February's Big Read in Missouri has selected a surprising novel--Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I should not assume everyone today has read it, so briefly it is a novel about a future in which it is illegal to read books. The fire department, because all houses are built of fireproof…
I was sent this New York Times article in which a Young Earth Creationist gets a real PhD in paleontology. How does he do it? Dr. Ross said, the methods and theories of paleontology are one “paradigm” for studying the past, and Scripture is another. In the paleontological paradigm, he…
This is one of those much talked about microscopic stem cell "babies": This photo was published in the Feb 2, 2007 issue of Science. What are stem cells? Embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are unlike any specific adult cell. However, they have the ability to form any…
One of our earlier posts concerned the efforts of evangelicals to relegate early hominid fossils to the back room of Kenya’s National Museum. That post recently drew this comment from James Davenock:
It seems that many here could simply replace the name Sam Harris, with Jesus, Newton or Sullivan in their writings. Many keep quoting others in an attempt to get their point across rather than just trying to get their point across. You could say “Dave, I admire Jesus’ viewpoints” or “Dave, I admire Sam Harris’ viewpoints” or “Dave, I admire Newton’s viewpoints”. . .
The difference between Science and Religion is Science has a process by which to prove its ideas while Religion does not and requires you to simply accept or excommunicate. I have found the same smugness in both religious and science types and that is a bit disquieting.
The wise man first says “I do not know”
I started responding to James Davenock’s comment at the location of that earlier post, but it grew long enough to justify posting at this separate location.
Davenock raises a good point. I suspect that there are many non-believers out there (all of us, some of the time), who “hero-worship” people like Richard Dawkins just like many theists hero-worship James Dobson or Jesus. You can quickly spot these folks by their writings, which essentially amount to “Way to go, Charles [Darwin]!” Or “Way to go, Jesus!” This lack of thoughtful content is no more informative than the rote prayers …
And why should we care about this material rarely mentioned outside of science-fiction? Well, it involves recycling, our energy future, and a chance to de-proliferate nuclear weaponry and reduce the threat of "dirty" bombs. First, a brief bit of history: Back in the 1930's, it was discovered that isotopes of…