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. […]
Science
Science stories that matter, reported from a secular perspective at OnlySky, a secular community for nonreligious Americans.
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 […]
Posted inCritical thinking, General, Science
IMAGINE: a science-literate president
Reading Time: 3 minutes Official U.S. policy on global warming My 12-year-old son Connor asked a heartbreaking question last week: “Is our next president going to be a good one?” His tone was pleading, and I knew what he meant. From the time he was five, Connor has known only one president. Please don’t make me type the name. […]
Posted inParenting & Family, Science
the reason for the season
Reading Time: < 1 minute Spread the word.
Posted inCritical thinking, Parenting & Family, Science
branch-on-ground
Reading Time: < 1 minute Acacia tree at sunset, Laikipia Plateau, Kenya DELANEY (6, after ten silent seconds staring at our bathroom scale): I wonder how people in places like Africa and India weigh themselves if they don’t have scales. DAD: Hm. I never even thought about that. Any ideas? (Five seconds pass.) DELANEY: I know! They could sit on […]
Posted inCritical thinking, Education, Science
NOVA–Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
Reading Time: 2 minutes TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 8-10 PM (on most PBS stations) JUDGMENT DAY: INTELLIGENT DESIGN ON TRIAL Q&A with Paula S. Apsell, Senior Executive Producer of NOVA Q: This program tackles a contentious issue for many people, particularly for many devout Christians. Why did NOVA and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions, your coproducer, take it on? Apsell: Judgment […]