A bit more than a month ago, I spoke about Thomas Kuhn’s notion of scientific revolutions. In the case of Copernicus’ heliocentric model, and in many other cases throughout history, a major scientific discovery was not accepted by the scientific community, or in the public at large, within the generation of the person who discovered …
Category Archive: Atheism & Religion
Apr 17 2012
Is atheism easier for lifelong atheists?
I was very interested to read Greta Christina’s recent post, “Will Atheism Become Easier?” Greta asks, And if we came to our atheism more or less on our own — if we came to the atheist community after we let go of God, not before — we had to re-invent the wheel. I certainly went …
Mar 19 2010
More on McGrath
I actually found another exchange between Alister McGrath and Richard Dawkins that is set up in debate format. This series, also on Youtube, is in seven parts, unlike the more conversational series I described in my last post about these two men, which is in 15 parts. McGrath authored a book in response to Dawkins’ …
Mar 17 2010
Communication Interference
In the most simple communication models, you have a single sender, a message (usually represented as an arrow pointing to the receiver from the sender), and a single receiver represented. As communication becomes more complicated, so do the models. One component that can be added to the model is something called “interference.” Interference can be …
Jan 20 2010
How to Read Mythology, 101
All of us understand that fables are not to be taken literally, and it’s an absurdity to expect them to conform to criteria imposed by reality. When a friend starts a funny story with, “A turtle walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a beer…” You don’t stop him, incredulous, and ask him …
Feb 09 2008
Rick Perry: lying, meretricious asshole
There. Let it never be said I didn’t have gift for bluntness. If he wasn’t already a big enough tool for appointing young-earther Dan McLeroy to head up the State Board of Education — an act comparable to appointing a person who believes automobiles are powered by big wound-up rubber bands to the presidency of …
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