Take a look at your hands. The entire history of the universe is written in your hands.
Have you ever thought about where your hands came from? Naturally, you got your hands from your parents. They gave you the DNA which determined the size and shape of your hands. All the […]
When I was about 7 or 8, I visited my Aunt and Uncle, who had a summer cabin on a lake in Minnesota. One day my Uncle took me fishing, and with patience and a little help I caught myself a fine little bass. I was terribly excited to know that my fish […]
Continuing the series of science posts, last time I described how intelligent design leads us to the conclusion that we are nothing more than meat robots. However I failed to mention that what intelligent design advocates really believe is that we are meat robots with souls.
Although intelligent design advocates claim to be doing real […]
Last time I discussed the need for a series of posts on science and its meaning. First up: evolution.
When you think of evolution the image which probably comes to mind is that of a fish flopping out onto land, which then magically grows feet, becomes a dinosaur, then a monkey, and finally a […]
Recently among the scientific community there has been a discussion on how to better convey science to the general public. Much of this discussion has focused on the framing of science, particularly with regard to its philosophical (i.e. religious) consequences. On one side are the those opposed to framing science in such a […]
How do we know what is true and what is not? How do we weigh the validity of another’s opinion, or even the validity of our own?
Some time ago, Julia made a post on the comfort of knowing the truth. This resulted in a comment discussion on the nature of truth, […]
Recently I came across this photograph of a billboard:
To give you some context, it is an advertisement for Answers in Genesis, the fundamentalist Christian organization which promotes Biblical literalism, including the idea that the universe was created about 6000 years ago, and that the immense diversity of animals we now see on the planet traces […]
I noted with interest that , after all the bad feeling and conflict between the Islamic world and the west, here is a story that shows mainstream America has something in common with Islamic thought. At Yahoo News, I read about how Turkey made the teaching of creationism mandatory in their schools back in […]
On June 8th I was listening to an NPR program called Science Friday. First let me say that this is one of my favorite programs. I LIKE these guys and what they do.
This is why I wanted to scream just a bit on this particular Friday. The subject was global warming in general and […]
Early in my career I taught physics and astronomy at a private religious college in the heart of the Bible belt. I often found myself teaching students who were creationists. As a result there were times when I would find myself using terms such as “billions of years ago” or “over many millennia” […]
