Category: Popular culture
He said it: Making the Middle Ground Exciting
| January 8, 2012 | Posted by O'Leary under Culture, News, Popular culture |
If all people want to assert is their human dignity over against the giant government machine they support, they should really get their own slogan, not poach from the Bible. more
The mutilation of Bibi Aisha — a test case on the objectivity of moral judgements
| December 6, 2011 | Posted by kairosfocus under Atheism, Culture, Darwinism, Education, Ethics, Philosophy, Popular culture, Racism, Religion, Science, Science, worldview issues and society, Society |
Several days ago, UD news raised the above case, and the response of a class of students, as a test case on the objectivity of morality. Further details — and a shocking picture of a beautiful but mutilated girl that we all need to examine, painful or not — are here. In deference to sensibilities,… more
They said it: “atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist” — a fatal worldview error of modern evolutionary materialist atheism
| November 12, 2011 | Posted by kairosfocus under Atheism, Darwinism, ID Foundations, Philosophy, Popular culture, Religion, Science |
It is an open secret that a major motivation for the commonly encountered, too often angry rejection of the design inference is a prior commitment to Lewontinian evolutionary materialistic atheism; a common thread that unites a Sagan, a Lewontin, many members of Science institutions and Faculties of Universities, and of course many leading anti-design advocates… more
In ‘celebration’ of Richard Dawkins’ new kids’ book, ‘The Magic of Reality’
| September 19, 2011 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Cosmology, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Popular culture |
Here is my first GoAnimate clip: embedded by Embedded VideoDownload Video more
New blog: Darwinism is dead but won’t lie down
| July 15, 2011 | Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Popular culture |
Here’s a new, UK-based blog, The Darwin Deception, Darwinism as an explanation for life is dead. The final death blow was administered by discoveries about intracellular nanomachinery, which amply satisfy Darwin’s own test of falsification. Dead, but it won’t lie down. … Dude: Darwinism and a multitude of other dead ideas and popular delusions are… more
Science – when does the circus leave town, or does it?
| May 21, 2011 | Posted by News under Popular culture, Science |
Dave Coppedge (yes, that Cassini specialist who got fired from JPL) identifies “sciences” that ain’t. These days, every fad, trend, and crackpot alley on offer struggles to call itself science: Happiness science: Advice found online: “the best way to increase your happiness is to stop worrying about being happy and instead divert your energy to… more
Online journalism thinkmag addresses politics pretending to be science
| May 21, 2011 | Posted by News under Popular culture, Science |
“Beware of Science as Political Veneer” warns Tom Price at Miller-McCune report (May 13, 2011), because “Scientization of politics,” not just politicization of science, weakens scientific integrity.” That includes … “scientization of politics” — portraying all government decisions as science-based when, in fact, most aren’t.[ ... ] “Some [government] decisions are based on the best… more
When ID types go – to church …
| May 15, 2011 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Popular culture, Religion |
A friend insists that this song by Oklahoma’s Carrie Underwood underscores and responds to design in the universe: This performance occurred several weeks ago, and then went viral. Five and a half million hits on YouTube; I’m sure some of you must have seen and heard it. The lyrics in the first stanza are certainly… more
Eugenics and the Firewall: Interview with Jane Harris Zsovan 1
| May 11, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design, Popular culture, Religion, Science |
Jane Harris Zsovan, author of Eugenics and the Firewall talked to Uncommon Descent recently about her book on the controversial topic of social Darwinist eugenics in Western Canda in the mid-twentieth century. Denyse: The thing that struck me, reading your book, was how widespread the idea was in the province of Alberta, that sterilizing “socially… more
Old leftist zings new atheist
| May 3, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Atheism, Popular culture |
It builds on you because he makes his key point last. In “Same Old New Atheism: On Sam Harris,” (The Nation May18, 2011), Jackson Lears critiques new atheist Sam Harris’s view of morality, beginning with an account of evolutionary psychology that could have come from this desk, and then… more
Coffee!! Can mathematics illuminate politics?
