Reading Time: 4 minutes “Can I read you something from my Monster Museum book?” I said sure, not knowing that we were launching a mini-obsession that so far has lasted a week. Delaney (6) flipped to the back of the book, which offers a short “bio” of each monster mentioned in the bad kiddie poetry that fills the rest […]
Science
Science stories that matter, reported from a secular perspective at OnlySky, a secular community for nonreligious Americans.
Posted inCritical thinking, Science
is nothing sacred? epilogue
Reading Time: 3 minutes I recently offered my thoughts on the difference between pointless and pointful challenges to sacredness: Why does the David Mills video I’ve denounced strike me instantly as a profoundly stupid gesture, while [Webster Cook’s removal of a communion wafer from a mass] strikes me just as instantly as an interesting and thought-provoking transgression? The reason, […]
Posted inMyth & Folklore, Science
no cats were harmed
Reading Time: 5 minutes Mother: “Don’t ask so many questions, child. Curiosity killed the cat.” Willie: “What did the cat want to know, Mom?” —The Portsmouth Daily Times, March 1915 An interesting character pops up in religion and folklore around the world and throughout history: the curious and disobedient woman. Here’s the story: A god/wizard gives a woman total […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Science
thinking by druthers 2
Reading Time: 4 minutes [Second installment in a series on confirmation bias. Back to Part 1.] An audience member at my Austin talk asked a good and common question. In The End of Faith, Sam Harris apparently made the case that those who do not hold religious beliefs must be willing to challenge the irrational beliefs of their friends […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Science
thinking by druthers 1
Reading Time: 5 minutes First installment in a series on confirmation bias. “I disagree with what you’re saying, frankly. Strongly disagree.” I guess I ought to delight in this kind of challenge, critical thinking enthusiast that I am. But I’m a chimp, too, which means instead of delighting, I have to suppress an urge to fling feces and hoot. […]
Posted inParenting & Family, Science
the giddy geek
Reading Time: 3 minutes We live in a universe made of a curved fabric woven of space and time in which hydrogen, given the proper conditions, eventually evolves into Yo Yo Ma. — from Parenting Beyond Belief Last year I wrote about Major Tom and the way the Apollo program lit up my imagination and fueled my wonder in […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Raising Freethinkers, Science
go ahead, judge the book by it
Reading Time: < 1 minute A first glimpse of the cover for Raising Freethinkers. I think the folks at Amacom did a very nice job, wouldn’t you say? I’m now at work on a blog series that’s gone completely out of control. It’s been years since I taught courses and workshops in critical thinking, but this topic has it all […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Death & Dying, Parenting & Family, Science
integrity
Reading Time: 7 minutes It’s confirmed: the statistic over which I was so amazed — that 39.6 percent of prominent scientists lost a parent when they were kids — is twaddle. Thanks to blogreader Ryan (who sent the full text of the article I had quoted), I am spared the fate of including a bogus stat in a sidebar […]
Posted inDeath & Dying, Parenting & Family, Science
can death give birth to wonder? (revised)
Reading Time: 3 minutes [NOTE: In preparing the following blog entry, I fell prey to a classic critical thinking error that goes by several names: “selective reporting,” “confirmation bias,” and “being an idiot.” Though the first several paragraphs are impeccably sound, the section on the Woodward paper is, unfortunately, complete rubbish. I say ‘unfortunately’ because it would have been […]
Posted inParenting & Family, Science
wondrous strange
Reading Time: < 1 minute The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature… It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect. Lewis Thomas Connor (12) was studying for a science […]