A category to watch out for

Jul 6th, 2010 12:51 pm | By

Mano Singham noted, in his CHE piece “The New War Between Science and Religion,” that

the National Academy of Sciences have come down squarely on the side of the accommodationists…In a 2008 publication titled Science, Evolution, and Creationism, the NAS stated: “Science and religion are based on different aspects of human experience. … Because they are not a part of nature, supernatural entities cannot be investigated by science. In this sense, science and religion are separate and address aspects of human understanding in different ways.

I notice an omission in that passage – a significant omission. It says supernatural entities cannot be investigated by science, but it doesn’t go on to say that they can be investigated … Read the rest



The problem of warning coloration *

Jul 6th, 2010 | Filed by

How does it evolve, when the first mutant individual that was toxic but had a new, bright color would call attention to itself?… Read the rest



Idle gossip between religion and science

Jul 6th, 2010 12:03 pm | By

BioLogos, it tells us, “explores, promotes, and celebrates the integration of science and Christian faith.” Here it is doing that.

Just as we can maintain the created order is God’s good creation warped by the fall, in a similar way we can maintain that Scripture—given through and to a fallen world through fallen men—is both beautiful and broken. No less than the creation, Scripture’s human authors, and the book that they wrote, stands in need of redemption.

That’s the integration of science and faith. Except for the science part.

BioLogos says it really does want to connect and join and link up the two.

BioLogos addresses the escalating culture war between science and faith, promoting dialog and exploring

Read the rest


More BioLogos science *

Jul 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Just as we can maintain the created order is God’s good creation warped by the fall, so we can maintain that Scripture is both beautiful and broken.… Read the rest



Oregon “faith healing” parents must surrender child *

Jul 6th, 2010 | Filed by

This case is unusual, as the court has intervened before the death of the child due to neglect.… Read the rest



Hitchens baffles the godly – again *

Jul 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Naturally it isn’t easy for Christians to come straight out and say “serves you right,” but they do their best.… Read the rest



Anthony Andrews on Hitchens *

Jul 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Yes he drinks and smokes a lot, but he works even more.… Read the rest



Contortionism

Jul 5th, 2010 1:03 pm | By

I’ve just watched that BioLogos video of a pastor at a Florida church explaining – in a rather photogenic, sonorous, and otherwise superficially convincing way – why one has to be very careful about…everything. I say superficially convincing because he doesn’t look or talk like a hayseed or a loon; he looks like any insurance executive or motivational speaker or real estate agent. Yet what he says is pitiful. It’s all about the anxious contortions one has to perform in order not to upset any apple carts or frighten any horses or insert any cats among any pigeons. It’s very fretful, close work, because on the one hand you don’t want to upset these, but on the other hand … Read the rest



Education should be a priority *

Jul 5th, 2010 | Filed by

In Kabul, the nicest buildings constructed during the post-Taliban years are not schools but mosques.… Read the rest



Professor’s hand chopped off for “offending faith” *

Jul 5th, 2010 | Filed by

He was arrested in April for preparing an exam question “defaming” Mohammed.… Read the rest



Ground rules for theist-atheist debate *

Jul 5th, 2010 | Filed by

Let’s not waste each other’s time, shall we?… Read the rest



“Psychic” gets jail time *

Jul 5th, 2010 | Filed by

For lifting $108,000 and a car from a credulous customer.… Read the rest



Amateur night at the Anti-science Fair

Jul 4th, 2010 5:20 pm | By

Karen Armstrong is a former English teacher and current religious apologist with a strong dislike of science; she has found a novelist who also has a strong dislike of science, and who was invited to give some lectures on the subject at Yale. (Yale invites some very odd fish to give lectures on subjects they don’t seem to know much about. Terry Eagleton for instance, and now Marilynne Robinson. Why does Yale do that?)

[T]he novelist Marilynne Robinson argues that positivism, the belief that science is the only reliable means to truth, has adopted a “systematically reductionist” view of human nature.

Oh yay, a much-needed critique of the reductionism of positivism and the folly of thinking that science is … Read the rest



Karen Armstrong finds a kindred spirit *

Jul 4th, 2010 | Filed by

Marilynne Robinson also says positivism is reductionist and sciencey and bad.… Read the rest



Neil deGrasse Tyson on the perimeter of ignorance *

Jul 4th, 2010 | Filed by

When scientists feel certain about their explanations, God gets hardly a mention.… Read the rest



Poverty is a gift from God

Jul 4th, 2010 10:59 am | By

Let’s celebrate Christopher Hitchens (and the 4th of July, if you like) by watching his hard-eyed look at a putative saint.

Read the rest



Doctor’s Data sues Quackwatch *

Jul 4th, 2010 | Filed by

Thus making Doctor’s Data more widely known as a fraud.… Read the rest



Belgium v Vatican: threats against witnesses *

Jul 4th, 2010 | Filed by

Threats have been made against people who gave the authorities information or made a complaint, and against some magistrates.… Read the rest



Stop the stoning of Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani *

Jul 4th, 2010 | Filed by

Do not allow our nightmare become a reality. Today we stretch out our hands to the people of the whole world.… Read the rest



Rust Belt Philosopher on Ron Rosenbaum *

Jul 4th, 2010 | Filed by

For a fan of agnosticism, Rosenbaum is remarkably confident about what he can know.… Read the rest