Evolution Religion and science 15 Jul 2007 There has been a bit of a resurgence of science versus religion posts and chatter in various forums* that I inhabit when I’m not working lately. It occurred to me that it might be time to do one of my sermons. There are basically two popular views of the relation… Continue Reading
Evolution A quotation 14 Jul 2007 A religious body or faith community that speaks only with only exclamation points but no question marks misses the complexity of creation and the beauty of evolution. Rabbi Kendall in Stuart, Florida Continue Reading
Logic and philosophy Explanation 13 Jul 200718 Sep 2017 But state space models in physical sciences tend to provide not a single coordinate, but a surface over which the system or phenomenon under explanations can range – so long as the observed trajectory of the system is on or near the surface described by the model, there is so far an explanation of the facts. A full explanation would, I think, involve showing in a suitably rich state space that only the actual states are possible, in the order they are observed (which turns out to be a single coordinate in a state space of the dynamical model after all). Continue Reading
Humor Simpson is my middle name 9 Jul 200718 Sep 2017 No, really, it is. And although I followed the Identikit procedures exactly, I’m sure anyone who has met me will say I look nothing like this guy: Continue Reading
Evolution A review of Hitchens 9 Jul 2007 I probably agree with Christopher Hitchens on many substantive points. But I won’t be reading his book. Instead, we can thank this reviewer for their critical, ascerbic, and I suspect in the end accurate review of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Continue Reading
Humor No chance in Hell of a Catholic education 9 Jul 2007 Proving, contrary to the father’s comments in the story, that it really is the dark ages, an Australian Catholic Church school has banned (and since rescinded) a child whose surname is “Hell”…. The 15th century was the time of the rebirth of classical learning with the translation of Aristotle’s works and many Arabic scholarship into Latin. Continue Reading
Religion As ye sow… 9 Jul 2007 A woman who stabbed her entire family, killing her father and teenage sister, in Sydney, turns out to be a psychotic…. She was doing the right thing and her stupid parents’ religion (that parses both ways, and rightly) interfered. Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Primate researcher in Brazil gets 14 years for a permit problem 7 Jul 2007 Naturalised Brazilian, Dutch biologist Marc van Roosmalen, has been sentenced to 14 years jail in Brazil for running a monkey refuge without a permit from Ibama, the local environmental agency. Not that he didn’t apply, mark you, but Ibama didn’t respond, and the received local wisdom is that if they don’t within 45 days, it’s approved. Continue Reading
Politics Apropos today 6 Jul 2007 we do what we’re told we do what we’re told we do what we’re told told to do one doubt one voice one war one truth one dream Peter Gabriel, So, “Milgram’s 37 (we do what we’re told)” Continue Reading
Administrative 8 Things meme 6 Jul 2007 People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules…. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Continue Reading