“Liberals and conservatives not only have different views of the world – their brains process information differently,” reports The Week (September 28th, 2007). In a scientific study New York psychologist David Amodio, reporting in Scientific American, showed in brain scans that liberals showed more activity in the anterior cingulated cortex, an area of the brain …
Epicureanism, like agnosticism and atheism in modern times, appealed to that minority of people who preferred rationality to beliefs in divine intervention and everlasting life. But Epicureanism also appealed to those who claimed to believe in God. Epicureanism was to be the avowed philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, who must have found Epicureanism compatible with the …
The first Christ Church tutor to be re-elected upon marriage was Richard Shute, a layman and philosopher….Much of Shute’s teaching was done through "private conversations between teacher and pupil’, that is, the individual tutorials which became the norm in Oxford by the turn of the twentieth century…..Lavishing time on his pupils, Shute tried to get …
God himself must be irreducibly complex. Who created him?
“……..-there are plenty of radical new ideas for a future in which sunlight is turned straight into the forms of energy we need. Here are just three of my favourites out of scores of great ideas. First, reprogramming the genetic make-up of simple organisms so that they directly produce useable fuels (hydrogen, for example). That …
Continue reading ‘Something positive! Hope for alternative sources of energy’ »
Pascal said, "Scientific learning is composed of two opposites which nonetheless meet each other. The first is the natural ignorance that is man’s lot at birth. The second is represented by those great minds that have investigated all knowledge accumulated by man, only to discover at the end that in fact they know nothing. Thus …
“On the face of things, better conditions should lead to larger families, not smaller ones. However, it is impossible to argue with the facts, and the facts are that the rate of population increase is dropping, and that the drop is correlated with increases in personal economic well-being.” Geoffrey Carr, Science editor of the Economist, …
“What makes immersive 3D virtual worlds the perfect medium for learning basic math skills is not that they are created digitally on computers. Nor is it that they are the medium of highly seductive videogames such as World of Warcraft (over 7 million players worldwide, although already viewed as passé by many gamers). Rather, it …
“On the face of things, better conditions should lead to larger families, not smaller ones. However, it is impossible to argue with the facts, and the facts are that the rate of population increase is dropping, and that the drop is correlated with increases in personal economic well-being.” Geoffrey Carr, Science editor of the Economist, …
“I am completely optimistic that within what I hope will be my lifetime we will unlock the secret of life, and finally take our understanding of evolutionary biology back to that remarkable transition from non-biological chemistry to biology. Not only will we be able to create life in the laboratory, but we will be able …
“The study of the past and its follies and failures reveals one surprising ground for optimism. In the long run, the idiots are overthrown or at least they die. On the other hand, creativity and achievement are unique, exciting, liberating—and abiding. The discoveries of scientists, the inventions of engineers, the advances in the civility of …
Twenty six centuries have lapsed since Anaximander suggested that rain is not sent by Zeus. Rather, it is water evaporated by the sun and carried by the wind. The battle to realize that the scientific method of representing knowledge and the science-minded mode of thinking is deeper, richer and better for us than any God, …
Continue reading ‘We need more and better science – – and no political interference’ »
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) , an ardent denier of almost anything discovered by scientists that might be uncomfortable for big business (unless it is "science" cooked up by Exxon), recently warned his public about the dangers of a children’s book written by environmental activist and “Inconvenient Truth” producer Laurie David. "Having failed for nearly three …
Do not be afraid of the gods: they do not concern themselves with human problems; nor do they reward or punish you in this world or when you die. There is neither a Heaven nor a Hell.
Some while ago Harpshot commented on the fact that the body was constantly renewing itself, and went on to the problem of ageing. I wanted to comment on his remarks (below): I was amazed (some years ago) to learn that one’s body is constantly re-building itself. Cells just don’t live very long, it seems. Thus, …
