The Hard Evidence Against A Literal Adam And Eve

Jerry Coyne explains why the proposed idea of a single pair of original human ancestors is refuted by what we know of our evolutionary ancestry: Over at the Templeton-funded BioLogos website there has been a lot of discussion about the historicity of Adam and Eve. This is a problem because scripture claims these two were [...]

Some Suspicions About The Superiority Of Liberal Moral Values

Earlier today, I drew attention to Greta Christina’s article formulating some ideas she picked up from Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.  If you have already read either or both of those posts, you can just skip the next two paragraphs meant to catch up new readers. The Goldstein/Greta Christina argument built off of Jonathan Haidt’s theory of [...]

Michael Shermer On “The Pattern Behind Self-Deception”

Shermer does TED and explains how two of the brain’s most basic, hard-wired traits, useful for survival, backfire on us: Your Thoughts?

True And False In Adam And Eve

Yesterday I replied to Mary Midgley’s article out this weekend, which claimed that evolutionary theory does not refute Genesis since Genesis was not meant to be a literal description of how God made the world. In reply I revisted remarks and videos that I posted last fall which overviewed the ways that even if we [...]

How Genesis Is Not Only Literally False, But Metaphorically False

Mary Midgley argues that only the views of fundamentalist literalists are refuted by the fact of evolution: Appeals to evolution are only damaging to biblical literalism. Certainly the events described inGenesis 1 are not literally compatible with what science (from long before Darwin’s day) tells us about the antiquity of the Earth. But this is not [...]

God, Science, And Sanity: A Panel On Religion And Psychology

A panel of Richard Dawkins, Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio, Professor Patrick McGorry, Steve Fielding, and Julie Bishop discusses psychology and religion.  The reaction to the creationism of the Australian parliamentarian from the audience is heartening. Your Thoughts?

Why A Biologist Says We Should Kill, Not Clean, The Oil-Covered Birds

Tree Hugger explains the advice of Sylvia Gaus, biologist at the Wattenmeer National Park along the North Sea in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, in Der Spiegel: This may shock many, and the advice certainly appears contrary to that of the myriad conservationists who have set up centers around the Gulf to care for oiled birds. Despite [...]

Researchers May Have Explanation For Near Death Experiences

That the phenomenon of seeing a bright light before one dies has a brain-based cause is hardly a surprise, but rather the clearly most likely inference.  But it is still wonderful to live in a time at which it may be possible neuroscientifically to ascertain that precise cause and hopefully undermine those who would reinforce [...]

What Do Wheaton Students Learn About Evolution?

Jason Rosenhouse reads from the  Jeffery Sheler’s 2006 book about Wheaton College, Believers: A Journey into Evangelical America: “We do believe that God created the universe, and that Adam and Eve were the first humans,” [Dorothy Chappell, dean of natural and social sciences] said. “But we are agnostic as to how God did it.” In practical terms, [...]

The Evolution Of The Domestic Dog

Robert Wayne of the UCLA department of Ecology and Evloutionary Biology (author of over 180 publications) is a world authority on the genetics of dogs and wolves: Your Thoughts?

Do Atheists Believe In Fairy Tales?

Brett Palmer patiently distinguishes the difference between a hypothesis and a fairy tale: Your Thoughts?

Teeth: Proof There Is No God

Or something like that.  Bewarethelizards42 makes the case that teeth are imperfectly designed: Your Thoughts?

Pyrophosphite’s Possible Role In Abiogensis

A new clue as to how life first arose: “It’s a chicken and egg question,” said Dr Terry Kee of the University of Leeds, who led the research. “Scientists are in disagreement over what came first — replication, or metabolism. But there is a third part to the equation — and that is energy.” “You [...]

Daily Hilarity: Dana Carvey In “Darwin: Evolution Of A Madman”

Mostly a spoof of the atrocious Sherlock Holmes movie that Guy Ritchie made last year than about things Darwin: Your Thoughts?

Biblical Scientific Inaccuracy

Some of these biblical scientific inaccuracies are really eye opening, not merely things which can be chalked up to “metaphors” but portions of the text which plainly mean to be taken literally which are absurdly wrong.  Oh, and the opening is hilarious: Thanks to Victoria for the great find! Your Thoughts?

Evolution and Epistemology

If our minds take to be true only what evolution has conditioned us to think is true for the sake of fitness for survival, does this mean that our beliefs cannot be genuinely true but only some sort of useful ways of thinking that do not necessarily track how the world actually is?  And if [...]

Odds Are We’re All Related

And by “all” I mean every single living thing that ever existed, insofar as we all most likely go back to the same single cell organism: Using computer models and statistical methods, biochemist Douglas Theobald calculated the odds that all species from the three main groups, or “domains,” of life evolved from a common ancestor—versus, say, [...]

Judging From Smells

Salon has a neat interview with Dr. Alan Hirsch, founder and neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago.  He argues here that the sense of smell immediately leads us to value judgment than the other senses are and then explains how our moms influence our tastes: And what’s the relationship between [...]

Would Aliens Realize We Were Intelligent?

Greg Mayer, as part of a charming larger piece, relates a back and forth he had with some students a few days ago on whether or to what extent we and alien intelligent life forms would be able to identify each other as intelligent life forms: I mentioned to the students that I’d seen a great [...]

Andy Thomson on Why We Believe in Gods

Your Thoughts?

Creationists’ Listening Problems

One of CamelsWithHammers’ favorite YouTube video makers is back with another excellent video.  Here’s NonStampCollector’s funny and incisive representation of what it’s like to argue with creationists: Your Thoughts?

How Exercise Helps Mold A More Stress-Resistant Brain

Really interesting research out of Princeton: In the experiment, preliminary results of which were presented last month at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, scientists allowed one group of rats to run. Another set of rodents was not allowed to exercise. Then all of the rats swam in cold water, which they [...]

Judge This: NYC’s Anti-Fattening Drinks Ad Campaign

Saturday on the subway I was enjoying the above poster, as I have numerous times throughout the semester.  And in fact, I haven’t just been seeing it on the subways but in my mind whenever I think of sodas now.  In fact I’ve had this image in my head since before I saw the ad [...]

Brain Powering

via Daniel Florien comes this fascinating account of the human brain and the energy required to run it: According to Kwabena Boahen, a computer scientist at Stanford University, a robot with a processor as smart as the human brain would require at least 10 megawatts to operate. That’s the amount of energy produced by a [...]

Intelligent Design In A Nusthell

One of the most prominent proponents of Intelligent Design, William Dembski, sums up the theory in one minutes worth of clips from one of his speeches: The idea comes from a terrific speech on complexity by PZ Myers (which you should really watch in its entirety) from the Atheist Alliance International meeting last month: Your [...]