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Culture

Michael Ruse lecture makes interesting admission re Darwinism and atheists, agnostics

Darwin's theory, Ruse writes meant that " the way was opened for sound non-belief, although almost always non-believers – agnostics and atheists – take their stance less on science and more on grounds of theology and philosophy." Read More ›

Commentator Vox Day has some harsh words for E.O’ Wilson’s detractors at Scientific American

The thing is, when Wilson was alive, Darwinians denied the racism or insisted it was irrelevant and that Darwin’s sacred cause was to oppose slavery, yada yada … Read More ›

Jerry Coyne on the war on math, science, in New Zealand – and falling scores

Darwinian evolutionary biologist Coyne doesn’t dispute teaching Indigenous beliefs in a cultural class. But he may be at a major disadvantage because - if many years of his blogging are any guide - he wants science taught as a branch of naturalist atheism. Thus, the question arises, why shouldn’t we teach naturalist atheism too as an outcropping of Western culture? Read More ›

To what extent is the science we must learn at school materialist propaganda?

Here’s a question: Given what we (hope we) know today about the origin and development of life forms, would anyone today propose neo-Darwinism (natural selection) in any of its forms as an explanation - if they hadn't already had to accept it anyway in order to get to where they are today? Read More ›

Proving that they are genuine “sceptics,” British group takes on the pieties of climate change

With a motto to live up to like “Question Everything. Stay Sane. Live Free,” they must sometimes tackle the Establishment’s fondest commitments. And the nonsense they skewer is practically surreal. Read More ›

L&FP, 48: [Former?] New Atheist Stefan Molyneaux and his “Universally Preferable Behavior” (2007) illustrate inescapably binding, intelligible and identifiable first duties of reason

I ran across this work, and find an interesting discussion, starting with a fairly roundabout way to show what a first, undeniable principle or truth — branch on which we all must sit stuff — is like:: Given that every human action – including making philosophical statements – is chosen in preference to every other possible action, arguing that preferences do not exist requires a preference for arguing that preferences do not exist, which is a self-contradictory statement. [p. 33] So, next, we have another roundabout way of summarising duties/oughts as universally prefer-ABLE behaviour: The proposition before us is thus: can some preferences be objective, i.e. universal? When I say that some preferences may be objective, I do not mean Read More ›

Woke atheist rejects the New Atheists — not Woke enough

Take in for a moment that the editors of an allegedly serious publication actually sponsored an article claiming that all of these prominent atheists have “merged with the far right.” Remember that the next time someone starts caterwauling about the need to suppress conspiracy theories. We can direct them to Salon’s website for their best convenience… Read More ›

Two new papers support Michael Behe’s thesis in Darwin Devolves

The thesis is that much evolution consists in dumping rather than adding complexity. Details, details. Subtraction is just addition with minus numbers, right? ;) Would it be legal to teach Darwin Devolves in a U.S. school system? Read More ›