Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to the beginning of the work week and a holiday week for nearly everyone: Monday, December 20, 2021. It’s National Sangria Day, which is not only inappropriate for the season, but a case of blatant cultural appropriation. It’s also Go Caroling Day (I’ve done it exactly once in my life), Mudd Day (a curious … Continue reading Monday: Hili dialogue
Ah, we have’t heard from Alain de Botton for a while, and I haven’t missed him (see all my posts on him here). He was always a faitheist, an atheist-butter, and an arduous advocate for atheist churches, which I don’t particularly object to but also don’t feel we need. de Botton is also patronizing: the … Continue reading Camus on the plague, and de Botton gets the vector wrong
The Big Think seems obsessed with the relationship between science and religion. I can’t think of how many posts I’ve done about their interviewees discussing this issue. The 14-minute video below features a number of prominent people weighing in on the question, “Has science made religion useless?” That’s a question different from, “Is there a … Continue reading Has science made religion useless?
When I read this NYT op-ed by David Brooks, after gagging at the title (how can a plague have a “moral meaning” in itself?), I suspected he might be religious. For the entire article is marinated in the idea that the plague not only has a “higher meaning”, but also that that meaning is instantiated … Continue reading David Brooks does secular theodicy
I haven’t yet watched this “Munk Debate” on whether humanity is progressing, but you can be assured I will. (It’s an hour and a half long). The Munk Debates are held twice yearly in Toronto, dealing with social and political issues. One that you might have seen already is the 2010 debate between Tony Blair and Christopher … Continue reading Munk debate on human progress: Pinker and Ridley vs. Gladwell and de Botton
Until this week’s episode is posted, this will be the last “Moments of Wonder” for a while. I hope you’ve enjoyed your interlude with the dauntless Philomena Cunk (“Who are you and what are you an expert in or of?”); I know I have! In this episode Philomena tells us that “Moh-neh” is simply the … Continue reading Philomena Cunk on Money
Today’s Jesus and Mo pwns both accommodationists like Alain de Botton as well as those Sophisticated Theologians™ who argue that “real” religion doesn’t make truth claims: Jesus is reading Alain de Botton’s book, Religion for Atheists, while Mo is, of course, perusing the only book that many Muslims see as worth reading.
Instead of going to church today, we can have our special Alain de Botton-Approved Religion Substitute by worshiping at the church of Our Lady of Natural History. There is in fact a wonderful new discovery about frogs, one described in a new paper in the Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society by Juan Guayasamin et al. … Continue reading A new and bizarre shape-shifting frog
