Naturalism

Well, we have heard that astrology is on the rise but not much about new atheism being in decline. A Google Trends graph from 2004 through 2017 shows Sam Harris, rising and Richard Dawkins declining: Dawkins has always been the heart of New Atheism, meaning its decline and his decline are linked at the hip. Harris, probably because of his Hollywood background/connections, is much more media savvy and branched out from New Atheism, first with meditation related stuff and now, with the “Intellectual Dark Web” stuff. “Dawkins vs. Harris” at Shadow to Light It’s worth considering. Keep in mind though that the Google Trend decline could be accounted for in part by the fact that Dawkins is 77 and Harris Read More ›

Christmas carols with “science” lyrics: [30:52 Hark! It’s Hayabusa2: The last of this year’s songs is an ode to a lander that touched down on an asteroid millions of miles away from Earth. Scroll to the transcript section below for the lyrics.podcast with Benjamin Thompson and Ali Jennings, “Podcast: Quantum physics adds a twist and festive fun” at Natureem> When some of us were young, mischievous teens and nerdy grad students used to do this at Hallowe’en. We didn’t think the fad would end up finding a home but, who can tell? Meanwhile, Messiah Oratorio: See also: Eureka! Christmas spirit located in brain… Follow UD News at Twitter!

One of our scouts has been following the way retired professor of Darwinian biology Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne is trying to confront the SJWs in science, where others are capitulating. The recent question has been whether sex is a real category in biology. (We explain here.) Anyway, Coyne decided to look more closely into the world of the marching Woke and he discovered that most seem to be cool with anti-Semitism, though some are not: I’ve published a fair number of pieces (see here) criticizing the leadership of the Women’s March (WM), including Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, and Carmen Perez—three of the four co-chairs—for cozying up to Louis Farrakhan, a bigot, a misogynist, a racist, and a homophobe. There Read More ›

At least, if you credit a National Academy of Sciences study on the subject: Iyengar and Massey (hereafter I & M) are convinced, in any event, that the revolution in media over the last three decades means that the world is sinking into abject falsehood. In the 1970s, as they relate, media were controlled by a few players: “really only a handful of newspapers, magazines, and television broadcasts.” National and international news was dominated by wire services like Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI): In addition to the small number of sources, broadcast news was regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which required broadcasters to reserve a small share of airtime to cover matters of public interest; Read More ›

Our physics color commentator Rob Sheldon takes exception to my (O’Leary for News)’s post, “The Darwinians’ cowardice before SJW mobs explained in detail: They thought the mob was coming for someone else, ” At least in part. He writes, I thought the Aero article was the most honest I have met in a long while. It is one thing to boast about courage in the faculty lounge, it is quite another in the provost’s office. I have been cursed with both experiences. It is easy to talk about cowardice, but what are you cringing from? If I stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and am taunted to move closer to the precipice, is it cowardice to refuse? Some Read More ›

And anyway, does it even matter, if no one will join him?  At least, that’s the word on the street, they’re scared.* Meanwhile, here is Coyne, the author of Why Evolution Is True, concerned about a Woke science studies course that tells us: In the course of this survey, we shall engage a number of key questions such as: is science gendered, racialized, ableist or classist? Does the presence or absence of women (and another marginalized individuals) lead to the production of different kinds of scientific knowledge? – Science After Feminism (Catherine Taylor) Jerry says the obvious about the course: Do any of you doubt for a moment that the answer to both questions is “yes”? (My answers to both would be Read More ›

They thought the mob was coming for someone else. Amid the dead silence in the combox following “The perfect storm: Darwinists meet the progressive “evolution deniers” — and cringe…, , EDTA pipes up 1, Well, how does it feel now that the universal acid shoe is on the other foot? And who on the evolutionist side will have the guts to stand up for what they believe at the risk of their job now? We are in the odd position of being able to supply an answer in which we are,. unfortunately, confident. No, they won’t. They will continue to pretend nothing is happening and abandon those who speak up, maybe at one of those new, “edgy” mags where you are Read More ›

Stephen Hawking was hardly the only one: Along with Sir Martin Rees, Elon Musk, and Henry Kissinger, among many lesser knowns, the late Stephen Hawking worried about an AI apocalypse (the “worst event in the history of our civilization”). Otherwise very bright people don’t seem to have a grasp of the underlying situation. Let’s take just two examples: 1. What would we need to make machines “intelligent”? We don’t even understand animal intelligence clearly. Are seals really smarter than dogs? Plants can communicate to adjust to their circumstances without a mind or brain. Where does that place plants with respect to intelligence? And what about the importance of the brain? Humans with seriously compromised brains can have consciousness. News, “Stephen Read More ›

In a move reminiscent of Tom Wolfe tackling The Kingdom of Speech near the end of his life, Tom Stoppard (b. 1937) decided to tackle consciousness: Consciousness is a hard problem for science, principally because no one quite understands what makes us the subjects of our experiences. According to one critic, the problem that has preoccupied Stoppard throughout his career is “Are the materialists right, or is there more to man than mere flesh?”: Hilary (Adelaide Clemens), the protagonist, is a youthful research psychologist-in-the-making who longs above all things to crack the hardest problem in to her field, the conundrum of human consciousness: “Who’s the you outside your brain? Where? The mind is extra….We’re dealing in mind-stuff that doesn’t show Read More ›

What do Americans think matters in life? Americans with high levels of household income and educational attainment are more likely to mention friendship, good health, stability and travel. A quarter of Americans who earn at least $75,000 a year mention their friends when asked to describe, in their own words, what makes life meaningful, compared with 14% of Americans who earn less than $30,000 each year. Similarly, 23% of higher-income U.S. adults mention being in good health, compared with 10% of lower-income Americans. And among those with a college degree, 11% mention travel and a sense of security as things that make their lives fulfilling, compared with 3% and 2%, respectively, who name these sources of meaning among those with Read More ›

Ken Francis, author, with Theodore Dalrymple, of The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd, writes to tell us of an effort to account for objective moral laws and duties form the perspective of pure naturalist atheism. He thinks it doesn’t work but you, the reader, shall judge: From Reasonable Faith: And the atheist answer to all these moral dilemmas (Slavery, Child Abuse, Genocide, Molestation, Murder, Rape, etc.) is, “Well, it’s all relative!” Dr. William Lane Craig and Ravi Zacharias tells atheist Dr. Bernard Leikind that if his morality rests upon relativism he cannot in principle label literally anything as absolutely wrong, be it slavery, child abuse, or child molestation, torture, genocide, racism, murder, etc., This clip Read More ›

. . . And any deeper meaning is illusory.” Reader Ken Francis, author with Theodore Dalrymple of The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd, read our piece on Darwinian philosopher Michael Ruse explaining why he is not a new atheist. He thought other readers might be interested to know of something Dr. Ruse has said in the past: Morality is a biological adaptation no less than are hands and feet and teeth. Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. I appreciate that when somebody says ‘love thy neighbor as thyself,’ they think they are referring above and beyond themselves. Nevertheless, such reference is truly without foundation. Morality is Read More ›

At Mind Matters: The fact that you may start to get better if you believe you are receiving treatment is one of the best-attested facts in medicine.  A drug licensed for use must demonstrate greater effectiveness than a placebo (a capsule of sugar or an inert substance, perhaps) in clinical trials. That standard does not mean, as is sometimes supposed, “greater effectiveness than nothing.” Many conditions for which we seek treatment respond—at least for a time—to the simple belief that we are receiving treatment. The placebo effect, as that fact is called, is one of the best-attested effects in medicine. But the fact that the mind acts on the body troubles materialists. Such facts, they say, require revision. Good luck Read More ›