MetaFilter posts tagged with religion and science

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid

Artw — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:57:14 -0800

Is mysticism overtaking science in sci-fi? Does Every SF Show Need Jesus Now?

Premanand will not recant

vanar sena — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:25:41 -0800

Basava Premanand, rationalist and founder of The Indian Skeptic, is dying. Premanand has been dispelling miracles and exposing charlatans for over fifty years, often facing persecution from the entrenched political and popular power of godmen in India. Now, his 79 year old body is shutting down. To counter already spreading rumours that he has recanted and accepted spirituality, he has issued a statement that despite being on his deathbed, he has no intention of finding God.

Genesis Revisited

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:00:41 -0800

Genesis Revisited scientifically summarises the scientific field of Creation Science (warning: science) [transcript]

"Greetings from Idiot America"

zarq — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:20:20 -0800

Charles Pierce, author of the 2005 essay "Greetings from Idiot America" decrying the rise of faith-based anti-intellectualism, has expanded his rant into a full length book: Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. (via) Previously on MeFi. (link on that post is defunct) Anti-intellectualism has been around for ages, and has not been restricted to the US. But the American cultural divide was thrust further into the national spotlight during the last election cycle. Further reading: Susan Jacoby's book: The Age of American Unreason (interview on left-wing blog Alternet here,) and 1964's Anti-intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter. Pierce appears regularly on NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!, and is a feature writer for Esquire, Slate, The American Prospect and the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, usually on sports. He's also the author of several books, including Hard to Forget: An Alzheimer's Story.

A Moment in Time

nola — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:53:18 -0800

AronRa has done some really nice YouTube vids on science (previously). In this latest vlog An Archaeological Moment in Time, he take(s) a look at how different societies are advancing at different rates on the same date in the distant past.

Culture & Barbarism

Dumsnill — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:25:40 -0800

Metaphysics in a Time of Terrorism. (via)

SpaceTime TV: Free Videos on Heaps of Topics

Effigy2000 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:37:42 -0800

SpaceTimeTV collects and lets you watch all the best educational videos online from full length documentaries (such as the 50 minute long Is There Life on Mars) to short video clips such as this one on glaciers and global warming. There are hundreds of videos on topics including history, space, technology, and nature.

The compatibility of science and religion

homunculus — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:30:23 -0800

Seeing and Believing: The never-ending attempt to reconcile science and religion, and why it is doomed to fail. [Via Pharyngula]

Islam and Evolution

homunculus — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:31:23 -0800

Bracing for Islamic Creationism (PDF). "To avoid a vast rejection of evolution in the Muslim world, scientists can present the theory as the bedrock of biology and can stress its practical applications." [Via]

The Subversion of the EPA

homunculus — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:00:32 -0800

Smoke and Mirrors: The Subversion of the EPA. "This four-part series details how the Bush administration weakened the EPA. It installed a pliant agency chief, Stephen L. Johnson. Under him, the EPA created pro-industry regulations later thrown out by the courts. It promoted a flawed voluntary program to fight climate change. It bypassed air pollution recommendations from its own scientists to satisfy the White House." [Via Reality Base]

Gobekli Tepe

homunculus — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:30:10 -0800

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple? "Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization."

Time

nola — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:33:18 -0800

Flow of Time is a BBC documentary that "tries to explain time and covers the different ways we have used to understand Time, religion, mathematics, relativity, and quantum mechanics." Part 1, 2, 3, 4

Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England

finite — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:20:38 -0800

"Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still." The comments are included on a Church of England website promoting the views of Charles Darwin to be launched on Monday.

Why there are still monkeys

homunculus — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:15:26 -0800

Why are there still monkeys?

Dignity and Bioethics

homunculus — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:35:43 -0800

The Stupidity of Dignity: Conservative bioethics' latest, most dangerous ploy. Steven Pinker reviews Human Dignity and Bioethics, the latest report from the President's Council on Bioethics. dgaicun posted Pinker's article in the Leon Kass vs. ice-cream thread, but I think it and the report deserve their own post.

