Category: Science
The maverick rabbi on science as a failed priesthood
| August 17, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Naturalism, Science |
Moshe Averick, author of The Confused World of Modern Atheism (Mosaica Press, 2016), asks us to look at the facts: For those who lean towards secularism in the Western world, it is the Scientist who has taken over the role of the priest, clergyman, and medicine man. Men and women of Science are looked upon with a […]
Which side will atheists choose in the war on science?
| August 13, 2018 | Posted by News under Atheism, Culture, Mathematics, Science |
From Denyse O’Leary at MercatorNet: In June, I wrote a piece here at MercatorNet, “A shambolic atheist community faces some tough choices,” reflecting on the discontent of some members of that community. It attracted a good many comments and at least one riposte shortly afterward. The riposte garnered 114 comments too. Clearly, the piece struck […]
Climate change: Significantly limiting the right to be considered a “skeptic”
| August 9, 2018 | Posted by News under Climate change, Culture, Global Warming, Intelligent Design, Media, Science |
As opposed to a denier: I propose a basic test to determine who has earned the benefit of the doubt on whether to be labelled a denier or not. Does the person have an academic or professional background in atmospheric science or climatology? If the answer is yes, then they earn the benefit of the […]
At the New York Times: Defending the failures of social science as “science”
| August 4, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Media, Peer review, Psychology, Science |
Even while prominent people in that field are coming to terms with the problem. From a New York Times science writer: It is one thing to frisk the studies appearing almost daily in journals that form the current back-and-forth of behavior research. It is somewhat different to call out experiments that became classics — and […]
Replication failures of Darwinian sexual selection openly discussed at The Scientist
| August 3, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Peer review, Science |
It’s as if evolutionary biologists are beginning to take some of the problems of Darwinism seriously enough to discuss them openly, as failures in research. In this case, the failure of claims for sexual selection (females drive evolution by choosing the fittest mates) are openly publicized. In the past five years, meta-analyses and reviews have […]
Biologist: Science and philosophy do NOT offer more for grief than religion
| July 29, 2018 | Posted by News under Atheism, Culture, Religion, Science |
Wayne Rossiter, author of Shadow of Oz: Theistic Evolution and the Absent God, responds at his blog to a claim by Paul Thagard at Psychology Today that science and philosophy offer more for grief than religion does: Thagard’s view is that religion is false comfort, and that science (and philosophy) can do better. He begins […]
Do science and philosophy offer more relief from grief than religion does?
| July 22, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science |
That’s the claim by Paul Thagard at Psychology Today: In a recent New York Times column, Stephen T. Asma claims that religion can help people to deal with grief much better than science can. His case for religion over science has four flaws. It depends on a view of how emotion works in the brain […]
Richard Dawkins is annoyed by Muslim prayer chants; seeks secular chaplains
| July 22, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science |
From tipster Ken Francis again, who is currently sitting in for Richard Dawkins’s social secretary and wants us to know that at RT: Question More, ‘Tedious old racist’: Richard Dawkins under fire for dismissing ‘aggressive’ Muslim prayer Best-selling atheist author Richard Dawkins has once again been branded “racist” after he tweeted that the sound of […]
Mass slaughter: Can well-intentioned humanism replace values thought to be rooted in reality?
| July 22, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science |
Ken Francis, hat tipped below, writes to inform us of this vid featuring Frank Turek, of I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist fame, debating non-theist anthropologist Dennis Nørmark last year: Nørmark: In his role as a critic of literature, and formerly also of television, for both the newspaper, ‘Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten’, and from […]
What’s wrong with social psychology, in a nutshell
| July 20, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Psychology, Science |
From Ben Shapiro at Daily Wire: You’ve undoubtedly seen those preening headlines from major outlets about how conservatives are more “authoritarian” by nature than Leftists. See, for example, here and here and here and here and here and here. But it turns out that this is nonsense. Such studies are generally vague and deliberately constructed to make it appear that conservatives are more “authoritarian” than Leftists. […]
Science writer complains, everyone claims to be a scientist these days
| July 19, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Science |
With some justification. The question arises, who has the right to say so? From Alex Berezow at ACSH: The topic came up on Twitter, the world’s foremost outlet for intellectual discourse. Writer and historian Audra Wolfe, who holds a PhD in the history of science, posted this bizarre tweet: Actually, no, it hasn’t, no matter […]
Can science be the only source of truth?
