Hawking and Mlodinow take on philosophy and God

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, in their 2010 book The Grand Design [Hawking2010], present a highly readable and even somewhat entertaining summary of recent research trying to uncover the long-sought “theory of everything,” together with efforts to understand the implications of these theories on modern cosmology (i.e., the study of the origin and evolution of

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There is no royal road to geometry (or biology, geology or theology)

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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

George Santayana’s quote (often misquoted and mis-ascribed) in the title of this post is as relevant today as when the great philosopher first wrote it more than a century ago.

In an illuminating and eloquently-written commentary in the Huffington Post, Southern Louisiana University Professor Matt Rossano highlights the folly of today’s anti-intellectual approach to religious

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Scientists discover 2.1 billion-year-old pre-Cambrian fossils

One of the issues most frequently raised by both creationist and and intelligent design writers is the question of gaps in the fossil record. These writers assert that there are large, significant gaps, and that in general the conventional scientific picture of a smooth sequence of species through the ages is a myth. It is

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Scientists announce creation of synthetic bacteria

Both creationist and intelligent design writers argue that science has yet to understand the origin of life, and that this is a fatal flaw in evolutionary theory [Behe1996; Dembski1998]. It is true that scientists don’t yet understand the origin of life, in particular the origin of the first self-replicating biomolecules. What’s more, unlike bony

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How reliable are measurements of the age of the earth?

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Is That Your Final Answer? Creationism and Atheism Confront the End of Life

Most of us have watched at least one episode of the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” show. The rules of the show specify that the subject be allowed to take as much time as he/she wishes to ponder his answer, may consult one of his/her “lifelines” if desired, and may even think out loud

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New Hominin Species Found in South Africa

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Siberian DNA evidence suggests new hominin species

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Creationism, Global Warming Denial and Scientific Integrity

[Note: This appeared earlier on the Math Drudge blog, which is edited by David H. Bailey and Jonathan M. Borwein.]

Recently considerable attention has been drawn to the fact that some errors were found in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, and the fact that, as revealed in a set of emails

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