What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, Or Beautiful Explanation? | 2012 Annual Question | Edge

 Knowledge, Philosophy  No Responses »
Jan 172012
 

I love this year’s question…

Scientists’ greatest pleasure comes from theories that derive the solution to some deep puzzle from a small set of simple principles in a surprising way. These explanations are called “beautiful” or “elegant”. Historical examples are Kepler’s explanation of complex planetary motions as simple ellipses, Bohr’s explanation of the periodic table of the elements in terms of electron shells, and Watson and Crick’s double helix. Einstein famously said that he did not need experimental confirmation of his general theory of relativity because it “was so beautiful it had to be true.”

via What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, Or Beautiful Explanation? | 2012 Annual Question | Edge.

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Knowledge is Additive and Cummulative

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jan 172012
 

Over the centuries, religions and gods change, but knowledge is additive and cumulative. It grows over time and survives the various superstitions of any particular time in human history. What was true for a triangle in ancient Greece is still true today. What was ‘true’ about Zeus for ancient Greece, is now the stuff of myth and fantasy novels.

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Visualizing DNA Replication – Visualizing The Edges of Human Knowledge – Inspiration in Reality

 Images, Knowledge, Science, Technology  No Responses »
Jan 132012
 

Yet Another Ted Video…More please!  This is Drew Berry, a biomedical animator, and he is about to make you feel really weird inside.

It’s hard to imagine these “machines,” these DNA replicators, these chromosome splitters, and their various working particle proteins, but with the help of the likes of Drew Berry, even a non-scientist can be inspired by the magical nature of reality.

 

 Posted by admin at 7:13 pm

The Clergy Project – a Confidential Refuge for Faithless Clergy

 Religion  No Responses »
Jan 132012
 

Dan Barker, former evangelical preacher and founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation has founded a fascinating online refuge for faithless clergy.

The Clergy Project is a confidential online community for active and former clergy who do not hold supernatural beliefs.

The Clergy Project launched on March 21st, 2011.
Currently, the community’s 130 plus members use it to network and discuss what it’s like being an unbelieving leader in a religious community. The Clergy Project’s goal is to support members as they move beyond faith. Members freely discuss issues related to their transition from believer to unbeliever including:

  • Wrestling with intellectual, ethical, philosophical and theological issues
  • Coping with cognitive dissonance
  • Addressing feelings of being stuck and fearing the future
  • Looking for new careers
  • Telling their families
  • Sharing useful resources
  • Living as a nonbeliever with religious spouses and family
  • Using humor to soften the pain
  • Finding a way out of the ministry
  • Adjusting to life after the ministry

Barker’s book, “Losing Faith in Faith” is an interesting read on how one can carry on in faith when they possess none.

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Build Your Own Society – Learn Your True Politics

 Culture, Economics, Philosophy, Politics  No Responses »
Jan 132012
 

I blogged today on a local Patch website here in St. Louis, MO about a thought experiment presented in the book The Darwin Economy: Life, Liberty, and Common Good.

The thought experiment has to do with building your society from the ground up; which, naturally leads to possible challenges to your political orthodoxy.

Click here to read more…

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Blogger Proves Tebow Passing Stats Refer to Bible Verses

 Culture, Humor, Psychology, Religion  No Responses »
Jan 122012
 

Wouldn’t you know it?  Just about all of Tebow’s passing stats match up to biblical verses.  It’s amazing!  (Or as Michael Shermer would say, it’s patternicity and agenticity in action.)

​In a post entitled “The Book of Tebow,” Armstrong points out that Tebow’s 316 yards came as a result of ten completed passes — and “J,” for “John,” is the tenth letter of the alphabet.

He then applies this same code to Tebow statistics from earlier in the season. For instance, The Chosen One completed four passes for 79 yards against the San Diego Chargers in the season’s fifth game — numbers that call up Daniel (because “D” is the fourth letter) 7:9. It reads:

As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire.

But there is more!  Click here to read on!

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There are at least 100 Billion Planets in our Galaxy Alone…

 Science  No Responses »
Jan 112012
 

Earth is getting less and less “unique” as a planet.  It turns out, according to Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute, “that, on average, every star has a planet, and since there are at least 100 billion stars, there are at least 100 billion planets.

It’s hard to comprehend what that means for the universe considering there are 100′s of billions of galaxies, each containing a hundred billion stars or so.

Read more about this finding originally published in the science journal Nature on wired.com

 

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Hitchens on the Myth of Jesus Christ

 History, Religion  No Responses »
Jan 112012
 

Here is the late Christopher Hitchens speaking on the possible reality of a historical Jesus, as well as the problems with the myth in reality.  I often say that while you can’t prove that God does not exist (any more than you can’t prove that unicorns and fairies don’t exist) Christianity is a different story.  The history of Christianity is just that, history.  You can track its emergence as well as the origins of its writings and apply to the facts of the time.  It is indeed, demonstrably false.

Christopher Hitchens on the Myth of Jesus Christ

 

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Thanks to Romney, 98% of Massachusetts Residents Have Health Coverage

 Politics  No Responses »
Jan 112012
 

There are very few differences between Romney’s plan and Obama’s plan. As a matter of fact, both laws require that everyone have health insurance or face financial penalties.

Romney’s defense?  State government is different that than the federal government.  Right on Romney.  Whatever you say.

It must be strange for Romney that he has to so ardently downplay what may be his greatest achievement as Governor of Massachusetts, 98% health coverage.

 Posted by admin at 6:54 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

The New iHaveAtheory.com

 100 Things Every American Should Know, The Bottom Line  No Responses »
Sep 242011
 

As promised, I have moved (albeit slowly) DaddyHogwash.com over to IHaveATheory.com.  I am using the Suffusion Theme for WordPress and will be working on the layout over the next several weeks.  All of the old blog posts will remain as I populate the site with new ones.

Two Featured Categories of posts will be added.  One is titled ‘The Bottom Line,’ and the other is titled, ’100 Things Every American Should Know’.

For ‘The Bottom Line’ posts, I intend on researching various topics, such as religion, abortion, global warming, etc., and try to take the reductionist, bottom line approach to the arguments.  It’s very likely that the bottom line will change over time as new data is collected, or as more valid arguments are presented.  The Bottom Line is not meant to be the last authority for all, just what is my conclusion on the topics based on the data at hand.  Much of the content in The Bottom Line will overlap with consistent ideas which will fall in line with an over-arching philosophy (yet to be completely defined) which is the greatest purpose of iHaveAtheory.com.

The ’100 Things Every American Should Know’ category will be my attempt at an eventual book, or collection of essays containing essential information that every literate American should know.  Ultimately, I would like to publish this set of essays in book form.

I invite you to come along for the ride.  As my father-in-law is fond of saying, “The more the merrier!”

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