Medieval fallacies and modern theists
February 11, 2010 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under Thomas Aquinas, biology, history, people, philosophy, religion, science, stupidity
Vic Reppert links to a foolish and arrogant interview with Granville Sewell, the guy who sold Dembski on thermodynamics arguments against evolution (an achievement for which all critics of the ID movement are indebted to him). Here’s the core of the interview:
In fact, although this may come as a surprise to our students, mathematicians are [...]
Would it matter if Hitler was racist?
Jason Rosenhouse catches an instance of the incredibly silly claim that the Galileo affair and the current attacks on evolution are not conflicts between science and religion. Then, surprisingly, Jason finds himself responding to two of his SciBlings defending the claim.
I think Jason is so obviously right here that this is barely worth commenting on, [...]
Breathtaking historical ignorance watch
October 25, 2009 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under Anslem, Augustine, Christopher Hitchens, G. E. Leibniz, George Berlkey, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Rene Descartes, Richard Dawkins, Richard Swinburne, Sam Harris, Samuel Clarke, Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, history, people, philosophy, religion, stupidity
From a recent Newsweek column, via Jerry Coyne:
But this version of the conversation [the version represented by Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens--ed.] has gone on too long. We have allowed three people to frame it; its terms—submitting God to rational proofs and watching God fail—are theirs.
But this approach to discussing religion far pre-dates Harris. It’s found [...]
How bad is poverty, really?
October 6, 2009 by Chris Hallquist
Filed under Bertrand Russell, David Hume, biology, ethics, history, philosophy, science, social and literary criticism
Most people think that poverty–maybe not as it exists in the first world, but at least as it exists in the third world–is pretty awful. For one thing, most people think–or at least often talk as if–premature death is one of the worst things that can happen to you. They understand what is meant by [...]
Continue Reading »Review: Finding Darwin’s God
Let me say this first: Kenneth Miller’s Finding Darwin’s God is easily one of the best books I’ve ever read on the relationship between science and religion. The one-half of the book dedicated to defending evolution and debunking various strains of creationism is as good or better than what you’d find in books dedicated solely [...]
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