Category Archives: Science

Being Wrong Over and Over Again

Posted on Saturday 8 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

A film documentary about the discovery of the Higgs Boson illustrates the nature of scientific discovery, according to film critic Andrew O’Hehir: “Particle Fever” illustrates the great strength and resilience of the scientific method, with its time-honored propensity for proving … Continue reading →

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Hollywood, God, Stories, and Cosmos

Posted on Thursday 6 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Lawrence Krauss, physicist and cosmologist and author of The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing, responds in The New Yorker about Matthew McConaughey’s reference to God in his Oscar award acceptance speech. Apparently there was a Twitter … Continue reading →

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Cosmos and Beyond

Posted on Monday 3 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Looking forward to the new Cosmos TV series, with Neil deGrasse Tyson. The original series, with Carl Sagan, was not so much an influential event in my life as a realization and visualization and confirmation of what I’d learned to … Continue reading →

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Anti-Vaxxers and Irrationality

Posted on Monday 3 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate: According to a New Study, Nothing Can Change an Anti-Vaxxer’s Mind Apparently you just can’t change anti-vaxxers’ minds. This reaction, where people become more assured of their stupid opinions when confronted with factual or scientific evidence proving them wrong, … Continue reading →

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Education vs. Indoctrination

Posted on Monday 3 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Friendly Atheist: If Faculty Members Don’t Accept Young Earth Creationism, This Christian College May Fire Them Bryan College in Tennessee — yes, named after William Jennings Bryan of the Scopes trial fame, or infamy — has a notion to force … Continue reading →

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Panic and Alarm (and Why This Is About Science Fiction)

Posted on Thursday 27 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria Sad case study of a man whose father disappeared into the paranoid, outraged worldview of Fox News. Like certain kinds of religious extremists, Fox … Continue reading →

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Why the World Is This Way Rather Than That Way

Posted on Thursday 27 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Good quote from Sean Carroll (from his post debate reflections about theistic vs naturalistic worldviews. (via) If we would presume to contemplate theism from an intellectually honest perspective, we would try to decide what kind of universe we would expect … Continue reading →

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Debates about Science, Creationism, Accommodationism

Posted on Friday 21 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate: The Myths of Anti-Creationism This is the latest round in a fascinating debate in recent days between William Saletan of Slate and Sean McElwee in Salon. Can you be a creationist and also be a scientist? McElwee says no; … Continue reading →

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Prothero and Vick on that debate

Posted on Thursday 13 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Donald Prothero summarizes the Nye-Ham debate. http://www.skepticblog.org/2014/02/12/hearts-and-minds/ Tristan Vick explains why he didn’t watch the debate, but sides with those who think it was a good idea. http://www.advocatusatheist.blogspot.jp/2014/02/why-i-didnt-watch-bill-nye-vs-ken-ham.html We have to debate Creationists, if anything, to share the accumulated information, … Continue reading →

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Natural Selection; Family Values

Posted on Wednesday 12 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

The trouble with ‘Darwin Day’ is that, it’s not about one guy, as evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks explains. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-brooks/darwin-day_b_4770363.html It irks me the way Nye, and others who engage with creationists, allow the likes of Ham to call evolution “Darwinism”, … Continue reading →

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