In disputes between supernaturalists and naturalists, one of the minor themes has to do with uniqueness and identity. Naturalists inclined toward functionalism usually think that the mind, for example, is what the brain does, while religious people tend to believe in souls and spirits. But functionalists then also have to think that copies of minds … Uniqueness

I just finished another book that’s an example of postmodern Muslim blather, Anouar Majid’s Unveiling Traditions. Typical of the genre, it’s full of moral posturing against colonialism, capitalism, Orientalism, secularism, and the modern world in general. It presents itself as politically leftist, but it’s the sort of anti-Enlightenment left that traffics in romantic nostalgia about … Against community

I often suggest that there are at least cynical reasons to encourage those scientists who proclaim the compatibility of modern science and traditional faiths. The need for such a protective coloration to present to the public is especially plausible when trying to keep creationists out of the hair of scientific interests. Still, I admit that … Theistic Evolutionists

According to Haaretz, recently Dozens of rabbis and Kabbalah mystics armed with ceremonial trumpets took to the skies over Israel on Monday to battle the swine flu virus. . . About 50 Jewish holy men chanted prayers and blew shofars (ritual rams’ horns) in an aircraft circling over the country in the hope of stopping … Rabbis against swine flu

In educated, liberal circles today, the conventional wisdom about science and religion is that they are compatible. Each belongs to a different sphere. In one popular formulation, natural science produces naturalistic explanations of natural phenomena, while the sphere of religion is knowledge about an entirely different realm, the supernatural. Or, possibly, science is about a … Separate spheres

Hey, check out Liberty University’s on-line theology and apologetics program! http://www.luonline.com/index.cfm?PID=17668 It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools!

Chris Mooney, journalist and author of the eye-opening The Republican War on Science, teamed up with Sheril Kirshenbaum, a scientist involved in science policy, to write Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future. It has its good parts. But possibly because I expected more from Mooney, my overall impression is one of faint disappointment. … Unscientific America

I just finished reading Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges. He’s an interesting writer, who has previously gone after both the Religious Right in American Fascists and the New Atheists in I Don’t Believe in Atheists. My immediate interest in the book was due to a … Transcendent values for radicals

There’s an interesting new(ish) academic web site called “Investigating Atheism.” It collects some useful social science and historical information, and other stuff. The material has something of a theologically liberal spin on it, though the site disingenuously claims neutrality: The Investigating Atheism project is designed to stimulate interest, thought and debate on this important topic … “Investigating Atheism” web site

I’ve recently read a number of nonbelievers commenting on the appointment of Francis Collins to head the NIH. These include an editorial by Sam Harris, which expresses concern. Russell Blackford pragmatically accepts Collins’s appointment as not that bad. From my point of view, there is nothing wrong with NIH being headed by an outspoken evangelical … Collins heading NIH