How to deal with Creationists and Intelligent Design proponents? It’s a bit of a Catch-22: one the one hand, unless we consistently, frequently and forcefully confront their nonsense, we might give them free rein to convince the general public that there’s some validity to what they say; on the other hand, if we give them a forum, or engage them in open debate, others might infer that there’s a real controversy within the biological sciences (there isn’t). At what point do we write off certain people as hopeless wackaloons not worthy of notice? How do we know when it’s beneficial to engage in dialogue and (polite) confrontation?
Posts Tagged ‘bloggingheads.tv’
More fallout from the Behe bloggingheads.tv brouhaha
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
The Behe brouhaha at bloggingheads.tv
Monday, August 31st, 2009Boy, what a soap opera this has turned out to be. Late last week, linguist and conservative pundit John McWhorter recorded a segment for bloggingheads.tv (bhTV) with Michael “Irreducible Complexity” Behe. A credulous–even gushing–McWhorter, who is a self-admitted nonbeliever, began by heaping praise on Behe’s most recent book The Edge of Evolution. The 44-minute conversation is unremarkable, given that a linguist isn’t exactly the best conversational partner to pair up with a guy like Behe, and doesn’t break new ground on the supposed controversy of Intelligent Design.
Religiosity Rematch
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Here’s Part 2 of the conversation between artificial intelligence researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky and astronomer Adam Frank about the compatibility (or lack thereof) between science and religion. Check out Part 1 from March (which Yudkowsky won hands-down, IMHO) right here.
Conservative Atheists?
Friday, April 17th, 2009I attended a private reception last weekend in the aftermath of the American Atheists National Convention, and there met several fellow nonbelievers from various parts of the country. A proposition arose to the effect that “atheists, by definition, can’t be conservatives”–to which I disagree. You’d need to agree on terms: the term “conservative” can mean many things, but it does NOT necessarily mean one is a Christian Republican. You’d have to completely ignore the role of libertarians (of both the big “L” and little “l” varieties) and of the Objectivist movement to believe that all atheists must be liberal socialists. At any rate, this timely conversation popped up on Bloggingheads.tv (one of my favorite outlets for social punditry) between Heather Mac Donald and Russ Douthat.
Phil “The Pundit” Plait on bloggingheads.tv
Monday, February 23rd, 2009Have you people not had enough of Phil Plait of late? Nay? Then check out his recent appearance at bloggingheads.tv (one of my favorite sites for detailed punditry). Good job, Phil!
Skeptoid on bloggingheads.tv
Thursday, October 9th, 2008Whee! A skeptic on bloggingheads.tv! If you haven’t checked out bloggingheads.tv (co-founded by Robert Wright, author of The Moral Animal) yet, I highly recommend it (although, the video version can be a real time-waster; best to opt for the audio-only podcast version).
Bob Wright on the Behe Brouhaha: Mea Culpa
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009I know I’ve posted about this a couple of times before, but this onion keeps growing new layers. Over the weekend, bloggingheads.tv Robert Wright (The Evolution of God) posted a conversation with science journalist George Johnson, in which Wright offers a very detailed explanation of how the Michael Behe/John McWhorter diavlog got posted, then removed, then re-posted. In the aftermath of the incident, a handful of scientists and/or science journalists who have participated on bhTV have vowed never to be on again. Oh, and Bob Wright also addresses (sort of) the insinuations and rumors that he’s angling for the high-dollar Templeton Prize. Enjoy:
Tags: bloggingheads.tv, creationism, evolution, george johnson, intelligent design, john mcwhorter, michael behe, robert wright
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