Blogs

Was Darwin's horrid doubt just horrid - or a reasonable fear?:

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... the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?

From the Discovery Institute:

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Turning Darwin Day Into Academic Freedom Day

Whom he will miss, for his just-over-the-cutting-edge science:

Friend Malcolm Chisholm, who has a wonderful approach to information (= he reads a lot) writes to tell me of a book written by Alfred Russel Wallace (Darwin's co-theorist) on the question of the habitability of Mars:

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It is called "Is Mars Habitable?" It was written in 1907 when Wallace was living in Broadstone, Dorset (where I went to school).

According to British journalist Melanie Phillips, when Richard Dawkins and John Lennox had their second debate, at the same location (in Oxford) where Samuel Wilberforce and T.H. Huxley famously debated, Dawkins offered a surprising (for him) admission:

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Genetic sequence comparisons are often used to try to establish relationships in evolution. But as Robert Deyes, writing over at Access Research Network, shows, the molecular "clock" often conflicts with the "tree of life.":

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This, from Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, is the explanation I have long been seeking: Why is there so much confusion around the concept of social Darwinism? That is, if one takes Darwin's theory of evolution seriously in any respect at all, government should let nature sort out who's fit and who's not - rather than interfering through eugenics.

From the (Double) Standard Measurement Department in Britain (so much Brit news these days!), a Church of England clergyman has been ordered to remove

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comments about gay people from his blog, remarks described by his diocese as "highly offensive".

The Rev Peter Mullen, who ministers in the City of London, said he had gay friends and the words were "satirical".

Of course pigs can fly, but they must travel in the cargo hold.

An interesting discussion is now taking place at the American Scientific Affiliation list, led by science historian Ted Davis.

In the past, that list has struck me as a home of faith and science has-beens (and never-wuzzes) bashing intelligent design.

In Scientific American's Mind Matters, Jonah Lehrer interviews the University of Toronto's Chen-Bo Zhong on how mental states can create physical sensations (Metaphors of the Mind: why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty, September 25, 2008).