A new particle has been discovered, almost certainly the Higgs boson first predicted 48 years ago. If so, then at last the final prediction of the Standard Model has been confirmed. To be sure, there are many questions still to answer, such as how real physics deviates from the Standard Model at very high energies, [...]
Recently there was another religion-based debate on The Big Questions which discussed one question: whether fundamentalism undermines faith. The show itself was thoroughly interesting, as it often is, even if this episode was an exercise in how many mad people you can get into one room; it was more interesting to simply marvel at the ridiculousness of [...]
I dislike categorising people into only two groups, but the conclusions I will draw in this article I find to be independent of this particular distinction, hence let us consider the assuredly religious and the decidedly non-religious. Of the many traits that separate the two groups, one which appears to be crucial, and which arises [...]
In the debate over the veracity or rationality of religious doctrines, the greatest thorn in the theists’ side is our asking what evidence supports their claims. As they can’t answer that challenge, they do all they can to excuse taking umbrage an evidential criteria. It has been said theology is not an effort to justify [...]
Before I launch into this post it is only right I acknowledge having Asperger Syndrome, as it makes me an example of the sort of correlation evidence is beginning to uncover (and at this stage could well be wrong about), and which some theists have already become crowing about. There has been an occasional suggestion [...]
Nicolaus Steno, the only saint to also be a scientist, introduced to geography in the seventeenth century the principle of superposition, which says geological strata that look alike are equally old and those on top are younger than those underneath them. Taxonomy, the systematic classification of living things, began in the eighteenth century with Linnaeus, [...]
This is something which Peter Atkins once brought up in a debate with William Lane Craig. It is the idea that because we can explain why so many people are religious using evolutionary biology, sociology, and psychology, that therefore there is even less reason to think that religious statements are correct. Certainly the fact that [...]
Even the religious are starting to notice that one of the natural philosophical partners to science, is atheism. Bizarrely, this seems to confuse some religious people, as though they weren’t expecting it. Any atheist will tell you, that atheism is the only logically valid philosophy with regards to the existence of gods. It is the [...]
When citing the evidence they have for the existence of a god, many religious people will give examples of their own personal experience. On every such occasion, these references are discarded. The reason is simple. In science, all measurable effects are measured several times, often in several different ways by different scientists. The methods are [...]
There is a small number of theist promoters, who can be found lurking in the low-viewer-count videos on the internet, who seem to be suggesting philosophy requires years of professional training before competency can be achieved. The most blatant statement of this kind can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAS0Gcq8Mvo William Lane Craig is attempting to discredit Professor [...]
I have this instant just returned from my first visit to a Christian church in several years. I have only been into churches about eight or nine times in my life, normally for the purposes of listening to or playing in concerts. My reason for going on this occasion was to have a go at playing the [...]
Of all the insane religious people on the planet, the creationists, despite their extreme stupidity, seem to have managed to achieve much more than the others in terms of forcing their doctrine upon other people. The intelligent design mob have, in a way that’s almost commendable, managed to obscure their drivel so much underneath scientific language, [...]
So frequently in our analysis of the arguments for and against the existence of a god do we rely on our ability to use logic, that we might forget the requirement of logic that we question even logic itself. Logic is used to propagate beneath assumptions so as to find out whether they are reliable. [...]
You would not believe how many times I have seen this question written around the internet. Although actually, you might well believe it, but I certainly couldn’t. So I thought I’d answer it. The first and most fundamental point that I must make is that this question is very badly worded. Though this is the [...]