Category: Philosophy
At Forbes: Are we doing theoretical physics all wrong?
| June 18, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Philosophy |
From astrophysicist Ethan Siegel, reviewing Sabine Hossenfelder’s new book, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, at Forbes: The history of physics is filled with great ideas that you’ve heard of, like the Standard Model, the Big Bang, General Relativity, and so on. But it’s also filled with brilliant ideas that you probably haven’t […]
A peek at the future of science, SJW-style
| June 8, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Naturalism, Philosophy, Science |
Abstract: This article addresses questions in human geography and the geographies of sexuality by drawing upon one year of embedded in situ observations of dogs and their human companions at three public dog parks in Portland, Oregon. The purpose of this research is to uncover emerging themes in human and canine interactive behavioral patterns in […]
You can’t be an honest atheist and a progressive at the same time.
| June 6, 2018 | Posted by News under Atheism, Culture, Intellectual freedom, Philosophy, Science |
From Denyse O’Leary at MercatorNet: … She worries about the fact that some prominent atheists are attracted to the intellectual dark web, “an alliance of heretics” making “an end run around the mainstream conversation” (New York Times). The dark web includes figures like Jordan B. Peterson, Steven Pinker, and Bret Weinstein,) who want to discuss […]
BO’H asks: “aren’t the axioms that mathematicians assume subjective? (they may be rational, but they’re not the only possible axioms that could be used)”
This is yet another significant issue that emerges from the ongoing exchanges on subjectivity, objectivity, possibility of objective moral truth, etc. And, the deep interconnectedness of what we are discussing is proving quite fruitful. So, I think it is useful to now headline Bob’s remark in the rebooting ethics education thread, which ties in Mathematics. […]
An unusually clear description of how scientism functions as a religion
| June 3, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science |
From Daniel Greenfield at Sultan Knish: “Why do you hate science?” That’s the question leftists have taken to asking non-leftists. Leftists claim to love science, insofar as anyone can love a method for testing a hypothesis, and accuse their enemies of hating it. How can anyone love or hate an indifferent set of techniques? And […]
Is it time to “reboot” our formal and informal education in ethics, to save our civilisation?
On reflecting on the ongoing discussion on ethical matters (as part of the science and worldviews in society theme of UD) in the thread in response to Sev on moral truth, I suggest yes. Not least, because the already in progress, suicidal moral bankruptcy of our civilisation will take down science, math, technology, sound governance […]
The Eight Commandments of Carl Sagan – updated
| June 2, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science |
Ross Pomeroy, writing at RealClearScience, tells us that his holy book is Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World (1997). He offers eight commandments of Sagan (1934–1996) with supporting comments from him, including Thou shalt demand evidence for claims to knowledge. “If it were widely understood that claims to knowledge require adequate evidence before they can be […]
Responding to Sev: “Moral claims are not about what is but about how we ought to behave, primarily towards one another. They are not capable of being either true or false”
Again, it is vital for us to see what today’s evolutionary materialism, scientism, athiestical advocates and fellow travellers are thinking in their own words, and we must answer them on the merits. Where, as captioned, it is being argued in the intersubjective consensus thread, that there is no such thing as moral truth. This means, […]
Can acknowledgment of design in nature be a part of science?
