Russel Blackford interview A.C.Grayling

Date: 11 March 2010 10:14:39

Today I attended this interview at the Nova Cinemas in Lygon Street, Carlton at 6:30 tonight. It went for an hour and consisted of each writer giving their testimonies about why they became athiests.

Each had come to it from reason where the beliefs of Christianity were based on Ancient Greek Myths of one kind or the other. Usually from Secondary School to undergraduate studies at Univercity.

Not all of us can claim such priveleges, and some of us concluded to stay in their particular traditions. Grayling explained that the recent stridentism of the New Atheists began as a reaction to 911, that horrible attack on the Twin Towers in New York City in 2001. This was caused by religiously inspired Radical Fundamentalist Muslims.

The response by the US and UK seemed to have been inspired by Fundamentalist Christians seeking a way forward to Armageddon. So irrationalist thinking on both sides moved this New Atheist movement forward with the assistance of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris and Chriistopher Hitchins.

All six people mentioned are worth reading on the subject and I will list the books as an addendum to this post.

Graylings explanation as to why Atheist is a better descriptive than Agnostisms was interesting as a reply to a question. Agnostisism posits we don't know whether their is a god and Atheism states that the probabilty is so low of the existence of a deity that it is reasonable and logical that there is no god and therefore Atheism is a better descriptor.

In my opinion, I agree with Grayling, then it is up to the believer to bring forward the extraordinary evidence required to establish the extraordinary proof required when all scientific endeavors have contradicted all the thrusts believe.

Clifford M Dubery

Sent from my iPhone

Fwd: Friday Night at the Global Atheist Convention

>

> Today is Friday after the evening opening session of the Global
> Atheist Convention. The speakers were, David Nichols, Stuart Beckman
> and Kylie Sturgess who were the opening and introduction. David
> Nicholls, President, Atheist Foundation of Australia spoke of the
> successful set up and preparation for the Convention and the failed
> attempt to garner State Government assistance unlike The World
> Congress of Churches which recieved 5 million AUD from the State
> Government. I understand the application for the Atheists is still
> circulating in Spring Street!
>
> Stuart Bechman, President, Atheist Alliance International didn't say
> much except for a few jokes.
>
> Kylie Sturgess from Skepticzone podcast and her own podcast which
> escapes my memory now, riding this train home.
>
> more later
>
> Clifford
>
> Sent from my iPhone

Back Pain and WorkCover Insurance

My son James is struggling with a shoulder injury and chronic backpain caused by the work he does for Safeway here in Australia. It seems to me the workers in our modern world are back at the stone age of the early 20th century. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Foot St,Frankston South,Australia

Philosophy and Evolution

I have been reading various authors over the years from Stephen Jay Gould to Richard Dawkins and many others. This is the first serious philosophy book on the subject I have tried. "Be prepared" is what I recommend, philosophy has never been my strong suite so this has been a learning process for this little black duck. Dennet has been at this game for a long time and taken this field with a level of intelligence that makes you think when he criticizes your favorite author (Steven Jay Gould) and clears up a question of difference when no difference exists ( Scientists tend to argue their own hypothesis against their most prominent opponent, also a scientist), thus allowing the Philosopher to sought out the debate, maybe. Of course, Gould is not the only specialist in Evolution to be taken to task, so I still need to add some books to my Library, like E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology

Epigenetics and Evolution

Epigenetics is proving interesting in its pull on the evolutionary tangent of new species by the way it impacts via the environment on local species as their environment changes. Along with mutation in the DNA itself, but such mutation (creationists insist on calling it random mutation) is not the only source for the variations required by Natural Selection.

Thinking about Surprise

Duane Boyce has written an essay of interest of those of us who follow Science and Religion and it is worth reading even if you do not read the book he is writing about. Surprise is what we should expect in this day and age where our understanding of science and history is greater by the work of the many historians and scientist over the past 200 years or so. All this work should not be ignored simply because it does not fit our world view. Indeed we should be expecting changes occurring to our world view just like science has to deal with every time a new discovery occurs. The movement of the continents recently, within my life changed how we all see this world and it to Geologists a certain amount of time to accept it. Now it is common knowledge and no ones challenges it seriously. Yet that was a Surprise for us at the time and took a while to adjust our world view to accept it. Thus our Creationist brethren need to value Surprise when it happens, and not fight a boundary war with science which they can only loose.

Notice today

This is just to advise my readers I will be blogging tomorrow night, but not tonight, too tired and grumpy. Clifford M Dubery

Giant Snake in the Amazon in our Hot and Humid Past

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/science/earth/05snake.html?ref=science

This is asking questions about the future for our nature with Global Warming.  Maybe they will all adapt to the changes in the environment quite satisfactory as long as Man species Homo Sapien Sapien does not interfere and wipe them out all together. Man's hunting has caused the physical size of phyla 's to trend down at the moment so there maybe two forces actiong on th enevironment concerning size.