| July 17, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Logic and First Principles of right reason, Science |
From Ruth M. Bancewicz at Science + Belief, on key points offered by Dutch philosopher Professor René van Woudenberg at a recent Faraday workshop, including: There are all sorts of ways in which scientists find some theories more satisfying than others, but science itself is not always a deciding factor in the decision. Logic, reason, […]
Enemies of science? The current war on objectivity is a genuine enemy
| July 15, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Logic and First Principles of right reason, Philosophy, Science, science education |
And Big Science is afraid to confront it. From Katherine Timpf at National Review: A course that will be taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges next year will teach students that “objectivity” and “meritocracy” are examples of “white mythologies” and “social constructs.” … The idea that objectivity is somehow a myth, or that it […]
Science cannot “disprove” miracles
| July 15, 2018 | Posted by News under Philosophy, Religion, Science |
From Amy K. Hall at Stand to Reason: Recently, when I asked an atheist why he was an atheist, the first reason he gave was that “science has disproved God.” When I asked what he meant by that, he started listing miracles in the Bible—such as the virgin birth—that were impossible for him to believe […]
Christian worldview gave rise to science; naturalist assumptions not needed
| July 15, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science |
From Amy K.Hall at Stand to Reason: Are naturalistic assumptions necessary for doing science? In the video below (or see the transcript here), Stephen Meyer argues that not only is naturalism not necessary, but in fact, it was a Christian worldview that gave rise to modern science. More. From Transcript: The first thing to say […]
Darwinism vs. ID: A game of foxes vs. lions
| July 11, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Science |
From my (O’Leary for News) review of sociologist Steve Fuller’s book, Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game: How ID Foxes Can Beat the Darwinian Lions Fuller clearly finds the foxes more interesting and sympathetic figures than the lions: “The lion rules by focused shows of force, as opposed to the fox’s diverse displays of cunning.” […]
What about the broader view of naturalism? (And how does this tie in with methods of science?)
A handy source on the broader view of naturalism (as a bit more elaborate than a dictionary and a tad more credible than Wikipedia) is Encyclopedia Britannica: >>Naturalism, in philosophy, a theory that relates scientific method to philosophy by affirming that all beings and events in the universe (whatever their inherent character may be) are […]
Bret Weinstein on Jordan Peterson v Sam Harris
| July 3, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Naturalism, Science |
From former Evergreen biologist Bret Weinstein at YouTube: Bret Weinstein’s follow up report on the Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson debates that he moderated in June of 2018 in Vancouver, B.C. This event was billed as an in-depth discussion between Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson about the relationship between science and ethics, facts and values, […]
From RealClearScience: No, we can’t trust government data on diet and nutrition
| June 30, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Peer review, Science |
In a world where some researchers earnestly study the question of why so many people don’t ”trust science,” we learn from Michael Marlow & Edward Archer at RealClearScience: In contrast [to confidence in politicians], public confidence in the ‘scientific community’ runs at 40% and has remained stable since the 1970s. This trust, however, turns out […]
Francisco Ayala has stepped down in sexual harassment controversy at University of California Irvine
| June 28, 2018 | Posted by News under Biography, Culture, Intelligent Design, Science |
The library named in honor of the well-known theistic evolutionist and 2010 Templeton winner is to be renamed. From a university media release: UCI proposes new name for School of Biological Sciences, science library after internal investigation substantiates sexual harassment claims against signature donor June 28, 2018 IRVINE, Calif., June 28, 2018 – The University of […]
