From Mike Keas’s new book: “The reason for promoting both the specific like about the sphericity of earth and the general lie that religion and science are in natural and eternal conflict in Western society is to defend Darwinism.”
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Heard at The Conversation: Enough with the “war on science” rhetoric!
A group of communications profs says it has the opposite of its intended effect: National Geographic’s March 2015 cover story provided a thoughtful discussion around the question of “Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?” The actual cover, however, simply said “The War on Science.” That article never actually uses the term “war on science” […]
Worms challenge idea that complexity just arises from simplicity
Maybe it’s the other way around in many cases.
Mike Behe’s new book, Darwin Devolves: “Absolutely convincing” or “omits contrary examples”
From two people, from very different perspectives. First, German biologist Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig and Nathan Lents, author of a “bad design” book.
Jerry Coyne: Just sign Chicago “Statement on Principles of Free Expression”
Good for him but what will be really interesting to see now is how many of his fellow Darwinian evolutionary biologists join him in protest. People tend to think the mob is coming for someone else, someone who “deserves” it.
SM: Is the slippery slope argument ALWAYS fallacious?
In the fallacy thread, Scuzzaman has raised the issue of the slippery slope argument, which he argues is not necessarily fallacious. Let’s pause for a vid (without necessarily endorsing all that is said, this is food for thought): Benjamin McLean here connects the issue to the principle of induction and so also to the post-Hume […]
The amoeba that might be smarter than your computer
Nature is full of intelligence but mostly it does not resemble human intelligence. In some ways it works better than computer intelligence.
Be more afraid of the hype vendors than of the AI
The release of the Top Ten over hyped AI stories of 2019 has led the way for further promising ones, including this one, says engineer and philosopher Jonathan Bartlett: Was the machine cleverand sneaky or was it just programmed wrong? You decide. First, just to be clear, at Mind Matters we have nothing against AI. […]
Dark matter puzzle depends in part on whether our galaxy is an “outlier”
Twenty years ago, astronomers couldn’t find enough satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Now there seem to be too many. Some information seems to be missing. A possible solution is that many of these galaxies are dwarfs formed by dark matter: Most cosmologists believe that dark-matter particles are “cold,” meaning that they move slowly. Because […]
Did fatness rule the Stone Age?
Not all Stone Age Venus figurines, of which 200 have been found, were fat. It doesn’t seem as though much has changed over 25 millennia except that many more people have much more to eat. So fatness wouldn’t signify success in more modern cultures.
NYT: Beauty in nature acknowledged — but only as “Darwin’s neglected brainchild”
The biggest problem, which Jabr discusses, is whether beauty really exists or is it just an illusion that promotes our genes’ survival, as a naturalist (nature is all there is) must insist. Yet, despite the stale “Darwin himself” creedal statements, the long piece ends on a curiously tolerant, ecumenical note.
Physicist: Is Darwinian natural selection a “force of nature” like gravity?
What, the “single best idea anyone ever had” (philosopher Daniel Dennett on Darwin ) is now comparable to gravity? Experimental physicist Rob Sheldon would take issue with that. Yes, a psychologist seems to think Darwinian natural selection is indeed a force of nature like gravity: Natural selection, one of the fundamental processes of evolution, has […]
Logic and First Principles, 7: The problem of fallacies vs credible warrant
When we deal with deeply polarised topics such as ID, we face the problem of well-grounded reasoning vs fallacies. A fallacy being a significantly persuasive but fundamentally misleading argument, often as an error of reasoning. (Cf. a classic collection here.) However, too often, fallacies are deliberately used by clever rhetors to mislead the unwary. Likewise […]
Darwinian Jerry Coyne as free speech warrior
Retired biologist Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, author of Why Evolution Is True, has begun to understand what it means to say that university campuses are no longer a home for ideas, but for grievances: Many universities, including public ones, have created “bias response teams,” in which speech considered hateful or offensive is reported to […]