The Twelve Reasons I Don’t Believe in Supernatural Claims, Part I

What a great collection of arguments against believing in nonsense.

"The Twelve Reasons I Don’t Believe in Supernatural Claims, Part I"

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The Twelve Reasons I Don’t Believe in Supernatural Claims, Part 2

The Twelve Reasons I Don’t Believe in Supernatural Claims, Part II
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Evangelicals Question The Existence Of Adam And Eve : NPR

"Let's go back to the beginning — all the way to Adam and Eve, and to the question: Did they exist, and did all of humanity descend from that single pair?

According to the Bible (Genesis 2:7), this is how humanity began: 'The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.' God then called the man Adam, and later created Eve from Adam's rib. Go To Article

Polls by Gallup and the Pew Research Center find that four out of 10 Americans believe this account. It's a central tenet for much of conservative Christianity, from evangelicals to confessional churches such as the Christian Reformed Church.

But now some conservative scholars are saying publicly that they can no longer believe the Genesis account. Asked how likely it is that we all descended from Adam and Eve, Dennis Venema, a biologist at Trinity Western University, replies: 'That would be against all the genomic evidence that we've assembled over the last 20 years, so not likely at all.'"

The Brain Creates Religion-Big Think Interview With Lionel Tiger

"It is of course a very vexing issue because people who believe devoutly in religion will tell you that there is no question there. It is already answered, which is that we’re obligate to respect and believe and follow the word of God however that word is determined. I did with a colleague of mine who had been at the UCLA Medical School, head of the Psychiatric Research Institute, Michael McGuire, a book called God’s Brain in which we were I think able to suggest, if not demonstrate that religion is really made by the brain." Read More

Top 15 Misconceptions about Evolution

"Biological evolution is descent with modification. This definition encompasses small-scale evolution (changes in gene frequency in a population from one generation to the next) and large-scale evolution (the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations). Evolution helps us to understand the history of life. While evolution is very widely accepted, many people hold to misconceptions about it. This list should help to dispel some of those myths."

Top 15 Misconceptions about Evolution

Evolution Made Us All

I know it's silly but here it is anyway.

Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo.

Bering in Mind: God may work in mysterious ways--but cognitive science is getting a handle on them

Author’s note: The following excerpt is the Introduction to my new book, The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life.

God came from an egg. At least, that’s how He came to me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very fancy egg. More specifically, it was an ersatz Fabergé egg decorated with colorful scenes from the Orient. Now about two dozen years before the episode I’m about to describe, somewhere in continental Europe, this particular egg was shunted through the vent of an irritable hen, pierced with a needle and drained of its yolk, and held in the palm of a nimble artist who, for hours upon hours, painstakingly hand-painted it with elaborate images of a stereotypical Asian society. The artist, who specialized in such kitsch materials, then sold the egg along with similar wares to a local vendor, who placed it carefully in the front window of a side-street souvenir shop. Here it eventually caught the eye of a young German girl, who coveted it, purchased it, and after some time admiring it in her apartment against the backdrop of the Black Forest, wrapped it in layers of tissue paper, placed it in her purse, said a prayer for its safe transport, and took it on a transatlantic journey to a middle-class American neighborhood where she was to live with her new military husband. There, in the family room of her modest new home, on a bookshelf crammed with romance novels and knickknacks from her earlier life, she found a cozy little nook for the egg and propped it up on a miniature display stand. A year or so later she bore a son, Peter, who later befriended the boy across the street, who suffered me as a tagalong little brother, the boy who, one aimless summer afternoon, would enter the German woman’s family room, see the egg, become transfixed by this curiosity, and crush it accidentally in his seven-year-old hand. Read More.

The Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark

This is from the 1983 Creation Evolution Journal by Robert A. Moore:

"Suppose you picked up the newspaper tomorrow morning and were startled to see headlines announcing the discovery of a large ship high on the snowy slopes of Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey. As you hurriedly scanned the article, you learned that a team from the Institute for Creation Research had unearthed the vessel and their measurements and studies had determined that it perfectly matched the description of Noah's Ark given in the book of Genesis." Read More

In the battle for ideas, scientists could learn from Christopher Hitchens

SCIENCE VALUES DATA and statistics and champions the virtues of evidence and experimentation. Those of us “viewing the world with a rational eye” (as the new descriptor for this column reads) also have another, underutilized tool at our disposal: rapier logic like that of Christopher Hitchens, a practiced logician trained in rhetoric. (Read More)

Religion: It’s almost like being in love | Dangerous Intersection

You know how it is when someone is in the first throes of infatuation. We call it “love,” but it’s very different than the kind of relationship that eventually develops. Or doesn’t develop. Read on

Religion: It’s almost like being in love | Dangerous Intersection

Richard Dawkins vs. Wendy Wright Round 2 � Soricidae's Blog

Part 2 of Dawkins vs Wright. See Part 1 below.

Richard Dawkins vs. Wendy Wright Round 2 � Soricidae's Blog

Richard Dawkins vs. Wendy Wright, Round 1 � Soricidae's Blog

You may have seen this video with Richard Dawkins interviewing creationist Wendy Wright. Soricidae's Blog presents a blow by blow account of part of the interview. It such a good example of how creationists side step issues when confronted with facts of evolution. Dawkins shows amazing restraint.

Richard Dawkins vs. Wendy Wright, Round 1 � Soricidae's Blog

The Pattern Behind Self Deception

If you are like me you enjoy learning about why we are the way we are. I also find it helpful in understanding why people continue to believe weird stuff.

Skepticblog � The Pattern Behind Self Deception

Science and religion aren't friends

As the non-religious in America grows I think we will increasingly see articles like this in mainstream news media. If you haven't read or in my case listen to Jerry Coyne's book "Why Evolution Is True" I highly recommend it.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-10-11-column11_ST_N.htm