Category Archives: Uncategorized

Full Disclosure

In re the Attorney General’s remarks about the need for us to speak frankly about race, I have a modest suggestion. I suggest that anyone who wants to offer public opinions in this zone should first do a couple of Implicit Association Tests … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Miscellany, February 18

“UC Berkeley Website on Evolution Sued for Violating Establishment Clause”. Sued almost certainly without success: the Ninth Circuit has rejected the claim, although the litigant is seeking Supreme Court review. [Citizen Media Law] Nancy Friedman: You know about those atheist … Continue reading

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Charles Darwin, Conservative?

Here’s an extract from a TNR piece by Alvaro Vargas Llosa on Charles Darwin: “Herein should lie Darwin’s appeal to the right: The English naturalist gave scientific validity to the revolutionary idea that order can be spontaneous, neither designed by … Continue reading

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Belief and criminal offending

Here’s some data that at first glance supports the “religion as social prophylactic” argument.  When asked to state their religion, 46.5% of the 20,000 or so mostly low-level offenders who cycle through the Grand Rapids county jail each year (which … Continue reading

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Marriage-lite

I happen to think that gay marriage will be a very high-risk social experiment, with consequences that we can’t begin to foresee.  But the compromises devised in the hope of placating the modern non-discrimination principle have huge unintended consequences as … Continue reading

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The Origins of Morality?

While no-one who has read Demonic Males: Apes and The Origins of Human Violence can view chimpanzee society as a model of entirely good order, the research described by the Daily Telegraph below (which builds on earlier work showing pretty … Continue reading

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Civility and order

Peggy Noonan argues that faith will hold the United States together during the recession: Tuesday I talked to people who support a Catholic college. I said a great stress is here and coming, and people are going to be reminded … Continue reading

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New Mysterian Plants Marker

Goodness, Heather, you do stir ’em up, don’t you? Look at that comment thread! Perhaps it all hinges on belief in the Afterlife. If you can swallow that, the rest of the God business goes down pretty easily. Thinking about … Continue reading

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Theology and belatedness

Anyone who has not read evolutionary theorist Jerry Coyne’s essay on science and religion in the New Republic is missing a tour de force.  Under review are two books attacking creationism and intelligent design.  Their authors–a physicist at Eastern Nazarene … Continue reading

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Please explain

Will Bill O’Reilly or anyone else who saw the hand of God in the safe landing of US Airways Flight 1549 this January please explain why God chose not to save Continental Connection Flight 3407, which plunged into a house … Continue reading

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