Tagged: culture

What is the problem? - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • Nov 26, 2010 •

• belief,
• culture,
• human rights,
• Marriage,
• morality,
• philosophy,
• religion,
• Same-sex marriage,
• Sciblogs,
• superstition,
• tradition

Liked this. Why do people get so upset about gay marriage? … Read More

Not about Einstein - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • Sep 29, 2010 •

• Albert Einstein,
• belief,
• book review,
• Buddhism,
• Charles Darwin,
• Christianity,
• Conversations About Science,
• culture,
• diversity,
• Einstein's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit,
• faith,
• god,
• John Polkinghorne,
• Krista Tippett,
• Philosophy of religion,
• physics,
• religion,
• Sciblogs,
• Stephen Hawking

Book Review: Einstein’s God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit by Krista Tippett Price: US$10.88; NZ$12.97 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 23, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 0143116770 ISBN-13: 978-0143116776 The media reports of Stephen Hawking’s new book … Continue reading → … Read More

Trust the experts — if they say what we want - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • Sep 23, 2010 •

• belief,
• climate change,
• culture,
• diversity,
• philosophy,
• politics,
• Psychology,
• research,
• Sciblogs,
• superstition

Scientific American has a short podcast on confirmation bias.  (Download the podcast) It especially relates to trusting experts in areas like climate change. Christie Nicholson points out (see We Only Trust Experts If They Agree With Us): We think we … Continue reading → … Read More

A paper by Marc Hauser retracted — Harvard Magazine - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • Aug 11, 2010 •

• culture,
• evolution,
• Harvard University,
• Marc Hauser,
• morality,
• Sciblogs,
• Scientific misconduct

Well, this could be embarrassing. But I hope not. Marc Hauser, who was one of the participants in the “New Science of Morality” seminar (see The new science of morality and Is and ought) is under a cloud. His Harvard … Continue reading → … Read More

Life on the building site - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • Jul 19, 2010 •

• culture,
• diversity,
• humour,
• Sciblogs

I am in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment. However, came across this recently so thought I would share it. If only! (Thanks to DrPetra) … Read More

Journalists create world’s first artificial news story! - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • Jun 01, 2010 •

• Add new tag,
• Craig Venter,
• creationism,
• culture,
• diversity,
• humour,
• Large Hadron Collider,
• Sciblogs

Image via Wikipedia I guess this little joke had to come. After the one about Venter’s new synthetic life form disapproving of God playing scientist (see God, stop ‘playing science’ ) we now have from the same source (NewsBisciut) breaking news of the world’s first synthetic news story about DNA (Journalists create world’s first artificial news [...] … Read More

Why Don’t We Go To Church? - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • May 26, 2010 •

• Add new tag,
• agnostic,
• agnosticism,
• atheism,
• belief,
• Christianity,
• creationism,
• culture,
• diversity,
• evolution,
• faith,
• god,
• intelligent design,
• religion,
• Sciblogs

Saw this recently and it immediately thought this would be a great book for my youngest granddaughter. She told me recently that she had been picked on by some of here school friends because she said she believed in evolution. This discussion quickly turned to belief in a god. It ended up with her having [...] … Read More

Superstition — inevitable? - Open Parachute

Ken Perrott • Apr 19, 2010 •

• belief,
• Christianity,
• culture,
• diversity,
• religion,
• Sciblogs,
• superstition

There are some great photographs at The Big Picture (Boston.com) of launches to, and activities on, the International Space Station (ISS). Have a look at Journeys to the International Space Station. I quite like this one because of the strange contrast between a religious blessing and the technical manifestation in the Soyuz rocket.  This is [...] … Read More