religion
razib | July 2, 2009Nicholas Wade is moderately skeptical of Robert Wright's new book, The Evolution of God:
Robert Wright's new book, "The Evolution of God," has a provocative title. But it's a disappointment from the Darwinian perspective. He doesn't mean real evolution, just the development of ideas about God.
He argues that our morality has improved over the centuries and that maybe the hand of the deity can be discerned in that progression, if one looks hard enough. But he leaves fuzzy the matter of whether he thinks a deity is there for real. There's a moral order in history, he says, which "makes it…
pontiff | July 1, 2009Over at my old blog one thread which keeps on giving is my missive about Dr. Wayne Dyer which now has over 2000 comments. I can always tell when it's PBS pledge drive time by the bump in traffic on my old website and the increase in comments on this post. Today I got a spam comment on the post. Now usually spam comments aren't to exciting (bad Viagra joke deleted), but this one is...well...different.
(Note: Neither I, Scienceblogs, nor my mom endorse what's described below but present the following for your own amusement):
You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But…
ejohnson | June 30, 2009This book review was originally posted by GrrlScientist on Living the Scientific Life.
tags: book review, Unholy Business, religious antiquities, biblical antiquities, fraud, Christianity, Judaism, Nina Burleigh
There are two different types
of people in the world,
those who want to know,
and those who want to believe.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
In November 2002, an ancient carved limestone burial box designed to hold the disarticulated skeleton of a dead person was put on public display in Canada's Royal Ontario Museum. Although common throughout Israel, this particular box, known as an…
pharyngula | June 30, 2009As mentioned previously, my interview on British Christian talk radio is now available — you can download the mp3 directly, and you can join in an online discussion, in which I am accused of "scientism"…which is rather pecuilar, given that in the interview I rather specifically said there were phenomena for which science is not the best tool for examination (although I would also say that there are no phenomena which require something beyond natural mechanisms).
The interviewer also thinks Plantinga's arguments are good, which we didn't talk about at all, but which would have triggered some…
emjohnson | June 29, 2009
Sunrise on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. Vearl Brown / Creative Commons
From the beginning our human family has been on a journey. Born together, in eastern Africa about 100,000 years ago, our ancestors migrated to distant points around the globe. Our family scattered, communication was cut off and, in most cases, we forgot about them all together. We went our separate ways and lived our separate lives. Like siblings each adopted by different parents in distant lands, we came to identify with where we were raised instead of where we were from. Now, after accumulating so many years of…
grrlscientist | June 28, 2009tags: science, god, religion, creationism, humor, funny, satire, Edward Current, streaming video
In this video, we learn that the know-it-alls who dreamed up the Big Bang and evolution don't know what they're talking about. Edward Current proves this with a few simple science experiments. (ps, sorry about the picture quality. I thought 'white balance' had something to do with banning immigrants.) [5:05]
pharyngula | June 28, 2009John Wilkins has tried to make some arguments for accommodationism. I am unimpressed. He makes six points that I briefly summarize here, with my reply.
It's the job of the religious to reconcile their beliefs with science, and atheists don't get to "insist that nobody else can make the claim that their religious belief is consistent with science." The first part is obvious — we aren't going to compromise science with superstition, nor are we going to make excuses for them. The second part makes no sense. Nobody has been making that demand…but we will point out how silly the excused people…
gregladen | June 27, 2009Joseph and Mary, and Little Joe and Mary, and Grinker and I, sat around the table where most of the dinner had been laid out. Additional bits and pieces of the dinner would be brought out as needed shortly, but now it was time to pray.
So we held hands and bowed our heads, and Mary led a prayer to Jesus for the bounty we were about to receive and stuff, and we all said Amen and were about to dig in, when Mary interrupted with a tone of voice and a hand signal that made everyone stop with their forks in mid air.
"We have a new tradition we'd like you to participate in," she said. Her husband…
gregladen | June 26, 2009Diane Benscoter spent five years as a "Moonie." She shares an insider's perspective on the mind of a cult member, and proposes a new way to think about today's most troubling conflicts and extremist movements.
pharyngula | June 26, 2009Yesterday morning, I was in a discussion on UK Christian talk radio on the topic of "Is Christian faith at odds with science?", with Denis Alexander of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. It's going to be available as a podcast at sometime in the next day, but I may not be able to link to it right away — tomorrow I fly away to Germany for a week, so my schedule is going to be a bit chaotic for a while.
