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Skeptic Summary #138

Prayer, the Pope, Vonnegut, denial, last words, big lies and more!

Call to Prayer for America - I’ll unpray for it.

The Pope don’t like Darwin! - Does Darwin care?

Vonnegut in Hell - Does Vonnegut care?

Editor’s Choice: Big Bang and the singularity - So much science to deny, so little time…

From the Archives: Famous last words - “I was surfing this website called SFN…”

A blast from the past! - This great big lie was particularly evil. Gotta love those public service films.

Sunday: I was late. Anyhow, most of us in chat (with the understanding that “most” can be substituted for both, which most of the time best accurately describes the turnout on Sunday) wondered if the other regular chatters were out coloring Easter eggs or otherwise holiday occupied. Derek was there from the beginning to the end of chat, but in name only (perhaps he fell asleep after signing on). Anyhow, given the small turnout, a good time was had by all who were there. Both of us…

Wednesday: Ricky was fired again for ditching out to do a report or something for school. (Ricky has serious priority issues. And I’m thinking of firing him yet again for not providing me with a log of chat.) Anyhow, we had a good turnout from both the Skepticality forum and the more brutish denizens of SFN. And while very, very important issues were being discussed, like the Imus controversy, Halfmooner brought us the sad news about Kurt Vonnegut who died earlier Wednseday. Appropriately enough, Vonnegut was the topic of conversation until the end of chat…

Come chat with us.

emsby
GiggityGiggityGoo

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Bad Science

Dennert and the deathbed of Darwinism

Experiment Nixes Fourth Neutrino: The Standard Model of particle physics emerges unscathed — for now

We lose an anti-evolutionist

We lose a humanist

What’s New by Bob Park

Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them.

Einstein: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson.



“In his penetrating and magnificently nuanced biography of Albert Einstein, Isaacson elucidates Einstein’s nonconformist and philosophical temperament and the particular nature of his genius within a richly textured social context, and he precisely explains Einstein’s ‘astonishing, mysterious, and counterintuitive’ scientific achievements and their epic consequences. Isaacson explores Einstein’s valiant advocacy for peace and justice in view of the genocidal anti-Semitism that drove him from Germany and revels in Einstein’s pithy humor and role as scientific superstar… But what distinguishes this extraordinarily encompassing and profoundly affecting biography most are Isaacson’s empathic insights into painful paradoxes. Einstein believed in an ordered universe of ‘harmony and beauty,’ yet his discoveries revealed uncertainty, randomness, and chance. Einstein spent the second half of his life not only attempting to refute his own revolutionary findings but also witnessing the creation of potentially apocalyptic weapons that harnessed the diabolical powers he unveiled.”

— Booklist

Forum Topics:

1. Political hacks water down global warming report (1,208 views)
2. Surface of the Sun, part 13 (1,089 views)
3. Stern replaces Imus (403 views)
4. Religion versus vaccines — sound familiar? (265 views)
5. A little more civility, please… (252 views)
6. Olympic myth? (234 views)
7. Kurt Vonnegut dead at age 84 (232 views)
8. Owl on the dollar bill… (213 views)
9. The Pope don’t like Darwin! (198 views)
10. Wrong images of Saturn (184 views)

Articles:

1. Evolving a Venom or Two (330 views)
2. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony! (75 views)
3. The Bible Answer Man (64 views)
4. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle (62 views)
5. Cold Reading (55 views)
6. TAM4 (49 views)
7. Evidence Cited as Hard Proof of the Existence of Satanic Cults (48 views)
8. The Bible’s Bad Fruits (48 views)
9. Miracle Thaw Tray (42 views)
10. What is a Skeptic and Why Bother Being One? (39 views)

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