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PZ and Crommunist offer nice denunciations of the significance of a graphic which has been going around the internet which concludes that the chance of any given individual alive today ever existing was 1 in 102,685,000. Below the fold is the graphic, key snippets of their remarks and the lesson to draw for how we should consider [...]
Archive for the ‘Biology’ Category
Thinking According To Scale
November 21st, 2011 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Biology, Biology, Ethics, Ethics, Evolution, Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Naturalistic Fallacy, Naturalistic Fallacy, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Probability, Psychology, Psychology, PZ Myers, PZ Myers, Science, Science, Sociobiology, Sociobiology 
Tags: Crommunist Manifesto, Grind the universe down to its finest powder, Hierarchical Reductionism, PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins, Richard Dawkins on Reductionism, Terry Pratchett, The Blind Watchmaker 
3 Comments »Finding And Combating Aging Genes
November 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Cynthia Kenyon at TED: via Colin Farrelly Your Thoughts?
Is Oxytocin The “Morality Molecule”
November 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke That is Paul Zak’s theory. The video is fascinating: Now I just need to find 8 people to hug me everyday. (via Philosopher’s Haze, who you can read for a summary if you cannot watch the video for some reason). Patricia Churchland’s book Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality explores the role of Oxycotin in morality [...]
Posted in Biology, Biology, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Philosophy, Psychology, Psychology Tags: Adam Smith, Empathy, Oxytocin, Paul Zak, Trustworthiness 9 Comments »PZ Bait
November 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Is this squid dead or alive? Michael at a Nadder! explains what is going on:
“Not Everything In Life Is Logical”
October 24th, 2011 Daniel Fincke When we rationalists, naturalists, and other assorted atheists insist that no one should form beliefs that disregard logic and evidence, the defenders of faith often tell us that “Not everything in life is logical”, or use some variant of this phrase. What might they mean by this? Where is their confusion exactly and how best [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Astronomy, Astronomy, Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Biology, Biology, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Evolution, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Physics, Physics, Rationalism, Religion, Religion and Science, Science, Science, Secularism, Technology, Technology Tags: "Not Everything In Life Is Logical", Logic, Naturalism 17 Comments »Autism Linked To Absence of a Cluster of Genes
October 11th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Dr Wigler suggested the missing cluster is a 27-gene grouping on chromosome 16. Most people have two sets of the cluster – individuals with autism have only one, or just fragments of the second, the researchers say. Now Dr Wigler’s colleague, Alea Mills, has found the deleted gene cluster not only plays a role in [...]
A Fluorescent Green Cat Could Help Combat AIDS
September 19th, 2011 Daniel Fincke For real. Learn how here. (via) Your Thoughts?
Offer Nominations for 3 Quarks Daily’s Prize for Best Blog Writing in Philosophy
September 4th, 2011 Daniel Fincke For the third straight year, 3 Quarks Daily will award a prize for blog writing in philosophy. Nominate what you think is the best philosophy blog post from the last year by 11:59pm EST on Monday night (September 5). Below the fold are both the full details of the contest and a very good video interview [...]
Posted in Biology, Biology, Ethics, Evolution, Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Psychology, Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Psychology Tags: Cognitive Science, Neuromorality, Neurophilosophy, Patricia Churchland No Comments »Contra-Steinhart: Why We Should Not Identify As "Evolutionists"
July 31st, 2011 Daniel Fincke While I agree with Eric Steinhart’s claims that atheists need to take metaphysics seriously and while I would be open to considering evolutionary models for answering metaphysical, ethical, and cosmological questions if they are promising, below I am going to briefly surmise several serious reservations I have to Eric’s suggestions that we ditch the term [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Biology, Biology, Cosmology, Cosmology, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Evolution, Evolution, Faith, Faith, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Science, Secularism 5 Comments »Tyson On How We Can Tell Nature Was Not Designed For Us
March 19th, 2011 Daniel Fincke A really nice rundown from Neil deGrasse Tyson: Your Thoughts?
What is Life?
March 3rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Can we define it? Can we recognize it elsewhere in the universe if we cannot even define it? Thanks to Helen. Your Thoughts?