3 to 10 classroom hours

Artw — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:09:59 -0800

16% of US science teachers believe human beings have been created by God within the last 10,000 years. 25% of science teachers spend some time teaching about creationism or intelligent design. 12.5% teach it as a "valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species". 2% say they do not cover evolution at all. Teachers who have taken more science courses themselves devote more time to evolution - "This may be because better-prepared teachers are more confident in dealing with students' questions about a sensitive subject."

"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses"

homunculus — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:55:26 -0800

Childish superstition: Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear.

The Alien is my Brother

Snyder — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:04:40 -0800

Vatican's chief astronomer states that belief in alien life does not conradict faith in God. Fr. José Gabriel Funes, a Jesuit preist and chief astronomer for the Vatican, stated in an interview in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, that, "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation." Fr. Funes goes on to speculate that aliens might be free from original sin, as well as stating the Bible "is not a science book," and that the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. (The original article in Italian.) Coincidentally, the UK's Ministry of Defence just released it's previously classified UFO files.

Here we go...

krash2fast — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:21:17 -0800

Well, it seems that some British scientists have succeeded in creating a human embryo from three parents. Oh, let the games begin... I should point out that the "third parent" is an egg donor, and the egg only contributes to mitochondrial dna, but I am sure that the fundies will jump on this in a cocaine heartbeat.

Trilobite Creationism

homunculus — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:40:27 -0800

Worship the Trilobite. [Via Pharyngula.]

Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0.

Prospero — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:38:13 -0800

Beyond Belief: Enlightment 2.0. Video of the five sessions of the 2007 Beyond Belief conference on science and religion has been posted at The Science Network's website. Each Google Video runs about four hours. (This year's speakers; this year's agenda; previously.)

The Dalai Lama talks with neuroscientist about craving, suffering and choice

Kattullus — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:57:11 -0800

Traveling a lot this weekend? Long drive, plane or train ride? You can use that transit time to listen to the Dalai Lama talk for more than four hours with neuroscientists and Buddhist scholars on the topic of craving, suffering and choice. Part one. Part two. [iTunes links] If you're stuck at home, you can watch the video. The video link has the full list of participants.

Surrealistic Lilliputian Realm

homunculus — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:56:09 -0800

The Inner Life of an Intelligently Designed Cell? Remember The Inner Life of a Cell animation (discussed here)? Apparently the Discovery Institute (recently discussed here) is showing it in presentations with a new title and narration, and without attribution.

An 18th Century Debate About Intelligent Design

amyms — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:08:09 -0800

Sex Ratio Theory, Ancient and Modern - An 18th Century Debate about Intelligent Design and the Development of Models in Evolutionary Biology [pdf file]. The design argument for the existence of God took a probabilistic turn in the 17th and 18th centuries. Earlier versions, such as Thomas Aquinas’ 5th way, usually embraced the premise that goal-directed systems (things that “act for an end” or have a function) must have been created by an intelligent designer. This idea – which we might express by the slogan “no design without a designer” – survived into the 17th and 18th centuries, and it is with us still in the writings of many creationists. The new version of the argument, inspired by the emerging mathematical theory of probability, removed the premise of necessity. It begins with the thought that goal-directed systems might have arisen by intelligent design or by chance; the problem is to discern which hypothesis is more plausible. From Professor Elliott Sober.

The Pope with the Robotic Head

Iridic — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:16:11 -0800

Gerbert D'Aurillac: mathemetician and engineer, Pope, ghost, and meddler with dark forces. The superstitious and rather insulting assumption that Gerbert's intellectual achievements could only be supernatural in nature has survived to the present day. More modern mythmakers have outed him as a disciple of The Nine, the enigmatic circle of savants and scholars who have custody over science's more dangerous secrets. Apparently they were the ones who gave him his robotic brass head.