Don't know why this popped into my head or why i googled it, but i don't think i've ever had __only five google hits on anything else__, or such disparity in the words in the listed links. Blogged for posterity.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
There Was a Tailor Had a Mouse
hi diddle unkum feedle
Don't know why this popped into my head or why i googled it, but i don't think i've ever had __only five google hits on anything else__, or such disparity in the words in the listed links. Blogged for posterity.
Don't know why this popped into my head or why i googled it, but i don't think i've ever had __only five google hits on anything else__, or such disparity in the words in the listed links. Blogged for posterity.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Fact Theory and I Don't Know
Quotes and links to two very good articles i read today
Well evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.
Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us falsely for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
-- Stephen Jay Gould
full article: http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2011/08/evolution-is-fact-and-theory.html
What makes me libertarian is what makes me an atheist -- I don't know. If I don't know, I don't believe. I don't know exactly how we got here, and I don't think anyone else does, either. We have some of the pieces of the puzzle and we'll get more, but I'm not going to use faith to fill in the gaps. I'm not going to believe things that TV hosts state without proof. I'll wait for real evidence and then I'll believe.
And I don't think anyone really knows how to help everyone. I don't even know what's best for me. Take my uncertainty about what's best for me and multiply that by every combination of the over 300 million people in the United States and I have no idea what the government should do.
-- Penn, of Penn and Teller
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/16/jillette.atheist.libertarian/index.html
Well evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.
Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us falsely for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
-- Stephen Jay Gould
full article: http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2011/08/evolution-is-fact-and-theory.html
What makes me libertarian is what makes me an atheist -- I don't know. If I don't know, I don't believe. I don't know exactly how we got here, and I don't think anyone else does, either. We have some of the pieces of the puzzle and we'll get more, but I'm not going to use faith to fill in the gaps. I'm not going to believe things that TV hosts state without proof. I'll wait for real evidence and then I'll believe.
And I don't think anyone really knows how to help everyone. I don't even know what's best for me. Take my uncertainty about what's best for me and multiply that by every combination of the over 300 million people in the United States and I have no idea what the government should do.
-- Penn, of Penn and Teller
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/16/jillette.atheist.libertarian/index.html
Monday, August 15, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
An Atheist Manifesto
1954 Joseph Lewis: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33825/33825-h/33825-h.htm
2005 Sam Harris: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Sam_Harris/Atheist_Manifesto.html
2005 Sam Harris: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Sam_Harris/Atheist_Manifesto.html
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Gray Matter
In teh netz delightful webby way, i came across this site today:
In a large sample of young adults, we related self-reported political attitudes to gray matter volume using structural MRI. We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala.
anterior cingylate cortex -- a gray matter of the brain associated with understanding complexity
right amygdala -- an almond-shaped area that is associated with fear and anxiety
In a large sample of young adults, we related self-reported political attitudes to gray matter volume using structural MRI. We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala.
anterior cingylate cortex -- a gray matter of the brain associated with understanding complexity
right amygdala -- an almond-shaped area that is associated with fear and anxiety
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