Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne, and no doubt many other atheists have landed especially hard blows against the Muslim religion recently, prompted specifically by the recent wave of deadly protests over the trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. So here are my two bits. Sam Harris dismisses the idea that murderous violence of Muslim rioters … Continue reading “All this Muslim business”
Dr James McGrath’s technique for slaying mythicism is to mount a snorting charger, grab a sword by the blade and don his full face helmet backwards so he cannot see, and then charge like hell in any direction his angry steed takes him. He simply chooses not to read what mythicists say. He sees a … Continue reading “McGrath as mcmuddled as ever over mythicism”
From Jerry Coyne’s comments on responses to Bill Nye’s attack on creationism (reformatted), posted on his blog, Why Evolution Is True: Theistic evolutionists are creationists, pure and simple; they differ from straight fundamentalist creationists only in how much of life God was involved in creating, ranging from those who think God set the whole plan … Continue reading “Theistic evolutionists are creationists”
I loved this video clip of Frans de Waal’s talk, Moral Behavior in Animals. (It was recently linked on Jerry Coyne’s Evolution is True blog.) It demonstrates that more animals than humans have evolved moral attributes of empathizing with others, offering others consolation, “prosocial” tendencies such as caring for the welfare of others, and a … Continue reading “Evolved Morality”
I smoke because Picasso smoked. And because Hitler didn’t.— Albert Finney We’re all for evolution, but . . . Robert Wright, a senior editor at The Atlantic, in his recent piece called “Creationists vs. Evolutionists: An American Story,” explains why the U.S. has seen a recent uptick in the number of people who believe in … Continue reading “The Fanboy Defense — An Excuse for Doing Nothing While the World Burns”
Physicist Victor Stenger argues in HuffPo that Scientists and science organizations are being disingenuous when they say science can say nothing about the supernatural. They know better. Their policy of appeasing religion for presumably political reasons only empowers those who are muddling education and polluting public policy with anti-scientific magical thinking. His article is Science … Continue reading “Science CAN say something about the supernatural”
Thanks to Jerry Coyne’s latest post at Why Evolution Is True many of us have been directed to a Mike Aus article on RichardDawkins.net that confronts what should be obvious to all thinking people: evolution and Christianity and other Abrahamic faiths are not compatible. Some excerpts: If there is no original ancestor who transmitted hereditary … Continue reading “Evolution and Christianity are not compatible”
I would love to share in a series of posts here some of Jerry Coyne’s paper, Science, Religion, and Society: The Problem of Evolution in America, for those who do not have online access to it. (It is available through a paywall only — see the link for details.) Jerry Coyne’s blog post certainly assures … Continue reading “Why Philosophical Naturalism Wins”
Here they come. The advance warning was R. Joseph Hoffmann‘s Mythtic Pizza and Cold-cocked Scholars. He promises that within a week (apocalypse coming!) we will see on his blog “three essay-length responses to Richard C. Carrier’s ideas: The first by [R. Joseph Hoffmann], the second by Professor Maurice Casey of the University of Nottingham, and … Continue reading “Fight Club! Historical Jesus Scholars Take On the Christ Mythicists!”
I really thought this was an April Fools joke. For the benefit of anyone who is not a regular visitor to Jerry Coyne’s Why Evolution Is True blog this is a must read: Did Moses Stutter? A Scientific Investigation. Looks like those theologian bible scholars are paving the way with their astonishingly progressive research tools … Continue reading “Scientific Journal Publishes Research on Moses’ Stuttering”
I have just had the privilege of listening to an interview with South Africa’s eminent Justice and renowned campaigner for justice in apartheid South Africa, Albie Sachs. I recommend the interview to every one who aspires to a more civil and humane society. He woke up after someone tried to kill him with a bomb … Continue reading “What’s the difference between a racist and an anti-creationist?”
Someone posted a link to a post on my blog on Jerry Coyne’s blog “Why Evolution Is True” (See his post: I get Christian email: more irreducible complexity) — and wonderful, wonderful! I like reading books like his (I have referenced Coyne’s book twice here but never knew he also had a blog) — and … Continue reading “Why Evolution Is True: And Reflections on Historical Jesus Scholars”
A good friend who is a creationist recently offered me a creationist article to read (“or refute”). The article’s arguments against evolution are based on: a misstatement of, or failure to understand, the arguments for evolution itself a glossing over of arguments for evolution by misleading oversimplifications a failure to address the counter-evidence for evolution … Continue reading “A Creationist Method of Argument (and exposing the lie of those who compare mythicism to creationism)”
— updated with edits 4 hours after original post — Why do academics, public intellectuals of all people, need to resort to abuse, insult, apparently deliberate misrepresentation and outright fabrication in order to counter a view they believe to be wrong? James appears to be bowing out from his public mockery of arguments for a … Continue reading “James McGrath’s reply. Enjoy :-(“