28Oct 2023 by Post

How “Medical Aid in Dying” Became the Euphemism of Choice for Assisted Suicide

A Concise History of Euthanasia, assisted suicide, Brandeis University, Canada, Culture & Ethics, doctors, euthanasia, hemlock, honey, Ian Dowbiggin, MAiD, medical aid in dying, medication, Medicine, mercy killing, New York Times, nurse practitioners, patients, poisons, Rachel E. Gross, suicide, University of Colorado
When radical policies are proposed, the first step is to change the lexicon to make it seem less extreme, even mundane. Source
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15Oct 2023 by Post

Saving Humans Is More Important than Saving Pigs

bacon, Belgium, BioEdge, bioethics, Canada, Cornell University, Culture & Ethics, Franklin G. Miller, human life, internal bleeding, kidneys, Lawrence Faucette, Medicine, Netherlands, organ transplant, organs, Peter Singer, pigs, porcine virus, surgery, The Principles of Biomedical Ethics, Tom Beauchamp, vascular disease
A potential avenue of increasing the supply of organs — xenotransplantation — is not, in my view, morally problematic in the least. Source
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02Oct 2023 by Post

As Trust in Science Sinks, Prestigious Journal Decides to Showcase Yet Another Politicized Scientist

atmosphere, authority, banks, Bernadette Rogers, carbon, Clark County, climate change, climate science, criminality, Culture & Ethics, Extinction Rebellion, fossil fuels, Gemini South Observatory, human thriving, ideology, Mosier, Nature (journal), nuclear power, objectivity, Patrick T. Brown, Physics, Earth & Space, traffic, trust
The world’s most prestigious science journal just published an ex-astronomer's remarkable screed. Source
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23Sep 2023 by Post

Science, Scripture, and the Image of God

A. R. Hall, Bible, Christianity, Christopher Kaiser, Creation and the History of Science, creator, Culture & Ethics, Faith & Science, history, How the West Won, human mind, humans, image of God, Intelligent Design, intelligent designer, intelligible order, lawgiver, logos, Museum of the Bible, natural world, Rodney Stark, The Scientific Revolution 1500-1800
"The proposition that the universe had an Intelligent Designer is the most fundamental of all scientific theories." Source
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17Sep 2023 by Post

Slavery and the Image of God

abolitionists, Arabs, Charles Finney, China, Christianity, Civil War, Culture & Ethics, Enlightenment, Evangelical Christians, Faith & Science, For the Glory of God, Gregory of Nyssa, image of God, Native Americans, Oberlin College, religious revivals, Rodney Stark, safe houses, Second Great Awakening, slaveholders, slavery, Underground Railroad, United States
America is the only country on Earth to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of its own citizens in a war to end slavery. Source
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14Sep 2023 by Post

Inferring the Best Explanation via Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, Bayesian analysis, blues, boogie-woogie, ChatGPT, ChatGPT4, chess, country music, Culture & Ethics, Erik Larson, Google Bard, gun, hiccups, inference to the best explanation, musicians, Neuroscience & Mind, Noam Chomsky, piano, Stockfish, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence
The analogy with chess is apt — computers play chess but in ways different from us by being able to brute force their way through millions more positions. Source
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