Physicalism is a variant of naturalism: “Physicalism is the thesis that everything is physical, or as contemporary philosophers sometimes put it, that everything supervenes on the physical. ” (Stanford Plato) Naturalism: “… reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing “supernatural”, and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality, including the ‘human spirit’” (Stanford Plato) Philosopher of physics Dr. Bruce Gordon (Houston Baptist University) talks about the tension between Quantum physics and physicalism: Note: Gordon was one of the editors of The Nature of Nature See also: Consciousness as a state of matter Hat tip: Philip Cunningham

The title of my last post was Reality is the Wall You Smack into When You’re Wrong.  In response to that title Seversky pushed back: Can we assume from this [title] that you agree with me that the argument that our minds were shaped for survival but not for truth is a false dichotomy? In other words, if we form false beliefs about reality then, sooner or later, we will run smack into it so natural selection will favor the formation of true beliefs? I was more than a little surprised at Sev’s response, because since Darwin himself, the standard Darwinian line has been exactly the opposite of that which he asserted.  Natural selection selects for fitness, not for truth.  Read More ›

From Kevin Hartnett at Quanta: Two mathematicians have proved that two different infinities are equal in size, settling a long-standing question. Their proof rests on a surprising link between the sizes of infinities and the complexity of mathematical theories. 66 … In a breakthrough that disproves decades of conventional wisdom, two mathematicians have shown that two different variants of infinity are actually the same size. The advance touches on one of the most famous and intractable problems in mathematics: whether there exist infinities between the infinite size of the natural numbers and the larger infinite size of the real numbers. … Their work also finally puts to rest a problem that mathematicians had hoped would help settle the continuum hypothesis. Read More ›

From Paul Braterman of slam dunk creationists fame at The Conversation: Listening to creationists can strengthen our understanding of evolution Sounds promising. As John Sturt Mill put it, people who do not understand the arguments against their position do not know their own position well. One naturally wonders why it takes so long for some people to tumble to that, but never mind. Can we learn from creationists – people who deny evolution? I think so. It is not enough to say, as Richard Dawkins notoriously did: “If you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane…” That’s a dead end. Conversation is a two-way street, and if I want creationists to Read More ›

Which was a revolution. From Megan Gannon at LiveScience: The concept of zero as a number was revolutionary in mathematics. Historians have long known the idea came from India, but its exact origins remain murky. Now, the oldest Indian reference to the digit zero has been identified, in a manuscript dating back to the third or fourth century, scientists at the University of Oxford in England announced. … The concept of zero as the number representing absolute nothingness paved the way for algebra, calculus and computer science. The first text to discuss zero in the numerical sense is the Indian astronomer Brahmagupta’s work “Brahmasphutasiddhanta,” which was written in A.D. 628.More. Zero is an abstraction, not a number (it corresponds to Read More ›

From Jonathan B. Losos, author of Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution at Nautilus: Is convergence pervasive, a demonstration of inherent structure in the biological world, channeled by predictable forces of natural selection toward outcomes predestined by the environment? Or are examples of convergent evolution the exceptions, cherry-picked illustrations of biological predictability in a haphazard world in which most species have no evolutionary parallels? We could argue these points back and forth until we’re blue in the face. I’d throw out the platypus, you’d counter with convergent hedgehogs; I’d postulate the unique, algae-encrusted, upside-down-hanging tree sloth, you’d retort with bipedal-hopping mice independently evolved on three continents. And that is how, essentially, this controversy has been debated historically, Read More ›

And much harm follows from believing so. From Shawna Williams at The Scientist: Cutting-edge DNA identification techniques used by the office of New York City’s chief medical examiner were less reliable than claimed, some experts say. … “I’m 100 percent convinced that there are many people who are incarcerated who were convicted with DNA evidence who are innocent,” Bicka Barlow, a lawyer with a background in genetics and molecular biology, tells the Times. At issue in the letter are techniques called “high-sensitivity testing,” or low copy number analysis, which detects trace amounts of DNA, and the Forensic Statistical Tool (FST), a software program to calculate whether a given person’s genetic material is likely present in a sample of mixed DNA. Read More ›

Here, 7:00 pm EST Toronto Michael Shermer and Alister McGrath: Is God a Figment of Our Imagination? Our dialogue brings together two leading thinkers who have thoughtfully wrestled with this question, each not only having embarked on a personal pilgrimage, but each bringing a lifetime of erudition, experience, and insights to bear on this theme. Alister McGrath, the athiest who would become a theist, and Michael Shermer, the theist who would become an atheist. And both have written on issues around origin and evolution of life. See also: Dialogue: Rupert Sheldrake vs. Michael Shermer and Oxford profs respond to and refute new atheist claims

