Archive for October, 2008
Atheists Get No Respect
Responding to the frank anti-atheist bigotry exhibited by Elizabeth Dole’s campaign for re-election to the US Senate, Kay Hagan has accused Dole of making slanderous attacks on her faith. In a press conference to confront the accusations made against her, Hagan noted: Let’s get right to it. Elizabeth Dole should absolutely be ashamed of herself. [...]
Read More..>>Prophets of Gloom
James Dobson, who said recently that Sarah Palin was “god’s answer” (we can only guess to what question), and the lovely exemplars of Christian tolerance over at Focus on the Family have released a speculative letter from a Christian in 2012, reflecting on the changes that will have occurred during the first Obama administration. This [...]
Read More..>>The Neuropsychology of Religious Belief
Anthropologist Pascal Boyer has an essay in the 23 October 2008 issue of Nature (Being human: Religion: Bound to believe?) in which he explores the cognitive traits that sustain religious identification and belief. We should not try to pinpoint the unique origin of religious belief, because there is no unique domain for religion in human minds. [...]
Read More..>>Communicating the Risks of Climate Change
A policy forum piece in the 24 October 2008 issue of Science titled Risk Communication on Climate: Mental Models and Mass Balance explores the disconnect between the scientific consensus on climate change and the the public’s seeming complacency on the matter. Author John D. Sterman argues that an effective response to this challenge will be [...]
Read More..>>Palin’s Remarks Fly in the Face of Science
Via Thnk Progress, another glimpse at the willful ignorance of Sarah Palin, who ridiculed federal spending on research involving Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly). Quoting remarks by Palin: Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot [...]
Read More..>>Atheists Lack Political Clout
Last Sunday, the New York Times ran a piece titled For Atheists, Politics Proves to Be a Lonely Endeavor. One problem with turning out the atheist vote is finding it. Atheists do not reside visibly in certain neighborhoods like blacks or Hispanics or gay men and lesbians. They do not turn up on the databases [...]
Read More..>>Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama
Say what you will about Colin Powell’s willingness to shill for the Bush administration, but his endorsement earlier this week of Barack Obama’s candidacy reminds us that he is a man of integrity, eloquence, and reason. Powell’s view on the role that American should play in the world was refreshingly enlightened, and noticeably devoid of [...]
Read More..>>Religion in the Real World
As the accidental philosopher Yogi Berra once remarked, “in theory there is no difference between theory and practice; but, in practice, there is.” This is, after all, what makes experimental science so rewarding (and so frustrating), and why moving basic science “facts” into clinical practice is often elusive. When faced with negative results, a good [...]
Read More..>>Religulous: Trite and True
Comedians, at their best, point out the folly of our own lives, using humor to pry open our minds so that we can question our assumptions, beliefs, sacred rituals and mundane behaviors. George Carlin (may Pesci rest his soul) did this masterfully, crafting canonical criticisms of the sacred and the profane. In his newly released [...]
Read More..>>Predictably Irrational
In his recent book Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely challenges our assumptions about the rationality of our decision-making and delves into the behavioral economics underlying our poor choices. Perception and expectation, he argues, exert undue influence on important spheres of our lives. The news this week is replete with examples of this phenomenon. First, we have [...]
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