June 25, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
In the course of a long and often annoying back and forth with Jerry Coyne, Chris Mooney comes up with a succinct explanation of where science/religion accommodation comes from: Insofar as I’m an accommodationist, then, it’s not because I don’t see the incongruity between relying on faith, and looking for evidence, as bases for knowing. Rather, it’s because I know that many very intelligent people are struggling all the time to make their peace with this incongruity in their own way–a peace that works for them. And so long as they’re not messing with what our kids learn–or, again, trying...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:29 PM • 33 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Via PZ Myers, I learn of a new entrant into the science/religion accomodation fracas. Mano Singham's generally well-grounded historical look at how these arguments have played out historically begins: The accommodationists argue that it is a mistake to insist that science is antithetical to religion because if science is determined to be an intrinsically atheistic enterprise, then even so-called moderate religionists will turn away from science and not support efforts to oppose the teaching of religious ideas such as intelligent design in science classes. This kind of mistaken solicitousness for the sensitivities of religious people, the fear that they will...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:15 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Chatter
Can society persist without Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon? And will the hubbub over Michael Jackson's death do what the Iranian government couldn't: destroy Twitter?...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 24, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
Sean Carroll, one of the sharpest guys out there, says that science and religion are not compatible. I happen to think he's using an idiosyncratic (but not necessarily wrong) definition to reach that conclusion: are science and religion actually compatible? Clearly one’s stance on that issue will affect one’s feelings about accomodationism. So I’d like to put my own feelings down in one place. Science and religion are not compatible. But, before explaining what that means, we should first say what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean, first, that there is any necessary or logical or a priori incompatibility between...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:48 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 23, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
Students of the creation/evolution conflict know the Thomas More Law Center as the conservative legal group who encouraged the Dover school board to undertake their disastrous policies. TMLC lost badly, and left Dover on the hook for over a million dollars in legal fees. TMLC dropped plenty of their own money on the case, too, money donated by the founder of Dominos Pizza. TMLC is at it again, stirring up baseless legal fights to promote their religious agenda. And when they lost, things got really ugly. The SF Chrnocile explains, "Religious right group likens S.F. supes to Nazis": "It is...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 8:16 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
I haven't blogged about Iran at all, and I don't really feel bad about it. Obviously, it's the big news story, but I don't know what will happen, and the people I'm reading don't seem to have a clear idea either. I'm optimistic that honest election results will be posted, and that the genuine winner of their election will be seated. But those are not the issues at play. The protests are being treated as a borderline revolution, with Mousavi as a potential George Washington. I'm less sure of that. Mousavi was a major backer of the Islamic Revolution, favors...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:10 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 18, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
Netroots Nation is rolling out their panels for the next meeting (August 13-16, Pittsburgh, PA). It's an interesting mix, with more than any one person can handle. If my experience last year is any guide, it'll be a struggle just to keep up, and there will be lots of times when I'll have two or more simultaneous panels I want to attend. I just hope my panel isn't scheduled opposite anything really fun. That's right campers, I said my panel. The abstract isn't live yet, but we're just dotting a few t's and crossing some i's. The title is "Science...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:12 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 16, 2009
Category: Culture Wars
A week or so ago, John West pimped a new Disco. Inst. website on faith and religion in the Washington Post's On Faith blog. His claims were as mendacious as you would expect from looking at the site, most bizarrely inventing a movement of "new theistic evolutionists," when the folks he names are simply repeating a position on the compatibility of faith and science which has been part of Christian theology since the time of Augustine of Hippo. You don't need to know more about West's piece. NCSE Faith Project Director Peter Hess responded in On Faith today. His brief...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:55 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 15, 2009
Category: Creationism
Why Aren't Scientists Allowed to Believe In God? It's a shame that some people try to stop scientists from believing in God.Is Darwinian Evolution Compatible with Religion? Scientists who accept evolution are wrong to believe in God.Sounds like they need to work on message discipline....
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:27 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 11, 2009
Category: Creationism
Afarensis and PZ note that the Discovery Institute is trying to hide Youtube videos criticizing their pet dachshund, Casey Luskin. Luskin Someone at Disco. has apparently been hitting his their own product, a danger in the Disco. scene. He or she thinks that they have a copyright claim on video made by Fox News. He Disco. doesn't. Fox News does, so if anyone is going to take down this video, it will be Fox, not Disco. CaseyWhichever Disco spinner did this also needs to understand that copyright law is not a tool for censorship. Copyright exists, according to the...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:51 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
