Archives for April, 2011
Candy from strangers
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 28, 2011 Thanks to BoingBoing for this example of the importance of skepticism: A gang of thieves in Istanbul, Turkey have reportedly been dressing like doctors and distributing sedatives door to door, telling residents the medicine was related to a test for high blood pressure. Once the victims dosed, the thieves would rob them. As part of…
Muslim women speaking about hijab
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 26, 2011 The hijab and niqab worn by some Muslim women have hit the news lately, especially after France’s ban on the veil worn by some Muslim women (niqab) went into effect, and after death threats against a British imam who held that wearing hijab (a scarf covering the hair) was a woman’s choice (he also held…
About that letter
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 26, 2011 Chad Orzel says Support the National Center for Science Education: I try not to do any shilling for political groups on the blog, but I’ll make an exception for the National Center for Science Education. Why? Three reasons: 1) They do good and important, if not always glamorous work, supporting the teaching of evolution in…
What is New Atheism?
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 25, 2011 ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s…
Too few people know that they know an atheist
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 22, 2011 Chris Mooney reports on Psych Evidence that Supports New Atheism, writing: In general, I believe what we know about human psychology runs contrary to the New Atheist approach and strategy. However, I do my best to follow the data, and here’s a study that suggest at least one aspect of their approach may work. The…
Does theism matter?
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 21, 2011 A few days ago I was over at Jerry Coyne’s blog and got into some conversations that regular readers here might be interested in. In the course of one of his regularly scheduled whinefests about how people are too mean to gnu atheists, Coyne wrote: we’re not McCarthyites with a secret “list”. Here are some…
Fame!: Point of Inquiry Podcast edition
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 20, 2011 Point of Inquiry: Our guest this week is Josh Rosenau, the Programs and Policy Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), and writer of the blog “Thoughts from Kansas” at ScienceBlogs…. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Josh presents the “Three Pillars of Creationism”, the beliefs and claims of creationists. He describes their…
Demand that NSF follow NIH’s lead on open access publishing
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 20, 2011 Aaron Schwarz has a petition urging The White House and Congress to unlock science research: Three years ago this week, the National Institutes of Health announced that all medical research they fund would have to be published as “open access” — available to anyone, for free, over the Internet. The policy has been a huge…
Does meditation make people act more rationally?
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 20, 2011 Via USA Today, we learn about a study showing that people who meditate frequently behave in a more rational manner than non-meditators, and they do so because different parts of their brain take charge of certain kinds of decisions. The study was based around a common test of rational behavior called the Ultimatum Game. Two…
Not just a river
Posted by Josh Rosenau on April 20, 2011 Chris Mooney has been hard at work lately, through his journalism, his blogging, and his podcast at the Center for Inquiry, trying to understand why denialism is so pervasive. In the new issue of Mother Jones, he lays out some of “The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science“: an array of new discoveries in…
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the