One of the both frustrating and rewarding things about teaching physics is how much I have to work against the grain of everyday common sense thinking. The obvious example is how almost everybody, unless they’re corrupted by having physics beat into their head for years on end, has an Aristotelian conception of force, inertia, and … Blobs of substance

Stanley Fish reviewed Terry Eagleton’s atheist-bashing book in the New York Times this week. I read the review, and emailed a friend that “it seems to be about a book talking nonsense about science, written by somebody clueless about science, reviewed by someone equally clueless about science.” I was going to leave it at that, … Taibbi on Fish and Eagleton

Since at least the European Enlightenment, there have been defenders of a distant, remote version of God. Deists don’t generally have a lot of influence on popular religion, but mainly provide a way of maintaining both intellectual respectability and the ability to call oneself devout. A common argument in the service of deism is that … A disproof of God

In public controversies over science, there’s a lot of interest in questions concerning the origins of things. Evolution, cosmology, the origin of life—these are considered big questions. I see this in the classroom as well. I like to devote a fair bit of time to questions by students, which can range far beyond what’s in … Overdoing Origins

There’s some research out there concerning correlations between intelligence as psychometricians understand it and atheism. I’ve come across (thanks to Prem Dhanesh) another example: “Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations,” by Richard Lynn, John Harvey and Helmuth Nyborg. The abstract: Evidence is reviewed pointing to a negative relationship between intelligence and religious belief … Atheism and intelligence

I have been mostly defending the Trilemma argument against various objections for the past few weeks, so I have not spent much time thinking about how to refute it. I reject the conclusion, of course, on the basis of various other reasons unrelated to the Trilemma. God, as understood in Western theism, is an all-knowing, … The Trilemma Argument – A Preliminary Evaluation

Vic Stenger’s latest book, Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos, and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness is about to come out. Here is the blurb I wrote for it: Physics has developed a reputation of providing support for all sorts of supernatural beliefs, from old-fashioned religions to New Age ideas. Quantum physics, especially, seems to mean “magic” … Quantum Gods

One of the science and religion related debates online that caught my eye lately is aired by people such as the biologist Jerry Coyne and philosopher Russell Blackford, on their blogs. They argue that in their zeal to defend evolution education, many American scientific organizations, from the National Academy of Sciences to the National Center … Endorsing the compatibility of science and religion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU0rcFAX730 I am politically in agreement with such anti-sharia activism. But I am also troubled by the way that we, when defending liberal secular Western individualist policies, we so rarely acknowledge the burdens such a regime places on devoutly religious people. We may defend our views in the name of minimizing harm, but we inescapably … Against sharia

I note that one topic that often pops up in various postings and comments here and elsewhere is the issue of civility. A writer will fequently charge another with incivility, and there will be a riposte charging hypocrisy, since, after all, the first writer has occasionally vented…and so on. Of course, discussions of religion and … On Civility