I saw this on Times Online and thought you might be interested

For God’s sake, have Charles Darwin’s theories made any difference to our lives?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5488488.ece

What absolute nonsense goes for an article in the Times these days.  Straw dog version of Evolutionary Biology  (Darwinism) is shot down by exaggerated religious concerns and the odd reference to show that it no longer holds its place in science.  Nonsense, absolute rubbish.  Interview some real biologists and stay away from philosophers who haven’t kept up with the literature!!!

Adaptation in Humans

Dmitri Petrov, James Cai, Michael Macpherson, Guy Sella are Stanford Geneticists who have looked in on the adaptationist nature of humans trough the lens of the human genome. The news article at Physorg.com under the heading Stanford researchers show adaptation plays a significant role in human evolution. Here we find that they a have approached this by actually looking for the evidence in the genome itself.  Making a prediction, looking for the evidence, confirming or not, then publishing. What happens next with this I don't know, but we know it doesn't prove Lamarckism because it starts of early explaining that the random mutations are what the adaptations are made from.  The point is more about the preservation of advantageous adaptations and discarding those that are disadvantageous.

Beipaiosaurus was covered in the simplest known feathers

Beipaiosaurus was covered in the simplest known feathers

In Ed Yong’s blog above, these peculiar creatures are explained and further explanations on the origins of Feathers in Birds is covered. It seems that the more we dig, the more Homo Sapien Sapien keeps finding his origins and the origins of all the creatures that exist today, which is becoming more urgent as they too are becoming extinct rapidly.

More links on the feathers and dinosaurs are:

• Evidence that Velociraptor had feathers
• Microraptor - the dinosaur that flew like a biplane
• Argentavis, the largest flying bird, was a master glider

It seems that these variations have been going on for literally Millions of years.

Committee adopts new administrative handbook

It appears the controversy over Louisiana's changes to the Education curriculum has meant nothing to the Science Teachers.  The Discovery institutes bluster and smoke and mirrors has failed.  Maybe they will have to be more explicit in future so our recalcitrant science teachers understand that Evolution is evil and all text books that mention such a thing should be burned!  Burned I say!

 

Clifford M Dubery

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Committee adopts new administrative handbook

 

Posted: Jan 14, 2009 08:44 AM

 

Updated: Jan 14, 2009 09:06 AM

 

By Caroline Moses

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -A state education committee adopted a new administrative handbook Tuesday, as part of the recently passed Louisiana science education act. The handbook does not specifically ban teaching creationism or intelligent design. Supporters say it doesn't need to because teaching religion in public schools is already banned. But that's why opponents say this entire debate is a costly distraction from the real issues facing state public schools.

 

"It's up to BESE to implement this in our policy," said Dale Bayard who is chairman of the state education board.  Senator Ben Nevers of Bogalusa passed a law last session called the "Louisiana science education act." It gives state education committees the authority to decide what can be taught in state schools. But the committee was a little vague about what's allowed. "It's up to us to provide students with every possible element of new discovery and that's the intent of the act," said Bayard.

 

Gene Mills with Louisiana Family Forum asked Senator Nevers to sponsor the original legislation. He says the intent is to promote "critical thinking" in classrooms, especially science classes. "Where teachers can approach students to inquire about controversial science subject matter," said Mills. But Louisiana Federation of Teachers president Steve Monaghan says not a single teacher in his organization has complained about current science materials. "The time spent on this issue may be in total excess of what the problem was because we don't believe there was a problem in the science classroom anyway," said Monaghan.

 

Even the committee chair Dale Bayard who is in favor of the legislation agreed. Lesson plans may not change much. But he says their hours of debate do help further the discussion. "We don't discourage any discussion that's important," said Bayard.  "I believe what this has done is create a stage for what unfortunately seems to be an embedded political movement. We're going to find ourselves getting tied into knots over issues people are invested in by faith, emotion, and miss the big picture," said Monaghan.

 

Monaghan predicts there will likely be future legal battles over the new law and handbook. Bayard says he is not worried about possible litigation. Thursday, BESE will review the committee adoption. State school board and committee member Dale Bayard expects they will ratify the committee's decision. For more information on this discussion.. Go to Caroline's 9News extra on the home page.

 

Who Abandoned the Nest

What an excellent article about a paleontological report in science.

For years it was a problem understanding why this clutch of eggs was abandoned, but now we know. (follow the link on the picture.)

I have always maintained that science will enforce the Theory of Evolution and make the Creationists seem just plain ignorant, and here we are again with evidence and a story about an event over 70m years ago.

