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Tag Archives: epistemology
Neutrinos Faster than the Speed of Light: Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence
Or, as the New York Times put it today, “Incredible claims require incredible evidence.” The reference is to the mind-blowing (apparent) discovery that there are neutrinos that can outpace the speed of light. Here’s more from the New York Times: According … Continue reading
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Tagged critical thinking, einstein, epistemology, lizard lick towing, physics, science, speed of light, truth
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Ron Paul Rejects the Theory of Evolution
Very discouraging. I didn’t know that Ron Paul was on the anti-science dark side: . I think that this part of his comment is especially noxious and stupid: Well, first I thought it was a very inappropriate question, you know, … Continue reading
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Tagged anti-science, atheism, epistemology, evolution, libertarianism, philosophy, Republican party, Ron Paul
5 Comments
Is God Belief Unhelpful?
Well, I suppose that depends on what you mean by “unhelpful.” If you think it’s plausible that the universe has an ultimate (good) meaning grounded in a Great Mind that preceded matter, then it becomes an existential question whether or not it … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, epistemology, existentialism, God, Jesus, philosophy, psychology
8 Comments
Paradise Lost: The Problem with God Belief as Properly Basic
Christian philosopher William Lane Craig has written that one’s experience of God can be properly basic for the believer in the same way that, say, the hearing of a piece of music is properly basic for the hearer. It’s an experience … Continue reading
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Tagged Alvin Plantinga, apologetics, atheism, atheist, epistemology, God, innocence to experience, Jesus, philosophy, psychology, sensus divinitatis, william lane craig
3 Comments
Critical Thinking Tip #5: Distinguish Between Conscious and Unconscious Rationality in Yourself and Others
The following are the opening five sentences to Bertrand Russell’s essay, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”, which was first published in the midst of World War II, in 1943, but then broadly distributed after the war: Man is a rational animal—so at … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, bertrand russell, critical thinking, epistemology, Freud, fundamentalism, philosophy, psychology, reason
14 Comments
Critical Thinking Tip #2: Be Alert to Your Premises
Thomas Jefferson once encountered a jaw-dropping claim. The claim that confronted Jefferson was from eyewitnesses who said that they had seen rocks fall from the sky. They even claimed to retrieve fragments from them. And here’s the kicker: the witnesses, under normal circumstances, … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Ayn Rand, critical thinking, epistemology, God, meteors, philosophy, skepticism, Thomas Jefferson, wierd things
10 Comments
The Case against Dumbing Down
I don’t know about you, but I’m totally against dumbing down subjects or language use before my students. I believe, for example, that if the undergraduates sitting before me in a class have limited vocabularies (and they all invariably do), it’s … Continue reading
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Tagged academic culture, college, education, epistemology, pedagogy, vocabulary
4 Comments
A Nice Quote for Countering Epistemic Closure and Confirmation Bias
R. Gordon Wasson has been a long time advocate of a seductive hypothesis: that entheogens (psychedelic mushrooms, etc) have played a significant role in the evolution of many religions, from Hinduism in the East to Persephone devotion in the West … Continue reading
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Tagged eleusis, entheogens, epiphany, epistemic closure, epistemology, magic mushrooms, perception, persephone, philosophy, psychology, screenplay
4 Comments
A Jesus and Mo Cartoon That I Disagree With
There’s a recent Jesus and Mo cartoon (you can see it here) that I disagree with. In the first frame Moses (or is it Muhammad?) is sitting at a bar with Jesus, and Mo says this to the barmaid: If … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, atheism, atheist, caspar melville, dialogue, epistemology, faith, jerry coyne, Jesus, Moses, muhammad, philosophy
12 Comments
Sean Carroll on What It Means to Have a “Sciencey Attitude”
I like this pithy summary, by Sean Carroll, of what science is: Propose an idea, see where it leads, toss it out if it conflicts with the data, build on it if it seems promising. But what if your idea … Continue reading
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Tagged critical thinking, epistemology, physics, reason, science, scientific method, sean carroll, skepticism
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Why I am not a young earth creationist
When it comes right down to it, the tensions between science and biblical literalism boil down to epistemology: how do we go about knowing things, and when is it reasonable to say, “I know something”? In this, the scientist, in his or … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Biblical literalism, creation, epistemology, evolution, evolution v. creation, Genesis, God, Jesus, John Macarthur, Richard Dawkins, the Bible
11 Comments
A critical thinking question: what do you do when experts collide?
On the question of whether the United States is headed for an inflationary period or a deflationary period, highly trained economists are divided. This today at the Economist: Last week, we launched our economics channel with a debate on whether inflation … Continue reading
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Tagged Allen Ginsberg, critical thinking, economics, epistemology, evolution v. creation, experts, life, reason, skepticism
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Thinking about Nietzsche: does truth matter?
One thing that the religious fundamentalist and the secular scientist agree on is this: what is actually true matters. Or, as they say on the X Files, “The truth is out there.” I’m not interested in denying that the world really … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Ayn Rand, epistemology, existentialism, freedom, hippies, imagination, lies, Nietzsche, the counter-enlightenment, truth
9 Comments
Hell is Real, Pope Benedict Says
So according to the Times of London: Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said. Addressing a parish gathering in … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, atheism, atheist, Catholicism, epistemology, God, hell, Jesus, pope benedict, reason, the Bible, torture
6 Comments
Blogging Schick and Vaughn’s “How to Think about Weird Things”
Every other year or so I find myself returning to Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn’s critical thinking text, How to Think about Weird Things, and rereading the whole darn thing through again. Schick and Vaughn’s book is a rather popular college text, and it’s in its sixth edition. … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, atheism, bertrand russell, critical thinking, epistemology, knowledge, philosophy, reason, religion, stephen gould, weird things
2 Comments
“Horton Hears a Who”, Alvin Plantinga, and a Tree Stump in Ireland
In Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book, Horton Hears a Who, an elephant equipped with giant elephant ears can hear the voices of very, very tiny “people” that really are there, lurking among the grasses. Others cannot hear them (because they … Continue reading
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Tagged Alvin Plantinga, apologetics, atheism, atheist, Calvinism, epistemology, God, horton hears a who, Jesus, salvation
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Evolution v. Creation Watch: A Caution about Jumping to Conclusions
Abiogenesis (how life may have come from nonlife) continues to be a thorny problem for science, but ID people and creationists should be careful about running too quickly to the conclusion that the problem is insoluble. I was reminded of this … Continue reading
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Tagged abiogenesis, apologetics, chemistry, Darwin, Darwinism, epistemology, evolution, Genesis, God, life, science, skepticism
4 Comments
Why I’m an Agnostic (and Not an Atheist or Theist)
I would liken my agnosticism about God and the afterlife to someone who is agnostic about life on Mars. At this point in the 21st century, we have enticing Martian clues about methane on the planet, but nothing definitive (it could be … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, doubt, epistemology, God, Hamlet, life on mars, Mel Gibson, Shakespeare
9 Comments
Prometheus Unbound 