| May 1, 2011 | Posted by News under Culture, Mathematics, Popular culture |
Here’s a discussion at New Scientist on proportional representation vs. “first past the post”: Can mathematics help? On 5 May, the UK will hold a referendum to determine which voting system the country should use in future elections, with voters asked to decide whether they want to adopt the alternative vote (AV) or stick with… more
Coffee!! She reported it: Why the public should always believe “science”
| May 1, 2011 | Posted by News under Popular culture, Science |
WORLD GETTING CRAZIER, HE SAYS. IN A FEW HUNDRED YEARS THE WHOLE EARTH WILL BE OUT OF ITS MIND London Aug.1. The vision of a mad world and an era of lunacy was prophesied by Dr Forbes Winslow yesterday while expressing his dissent from the statement made at the Eugenics Congress by Dr Mott that… more
Directions for perpetrating a science hoax
| April 29, 2011 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Popular culture, Science |
Here, Adam Ruben, – “Experimental Error: Forging a Head” Science (April 22, 2011), reflects on how to construct a science hoax and have free publicity coming out of your ears: Attach the bones of something to the bones of something else. You have just created the missing link between those two species. “It’s amazing!” you… more
Darwinism and popular culture: PayPal co-founder on Darwin’s effect
| April 12, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Popular culture |
At TechCrunch (Apr 10, 2011), Sarah Lacy catches Peter Thiel in a politically incorrect moment in “We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet. It’s Higher Education.”: the idea that attending Harvard is all about learning? Yeah. No one pays a quarter of a million dollars just to read Chaucer. The implicit promise is… more
Darwinian brand marketing: it helps to be stunned
| March 31, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Popular culture |
Here’s my latest Deprogram from Salvo, a magazine you should support. The stuff you are about to split a gut laughing while reading is all true: FIT FOR A ZOMBIE Evolutionary Brand Marketing for Your Survival[ ... ] Hogshead is a brand marketing specialist; she helps executives persuade us to pay more for their brands.… more
Because we know the facts now, Rod, that’s why
| March 31, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Popular culture |
Someone reminded me of this: “Darwin Pushed to Margins: Why is resistance to evolution so strong among science teachers?” Rod Dreher wonders (Big Questions On Line, Templeton Foundation, February 22, 2011) Then he lobs this: More broadly, many people of faith are drawn to the study of evolution to explore God’s work, and find a… more
Academic Politics
| March 8, 2011 | Posted by PaV under Free Speech, Legal, Popular culture |
This is mildly off-topic. And I’m guilty of little bit (maybe a lot) of ‘venting’. But here’s a link to what has allegedly happened at Oregon State University. It appears that a scientist whose children are on their way to Ph’D’s at OSU are being thrown out of the Ph’D program (one has been there… more
Dawkins’s linguistic junk food – a hedge against thinking
| February 17, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Popular culture |
Possibly, Richard Dawkins’s worst offense against the world of reason is the coining of the word “meme” – a “unit” of “thought” that replicates in the minds of others by neo-Darwinian natural selection. The idea itself is, of course, hardly a useful description of how people influence each other, but it serves very well as… more
Libertarians Against Darwin
| January 13, 2011 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Free Speech, Intellectual freedom, Popular culture |
I was a big fan of Robert J. Ringer in the 1970s (author of the runaway bestseller WINNING THROUGH INTIMIDATION — which was not about learning to intimidate others but about preventing others from intimidating you — good information if you have to deal with Darwinists). In the 1980s Ringer became a champion of libertarianism, which… more
Neuroscience and popular culture: How much are journalists to blame for pop science culture?
| December 19, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Neuroscience, Popular culture |
Don’t blame journalists, says Jonah Lehrer here on the reporting of science. He makes some excellent points: Scientists are almost never subjected to critical coverage in the mainstream media. Quick: name the last newspaper or magazine article that dared to criticize or skeptically analyze a piece of published research. If you had trouble thinking of… more