Don't expect fireworks. It was the usual feeble accommodationist claptrap, but I had my nice man hat on and actually tried to get across some basic ideas. To no avail, of course,…
grrlscientist | June 24, 2009tags: book review, Unholy Business, religious antiquities, biblical antiquities, fraud, Christianity, Judaism, Nina Burleigh
There are two different types
of people in the world,
those who want to know,
and those who want to believe.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
In November 2002, an ancient carved limestone burial box designed to hold the disarticulated skeleton of a dead person was put on public display in Canada's Royal Ontario Museum. Although common throughout Israel, this particular box, known as an ossuary, was unusual because it was inscribed. Even more remarkable, its ancient Aramaic…
pharyngula | June 24, 2009It's a novel argument, at least. This evangelist has a weird justification for the priority of Christianity: because we say "Jesus Christ!" when we wack our thumb with a hammer, instead of "Buddha!", he must be the one true god.
Alas for that line of reasoning, I've noticed that more people are more likely to shout out a certain four-letter word when surprised or hurt or angry, which must mean that sex is god.
gregladen | June 24, 2009A couple of "missionary" posts back, I intimated that we got to stay at the missionary stations while visiting various cities or en route between points in return for our work giving out medicine and such at our research camp. In truth, the arrangement was a bit more complex and subtle than this, and in fact, I think the arrangement and its nature changed over time. The various missionary entities that existed in the Ituri Forest and nearby cites that would be used as jumping off points were actually hospitable to us for three reasons. 1) Almost everybody is almost always hospitable to…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2009
Who: CFI-NYC Executive Director, Michael De Dora, Jr.
What: free public presentation, "CFI and the State of Science and Reason"
Where: Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street between Broadway & 8th Avenue, 12th floor, Penthouse 1.
When: 830pm Tuesday, 23 June 2009
What exactly is the Center for Inquiry? What does CFI stand for? How does CFI carry out its mission? What does CFI -- specifically the New York City office -- have to offer to society? And how can you get involved with CFI and the movement? Come hear the new CFI-NYC Executive Director Michael De Dora Jr. address all these…
pharyngula | June 23, 2009The news from a small UK survey is heartening: teenagers are abandoning or never had much belief in religion. Two thirds don't believe in gods at all, and
It also emerged six out of ten 10 children (59 per cent) believe that religion "has a negative influence on the world".
Â
The survey also shows that half of teenagers have never prayed and 16 per cent have never been to church.
I came to the enlightenment late, so I've been in church. Really, they aren't missing a single thing. Not one thing. Funny, isn't it; the religious insist that we need the fellowship and ritual and sermonizing,…
pharyngula | June 22, 2009Oh, dog. Discussion of the conflict between science and religion. Francis Collins comes up first. Atheists are shrill. Human genome. Morality is a pointer to god. C.S. Lewis. Fine tuning. Atheists are arrogant. Atheists are fundamentalists. Atheism is irrational. Read my BioLogos website. The usual appalling Collins drivel.
Next up…you'd think anything would be a relief after that tepid, tired inanity, wouldn't you? But no. Who is the complement to the pious, gullible, nice Dr Collins? Someone who might offer a different point of view? Someone who might spark some real discussion? Someone…
pharyngula | June 22, 2009Speak the name "Templeton" and the prim, dutiful servants of the foundation will appear. If you look at the recent articles from Coyne, Dawkins, and me, you'll discover the same comment, shown below, from a representative of the Templeton Foundation. I've seen these guys in action before. They are very serious, somber fellows in their nice suits, with the dignitas of boodles of cash behind them, who will calmly state their position with an air of dispassionate certitude.
They remind me of Mafia lawyers.
A.C. Grayling and Daniel Dennett have refused to talk to a serious
journalist (Edwin…
grrlscientist | June 22, 2009
Who: CFI-NYC Executive Director, Michael De Dora, Jr.
What: free public presentation, "CFI and the State of Science and Reason"
Where: Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street between Broadway & 8th Avenue, 12th floor, Penthouse 1.
When: 830pm Tuesday, 23 June 2009
What exactly is the Center for Inquiry? What does CFI stand for? How does CFI carry out its mission? What does CFI -- specifically the New York City office -- have to offer to society? And how can you get involved with CFI and the movement? Come hear the new CFI-NYC Executive Director Michael De Dora Jr. address all these…
pharyngula | June 22, 2009Juicy stuff from a mainstream newspaper coming out and hitting Scientology hard: this week and over the next few days, they're publishing a special report on Scientology. If you've followed the cult at all, there's nothing too surprising — it's a scam run by abusive psychotics — but it does have some personal accounts by high-ranking defectors.
I'm sure there are meetings going on in Clearwater right now where they're plotting revenge.