The murderous terrorist attack on a French satirical newspaper, which left 12 people dead, has shocked and outraged the world. Islamic extremists targeted Charlie Hebdo, the Paris-based paper, for its cartoons lampooning Islam. But it’s worth noting–as many have–that the paper poked fun at politicians, celebrities, and all the major religions.This caption explains the cover above….Continue Reading…
In 2012, science writer John Horgan published a book called The End of War. Its premise is that we have it in ourselves to tame our violent impulses, at least enough to stop waging large-scale, collective war. At first blush, this notion seems as quixotic and naive as a famous John Lennon and Yoko Ono…Continue Reading…
When a science-minded crusader in India was murdered in August, it made international headlines. As the New York Times reported: Narendra Dabholkar traveled from village to village in India, waging a personal war against the spirit world. If a holy man had electrified the public with his miracles, Dr. Dabholkar, a former physician, would duplicate…Continue Reading…
In my previous post, I took issue with how Jerry Coyne crudely indicted an entire religion (Islam) based on the murderous actions of a few adherents. (And that was a perversion of the faith’s tenets, Islamic leaders say.) The way Coyne made his blanket generalization was lame. He referred to this passage in a CNN…Continue Reading…
This tweet and blog post headline is really something: Islam Apparently behind Boston bombing It’s from Jerry Coyne, the evolutionary biologist who apparently would blame environmentalism for Ted Kaczynski.
Every movement has a discourse that is shaped by people who are passionate, committed, and forceful. Some feel so certain in their rightness that they try to control the discourse and purge those deemed insufficiently true to the movement’s cause. A political example of this would be today’s U.S. Republican Party, which, as David Frum…Continue Reading…
One of the most trenchant observers of the science/policy interface is Daniel Sarewitz, co-director of Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes. Since 2009, Sarewitz has been a regular columnist for the journal Nature. He writes for both general and specialized audiences. His insightful essays, on everything from the politics of climate change…Continue Reading…
So it looks like I’m ending 2012 in a pissing match with PZ Myers. I don’t understand why he’s making such a big issue of my quoting writers like Saul Bellow and Margaret Atwood. I haven’t suggested they are experts in science. I’m merely highlighting observations about the human condition made by literary artists—observations that…Continue Reading…
This exquisitely designed house would be perfect for PZ Myers and Jerry Coyne. I’ll expand on that (and more) in the New Year (later this week). Meanwhile, here’s something from Margaret Atwood that reminds us why religion is not so easy to stamp out in the 21st-century: I think that the religious strand is probably part…Continue Reading…
What do you think happens at death? This I don’t know, but I don’t think everything is resolved with the destruction of the body. What science has to say seems to me insufficient and unsatisfying. This is from a Q & A with Saul Bellow, one of the literary giants of the 2oth-century. He might…Continue Reading…