May 12, 2012
We're two games down in the big World Chess Championship. The challenger is Boris Gelfand of Israel, squaring off against the defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India. Both games were quick draws, but things have been a little more interesting than that makes it sound. Gelfand whipped out the…
May 11, 2012
I will now follow-up on my post from Tuesday. In that post I made some criticisms of a recent talk given by philosopher Elliott Sober at the University of Chicago, the video of which is available here. In the ensuing comments, couchloc linked to this paper that Sober had written, the early…
May 10, 2012
I'm planning to do a follow-up to Tuesday's post about Elliott Sober's recent talk. That is likely to be a long post, so ti may be a day or two before I can get to it.
In the meantime, go have a look at my new post over at The Huffington Post. I suggest that on the subject of evolution and…
May 9, 2012
I only have time for a quick post today, so let us take note of the happy fact that Obama has now come out squarely in support of gay marriage. In an interview today he said:
I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think…
May 8, 2012
For anyone who likes chess, the next few weeks are going to be very good indeed. The United States Chess Championships started today in St. Louis. The first round started a little over ninety minutes ago, but there has already been a strange occurrence. Have a look at this position:
Playing…
May 7, 2012
If you spend any significant amount of time doing science or mathematics then some amount of philosophical reflection is inevitable. At some point you are going to take a step back and wonder what it is you are actually doing. I think it is good that there are people out there who ponder such…
May 6, 2012
I recently had a conversation with Greg Gorey of Think Atheist Radio about my book Among the Creationists. We discussed the history and cultures of creationism, the problem of evil, methodological naturalism, my experiences socializing with creationists and several other things besides. From my…
May 6, 2012
Stephen King has been on a roll lately. His most recent novel 11/22/63 was a welcome return to form and his best work in years. And now he has this excellent essay, in The Daily Beast, on the subject of taxes:
Chris Christie may be fat, but he ain't Santa Claus. In fact, he seems unable to…
May 5, 2012
As swamped as I've been for the past two weeks, I nonetheless found time to visit the Virginia Antiquarian Book Fair on April 28. It was held at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.
The drive to Richmond is a little over two hours each way, and I had to leave the fair early to hold a…
May 4, 2012
It is finished. My grading, I mean. Over the last few days I have graded roughly one thousand math problems, some of which were even done correctly. But that's all finished now. Except for graduation tomorrow, the semester is now over! Yay!
So what better way to celebrate than with a little…
April 29, 2012
As you have probably guessed from the blog drought around here, it's the end of the semester. That means tons of grading, office hours, meetings with students, deadlines to meet, and all around not much time for blogging. Final exams are this week. Once those are graded I reach the promised land…
April 19, 2012
I'm in the mood for some math today, so here's an amusing little proof I recently showed to my History of Mathematics class. We shall derive the formula
\[
\frac{\pi^2}{6}=1+\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{9}+\frac{1}{16}+\frac{1}{25}+\dots
\]
Note that the denominators of the fractions on the right are…
April 15, 2012
I recently attended the Gathering for Gardner conference in Atlanta, held every two years to honor Martin Gardner. Gardner was a prolific writer on a variety of topics, especially mathematics, magic and pseudoscience. Since those just happen to be three major interests of mine, you can imagine…
April 13, 2012
As part of my one-man media blitz for my new book Among the Creationists: Dispatches From the Anti-Evolutionist Frontline, let me call your attention to a few posts.
P. Z. Myers has posted a nice review.:
What do you do on airplanes? I usually devour a book or two, usually something popcorny and…
April 12, 2012
The official publication date for the BECB (that's the big evolution/creationism book for those not up on the local slang) was April 10. Alas, as the tenth drew near I was dismayed to find that the book was only available for pre-order. My previous two books were both available two to three…
April 11, 2012
Here's the latest from Michael Ruse, over at the blog for the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is discussing the anti-evolution“academic freedom” bill that just passed in Tennessee:
On the left, the New Atheist movement frightens me immensely. Its supporters openly and explicitly link…
March 28, 2012
Having been back in Harrisonburg for almost two whole days, I've decided it's time to hit the road again. I'll be leaving for Atlanta in a few hours, to attend the biannual Gathering for Gardner conference. I'll be back on Sunday. See you then!
March 27, 2012
It was cold, and it was pouring rain for much of the afternoon, but the rally was a huge success nevertheless. The official estimate from the Park's Department was 20,000, which seems about right to me. I'm not generally a real social person, and I'm not much of a joiner. But given that I live…
March 24, 2012
I spent the day at the big Reason Rally on the National Mall. I'd say it was a huge success! According to rally host Paul Provenza, the official estimate from the Parks Department was 20,000 people. Not too shabby, especially considering that it was cold and very rainy all day.
I'm sticking…
March 21, 2012
Truly my career has reached the next phase of its evolution. I have been published at The Huffington Post. Go have a look and let me know what you think!
March 19, 2012
Jimmy Carter has a new book out about the Bible. He discusses it in this short interview over at HuffPo.
He takes a straightforward approach to dealing with morally or scientifically troubling passages:
Thank you so much for talking with me President Carter. As I warned, I am going to be asking…
March 18, 2012
Apparently there's a rally coming up in Washington DC:
The Reason Rally is an event sponsored by many of the country's largest and most influential secular organizations. It will be free to attend and will take place in Washington, D.C. on March 24th, 2012 from 10:00AM - 6:00PM at the National…
March 15, 2012
This article is so powerful that it pretty much defies comment. It is a first-person account of a pregnant woman in Texas who learned that her son would be born with horrible, painful birth defects, if he survived long enough to be born at all. Thanks to the vile misogynists who run the state,…
March 14, 2012
Back in October, philosopher Michael Lynch published thie essay in The New York Times He was discussing the problem of finding an epistemic justification for our confidence in science. A few days ago The Times continued the discussion with this exchange between Lynch and physicist Alan Sokal.…
March 12, 2012
As I write this, the lead headline over at HuffPo is, “Shock Poll: 52% of Mississippi GOP Voters Say Obama is a Muslim,” leading to this story. The shock, I would think, is that the number is so low.
March 10, 2012
I watched HBO's film Game Change tonight, about the rise and fall of Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential race. It was pretty good! Which is to say that it makes Palin look pretty bad.
As presented in the film, Palin is not merely uninterested in filling the gaps in her understanding of domestic…
March 9, 2012
Continuing with the process of getting caught up on things I should have blogged about a while ago, let's take a look at this bizarre article from Bryan Appleyard, published in The Guardian. It is a contribution to a familiar genre, in which the New Atheists are criticized for being so mean and…
March 8, 2012
I'm way behind on this, since other bloggers have already piled on, but I wanted to comment on this essay by Alain de Botton. Here's how it opens:
Probably the most boring question you can ask about religion is whether or not the whole thing is “true.” Unfortunately, recent public discussions on…
March 4, 2012
The electronic version of Among the Creationists is now available! Yay! Click here for the Kindle version. Click here for the Nook version. The print version will be available soon.
Buy it, read it, and let me know what you think!
March 1, 2012
Over at HuffPo, paleontologist Robert Asher serves up the standard cliches about reconciling science and religion:
For many theists, even if they would phrase it differently, “religion” requires a deity who leaves behind evidence in a similar fashion as a human being might do, like Santa Claus not…
