Australian stuff Is creationism about to be taught in Queensland? 31 May 201018 Sep 2017 PZ Mistletoe, under whom atheists get to kiss each other, has accused my home base state Queensland* of introducing creationism into high schools. However, what he is responding to, in the Murdoch press (never a good source of information) is a national draft curriculum for all Australian schools, so it… Continue Reading
History It’s a mystery 28 May 2010 Since the earliest times in recorded Graecoroman history, there have been mystery cults. Every cultic practice for a god had secret rituals and spaces, and there were a number of mystery religions, known as the Eleusinian mysteries, that developed that we know little about. In an excellent review of a… Continue Reading
History It's a mystery 28 May 2010 Since the earliest times in recorded Graecoroman history, there have been mystery cults. Every cultic practice for a god had secret rituals and spaces, and there were a number of mystery religions, known as the Eleusinian mysteries, that developed that we know little about. In an excellent review of a… Continue Reading
Education Ruminations in Oxford 19 May 2010 The conference proceeds apace. I have met some very nice and interesting people: Pat Churchland, Owen Flanagan, Ara Norenzayan, whose paper I ineffectually commented upon, Robin Dunbar, Walter Sinnot-Armstrong, Tony Coady, Janet Radcliffe-Richards, and a number of people who I previously knew but am pleased to reacquaint myself with. One… Continue Reading
Evolution Evolution quotes 6 May 2010 But is it not possible to apply a test whereby a true species may be known from a mere variety? Is there no criterion of species? Great authorities affirm that there is—that the unions of members of the same species are always fertile, while those of distinct species are either… Continue Reading
Evolution Supernatural selection: Book review 5 May 2010 I have received a copy of a forthcoming book, Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved by psychologist Matt Rossano. Despite the title, it turns out to be an interesting, although I think ultimately flawed and incomplete, account of religion as a natural process. As I read it, I will do a series… Continue Reading
Evolution Darwin, Romanes and Bateson on speciation 1 May 2010 The ever-productive Donald Forsdyke, who I quoted in the previous post, has a new paper up on the origins of reproductive isolation, and theories of speciation. Proving that no good idea is ever entirely novel, it turns out some of my ideas in this paper are prefigured here. At least,… Continue Reading
Evolution Evolution quotes 1 May 2010 To understand evolution we must first understand the historical development of ideas on evolution. But to understand its history, we must first understand evolution. – Donald Forsdyke [H/T Piers Hale] Continue Reading
Creationism and Intelligent Design Another historian criticises FAPP 26 Apr 2010 Bob Richards is a leading intellectual historian of Darwinian ideas, and here he takes Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini to task for their misunderstanding of the way that the theories of evolution have developed. One point that he makes is that every “objection” FAPP have raised was an objection in the nineteenth… Continue Reading
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Evolution quotes 25 Apr 2010 A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest… Continue Reading