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
Creationism and Intelligent Design John Ray 3 May 20193 May 2019 This has been submitted as an entry in the Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, and it is offered here for your delectation and delight… Title of entry: John Ray Synonyms: John Wray; Joanne Raio, Joannis Raii [Lat.] Life John Ray (1627/8–1705, known as Wray until 1670) was an English clergyman… Read More
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… Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Morality and Evolution 6: Moral dispositions 21 May 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] In any field that has statistical variation, it is necessary to isolate the variables. Biology is all about statistical variation of populations, and so we must expect that any account of morality that is based upon biology will have variation along a number of axes. Here… 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.