thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
“Confirmation bias …. is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way …. [or] interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position.” (Wikipedia) Atheists often accuse christians of confirmation bias, […]
Bushfires have recently raged through parts of NSW, with some of the more severe burning on the fringes of Sydney, destroying more than 200 homes and taking 2 lives. Without good planning and preparedness, and some desperately hard work by firefighters, it could have been much worse. I live in the middle of suburbia, far […]
David Sloane Wilson has long been a critic of Richard Dawkins for having unscientific views about religion (and other things). He criticised him again in When Richard Dawkins Is Not An Evolutionist, but it is another of his comments I am more interested in. One of the things Wilson says he and Dawkins agree on […]
I came across this comment the other day on Victor Reppert’s blog, Dangerous Idea. It was made by ‘exapologist‘, an ex-christian philosopher. I thought it deserved to be repeated. I don’t see — I can’t see — how some theists and non-theists can be so “zero-concession” about evidence. Why can’t we be honest? Life is […]
I am a great fan of the Science on religion blog and website. I have gained much insight and information, and not a few blog topics, from these sites. I’ve bookmarked dozens of topics, some of them a little obscure, and I think it is time to introduce you to some oddities.
My post on Your brain, faith and disbelief generated some critical comment. The problem wasn’t so much with the main point of the post (that neuroplasticity appears to explain some of why believers and unbelievers are so polarised about God) but a side comment that there are demonstrated mental and physical health advantages in belief […]
Last post I looked at recent discoveries in neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to restructure itself under certain circumstances. If we focus on some particular way of thinking, our brain can restructure itself to facilitate that thinking, but make us less able to think differently. Thus it appears that both believers and non-believers may make […]
How can believers and unbelievers disagree so strongly? We all experience the same world, we have the same information from science and history. If it was anything else but religious belief, you might expect opinions to be a little less polarised. But highly educated people like Richard Dawkins and William Lane Craig disagree profoundly even […]
It was billed as a “three-part conversation” between two well-known, respected and accomplished speakers, across three Australian cities, on the theme Life, the Universe and Nothing. I attended the second “conversation” in Sydney last night, but found it disappointing.
One of the most common things I find myself discussing with non-believers on the internet is evidence. Unfortunately, the discussions tend to be frustrating for both sides, and rarely reach any consensus, for several reasons.