Posts tagged as:

science and faith

Is atheism a scientific movement?

October 5, 2009

There’s an interesting kerfuffle that had rather passed me by among some humanists / atheists / secularists (delete according to taste / applicability). I didn’t even know there was an Atheist Alliance International, but apparently they’ve been causing a stir by giving their Richard Dawkins award to Bill Maher for Religulous.
The New Humanist post linked [...]

Read the full article →

Science and religion: is it all just “how?” and “why?”

September 28, 2009

John Anderson has a good set of quotations in a post setting out his “modest proposal” on science and religion:

I think it is feasible to speak of each as having a specific role and addressing very specific questions that the other does not. This is an approach that, near as I am aware, is ‘unique’ [...]

Read the full article →

I’m sorry, but America needs to get a brain

September 11, 2009

I am stunned tonight to learn that the film Creation (which I am really looking forward to seeing), has not yet got a US distributor. I’d like to thank this helpful review at the Panda’s Thumb for telling me that brain bending fact. I can see no other reason than a general fearfulness that mention [...]

Read the full article →

Roasted (Ken) Ham

August 25, 2009

Fred Clark has a great polemic against Ken Ham’s young earth creationism:

You can’t be a young-earth creationist and be from Australia. I think if you’re a young-earth creationist, you’re not even allowed to believe in Australia. That continent is evolution’s playground, it’s showroom. Ken Ham couldn’t have built his Creation Museum in Australia because they [...]

Read the full article →

The anthropic principle: is atheism irrational?

August 11, 2009

The anthropic principle can be articulated in different ways, but for the purposes of this argument let’s sum it up like this. The history of this universe has proceeded in a way that makes it hospitable for the development of life. This history is remarkably improbable, and so are the fundamental characteristics of this universe.
There [...]

Read the full article →

Reason and revelation: who said this? Your guesses please.

August 9, 2009

Set aside the rather Latinate quality of the translation English in this piece of prose from the past, and see if you can guess who said it. Any offers?

I think in the first place that it is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth – whenever [...]

Read the full article →

Faith, science and Francis Collins: the atheist attack (revisited)

August 2, 2009

A little while back, I expressed my surprise at some of Duane Smith’s ruminations about the appointment of Francis Collins as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (in the USA). They struck me as at the most a very tepid welcome, hedged around by anxieties about Collins’ faith. (Though I don’t think my [...]

Read the full article →

Richard Dawkins: the ego has landed

July 29, 2009

It’s a bit hard to get a coherent picture from the different stories about Britain’s first atheist summer camp. But as far as I can tell, it’s supposed to be subsidized and supported by Richard Dawkins. As its intellectual “heart” children have to come up with the best argument for proving unicorns don’t exist. Not [...]

Read the full article →

A question or two for Duane Smith and other atheists

July 9, 2009

Duane raises what I regard as some slightly abnormal concerns about President Obama’s appointent of Francis Collins to head what the Huffington Post describes as “the nation’s premiere medical research agency”. For Duane there is something of a problem in that Francis Collins is a Christian.
The first question (you’ll excuse me if I ask this [...]

Read the full article →

Professional care, prayer and placebos

July 2, 2009

In a sense, this a second part to the previous post, following up the BMA decision that doctors and nurses should not offer to pray for patients. Ruth Gledhill’s post on that, together with the comments, reveal some of the heated reactions around that both from people who do and do not want to be [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries