The Skeptical Zone » Philosophy of Science

I make observations and interpret what I see from my own personal perspective and world view. If I am, a creationist, a physicalist, a vitalist, a specialist, religious, atheist or whatever, my e...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/observations-and-interpretations/

De gustibus non est disputandum I’m not a philosopher but a couple of issues that have occupied philosophers over perhaps millenia remain unresolved. Let’s call the concepts free will and det...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/are-we-on-rails/

Astronaut Charles Duke became a Christian after he returned to Earth after being the youngest man to ever walk on the moon and after finding himself in a troubled marriage and problems with alcoh...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/miracles-exorcisms-id-and-the-spread-of-the-gospel-thinking-of-vj-torley/

This topic has recently come up in another thread & deserves its own thread, rather than getting lost there. It started with KN asking CharlieM: “Are there really such ‘Darwinian extremists�...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/atheists-agnostics-skeptics-for-and-against-the-pseudo-science-of-evolutionary-psychology/

Over at the “IDM collapse” thread I rather churlishly rejected CharlieM’s invitation to read an extensive piece by Stephen L. Talbott. Discovering he is a fan of Velikovsky did little to e...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/the-third-way/

Lehigh University biochemist and IDT spokesperson Dr. Michael Behe was recently asked by the Discovery Institute (DI) to write about covid-19. The following is to be found among what he wrote: �...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/covid-19-vs-intelligent-design-theorists-and-their-ideology/

The biggest news of this week for the “conversation” this blog is in some small way a part of will likely be the discussion between Drs. Michael Behe and S. Joshua Swamidass in Texas. The ans...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/behe-vs-swamidass-i-as-god-and-or-evolution-time-to-yawn-politely-applaud-or-cheer/

Metacognition as a ladder to enlightenment? We humans are sentient beings. By some means or other, our species has ended up with, at least in our own opinion, with cognitive abilities that separa...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/thinking-about-thinking/

In his recent video Michael Behe explains the reasons for his acceptance of common descent. Do you find it confusing? Most members of the Discovery Institute find the idea of common descent lacki...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/is-behes-acceptance-of-common-descent-confusing/

Not long ago in a comment here, I posted a short version of definitions involving the Discovery Institute’s “Intelligent Design” (ID) paradigm, hypothesis, movement, theory, inference, poli...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/definitions-involving-intelligent-design-di-fellows-language-vs-everyone-elses/

A psychiatrist in Toronto, Canada, in defense of swamidass’ fellow secular methodological naturalist and atheist partner in provocation over at PS, Nathan Lents (Human Errors), just said someth...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/evolution-accident-luck-vs-careful-advanced-planning-according-to-whom/

As 2020 both cools down in temperature and heats up in rhetoric, here is a response to S. Joshua Swamidass’ recent book that deserves more air time given how a few evangelical Protestant theolo...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/does-swamidass-new-genealogical-adams-and-eves-hypothesis-unknowingly-serve-to-make-god-a-monster/

This past Friday, I bumped into Dr. Michael Behe, and again on Saturday, along with Drs. Brian Miller (DI), Research Coordinator CSC, and Robert Larmer (UNB), currently President of the Canadian ...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/behe-and-co-in-canada/

He sure made it sound that way. I’m guessing he actually doesn’t. It may be just a bluff or a semantic game. And then, given Paul Nelson seems to be a man who enjoys good jokes, we’ll laugh...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/does-paul-nelson-really-teach-both-design-theory-intelligent-design-theory/

Over at Peaceful Science, Joshua Swamidass has made another strange and unsubstantiated claim. He has attempted to speak again on behalf of (all) ‘scientists,’ as is his linguistic tendency, ...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/s-joshua-swamidass-and-social-darwinism-a-match-made-on-earth-not-in-heaven/

I’ll intervene on this conversation started by S. Joshua Swamidass as my guess is he’s going to mangle terms & then claim mastery over them, as he has done in the past on the topic of ‘meth...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/swamidass-vs-nelson-trying-to-find-a-common-narrative-with-id-on-mn/

Given the ideological opposition by the site’s founder to having ‘debates’ as a way of making progress or solving disagreements over at Peaceful Science (https://discourse.peacefulscience.o...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/origins-debates/

Recently over at PS, IDist Eric Michael Holloway wrote the following to describe himself & why he accepts/believes in IDT: “we software engineers find ID so obvious.” (https://discourse.peace...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/do-software-engineers-find-intelligent-design-theory-obvious-trivial-or-irrelevant-eric-michael-holloways-halfway-right-mostly-wrong-double-talking-idist-ideology-on-display/

If Darwinism fails then supernatural causes are back on the table and should be included in science. I do not think there can be a science of the supernatural. I do not think that if Darwinism fa...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/the-science-of-the-supernatural/

This thread is meant to be a resource for people to express their hopefully sincere & proper skepticism about Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass’ so-called ‘Peaceful Science’ project on an on-going ba...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/why-be-skeptical-about-swamidass-peaceful-science-pitch/

TSZ Moderator Mung wrote over at PS about why he is a design proponent (https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/why-i-am-an-id-proponent/2955): “ believe that design is obvious.” Let’s be c...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/why-does-the-di-avoid-design-by-non-idists-read-most-normal-people-yes-design-is-obvious-just-not-idism/

As most readers at TSZ already know Dr. Swamidass is, or at least attempts to appear, as a new-age prophet with a noble idea of the unifying evolutionary science with Intelligent Design. Not bad ...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/peaceful-science-a-noble-idea-but-at-what-cost/

The original mission of TSZ, as intended by the U.K.’s Dr. Elizabeth Liddle, who promoted the site to apostate peers & ‘skeptics,’ often at anti-religious online forums, lists & discussion ...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/peaceful-science-has-eclipsed-uncommon-descent-how-will-that-impact-tszs-reason-to-be/

I have always been puzzled by the theistic evolution belief system. It makes absolutely no sense to me at all as it clearly seems to contradict both theism and evolution – the two fundamental b...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/theistic-evolution-the-judas-iscariot-effect/

What role does the Freedom from Religion Foundation play in the evolution, creation and intelligent design conversation? I ask for feedback on this here because it would seem that one of the main...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/is-peaceful-science-carefully-enough-scripting-its-politicking-with-the-freedom-from-religion-foundation/

For those interested in discussions of evolutionism, creationism, Intelligent Design as they impact science, philosophy and theology/worldview in society and education today, please find below a ...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/how-much-adam-could-an-uneducated-evangelical-adam-if-an-uneducated-evangelical-could-adam-adam/

It looks like I just got banned at UD, which to me it means I have been noticed by “true Christians”, like Barry Arrington, who has proven, time and time again, that he deserves what he stand...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/why-do-christians-get-banned-at-ud/

As there is occasional interest in the relation between science and metaphysics here, I thought I’d share this article: “Metaphysics of Metamorphosis“, by the philosopher of science John Du...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/naturalism-without-mechanism/

Why we don’t want another “Synthesis” High-level debates in evolutionary biology often treat the Modern Synthesis as a framework of population genetics, or as an intellectual lineage with a...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/the-anti-synthesis/

…from: “having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one”? Welcome all after vacation! I have been reviewing many different articles recently and it hit me like a...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/the-mysteries-of-evolution-4-how-did-we-get-here/

The resident professional ‘philosopher’ of TSZ recently wrote this: “’memes!’ is a dumb explanation.” Yes, I agree! (Although that person doesn’t seem to know the difference between...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/memetics-is-a-dumb-explanation-says-dennettian-naturalist/

Theoretical physicist Paul Davies wrote: But what are these ultimate laws and where do they come from? Such questions are often dismissed as being pointless or even unscientific. As the cosmologi...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/naturalism-the-laws-of-nature/