Intelligent design debate brews controversy in Texas

Here is a bit more information about the Texas Science Standards Review Panel.  Notice 2 of the anti-evolutionists on the panel are out of state.  Why is it necessary to appoint non local people from a state as big as Texas? 

I would guess the Republican Party members appointed or voted for  have appointed them for a reason, to establish a pro evolution point of view, or at least a voting duality.  I wander how flexible it will be in reality as they are not elected, just appointed.

The anti-science position of the literalist fundamentalist biblicalists group may be voted out as time moves on with the evidence of their Republican politicians being seen a failures in the Economy.

News 8 Austin Story : Intelligent design debate brews controversy in Texas - 10/15/2008 8:49:37 PM

3 evolution critics on advisory panel that will review standards for science courses in Texas schools

Well, Texas appears to be following the Republican Party policy document in Texas by opposing Evolution in Science class in the advisory panel by stacking at least three idproponents in it.  The advisory panels meetings should be interesting, evenly matched between creationists and real scientists.

3 evolution critics on advisory panel that will review standards for science courses in Texas schools | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Regional News

The End of Evolution?| Christianpost.com

On October 9 a prediction of mine happened, well really, an open speculation on my part, yet it happened. The Christian Post is reporting the End of Evolution, a false claim by the Professor Steve Jones at University College London.  R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the writer of this and they both do not seem to understand the rate of evolution and the various paths.  Not only genetic changes but we should also understand that changes can occur afterward whilst development is going on in uteri.  So claiming evolution has stopped or evolutionists are wrong is false.  Changes can occur in our little grey cells inside our cranium as we developed.  It is all by EVO-DEVO which I know by Sean B. Carrol, an author of "Endless Forms Most Beautiful, The New Science of Evo Devo", 2005, Professor of Genetics at University of Wisconsin and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Institute, and Peter Gluckman and Mark Hansen, Mismatch, "Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies".  Thus we all need to read more about how Evolution of Species works, even our selves.

 

The End of Evolution?| Christianpost.com

'Expelled' Approaches DVD Release Date| Christianpost.com

Good grief, I now have a chance of actually seeing this Ben Stein production that lies and lies and misrepresents and lies and ......

Perhaps I will be able to give a perspective that is unique, I doubt it, but when I get a chance, I will review it, but all the critques have been done, and I can't add anything new, perhaps I can link it to Religulous when I get a chance to see it, by all accounts constructed the same way.

'Expelled' Approaches DVD Release Date| Christianpost.com

Mysterious DNA Found to Survive Eons of Evolution - Yahoo! News

I wonder if the Anti-evolution Christian Fundamentalist Crowd will grab this story and use it by misquotes and false attributions etc., to establish the false claim that Evolution doesn't happen and all of science is wrong.

Maybe they will take Steve Jones talk at a UCL lunch-time talk in London on 7 Oct. to claim that evolution is over and it never happened?

We will have to wait and see I guess.  Perhaps you can understand my skepticism and prognostications as a factor of my experience reading and attending these creationist lectures and articles all around the place on the world wide web and here in Melbourne.

Mysterious DNA Found to Survive Eons of Evolution - Yahoo! News

Over 800 Scientists Stand Against Language Critical of Evolution| Christianpost.com

Although this article ends with a summary of the Intelligent Design definition of weakness's and strengths of Evolutionary Theory it appears the scientists themselves are working against the States Republican Party Policy and therefore needs to be watched as the curriculum moves closer to establishment in this large State and therefore a publishers guide as to what to publish in the science text book fro the whole country.

I would say it is about time science fought back publically, what will be next in this saga.

Over 800 Scientists Stand Against Language Critical of Evolution| Christianpost.com

Academics spat over intelligent design | Science | guardian.co.uk

 

Academics spat over intelligent design | Science | guardian.co.uk

What a debate taken from polar opposites can achieve any consensus I don't know, but this one goes on and on, this time AC Grayling vs Steve Fuller in The New Humanist.

Now the Guardian has discovered it, unfortunately little is said about the Christians who have no issue with Evolution, or that the parents who brought the Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area High School Board were Christians who went to Church on Sunday and one family taught Science in School during the week.  With what can be described as EVIL letters and threats to the participants, some from the pulpit, it is a disgrace fro anyone calling themselves Christian IMHO.

Why do the Creationists consider themselves representatives of the rest of of us, I don't know, but they act as if they have never been exposed to what Truth really is or what others believe.  It is sad, because the debates will go on and on with no resolution.  Perhaps Stephen Jay Gould was right when he recommended that such debates should be ignored by Science.  At the same time Science should be better at promoting itself, particularly the Evolution Theory.  Note Theory not Hypothesis, established theory of Biology and various fields of research in Science and Medicine.