Religious people (at least the sophisticated ones) have abandoned trying to argue as evidence that god provides explanations for how things work. They have realized that this is a losing strategy as science has made god redundant as an explanation for anything, and that signs of god’s power seem to show a notable inverse correlation to the advance of science. [Read more…]
Mitt Romney’s campaign has continued to be harshly attacked by other Republicans, with long time Republican operative Peggy Noonan is calling it a ‘rolling disaster’. In fact, his campaign is perceived as being so bad that within the space of less than six months, sentiment has shifted from the belief that the Republican nominee would win the presidency in a cake-walk, to wonderment that Romney is not winning, to how it is that Obama is not completely running away with the election. [Read more…]
I have argued that the world would be a lot better off without religion. Religious people disagree and one would expect them to. But more surprisingly, there are those who are not believers and yet feel that religion serves a useful purpose and is worth retaining. [Read more…]
Take a look at this video of a clairvoyant at work. [Read more…]
Quick, what is the fruit that is the easiest to peel and eat without any mess or even getting your hands soiled? [Read more…]
It is rather depressing, though perhaps unavoidable, that modern election campaigns spend almost all their money and energy trying to persuade that tiny group known as the ‘undecided voter’ in the so-called swing states. [Read more…]
While writing about the Lenski experiment, I recalled the hilarious episode when Andrew Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia and the son of conservative icon Phyllis, concerned about the support this experiment gave to evolution, tried to discredit Lenski and his work and got a polite but severe smacking from him, resulting in Lenski’s work becoming even more widely known. [Read more…]
I have mentioned before that many political scientists eschew opinion polls and look more closely at election predictions made on the basis of what are called the ‘fundamentals’, that depend upon objective measures (GDP, disposable income, etc.). Of course, which model you choose can affect the results that you get. [Read more…]