I thought you all might be interested in a book we just released this week – Naturalism and Its Alternatives in Scientific Methodologies. It has been heading up the Amazon charts, and hit the #...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/book-release-naturalism-and-its-alternatives/

There have been a number of interesting comments lately here at TSZ that referred to viruses. Are viruses pre-biotic entities, and did they contribute to the origin of life? Are viruses alive? Do...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/virolution/

Is anyone here skeptical of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) in biology/biological sciences? If so, why? If not, why not? Background: A couple of days ago I interviewed one of the partic...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/whos-skeptical-of-the-extended-evolutionary-synthesis/

In lead-up to the recent Royal Society’s “New Trends in Evolutionary Biology: Biological, Philosophical and Social Sciences Perspectives” meeting in London, which courted the terms ‘exten...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/evolutions-puzzle-trans-evolutionary-change/

I guess many folks here are familiar with Dr (of philosophy) Vincent Torley as a contributor of many posts at Uncommon Descent now operated by one Barry Arrington. Vincent strikes me as a genuine...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/vincent-torleys-disappearing-book-review/

The writings and life work of Ed Thorp, professor at MIT, influenced many of my notions of ID (though Thorp and Shannon are not ID proponents). I happened upon a forgotten mathematical paper by E...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/thorp-shannon-inspiration-for-alternative-perspectives-on-the-id-vs-naturalism-debate/

Would naturalism insist 500 fair coins 100% heads on a table could not possibly emerge from a random process (like random coin flipping)? How about a buzzillion fair coins being 100% heads after ...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/does-naturalism-exclude-exceptional-phenomenon/

Moderator Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, put the odds at 50-50 that our entire existence is a program on someone else’s hard drive. “I think the likelihoo...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/godless-intelligent-design-theory/

Most modern readers have difficulty appreciating the resilience of spiritual or metaphysical overtones to 19th Century scientific thought, alternatively referred to as “vitalism” & “teleol...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/biology-as-viewed-through-19th-century-lenses/

I’ll be making a presentation at AM-NAT 2016, and Dan Graur will be the poster boy of impractical naturalism. Below are some things I collected from his websites, some of which I view as highly...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/impractical-naturalism-of-dan-graur-vs-the-nih/

It has been a while since I posted here about the upcoming Alternatives to Methodological Naturalism online conference, so I thought I would give you all a quick update. The conference is schedul...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/alternatives-to-methodological-naturalism-conference-update/

There are a few reasons this OP could be a flop. 1. It links to an article by Ed Feser. 2. It raises issues of teleology and teleonomy (again). In any event, for those interested in the subject I...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/feser-pigliucci-teleonomy/

Michael Behe is best known for coining the phrase Irreducible Complexity, but I think his likening of biological systems to Rube Goldberg machines is a better way to frame the problem of evolving...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/philosophy-and-complexity-of-rube-goldberg-machines/

In a recent OP at Uncommon Descent, Vincent Torley (vjtorley) defends a version of libertarian free will based on the notion of top-down causation. The dominant view among physicists (which I sha...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/george-ellis-on-top-down-causation/

The late John Davison often remarked that science could only answer “how” questions, not “why”. It seems to me philosophers, perhaps I’m really thinking of philosophers of religion rath...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/how-and-why-questions-for-scientists-and-philosophers/

I thought some of you might be interested in an online conference April 16, Alternatives to Methodological Naturalism.  The goal of the conference is to have a discussion among interested resea...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/alternatives-to-methodological-naturalism-conference/

As an ID proponent and creationist, the irony is that at the time in my life where I have the greatest level of faith in ID and creation, it is also the time in my life at some level I … Contin...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/the-reasonableness-of-atheism-and-black-swans/

consilience. : the linking together of principles from different disciplines especially when forming a comprehensive theory. contextomy. : an informal fallacy and a type of false attribution in w...

http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/excilience-and-contextomy/