archive

Between science and pseudo-science

Jacob Glazier (Glazier): A Phenomenological Evolution of Parapsychology’s Philosophy of Science. William Eamon (NMSU): Astrology and Society. James Lindgren (Northwestern): Who Believes that Astrology is Scientific? From Moment, how has Jewish thought influenced science? An exploration of the relationship between Judaism and the evolution of scientific thinking. David P. Barash on how over time, Buddhism and science agree. Two scientists have formalized a theorem regarding the existence of God penned by mathematician Kurt Godel, but the God angle is somewhat of a red herring. Joel Achenbach on why Carl Sagan is truly irreplaceable. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has many titles — should one of them be public theologian? Thanks to Bill Nye, creationists raised enough money to build an anti-science theme park: This is what happens when you engage with enemies of science: You win a debate — and underwrite their claptrap propaganda. Bill Nye needs to stop debating climate change: The TV "Science Guy" does his cause, and all of us, no good with his cheesy antics. Massimo Pigliucci keeps a beady mind’s eye on the demarcation problem between science and pseudo-science. Is our universe fine-tuned for the existence of life, or does it just look that way from where we’re sitting? Tim Maudlin wonders. Adrian Kent on our quantum reality problem: When the deepest theory we have seems to undermine science itself, some kind of collapse looks inevitable. Do we live in the Matrix? Zeeya Merali on how tests could reveal whether we are part of a giant computer simulation — but the real question is if we want to know.