New Course on Evolution Challenges Group-Think with Scientific Skepticism

biological origins, biology, cell biology, DiscoveryU, Education, empirical science, Evidence, Evolution, fear, free will, God, group-think, heretics, Icons of Evolutions, Intelligent Design, Jonathan Wells, materialistic science, molecular biology, obedience, origin of life, Orthodoxy, religious studies, skepticism, spirit, The Design of Life, The Myth of Junk DNA, totalitarian science, UC Berkeley, Yale University
Consider spending the time — 40 lessons with accompanying quizzes to check your progress — to weigh the evidence for yourself. Source
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Honoring Richard Lewontin, Famed Evolutionary Biologist and Sometime Critic of His Own Field

"God of the gaps", adaptationist, Billions and Billions of Demons, brachiopod shells, Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin, Darioconus auricomus, Darwinism, empirical science, Evolution, Harvard University, Herbert Spencer, historical sciences, intelligent causation, Intelligent Design, Jerry Coyne, Jerry Fodor, John A. Moore, just-so stories, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, methodological naturalism, Origin of Species, Richard Lewontin, sea snail, spandrels, Stephen Jay Gould, The New York Review of Books, What Darwin Got Wrong, William Dembski, zoologists
The quote for which Lewontin has become best known appeared in his 1997 review of a book by Carl Sagan. Source
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When “Science” Becomes a Cult

abortion, Bill Nye, biology, cult, dogma, double-talk, Douglas Axe, embryology, empirical science, Environmentalism, experimentation, Faith & Science, falsification, human rights, humanities, ideology, John Zmirak, Jonathan Wells, Marquis de Sade, materialistic philosophy, materialistic science, Moses, Nature (journal), nature rights, New Atheism, Pharaoh, political science, Politics, religion, sex, Simone de Beauvoir, The Stream, trust, Twitter, Wesley Smith
The problem comes when, in order to win our acceptance, double-talk is used to pretend that a cult is something other than what it is. Source
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Why Should a Baby Live?

abortion, Alberto Giubilini, babies, Caenorhabditis elegans, Culture & Ethics, Danio rerio, Darwin Day in America, developmental biology, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila simulans, embryonic age, empirical science, fallopian tube, fertilization, fetus, Francesca Minerva, gastrulation, Haeckel’s embryos, Homo sapiens, human being, humans, identical twins, John West, last menstrual period, Lewis Wolpert, materialistic philosophy, materialistic science, Medicine, monozygotic twins, mother, ovulation, pain, phylotypic stage, Roman Catholicism, zygote
My title is adapted from a 2012 article by two philosophers, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva. Source
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Another Cosmos Episode, Another Sermon from Pastor Tyson

Al Ghazali, bees, Charles Darwin, China, consciousness, cosmos, Cosmos: Possible Worlds, Darwinism, empirical science, extraterrestrial intelligence, FAST telescope, Fox Broadcasting Company, Francis of Assisi, Maimonides, National Geographic Channel, natural selection, naturalistic philosophy, Physics, Earth & Space, religion, Smithsonian Magazine, The Hidden Life of Trees, The Secret Life of Plants, vitalism
Several themes weave their way through the current season of Cosmos, “Possible Worlds.”  The careful viewer will detect at least one in each episode. They include the ideas that a modern intellectual awakening took place when science (defined as applied naturalistic philosophy) triumphed over religion and superstition; that human exceptionalism is an ancient prejudice we must abandon; and that you can find meaning in a universe without a god. Episode 7, which aired last night on Fox and National Geographic, presents the viewer with a heavy dose of the second idea. The episode begins with Neil deGrasse Tyson walking on the perimeter of the recently completed 500-meter single dish radio telescope, FAST, in China. The episode is about the first contact with another intelligence, which many hope will be made with…
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