On the need for critical reasoning 29 Oct 2009 Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin’s codiscoverer of natural selection as an evolutionary mechanism, was something of a contradiction. On the one hand he argued with a flat earth advocate, getting involved in a lawsuit as a result. On the other he opposed vaccination and promoted spiritualism. It is not the case that simply being a person of good intentions and will protects from stupid ideas. For that, you need critical reasoning skills. Below the fold, from Robert Grumbine’s blog, is a short talk on why vaccination is necessary, and why critical reasoning skills are a matter of public wellbeing. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVE8csrcRw&feature=player_embedded] Education Science Social evolution
Biology Names and nomenclature in classification 17 Jul 2010 One of the main focuses in the literature, especially in biology, regarding classification is the problem of nomenclature, of names. Many treat classification as being all about names, an error that is akin to mistaking not the map for the territory, but the names on the map for the territory…. Read More
Book More FAPPery 27 Apr 2010 Another review of What Darwin got wrong, by Kenan Malik, at The Literary Review. The money quote: Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini are no creationists, but ‘outright, card-carrying, signed-up, dyed-in-the-wool, no-holds-barred atheists’. That, however, only makes worse the incoherence of their understanding of Darwinism. There is much that Darwin got wrong, from… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design Does science lead to atheism? Not really 2 Jul 2009 Occasionally one’s sole impact on things is the ability to get other people to do good work by threatening to do it badly. I was set to do a review of survey’s on scientists and religious belief, but the literature got out of hand rather quickly, so I emailed Matt… Read More
I mean, seriously, who are you going to believe? The unanimous opinion of the entire (non-quack) medical and bioscience establishment? Or a former Playboy model?
I didn’t watch that video, or read that blog post (too tired, need sleep), but I still feel compelled to remind the readers here of the recent example of these kind of contradictions: Bill Maher.