PZ Myers recounts a visit his blog had from a bunch of Hovind fanatics. I can summarize their argument very briefly: Your ability to reason comes from god. Therefore, if you use reason, you prove the existence of god. If you use reason to disprove god, you actually prove god. If you claim any of …
Monthly Archive: April 2012
Apr 18 2012
Making good men evil
There’s an interesting thread happening in the comments for my post about God as an abusive husband. One commenter raised a few eyebrows by using strong rhetoric regarding William Lane Craig and his own prospective future vis à vis torment, and others reacted. It was a bit strong for my tastes as well, but I’m …
Apr 18 2012
Pilot swerves to avoid collision with planet
In a story that might almost have been funny if nobody had been hurt, an Air Canada pilot put his aircraft into a steep dive to avoid a collision—with the planet Venus. Sixteen passengers and crew were hurt in the January 2011 incident, when the first officer rammed the control stick forward to avoid a …
Apr 17 2012
Aiming for stupidity
The Happy Scientist took a look at the test questions for Florida’s FCAT exam, used to assess whether or not fifth graders have achieved expected levels of scientific literacy for their age group, and found some problems. I expected the Test Item Specifications to be a tremendous help in writing simulated FCAT questions. What I …
Apr 16 2012
Gospel Disproof #44: The Bride of Christ and her abusive husband
[Here's an excerpt from this week's On Guard post at Evangelical Realism. The post is about William Lane Craig's defense of Hell, but this one part makes a nice Gospel Disproof all by itself. I've added an introductory paragraph at the beginning, but the rest is from ER.] One of the big inconsistencies in the …
Apr 15 2012
Oo, this is fun
Now this was actually fun, you guys should try it: Go to www.kiva.org. Pick a business or family that’s looking for a small loan in a high-poverty and/or underbanked area. Make a contribution of $25 or more. What’s fun is that this is loan, not a donation, so the money comes back again. If you …
Apr 15 2012
Kickstarter for science
Crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter have proven popular for groups and individuals looking to get a consumer product, movie, music or video game project off the ground. Now a group of researchers and scientists is adopting a similar crowd-funding model to raise money for scientific research projects. The Microryza website, which launched this week, lets the …
Apr 15 2012
Oh, Hell.
Over at Evangelical Realism, this week’s post is all about William Lane Craig’s attempt to defend “The Hell with Christianity.” I think he ends up making a rather convincing argument for God being a purely imaginary deity, but see what you think, if you’re interested.
Apr 13 2012
Whooping cough rising among unvaccinated babies
Via Slashdot: In its fortnightly Communicable Disease newsletter (PDF), Oregon Public Health officials note increasing cases of pertussis (whooping cough) in infants, with 146 hospitalizations noted in the 2 year period ending March 2011, and at least 4 deaths since 2003. Most cases are attributed to lack of vaccination, with 86% of those due to …
Apr 12 2012
Just a few weeks ago
Thought it might be fun to look at what Rick Santorum was saying just a few weeks ago. “What won’t they resort to try to bully their way through this race?” Santorum asked following a campaign rally at Harvest Graphics, 14625 W. 100th St. in Lenexa. “If the governor Romney thinks he is now ordained …
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