Here (as updated): Money clip: The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety. It reflects the framers’ belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government . . . ” Food for thought. END F/N, U/D: Prepared text, found. I think he mostly read […]
academic freedom
Is Mathematics falling under the sway of a computerised, AI-driven celebrity-authority culture?
Two recent remarks in VICE (a telling label, BTW) raise some significant concerns. First, Kevin Buzzard — no, this is not Babylon Bee [itself a sign when it is harder and harder to tell reality from satire] — Sept 26th: Number Theorist Fears All Published Math Is Wrong “I think there is a non-zero chance […]
Radical Constructivism, Naturalistic Scientism and Math Education — ideas have consequences
In the thread on Jonathan Bartlett and priorities for Math education, I raised two comments that I think it would be profitable to further reflect on. First, from 33 on how the US National Academy of Sciences tried to classify Mathematics as a “science”: https://services.math.duke.edu/undergraduate/Handbook96_97/node5.html The Nature of Mathematics (These paragraphs are reprinted with permission […]
John Gray thinks that the humanities cannot now be saved
Gray: “‘Critical thinking’ has become a cluster of progressive dogmas, which are handed down as if they were self-evident truths.” Gray’s thesis is that liberalism tiself led inevitably to the collapse of standards (which now threatens the sciences). Agree, disagree, read the whole thing.
Whoever writes the tech column at Breitbart has noticed …
… that Yale computer whiz David Gelernter has blown clear of Darwinism. But who made Darwinism the universities’ state religion anyway? Why is it even news?
Nice to see Gunter Bechly’s name on a paper again
It’s not even just heroes we want to see vindicated but ordinary joes and jills who can go about their business while saying, “I see plenty wrong with the dominant theory today.” Physicists are allowed that but biologists aren’t. That’s because Darwinism functions very much as a religion for Darwinians.
David Gelernter warns against Darwin mob
And he’s a Unabomber survivor.
The College Fix LISTENS TO David Gelernter on Darwin!
It’s almost as though people are “getting it” that Darwinism now functions as an intolerant secular religion. Evolution rolls on oblivious but, here and there, heads are getting cracked over the differences between what really happens and what Darwinians insist must happen.
Steven Jacobs’ 5-year fight and when mammalian life begins
According to The College Fix: UChicago scholar proves biologists believe life begins at conception. It took five years and cost him a career. Daniel Payne – Assistant Editor •July 10, 2019 ‘I’m doing this for the sake of the research’ Steven Jacobs has described some of his time in the academy as “agony.” The University […]
A science writer considers the cost of science functioning as an inquisition
Case in point, David Bohm. In reality, just about everything except non-materialism is forgiven, despite the history.
Bret Weinstein: Free speech is only part of the problem on campus
Roger Kimball discusses Weinstein’s idea of “a breakdown in the basic logic of civilization.”
Christian PhD driven out by the raging Woke
The question of whether the raging Woke have the right to do this stuff needs to be considered alongside whether anyone should be expected to fund their behavior through taxes or ponder their (increasingly mostly garbage) output—as conveyed to us through government and media.
Logic & First Principles, 19: Are we part of a Boltzmann brain grand delusion world (or the like)?
In looking at time (no. 18) we saw how a suggested form of multiverse is one in which sub-cosmi are speculated — there is no observational base, this is philosophy dressed up in a lab coat — to pop up as fluctuations, exhibiting their own “big bang” events and timelines: However, it was not as […]
New free speech rules won’t change much at US Universities, says campus politics expert
First Amendment defenders will welcome the new rules that tie government money to academic freedom but anyone ringing a cowbell can drown out a speaker and craven administrators would have little incentive to take the risk of stopping them: We can encourage our children and grandchildren to stand up against the stifling political conformity and […]
What are the implications of Julian Assange’s arrest in London?
Yesterday, a prematurely aged-looking Assange (he is 47) — a founder of Wikileaks and Australian — was arrested by UK Police after the Ecuadorean Embassy he has sought asylum in since 2012 withdrew its protection. The arrest raises questions on dissidents, privacy, protection of legitimate secrets, the public’s right to know more than officials, power […]