plain old irrationality from our opponents. You catch them […]
Sat Nite Fun: Reptilian brain emerges again
In customer service: 7 Ways to Engage Your Customer’s Reptilian Brain According to SalesBrain and the Triune Brain theory, the reptilian region is the brain’s attention gatekeeper and decision maker. If you can grab the attention of a consumer’s reptilian brain with your landing page, advertisement, or commercial, you’ve got a much better chance of […]