Category: Events

An annotated Origin of Species

May 27, 2009 • 8:29 am

Hot off the press — Harvard University Press, that is: an annotated version of the first edition of On the Origin of Species.  James T. Costa, a professor of biology at Western Carolina University, has taken the first edition of The Origin and, page for page, annotated it with explanations, historical background, and so on.  You can download a sample group of pages from the website and have a look.  I’ll be ordering a copy, and my friends who have seen the pre-publication version give it a unanimous thumbs up.

Daniel Hauser and mother flee to Mexico

May 21, 2009 • 8:24 am

Daniel Hauser, the poor 13-year-old kid who has treatable lymphoma, but whose parents won’t let him get treatment because of their faith-based objections, has apparently fled toward Mexico with his mother.  This after they fled a court-ordered treatment of chemotherapy, and, if they refused to comply, removal from his parents’ care and placement in a foster home.

They may be seeking quack cures, such as laetrile, in Mexico.  Warrants have been issued for his mother, Colleen.

It has recently come to light that Daniel, who has been home-schooled, is illiterate —  at the age of 13!!!!  What does this say about his parents’ real concern for him, or about his own ability to understand what he is refusing?

He is being murdered, slowly, in the cause of faith.  If his mother is caught and the delay has caused Daniel’s death, she should be tried for murder.  But of course the consideration of “faith” will mitigate any punishment she receives.

His mother’s behavior is evil, pure and simple. Daniel does not deserve this.  Is this one of those evils that God permits in the world to achieve a greater good? If so, what is the greater good?

Join the Reason Project

May 21, 2009 • 7:11 am

Under the inspiration of Sam Harris, a nonprofit organization called The Reason Project has been formed under the trusteeship of Sam, his wife Annaka, and Jai Lakshman.  The website can be accessed here, and the aims are these:

The Reason Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. Drawing on the talents of the most prominent and creative thinkers across a wide range of disciplines, The Reason Project seeks to encourage critical thinking and wise public policy through a variety of interrelated projects. The foundation will convene conferences, produce films, sponsor scientific studies and opinion polls, publish original research, award grants to other charitable organizations, and offer material support to religious dissidents and public intellectuals — all with the purpose of eroding the influence of dogmatism, superstition, and bigotry in our world.

While the foundation is devoted to fostering critical thinking generally, we believe that religious ideas require a special focus. Both science and the arts are built upon cultures of vigorous self-criticism; religious discourse is not. As a result, unwarranted religious beliefs still reign unchallenged in almost every society on earth—dividing humanity from itself, inflaming conflict, preventing wise public policy, and diverting scarce resources. One of the primary goals of The Reason Project is to change this increasingly unhealthy status quo.

We are always looking for creative ways to involve the community in our efforts. If you would like to contribute to the work of The Reason Project, please fill out a volunteer application. We encourage you to consider the work of The Reason Project your own.

There is a nice advisory board, including luminaries like Sam, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Steve Pinker, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and one non-luminary, moi.   Our goal is not to constanty attack or wipe out religion, but to spread rationality (granted, the spread of one is inimical to the existence of the other).  But have a look at the website and do volunteer or join up if you’re interested.  There are some cool projects listed, and more in the offing.

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Contest: Name a truth revealed by faith

May 20, 2009 • 11:43 am

I’m sure you can tell I’m back by the title above.  I’ll be here sporadically until next Tuesday, as I have to do the day job as well as visiting friends.  In the meantime, here’s a contest.  The winner gets the same prize as in the last contest: a copy of WEIT, autographed as you choose.  Warning: there may be no winner in this contest.

Here goes.  In reading the accommodationist literature of the National Academy of Sciences, the NCSE, the NAS, and theologians like John Haught, John Polkinghorne, etc., I constantly hear that “faith and science are two different ways of understanding the world; each gives us access to different truths.”

Using the Oxford English Dictionary definition of truth given below, please name one truth about the world and/or universe that has been arrived at by faith alone, could not be arrived at by secular reason or science, and that is true in that it is in principle verifiable by all people.

OED:   Truth:  Conformity with fact; agreement with reality

NB:  I don’t mean “truth” as “Joe believes in Yahweh”.  That is of course a truth about a person’s belief, but not about the world or universe; and it isn’t arrived at by faith alone, but by observation.  The same holds for statements like “God is good.”

ADDENDUM May 21:  Moral prescriptions are not truths, although they can become truths if they are obeyed.  Thus Lord Kitchener came close when he gave the Koranic statement below, which HAS SINCE BECOME a PARTIAL truth (it’s not true that you always get killed if you blaspheme Islam; depends on how and where) because the Qur’anic injunction was obeyed.  Thus, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, “is not something that was, when it was uttered, in agreement with reality (nor is it now!)  When a mom tells her son “Eat your vegetables,” that is not a truth as defined above. It is a COMMAND.

Here are some examples of such truths:

“There are those of you standing here who will not taste death before the Son of Man comes into his kingdom.”  (Something that Jesus said:  he would return before some people who heard him died.)  Sadly, that one was false.

Any reliable prediction about the future gained through faith:  predictions of second comings that gives dates (as above), world affairs, stock market gyrations, world wars with times and details, etc.

Recounting of past lives in an ACCURATE way giving verifiable details that could not have been known to the person who uttered them.

The stuff below about washing your hands before eating lest ye be afflicted with small deadly animals.

Online radio interview with Dr. Alvin Augustus Jones

May 11, 2009 • 7:47 am

My interview about evolution and WEIT with Dr. Alvin Jones at The Paradise Radio Network on WCBQ-AM (North Carolina) is now online.

Dr. Jones is a religious guy, and told me before we went on the air that he didn’t accept evolution. I have to say, though, that on the air he was absolutely polite and let me present my case without too much dissent.  A pleasurable experience.