Daylight Atheism » Epistemology

How to Think Critically XI: The Null Hypothesis

Ebonmuse — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:55:15 +0000

So, you may have heard that Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, has a new book on the same subject, called The Power. Personally, I'm bewildered. Her first book promised to tell you how to get everything you've ever wanted. What possible room could there be for a sequel?

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The Language of God: Prelude to Cosmology

Ebonmuse — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:17:50 +0000

The Language of God, Chapter 3

By B.J. Marshall

Part 2 of this book, "The Great Questions of Human Existence," covers topics of cosmology, life on earth, and unpacking the human genome. Chapter 3 begins by tackling cosmology, but Collins throws in a little prelude - a little homage to science. We should keep in mind that Collins' point through all this is to find a way to reconcile faith and science. He's not big into visit site to read more]

The Language of God: A Doubtful Belief

Ebonmuse — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:55:08 +0000

The Language of God, Chapter 2

By B.J. Marshall

Collins starts off this chapter noting that, if we've followed him this far, we've no doubt begun to form numerous objections. That's an understatement to be sure! He gives us some of his own: Isn't belief in God just a case of wishful thinking? Hasn't a great deal of harm been done in the name of religion? How could a loving God permit suffering? How can a serious scientist accept the possibility of miracles? We'll upack those ... [visit site to read more]

The Language of God: And So It Begins

Ebonmuse — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 18:39:38 +0000

By B.J. Marshall

In The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Francis Collins presents what he believes to be the strongest arguments for theism: what he calls the "Moral Law," the origins of the universe, and life on earth. In a nutshell, Collins sees the ubiquity of morality to be the work of God on our hearts; he sees the marvelous universe and the nature of reality to be "an insight into the mind of God" (p.62); and he sees life on Earth to be the ... [visit site to read more]

Two Responses to the Theist's Guide

Ebonmuse — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:11:49 +0000

Earlier this month, Greta Christina published a piece on AlterNet, based on my essay "The Theist's Guide to Converting Atheists", that listed things that would convince her of God's existence. She also repeated the challenge I posed to theists - prove that your beliefs are falsifiable by posting a corresponding list of things that would convince you to become an ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: Redefining Science

Ebonmuse — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:49:46 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Closing Thoughts

The theory of evolution not only explains and unifies a vast range of scientific observations, it's given rise to an enormous, fruitful research program by predicting where we should look in order to find all kinds of phenomena of interest. One of the most famous examples is how Charles Darwin predicted that the earliest human ancestors would be found in Africa, which turned out to be 100% correct. Based on observing flowers from Madagascar, ... [visit site to read more]

What Is Freethought?

Ebonmuse — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:03:42 +0000

I've often used the terms "freethought" and "freethinker" on this blog, but I've never explicitly defined them. In this post, continuing my efforts at defining words that are important to the atheist movement, I want to speak briefly about how I use these terms and what I understand them to mean.

As the Freedom from Religion Foundation defines ... [visit site to read more]

The Poisoned Cup of Theodicy

Ebonmuse — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:32:35 +0000

The world has seen and heard enough about the misery and destruction in Haiti this past week that I don't think I need to dwell on it. But I do want to take some time to address the perennial question of theodicy, which comes up in the aftermath of every disaster like this.

To an atheist, for whom the Haiti quake was nothing more than the result of tectonic plates slipping - a disaster caused by impersonal natural forces and random chance - there is nothing to explain. The laws of the cosmos ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: A Universe Not Made For Us

Ebonmuse — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:59:43 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 7

The final section of this chapter concerns Gonzalez's argument that the Earth is uniquely designed to make scientific discovery possible. His argument is that our planet is fine-tuned not just to allow the existence of life, but to allow us to find out important facts about the nature of the universe that wouldn't be possible to discover if we lived anywhere else. (As an aside, it's asinine for Strobel and his interviewees to celebrate how perfectly ... [visit site to read more]

Cargo Cult Science

Ebonmuse — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:59:30 +0000

During World War II, American forces fighting in the Pacific set up bases on remote islands whose people had had very little prior contact with other civilizations. These people, with technology at a Stone Age level, were amazed by the strange visitors and the almost miraculous cargo they brought with them - chocolate, cigarettes, radio, steel tools. When the war ended and the soldiers left, some tribes went to desperate measures to summon them back, forming religions - cargo cults - which ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: Intellectual Incuriosity

Ebonmuse — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:12:51 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is about the Big Bang and the cosmological argument, and we'll get to those. But I wanted to begin by highlighting an incredible, and telling, statement by Strobel in the opening paragraphs of the chapter.

It seemed to me that the beginning of everything was a good place to start my investigation into whether the affirmative evidence of science points toward or away from a Creator. At the time, I wasn't particularly ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: Pursuing All Possibilities

Ebonmuse — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:00:49 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 2

Before embarking on his interviews, Strobel makes a statement about his investigative strategy:

In selecting these experts, I sought doctorate-level professors who have unquestioned expertise, are able to communicate in accessible language, and refuse to limit themselves only to the politically correct world of naturalism or materialism. After all, it wouldn't make sense to rule out any hypothesis at the outset. I wanted the freedom ... [visit site to read more]