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.
Reader Dave called my attention to this new online magazine called “The Well”. Click on the screenshot to go to the site. And below that, the scary part (I’ve outlined it in red): Templeton! There they go again with the Big Questions, except some of them are answerable this time (“no, we don’t have free … Continue reading A new magazine collaboration between Big Think and Templeton
This is the third study I know of in which intercessory prayer (prayer by strangers for the afflicted) has failed to show results. The first two papers, whose titles are below (click to read) showed that such prayer failed to help patients with heart disease. I’ve discussed these before, and you can see for yourself … Continue reading Intercessionary prayer fails again, this time with covid recovery
The Templeton Prize, now worth $1.3 million, was initiated by the hedge-fund magnate Sir John Templeton (1912-2008) to award accomplished people of faith. As its Wikipedia entry notes, the prize originally went solely to religionists like Mother Teresa (now a saint) and Billy Graham, but has recently morphed more and more into a prize given … Continue reading 2022 Templeton Prize goes to Nobel-winning physicist Frank Wilczek
Well, Scientific American has published an article that, while on a subject of questionable interest, is at least neither woke nor wrong. The topic is panpsychism, which the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines this way: Panpsychism is the view that mentality is fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world. The view has a long and … Continue reading Scientific American on a philosophical grift: panpsychism
I was a bit queasy when I woke up this morning to see the announcement below. It’s not that I don’t like Jane Goodall, for who doesn’t? She’s a respected primatologist, spent years finding out new stuff about chimps, and is also a conservationist and prolific publicizer of science, as well as founder of her … Continue reading Jane Goodall nabs the Templeton Prize
What is a positionality statement? I’ve highlighted them before: they are the (often long) statements about the politics, background, and goals of an author of an academic paper, written by that author and meant to locate him or her in a way relevant to the topic of a paper. Here are a few examples: From … Continue reading Problematic positionality statements
It’s been a long time (over a year) since we’ve examined the oeuvre of Elaine Ecklund a sociologist at Rice University—and now “director of the Religion and Public Life Program in Rice’s Social Sciences Research Institute—who used to be the subject of many posts. The reason? Because she made her living as a researcher heavily … Continue reading Elaine Ecklund has a new book, and yes, it’s more of the same accommodationism
“Give me the child and I’ll give you a faith-ridden adult”. (Implicit motto of the John Templeton Foundation and the Faraday Institute) The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge, England (webpage here) describes itself as “an interdisciplinary research enterprise based in Cambridge. In addition to academic research, the Institute engages in the … Continue reading The Templeton-funded Faraday Institute proselytizes kids by promoting books on God