| May 30, 2018 | Posted by News under Philosophy, Science |
Recently, Joshua Gidney linked to a piece by philosopher Robin Collins on why design in nature is not part of science. Really, it’s a misleading question that enables academics to huff and puff casuistries, while ducking the key question, as follows: If the evidence clearly points to design in nature (fine-tuning, irreducible complexity, etc.), must […]
Sociologist Steve Fuller’s new book on post-truth in science
| May 28, 2018 | Posted by News under Books of interest, Culture, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science |
Sociologist Steve Fuller, who has written competently about ID, has a new book out. From the publisher: ‘Steve Fuller takes the concept of post-truth to a new level of analysis, explaining the history of “meta” thinking about truth, the institutional structuring of truth through “rules of the game”, and the forms of knowledge that go […]
Sev, JDK, the value of philosophy [esp. metaphysics] and addressing the intersubjective consensus challenge
In the PZM on the state of atheism thread, some key fundamental issues have emerged: JDK, 12: >>to both ba[77] and kf: because I think your belief in the power and importance of metaphysical philosophy is excessive and misguided . . . >> Sev, 17: >>[to BA77,] You consistently ignore the possibility that a consensus […]
Design Disquisitions: Quote of the Month-Robin Collins on Why ID isn’t Science
| May 28, 2018 | Posted by Joshua G under Back to Basics of ID, Fine tuning, Food for thought, ID, Philosophy, Science |
It’s been a while sorry, but here’s my latest: Quote of the Month: Robin Collins on why ID isn’t a part of science
At PLOS: Why ideas are cheap and theories are hard. With special reference to panspermia
| May 26, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science |
From Mike Klymkowsky at PLOS blogs: So where do (scientific) theories come from? Initially they are guesses about how the world works, as stated by Richard Feynman and the non-scientific nature of vague “theories”. Guesses that have evolved based on testing, confirmation, and where wrong – replacement with more and more accurate, logically well constructed […]
Synthese: A call for papers on disagreement in science, October 18 deadline
| May 26, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Peer review, Philosophy, Science |
At PhilEvents: Recent epistemology has seen an explosion of interest in disagreement and other related questions in social epistemology. While much progress has been made on abstract and general epistemological issues relating to disagreement, there has been surprisingly little discussion of how, if at all, these lessons can be applied to disagreement within science in […]
CT4: AK on morality: “Since the moral fabric is man made, all we are doing is seeing it change . . .”
Sometimes, one of our frequent objectors has a truly noteworthy letting- the- cat- out- of- the- bag moment that is worth headlining. In the still live CT2 thread, AK unwittingly exposes the incoherence and implied amorality of atheistical, evolutionary materialism when he comments in key part: AK, 80: >>Since the moral fabric is man made, […]
At Psychology Today: Opponent asks, does ID have a valid point about agency?
| May 24, 2018 | Posted by News under Design inference, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Psychology, Science |
It goes downhill from there. If I were a Darwinian, I would be embarrassed by this stuff. From Jeremy E Sherman at Psychology Today: I’m an atheist with a PhD. in evolutionary theory. I spend much of my time encouraging a new relationship with religion and spirituality modeled on our relationship with fiction. For example, […]
Does the beginning of the universe require a cause?
| May 22, 2018 | Posted by News under Big Bang, Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics |
A philosophical question to wake you up. A reader directs our attention to a 2015 piece by cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin at Inference Review (2015): THE ANSWER to the question, “Did the universe have a beginning?” is, “It probably did.” We have no viable models of an eternal universe. The BGV theorem gives us reason to […]
Correcting trolls, 3: Wikipedia blunders yet again — “Unlike hypotheses, theories and laws may be simply referred to as scientific fact”
| May 21, 2018 | Posted by kairosfocus under Correcting trollish fallacies, Philosophy, Science, science education, warrant, knowledge, science and belief |
The other day, I ran across the Wiki article on Laws of Science. While there is much good there, such as: The laws of science, scientific laws, or scientific principles are statements that describe or predict a range of phenomena as they appear in nature.[1] The term “law” has diverse usage in many cases: approximate, […]
Did the dying Stephen Hawking strengthen the case for God by reintroducing fine-tuning?
| May 20, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Philosophy, Religion |
In his final paper, with Hertog, scaling back the multiverse? From Philip Goff at the Guardian: But if all of the universes have exactly the same laws – as in Hawking and Hertog’s proposal – the problem returns, as we now need an explanation of why the single set of laws that govern the entire […]
Is the search for meaning in quantum physics a form of religion?
| May 10, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Physics |
From science historian James Gleick at the New York Times, reviewing astrophysicist Adam Becker’s What Is Real?: So quantum physics — quite unlike any other realm of science — has acquired its own metaphysics, a shadow discipline tagging along like the tail of a comet. You can think of it as an “ideological superstructure” (Heisenberg’s […]
