Month: March 2012

  • On infinite causal chains

    I wrote a One Minute Case Against the Cosmological Argument in 2007, but looking back, I would put it simply as: Infinities do not actually exist. Each specific set of entities is discrete. But the causal chain itself is not an existent. It is the set of all entities that have ever existed. That is a theoretical…

  • On stardust & entropy

    Stellar nucleosynthesis is entropic because the proton-proton reaction radiates 0.7% of the original mass as 26.73 MeV energy. Additional reactions produce heavier elements until finally supernova nucleosynthesis produces everything up to uranium in the last few seconds of a star’s life. We can calculate the entropy cost of the elements to create planets and life…

  • We are informational beings in the eternal now

    We are informational beings in the eternal now

    What are we? What sets us apart from the universe? We believe that we exist in limited time and space. We believe that we are defined by hereditary and environmental influences, leaving room for only a nebulous core of individuality. There is some truth in this perspective. But there is more. What is time? The…

  • Bob the Intelligent Designer creates the Universe

    Bob the Intelligent Designer creates the Universe

    People who claim that the earth is younger than it is (4.54 ± 0.05 billion years) tend to do so for two reasons: either because they claim the evidence points to it or because it was created recently but made to look as it were old. Considering that all the evidence shows the universe to…

  • Warning: relying on magic and anecdotes is bad for your health

    Warning: relying on magic and anecdotes is bad for your health

    In my post on evidence-based medicine, I said that “when valid scientific principles are not followed, no valid conclusion can be reached.” Why not? Why don’t anecdotal claims (such as personal experience) count as evidence? Here is an example of what I mean: A young woman who was a Christian Scientist told me that various relatives of hers…

  • On modesty

    The popular notion that sexual acts should be performed in the dark and under the sheets is derived from the Judeo-Christian dogma that human beings and thus human sexuality are fundamentally corrupt, shameful, and evil. Because this dogma is still widespread throughout secularized Western societies and in secularized equivalents of original sin, it is now…

  • Parasitism and intentionality: lessons from the cuckoo

    Parasitism and intentionality: lessons from the cuckoo

    Many species of the cuckoo and cowbird reproduce exclusively by sneaking their eggs into other birds nests, where their chicks kill or starve their nest-mates and so steal resources from the host mother, who often has to raise chicks bigger than her. So why doesn’t the host kick out the foreign eggs? In many cases,…