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Should NASA fake an interplanetary holy war?
by Robert Lamb | September 22, 2011
Neil deGrasse Tyson is probably the last person to suggest NASA falsify the threat of alien invasion to play on humanity’s fears. I also doubt he’d suggest that the space agency exploit America’s religious conservative movement with “proof” that said aliens are governed by demons.
But just for the sake of argument, let’s you and I go there.
A cursory glance around modern American culture with an alien eye will yield all manner of weirdness. All of those billboards and Big Boy restaurant statutes, taken out without context, are quite bizarre. Should we suddenly vanish from this mortal coil as a culture, what would later archaeologists make of the Jack in the Box guy?
Atheism, Fundamentalism and Possibilianism
by Robert Lamb | November 22, 2010
Is there a God? Did some unimaginable divine hand set the course of human events or does it all boil down to a genetic mandate of propagation? Do you lay your offerings before the strict, atheistic machinations of science or at the feet of a patriarchal deity? I think a lot of us would opt for a third answer, a middle path of open-mindedness between the extremes of religious fundamentalism and strict atheism — and that’s why the concept of possibilianism is so attractive.
This came in from a visitor via email – How does cremation work? If you watched Avatar there is that brief scene where Jake’s brother’s body is cremated. Is that how it really works?
One of the best videos ever produced on the modern cremation process can be found here…
Why would a person spend $1,000 for an Apple laptop when he or she can get more features for $500 by buying a laptop from HP, Dell, Asus, etc? To an Apple loyalist, I imagine this is a silly question. But to anyone else, it makes little sense. Case in point is the iPad, as [...]
Yesterday I blogged about Vatican astronomer Guy J. Consolmagno’s thoughts on the relationship between science and religion — and the conflict that sometimes emerges there. I thought the planetary scientists turned Jesuit brother presented a very positive, thought-provoking view on the matter. But in the interest of providing another take less rooted in Western monotheism, I thought we’d turn to Varadaraja V. Raman.
My friend Bill made an interesting statement on Twitter today: “Maybe we can cut a deal where all the biologists can believe in God in return for evangelicals believing in evolution.” This was particularly amusing because I attended a lecture last night by a man who was taught evolution by nuns and who studies meteorites while wearing a clerical collar.
American research astronomer Guy J. Consolmagno spoke at Agnes Scott College last night on the ethics of exploration and planetary astronomy (see my post at Discovery Space). He also happens to be a Jesuit brother and a planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory.
Witches are perhaps one of the most reviled and misunderstood groups in history — but why? Join Josh and Chuck as they break down the Stuff You Should Know about witchcraft in this episode.
Devout environmentalism is now tantamount to religious conviction — in British law at least. No, the UK hasn’t made a mass return to its Druidical past, enshrining the cycles of the moon in law or worshipping sun gods with parabolic solar collectors. But the employment laws that protect religious freedom have been extended to include the belief in man-made climate change.
So the other day, fellow blogger Marshall Brain posted a couple of YouTube videos about whether the world’s going to end in 2012. Naturally, this has led to a lot of discussion about religion and just what the likes of Yahweh and Shiva have to say about all this. So I thought I might take just a moment of everyone’s time to point out an excellent online tool for deciding just how boned we are.
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