Danger Man

Image via Wikipedia In arguing against religious influence in the public sphere I think it's important to distinguish between the right of the religious to express their opinion in a democratic society, which should be defended, and any undue influence their opinion carries, or privilege allowed to their opinion, which should be resisted. The...

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The Irrational Animal

Image via Wikipedia Man is a rational animal - so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.- Bertrand Russell, An Outline of Intellectual...

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Garrow's Humour

Image via Wikipedia I wrote about the first series of Garrow's Law, and a second series has now started, which I'm pleased to report maintains the same high standards. It follows the partly true exploits of William Garrow, London barrister at the end of the eighteenth century, who practically invented cross-examination and appears to have...

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The Interrogative Moo?

Cover of The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? h/t and apologies to Padgett Powell - The Interrogative Mood Do cows ask each other questions? Are you cowed by questions? Do bears shit in the woods? Does a falling tree in an empty wood make a noise? Do we hear what we want to hear? Are we here because we were meant to be? Are we here because we...

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If not Phlogiston, is this Supernatural?

Image via Wikipedia The natural/supernatural debate rumbles on. Chris Schoen responds to Coyne, Blackford, Boudry et al whilst sort of agreeing with Steve Zara, PZ et al, but also gets it wrong, in my opinion: But I'll allow that just as it's a tautology to say "if we define the supernatural as that which science can't examine,...

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That Obscure Subject of Desire

Image via Wikipedia There have been many more posts arising from Steve Zara's strident proposal on supernatural evidence, including PZ Myers in support and Jerry Coyne against. In a discussion of this on Butterflies and Wheels, Steve said this: The supernatural isn’t a thing, but a desire...Ophelia Benson pointed out how quotable it was,...

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Theo-Science

Image via Wikipedia The criteria for the £1,000,000 Templeton Prize are laid out as: The qualities sought in a Templeton Prize nominee include creativity and innovation, rigor and impact. The judges seek, above all, a substantial record of achievement that highlights or exemplifies one of the various ways in which human beings express their...

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Nouvelle Atheism

Image via WikipediaCaspar Melville followed up his poorly argued piece on new atheism with a report on the debate that took place between Marilynne Robinson, Roger Scruton and Jonathan Rée, with Laurie Taylor chairing. I'm reproducing here the comment I made on RD.NET. What a waste of an evening that sounds. Accommodationists sitting round...

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Press Ganged Up

The visit of a dictatorial absolute monarch telling the plucky Brits how to behave would normally, you would think, bring howls of outrage from the famed 'free' press of the United Kingdom and its politicians. But they, and the television media, have been falling over themselves to fawn sycophantically over one of the most harmful men alive...

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Philosophy is Dead; Long Live Philosophy?

Image by nasa hq photo via Flickr Stephen Hawking writes in his new book, The Grand Design: Where did all this come from? Did the Universe need a creator?...Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics. Scientists have become...

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Bishop of Durham doesn't believe in command from on high

This made me giggle; in an interview with Jim Naughtie, Tom Wright said, in response to a question about the problems the CofE were having sorting out their views on sex: We don't believe, as some churches do, in saying, right, the big man at the top has decided, now bang, that's it, you've all got to come into line.So, there you have it,...

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More Accommodating

Image via Wikipedia I discussed Massimo Pigliucci's attack on Jerry Coyne in my last blog, and coincidentally listened to Pigliucci's talk from last month on Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot, discussing his new book Nonsense on Stilts. It includes a lot of interesting stuff on his speciality, the Philosophy of Science, and...

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Nature and Supernature

There is a common disjunct between scientists, philosophers and theologians about the purview of science; can science pass judgement on matters religious? Massimo Pigliucci has attacked Jerry Coyne in a blog post comparing a comment of Coyne's from 2007 to a more recent one: Science simply doesn't deal with hypotheses about a guiding intelligence,...

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Does the Government Actually Do Good, or Just Create the Feeling It Does?

The Government response to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report on Homeopathy has been published, and is a masterpiece of dodging the issue. Congratulations to the author, Sir Humphrey Appleby. In short, they refuse to stop NHS funding of homeopathy, preferring to abdicate responsibility to the PCTs; see here: (Committee...

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