From Suzan Mazur at HuffPost, an interview with German biophysicist Dieter Braun, Redford-style good looks have not been enough to divert Dieter Braun from his research interest in nonequilibrium conditions on the microscale, and what is now a central role in the investigation into the origins of life. Braun—-a professor of systems biophysics at Ludwig Maxmilians University in Munich, a Simons Foundation collaborator on the origins of life, and scientific coordinator of the OLIM initiative (Origin of Life Munich)—-says a whole new breed of scientists, “experimentally driven,” have entered the field as funding opens up and that origins of life research is no longer a “side activity,” fishing expedition, or place for dreamy “pet theories.” He tells Mazur, We’re getting Read More ›

At Cosmos, science writer Jake Port offers reasons, including In order to replicate, viruses must first hijack the reproductive equipment of a host cell, redirecting it to ‘photocopy’ the genetic code of the virus and seal it inside a newly formed container, known as the capsid. Without a host cell, the virus simply can’t replicate. Viruses fail the second question for the same reason. Unlike other living organisms that can self-divide, splitting a single cell into two, viruses must ‘assemble’ themselves by taking control of the host cell, which manufactures and assembles the viral components. Finally, a virus isn’t considered living because it doesn’t need to consume energy to survive, nor is it able to regulate its own temperature. Unlike Read More ›

Reality is the wall you smack into when you are wrong, as KLM inadvertently demonstrates in this tweet.  The three combinations are not equal.  It does matter which I try to click with.  Only one of the three combinations allows the seat belt to function to protect the passenger.  If there were a crash, the result of the first two combinations would be “splat.”  Here is some nice irony:  I am 100% certain that if I boarded a KLM flight and attempted to use either of the first two combinations, they would insist that I revert to the third. A seat belt buckle is designed to be complementary with the latchplate.  One ignores that obviously complementary design at one’s peril. Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Evolutionary biologists long have supposed that when species colonize new geographic regions they often develop new traits and adaptations to deal with their fresh surroundings. They branch from their ancestors and multiply in numbers of species. Apparently, this isn’t the story of “true frogs.” The frog family scientists call Ranidae are found nearly everywhere in the world, and their family includes familiar amphibians like the American Bullfrog and the European common frog. New research from the University of Kansas appearing in Royal Society Biology Letters shows, in contrast to expectations, “the rapid global range expansion of true frogs was not associated with increased net-diversification.” … Rather, the rich diversity of species in the Ranidae family comes from millions Read More ›

Re two recent flaps around the possible discovery of soft dinosaur tissue, Senior Scientist at the Geoscience Research Institute Tim Standish writes from Loma Linda U to offer a perspective on YEC Mark Armitage’s find vs. Mary Schweitzer’s find: It isn’t replication, but it is strong verification. There are lots of other peer reviewed papers out there ranging from halophilic bacteria being resurrected from the dead in samples that are supposed to be hundreds of millions of years old to more recent finds, all point to the unexpected presence of biological samples that are supposed to be millions of years old. From my perspective, this is one of those things that needs very careful explaining if the current understanding of dating Read More ›

From Biologic Institute’s Ann Gauger, on J. Scott Turner’s forthcoming Purpose and Desire: at Evolution News & Views: Claude Bernard (1813-1878) was a French physiologist, one of the most famous scientists of his age, so famous that he appeared in poems, novels, and memoirs of the period both in France and abroad. Think Albert Einstein. Now, however, he is most famous for his idea that the miliéu interieur, or internal environment of living things, must remain constant to sustain and maintain life. This idea is given the name homeostasis, defined as a “self-regulating process by which biological systems tend to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are optimal for survival. If homeostasis is successful, life continues; if unsuccessful, disaster Read More ›

From Robert F. Service at Science: For the last 20 years, Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, has amassed a wealth of evidence that she’s isolated protein fragments from dinosaurs as much as 80 million years old. That bucks the conventional wisdom among paleontologists who argue that proteins, which are made of chains of amino acids, can’t survive more than 1 million years or so. So far, no group other than Schweitzer and her collaborators has managed to replicate the findings. She contends that’s because others don’t follow her methods. If Schweitzer is right and outside researchers eventually do confirm her findings, it could transform dinosaur paleontology into a molecular science. That, in turn, could Read More ›