Watching the ball drop on New Year’s is never that exciting.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 27, 2010 by Michael
One of the biggest whines I hear about science blogs is that they are not enough about science. Of course, this whine only arises when the focus of the blog is pro-atheism. This leads me to conclude two things:
- This is just another way for people tell atheists to shut; it’s disingenuous.
- People do not understand any of the arguments being put forth by these pro-atheist blogs.
The reason a lot of pro-atheist science blogs focus on issues which, at least at first glance, do not appear to be very science-y is that conveying the latest research is not the only way to defend and promote science. For instance, having a wider appeal is going to gain a wider audience. If PZ only wrote about research like this, how many people would read about it? The reason more than a handful of individuals even know it exists is that they are already reading Pharyngula for a lot of the other content.
Another way to defend and therefore promote science is to attack religion. It is a fact that religious thinking harms science on the whole. (Please note “on the whole”. I have little doubt that something like “A-ha! But what about Excellent Scientist X? He’s religious!” just popped through at least a couple heads.) We have people who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old. We have those who deny the fact of evolution. We have parents who believe faith healing is okay. We have restrictions on research for bogus ethical concerns. All these things are a direct result of religion. For anyone who believes science deserves the highest mantle, talking about the harms of religion is one extremely effective method towards bringing science up to its proper place.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 26, 2010 by Michael
I’m generally not a fan of the word “privilege”. It sounds like an uppity (in the non-racist sense) word that people use to be condescending. It is important to recognize the greater fortune some of us have over others, but I don’t see the use of hoity-toity words as helping anything. Besides, it’s accusatory, as if it’s the fault of the fortunate that they have “privilege”.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 25, 2010 by Michael
There are some phrases, refrains, points, etc that will work for a person or group for awhile, but when the opposition starts making a mockery of them, they pretty much have to be dropped, if only for the sake of quality rhetoric. For example, President Obama pointed out for a long time that he inherited a terrible economy. He’s right, of course. And, in fact, we still have to blame Bush and Republican policies (deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, etc) for getting us in this mess. But that isn’t something the President can do very easily anymore because conservative pundits have made an issue out of the idea of blaming Bush.
But religion has some pretty good ones, too. The one I have in mind is when dozens or hundreds of people die in some horrific accident, but one person survives. Often it will be a small child, but not always. Religious people will look to what happened and proclaim it a miracle! that that one person did not perish. Of course, even if miracles did exist (and the belief that they do is in conflict with science), I can’t see how that would be one. What about all the others that died? What about all the families that have lost loved ones? The fact that not everyone is dead doesn’t strike me as something to cheer. So I wonder: When can we all start making enough of a mockery of this religious refrain in order to get people to drop it?
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 22, 2010 by Michael
The power of science has never been matched in human endeavors.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 20, 2010 by Michael
The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 19, 2010 by Michael
Moral improvements have nearly always come from secular considerations, and drag the churches along in their wake.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 17, 2010 by Michael
It’s as meaningful as it is cheesy: Practice random acts of kindness.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 12, 2010 by Michael
If anyone was serious about cutting the budget, we would be slashing the funding we give our 20th century-style military.
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Thought of the day
Posted on December 7, 2010 by Michael
Malcolm X was a tremendous figure and remains tremendously interesting – and surprisingly relevant.
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For the Sake of Science 