Education My Absent Career 2: From theolog to undergrad 6 Dec 20221 Jan 2023 Since my mother worked, I would stop at the local library on my way home. I had until she got home about an hour and a half later. So I would read books in an hour and a half, since the ones I liked were adult books and I was… Continue Reading
Education Genes – the language of God 2: Other popular gene myths and metaphors 9 Jun 201410 Aug 2014 Genes – the language of God 0: Preface Genes – the language of God 1: Genes as Language Genes – the language of God 2: Other popular gene myths and metaphors Genes – the language of God 3: Why genes aren’t information Genes – the language of God 4: Why… Continue Reading
Education Genes – the language of God 0: Preface 4 Jun 201410 Aug 2014 This will be a series of posts for a secondary school seminar run at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne during the ‘National Science Week’ This is the fifth such event at St.Paul’s. It is led the Rev. Dr Stephen Ames and Associate Prof. Lachlan Thompson from RMIT University, Ms Anne… Continue Reading
Biology Book review: Understanding Evolution 15 Apr 201415 Apr 2014 I posted this on Panda’s Thumb, but I thought I would repeat it here. I occasionally get books for review unsolicited, and many of them are not worth noticing. However, Kostas Kampourakis’ Understanding Evolution is a wonderful resource for students of all kinds, including biology students. Kampourakis, a philosopher at Geneva, has… Continue Reading
Accommodationism Accommodating Science overview 13 Mar 2014 I have done quite a lot of blogging under this heading lately so I thought it might be useful to get all the posts used in order: On beliefs Why do believers believe silly things? The function of denialism Why do believers believe THOSE silly things? The “developmental hypothesis” of… Continue Reading
Accommodationism Accommodating Science: What is the problem? 20 Feb 201423 Feb 2014 [As I write the first draft of my accommodationism book, I will post chapters here under the Category “Accommodationism”. Here is the latest – which comes before Undefining Religion] The religion-versus-science debate took a special turn in the West because of the existence not only of doctrinal religion but of… Continue Reading
Accommodationism Science outreach: A conversation 2 Feb 201420 Feb 2014 From the Freethinkers Blog Con: With PZ Myzer and Aron Ra. Continue Reading
Accommodationism Why do believers believe silly things? The function of denialism 26 Jan 201420 Feb 2014 Bishop Butler wrote in a sermon in 1729: Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why, then, should we desire to be deceived? [Sermon 7] It’s an interesting question. Why should we seek to be deceived about the consequences… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Why anti science? 23 Nov 2013 Over the past few decades there has been an increasingly negative attitude by governments, pundits, religiosi and faux philosophers against science. We have seen an increase in denialism about climate change (one of the most well supported scientific models of the day), vaccination, evolution, medical research in general, and the… Continue Reading
Education Education, Journalism and Science 21 Feb 2013 My last rant was perhaps somewhat intemperate. Carl Zimmer, who along with Ed Yong I really respect as a science journalist, tweeted it with the line: @carlzimmer: Man, @john_s_wilkins does not like newspapers. This is not quite true. I like some newspapers. I do not like the newspaper industry. I… Continue Reading