The Oxford conference 11 Jun 2010 … audio podcasts are here. This is the Religion, tolerance and intolerance conference I recently attended. I particularly was wowed and provoked into thinking – a rare occurrence these days – by Ben Kaplan’s talk ‘A tale of two churches’, in which he noted that religions in Europe tolerated each other but still tended to hate each other; tolerance was not a virtue. Despite this, they found all kinds of mutual accommodations, like Catholics and Lutherans sharing village churches. History Religion History
Book Rieppel reviews my book 24 Sep 2010 … at Metascience here. The book, of course, is my Species: A history of the idea. The concluding paragraph is this: Does Wilkins deliver on his promise? Does the ‘essentialism story’ capture the essence of the centuries old debate about ‘what is a species’? Wilkins delivers a resounding NO, and… Read More
Accommodationism Accommodating Science: the backfire effect, and conclusion 10 Mar 201411 Mar 2014 [This is the final section of the book. I will return to the section on neurobiology and religion later.] The backfire effect If science is to be communicated to the wider community in a way that will change how people think, then it would seem an obvious idea to look… Read More
General Science The difference between astrology and astronomy 20 Aug 2009 … about 50 IQ points: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4F5z8cVux0&hl=en&fs=1&] Read More
This “fire and sword” belief not just with regard to religion but with culture and ethnicity in particular is so written in to popular notions of history and for so long was used by historians with regard to what are viewed as the ‘dark age’ ethnic origins of many modern European societies. Warfare and violence was always viewed as the cause of major shifts in culture and language. Its a view that held from the 8th cen. until nearly the end of the 20th cen with regard to British history. It’s just not that simple. As society was on a much smaller scale at this time you can find for example in the U.K. in the 6th century Celts and Saxons not just sharing the same village but living and sleeping in the same one room hut. But a Briton remained a Briton even if he wore a gold hilted sword, as a legal code put it. Not a popular period to study these days but a crucial one as it puts some rather old beliefs to bed.