From UNZ, alternative media: The Jerry Coyne Retirement Jerry Coyne, an eminent evolutionary geneticist and all around public intellectual, is retiring, and has posted a bitter sweet and hopeful farewell letter to his conventional scientific career. For the general public Coyne is probably more famous as a New Atheist, though Coyne is actually a vocal […]
Month: September 2015
Homo naledi hype questioned
From Casey Luskin at Christian Post:: Hominid Hype and Homo Naledi: Did Scientists Really Discover a Human Ancestor? Indeed, just four years ago Australopithecus sediba — also discovered and promoted by Berger — was the transitional form du jure between the australopithecines and our own genus Homo. Yet sediba had a very different set of […]
Lydia McGrew nails it: Does being an atheist interfere with being moral?
Over at What’s Wrong with the World, Dr. Lydia McGrew has written a short article that nails the reason why atheists are liable to err on moral matters. The article, titled, Does being an atheist interfere with being moral? (September 22, 2015), identifies metaphysical naturalism (which views the world as the sum total of what […]
Science truth subjected to vote?
From Should Scientific Truth Be Subjected to a Vote?: Those who promulgate the rhetoric of consensus rightly want to preserve the integrity of science in the eyes of the public. The empirical, precise, and collaborative method of natural science remains – despite the current reproducibility crisis – our most reliable source for knowledge about the […]
Who chooses these titles? The Scientist on the ear
From The Scientist:: The form and function of the ears of modern land vertebrates cannot be understood without knowing how they evolved. Excuse me, excuse me, we can know everything there is to know about hearing today simply from examining life forms today. Darwinism forces on people the belief that they must know about the […]
Cryonics as false science?
Okay, okay, not directly our thing, but I am just gearing up here again: The False Science of Cryonics No one who has experienced the disbelief of losing a loved one can help but sympathize with someone who pays $80,000 to freeze their brain. But reanimation or simulation is an abjectly false hope that is […]
Devastating take-down of Bill Nye, the science guy
Jurisprudence Professor Robert George and bioethicist Patrick Lee have written a devastating take-down of Bill Nye in an article for National Review titled, Back to Science Class for the Science Guy, after Nye published a video on YouTube, claiming to tell us what science says about abortion. As take-downs go, this one is about as […]
Dr. No on evolution
Okay, this is the last thing I (O’Leary for News) have to say on the subject of doctors and evolution, and fitness for public office: Once, about forty years ago, one of my kids was hit on the head by a car. She was taken immediately to the local ER. I flagged down a cruiser […]
On Dr Ben Carson, the Devil, science vs medicine and saving life
I passed by and noted a dismissive comment (or a few) regarding US Presidential candidate, retired neurosurgeon Dr Ben Carson: CASE A: he’s running for President of the United States of America; he’s a politician who’s put religion and science into his platform. He willingly exposed himself to criticism and does not deserve a pass […]
Metaphysics From John Ray to Nima Arkani-Hamed
When John Ray refused to conform to the 1662 Act of Uniformity—aimed mainly at the Puritans—and so was forced to leave his position at Cambridge University, he roamed Europe for three years doing what he loved: observing nature. Ray and his companions were in for a surprise: unfathomable diversity. They found thousands of different kinds […]
Why does anyone care what any US Prez thinks about evolution?
Why does anyone care what any US Prez thinks about evolution? If it is really a science topic, shouldn’t it be like the Large Hadron Collider or Pluto’s geography? So how is it the Prez’s business? Why ask him in particular? Doesn’t he mainly deal with domestic and foreign crises? I first wondered about this […]
Idiocy from Media Matters, some disgraceful US outfit, Ben Carson edition
Ben Carson, pediatric neurosurgeon, saved children’s lives. Here is a typical Darwin follower’s’ response, demanding worship of their idol: So imagine it’s 1970 or so, and you’re young Ben Carson, sitting in a biology class at Yale University. With your sharp mind and strong study habits, you don’t have much problem understanding the material, grasping […]
Trilobite caught in act of molting
From 365 Million-Year-Old Fossil Catches Trilobite in the Act of Molting: In shedding it’s armored exoskeleton, the fossilized creature was molting. Molting is without a doubt one of nature’s most incredible acts. Every so often, certain creatures cast off parts of their bodies in a process of biological renewal. Cats and dogs do it with […]
Test parallel universes for real?
Some claim we can. We are told, It is important to keep in mind that the multiverse view is not actually a theory, it is rather a consequence of our current understanding of theoretical physics. This distinction is crucial. We have not waved our hands and said: “Let there be a multiverse”. Instead the idea […]
New Scientist on the need to “hack” our morals
Here. Gut reactions guide our judgements and behaviour, but those reactions, developed over millions of years of living in small groups, aren’t up to the grand challenges that face us in an interconnected world of billions of people. On the road ahead, this is a recipe for tyranny everywhere: Traditional moral instincts don’t work; we […]