Defending The Apparent Truth Of Evolution's Mindlessness
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Last Christmas Eve, I argued that the belief that God “guided evolution” was not a rationally respectable way to reconcile science with faith but rather it was essentially an effective denial of the theory of natural selection, in its scientifically explanatory sense. Part of the revolutionary character of the discovery of evolution by natural selection [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Biology, Biology, Creationism, Creationism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Evolution, Evolution, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Science, Secularism Tags: Alvin Plantinga, Eugenie Scott, Huston Smith, Jerry Coyne, National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), National Center for Science Education (NCSE) 4 Comments »7 Reasons Not To Celebrate Darwin Day
February 12th, 2011 Daniel Fincke I have been chastened. Next year: no Darwin Day posts. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Biology, Biology, Evolution, Evolution, Videos Tags: Charles Darwin No Comments »Kansas vs. Darwin
February 12th, 2011 Daniel Fincke From today through March 12, you can screen Kansas vs. Darwin. Description of the film: Even before they took place, the 2005 Kansas school board hearings on evolution were recognized as a pivotal battle in America’s ongoing war over teaching evolution in the public schools. Organized by believers in Intelligent Design and convened by creationists, [...]
Rebutting "Irreducible Complexity" Claims
February 12th, 2011 Daniel Fincke A couple of months ago I profiled a spectacular video in which Qualia Soup succinctly, clearly, and precisely debunked the creationist argument that within organisms there are designs which are so irreducibly complex that they could not have evolved but must have been intelligently designed. In reply to that video came criticisms from creationists and [...]
Posted in Biology, Biology, Creationism, Creationism, Evolution, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Science, Science Tags: Irreducible Complexity 1 Comment »Dennett: Darwin Had The Single Greatest Idea Anyone Ever Had
February 12th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This is a terrific video in which Dennett and Dawkins get further into the weeds discussing the dynamics of evolution, responsibility, how you can make living things out of dead stuff and conscious ones out of unconscious ones, the wonder of natural processes, the idea that we have souls—but they’re made of neurons, and many [...]
Posted in Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Biology, Biology, Daniel Dennett, Daniel Dennett, Evolution, Evolution, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Science, Science, Videos Tags: Charles Darwin, Complexity, Daniel Dennett, Meaning, Purpose, Richard Dawkins, Teleology 2 Comments »Human Evolution Made Easy
February 12th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Darwin’s “little heresy”: Thanks to Meko. Your Thoughts?
Richard Dawkins: Waking Up In The Universe—Growing Up In The Universe
February 12th, 2011 Daniel Fincke A great video: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Biology, Biology, Evolution, Evolution, Science 4 Comments »Cat Faber's "The Words Of God"
February 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This is another, meditative Sunday afternoon song, each of I’ve lifted from either this post or its comments section). This one though is not satirical and should be genuinely amenable to the more sophisticated theist (or pantheist or other believer in a philosopher’s god of some sort), who wants more God in her view of [...]
PZ Myers Video: Science And Atheism Are Natural Allies
January 30th, 2011 Daniel Fincke The first, and most interesting, claim: “Nothing will ever prove that evolution is wrong.” Second, and second most interesting, claim: “Nothing can prove the existence of gods, not one thing.” Third, and third most interesting, claim: that all this entails not closed-mindedness but pragmatism. Fourth, and fourth most interesting, claim: atheism is more than what [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Biology, Biology, Evolution, Evolution, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, PZ Myers, PZ Myers, Science 5 Comments »Scientists’ Spiritualities As Alternative Models Of Religiosity
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke In my last post, I made clear that I am by no means an “accommodationist” who wants to let religious claims to hegemony over ethics, metaphysics, or epistemology go unchallenged as part of a deal whereby it agrees to either cooperate with or, minimally, not interfere with science education and science-based public policy. In a [...]
Posted in Astronomy, Astronomy, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Biology, Biology, Cosmology, Cosmology, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Science, Science, Secularism Tags: Accomodationism, Adam Frank, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Chris Mooney, E. O. Wilson, Elaine Howard Ecklund, James Moore, Peter Doherty, Rudolf Otto, The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate, The Origin of Species, The Voyage of the Beagle 4 Comments »Dawkins Debunking The Story Of Noah’s Ark
December 25th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Bible, Bible, Biology, Biology, Evolution, Evolution, Religion, Religion, Science Tags: Richard Dawkins No Comments »
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