Category: Natural Sciences

Can Religion and Science Coexist?

July 5, 2015

“A new book by the evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne tackles arguments that the two institutions are compatible.

“In the book’s 262 pages, Coyne tackles arguments stating that belief in God is a laudable quality, and reasons instead that faith is detrimental, even dangerous, and fundamentally incompatible with science, even while peacemakers try to find common ground between the two. Coyne, it should be noted, has spent much of his career objecting to religious rejection of Darwinism—he published a bestseller, Why Evolution Is True, that was based on his blog of the same name. In Faith Versus Fact, his overarching argument is that religion and science both make claims about the universe, but only one of the two institutions is sufficiently open to the fact that it might be wrong.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/religion-science-coexist-faith-versus-fact-coyne/396362/?utm_source=SFTwitter

The American Medical Association is finally taking a stand on quacks like Dr. Oz

June 15, 2015

The issue of has taken on increasing significance of late. Wrapped up in this issue are several key issues:

  • What is the role of professional organizations and authorities in enforcing certain practices and ethical standards?
  • How do we define and distinguish between science and pseudoscience?
  • What does “evidence based” practice mean?
  • How do we determine “truth” in the natural sciences and in particular, the medical sciences?
  • Upon what should ethical standards in medicine be based? How should those standards be enforced? Who should do the enforcing?

“The AMA will look at creating ethical guidelines for physicians in the media, write a report on how doctors may be disciplined for violating medical ethics through their press involvement, and release a public statement denouncing the dissemination of dubious medical information through the radio, TV, newspapers, or websites.”

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/13/8773695/AMA-dr-oz

Deepak Chopra blasts scientist who criticized his view of evolution. The scientist fires back.

May 21, 2015

“Scientists disagree vigorously with one another as they attempt to build the case for new advancements; this peer review is the heart of the scientific process, one of the tools and techniques scientists have developed to encourage the flow of good ideas and sift out bad one. Unfortunately, Dr. Chopra chooses to circumvent that path, publishing his claims as self-help books rather than subjecting them to the rigors of scientific review.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/20/deepak-chopra-blasts-scientist-who-criticized-his-view-of-evolution-the-scientist-fires-back/?tid=pm_local_pop_b

And a second related article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/15/scientist-why-deepak-chopra-is-driving-me-crazy/

Red Meat Is Not the Enemy

March 31, 2015

“We really do need randomized controlled trials to answer these questions. They do exist, but with respect to effects on lipid levels such as cholesterol and triglycerides. A meta-analysis examining eight trials found that beef versus poultry and fish consumption didn’t change cholesterol or triglyceride levels significantly.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/upshot/red-meat-is-not-the-enemy.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1

What scares the new atheists: The vocal fervour of today’s missionary atheism conceals a panic that religion is not only refusing to decline – but in fact flourishing

March 17, 2015

“For secular thinkers, the continuing vitality of religion calls into question the belief that history underpins their values. To be sure, there is disagreement as to the nature of these values. But pretty well all secular thinkers now take for granted that modern societies must in the end converge on some version of liberalism. Never well founded, this assumption is today clearly unreasonable. So, not for the first time, secular thinkers look to science for a foundation for their values.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/03/what-scares-the-new-atheists

The Secret God of the Secularists

March 17, 2015

“The English philosopher John Gray, himself an atheist, says today’s evangelical New Atheists have far more in common with the religionists they despise than they think they do. In a rich, rewarding essay in the Guardian, Gray says that an earlier generation of modern atheists worshiped Science, which in their reasoning made them supporters of eugenics … until Nazism showed where that led. It is today conveniently forgotten, says Gray, that those who preached Science as the foundation for modern political life were, in the pre-Nazi 20th century, the most avid promoters of eugenics”

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-secret-god-of-the-new-atheists-secularists/

Parents’ Beliefs vs. Their Children’s Health

March 12, 2015

“The spread of measles has called attention to parents who don’t vaccinate children because of religious beliefs. New York City is accommodating an Orthodox Jewish circumcision practice that can infect babies with herpes. Some states even let believers in faith healing deny life-saving medical care to their children.

Should parents’ religious beliefs allow them to refuse medical care for their children or avoid standard medical practices?”

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/03/10/parents-beliefs-vs-their-childrens-health

How hard is it to clean up the scientific literature?

March 10, 2015

“Because the goal is supposed to be a body of reliable knowledge upon which the whole scientific community can draw to build more knowledge, it’s especially problematic when particular pieces of the scientific literature turn out to be dishonest or misleading. Fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism are varieties of dishonesty that members of the scientific community look upon as high crimes. Indeed, they are activities that are defined as scientific misconduct and (at least in theory) prosecuted vigorously.”

http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2010/03/27/how-hard-is-it-to-clean-up-the/