Category Archives: Science

Sundry Links and Comments

Posted on Thursday 22 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

» A Publishers Weekly review of a book about expanding human perception: We Have the Technology: How Biohackers, Foodies, Physicians, and Scientists Are Transforming Human Perception, One Sense at a Time, Kara Platoni, Author This is a superb account of … Continue reading →

Posted in MInd, Provisional Conclusions, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Sundry Links and Comments

Links and Comments from Sunday’s New York Times

Posted on Monday 19 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Front page article: Indian Writers Return Awards to Protest Government Silence on Violence File this under Conservative [religious] Resistance: …growing activism from conservative Hindu nationalists who seek to suppress forms of expression they view as offensive to their religion. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, MInd, Provisional Conclusions, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments from Sunday’s New York Times

Sean Carroll on Everything

Posted on Thursday 8 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

The physicist Sean Carroll has a new book coming out next May that I’m looking forward to: The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself. Carroll blogs about it here, with an outline. A key … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Physics, Science | Comments Off on Sean Carroll on Everything

Ben Carson follow-up

Posted on Monday 28 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I wrapped up my previous post about Ben Carson a bit too hastily, because I do have a fairly solid provisional conclusion about why some people don’t “believe” in science and ascribe instead to faith or various subjectively attractive supernatural … Continue reading →

Posted in Provisional Conclusions, Religion, Science, Thinking | Comments Off on Ben Carson follow-up

Links and Comments: Scale of the Universe; Core SF novels and stories and media

Posted on Tuesday 15 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m in a gradual process of compiling links and references to my Provisional Conclusions, including a number of sites I’ve bookmarked in various places about the size of the universe. Today, David Brin has posted a set of links about … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Scientism; the Arc of Moral Progress; Conservative Resistance and Certain Republicans

Posted on Sunday 13 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

What we read from this morning’s newspapers… New York Times, Simon Critchley, There Is No Theory of Everything. An essay (which is longer online than the version in print) about science and the humanities and about a teacher of his, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Progress, Morality, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Scientism; the Arc of Moral Progress; Conservative Resistance and Certain Republicans

Links and Comments: Conservative Resistance and Fears; Narratives; Reality Checks

Posted on Saturday 12 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: Kim Davis is the new face of the religious right: Angry, marginalized and increasingly desperate No doubt Davis is a comical figure whose self-righteousness is only equaled by her ignorance both of the text of the Bible she clings … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Lawrence M. Krauss, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, confirmation bias

Posted on Wednesday 9 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

A fine essay by Lawrence M. Krauss, at The New Yorker: All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists. He’s reacting both to the current embarrassing kerfuffle about Kim Davis, the Kentucky court clerk who thinks her sincerely held religious convictions trump … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Conservative Resistance, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Lawrence M. Krauss, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, confirmation bias

Links and Comments: Religion and Science

Posted on Tuesday 8 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

The latest essay by Jeffrey Tayler at Salon, Bill O’Reilly’s nonsense “nihilism”: Now the Fox News host is even lying about God, addresses common misperceptions not just about the abstruse philosophical concept of nihilism, but about the general perception that … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Religion and Education; Religions around the world; deGrasse Tyson on the history of the universe

Posted on Tuesday 1 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

ABC News: latest example of how religious groups reject education, because, of course: NYC to Probe Secular Education at Jewish Schools. There was no science, no geography and no math past multiplication at the ultra-Orthodox Jewish school Chaim Weber attended. … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Religion and Education; Religions around the world; deGrasse Tyson on the history of the universe