Appropriate thanks

With the US Thanksgiving holiday coming up I thought it worth repeating this article from 2 years back.
There are many religious ceremonies and prayers giving thanks to a god. I often think these are rude on two grounds:

I many case these are imposed on people who don’t share the belief in a god (consider [...]

Promoting confusion

A great feature of the scientific endeavour is that our ideas, hypotheses and theories are usually tested against reality. In fact we get very worried when we can’t do this. Consequently there has been some philosophical discussion and concern around speculative ideas or hypotheses like string theory (really hypotheses not theories) and the multiple universe [...]

Defending science and reason

Book Review: The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason by Victor Stenger

Price: US$12.92
Paperback: 282 pages
Publisher: Prometheus Books (September 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591027519
ISBN-13: 978-1591027515

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This book is timely. The “New [...]

Why We Are Atheists

Book Review: 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists by Russell Blackford and Udo Schuklenk
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (October, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1405190469
ISBN-13: 978-1405190466
Price: US$26.95

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Wow! A book about atheism and it’s not written by Dawkins, [...]

Religion in the public square

Or do I mean irreligion in the public square? Same thing really.
I refer to the open discussion of religious ideas in the “public square.” That means ideas can be put up for consideration and subjected to open support or criticism. The same as our ideas on politics and sport. I am using the dictionary, not [...]

For Christian readers

The documentary Did Darwin Kill God? was broadcast last week on BB2 in the UK. It’s presented by theologian Conor Cunningham from the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, University of Nottingham.

Despite the wonky title I was looking forward to viewing this as I think the history of reaction of religious people to evolutionary science [...]

Cosmological cranes – not skyhooks

In his book “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea“ Daniel Dennett draws out the philosophical significance of evolution by natural selection. Darwin himself hesitated to apply his ideas to humanity, let alone to wider philosophical issues.

Dennett describes how natural selection explains phenomena such as development and evolution, using “cranes”, rather than “skyhooks”. How development can arise internally rather [...]

Thanking those who deserve thanks

This is an article from last year but worth repeating with the US Thanksgiving holiday coming up.
There are many religious ceremonies and prayers giving thanks to a god. I often think these are rude on two grounds:

I many case these are imposed on people who don’t share the belief in a god (consider our [...]

Thanks

I recently attended a celebratory dinner with members of my extended family. Inevitably such gatherings include people with widely different philosophical religious beliefs. That’s just a fact of our democratic, pluralist and secular society today.
I know this particular gathering included people who would have described themselves as Christian, Catholic, ‘Born Again’ agnostic and atheist (me). [...]

Reading in retirement

Scientific research is a very creative and personally satisfying process. However, researchers often find that the inevitable specialisation and concentration on limited aspects of reality can lead to a lack of understanding and appreciation of discoveries in other fields.
Since retirement I’ve appreciated the opportunity to read more widely. I find myself returning to subjects I [...]