Jason Rosenhouse received his PhD in mathematics from Dartmouth College in 2000. He subsequently spent three years as a post-doc at Kansas State University. Currently he is Associate Professor of Mathematics at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. This blog is about science, religion, math, politics and chess, roughly in that order.
I realize there's nothing Earth-shattering about documenting right-wing bias on the Fox News Channel. But yesterday's panel on Hannity and Colmes really had to be seen to be believed. To discuss the conviction of Scotter Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice they had three guests. They…
On a recent trip to the local Barnes and Noble, I noticed a remarkable thing. On the main kiosk, the place where the Stephen King and John Grisham books are located, there were two prominently placed volumes that caught my eye. One was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, the other was God: The…
File this one under, “It's my blog and I'll post what I want to post!” Late last year world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik got married in Paris. Some photos of the wedding have now been posted at Kramnik's website. No real news here, but one of the pictures includes former world number one…
My parents have been in town for the past two days, so I'm a bit behind on my blogging. So how about we get back into the swing of things with a little chess news.
Sunday's New York Times had this article about a protest held in St. Petersburg against the government of Vladimir Putin. The leader…
On February 24 there was a pro-ID confab. in Istanbul. Among the attendees was David Berlinski, whose boneheaded essays for Commentary appear with depressing regularity. The conference website includes a brief abstract for Berlinski's talk. So, how about we wrap up the week's blogging by having…
Christianity Today has published this lengthy review of The God Delusion. The review's author is Alvin Plantinga, who is often described as America's foremost philosopher of religion.
As regular readers of this blog are aware, I find the central truth claims of Christianity to be rather…
During my recent hiatus Phillip Johnson emerged from his hidey hole and posted some new expectorations regarding the current state of ID. I realize other bloggers have already ripped into Johnson's ill-considered comments, but why should they have all the fun!
He begins with his standard tripe…
If there's one good thing about spending an extra night in Buffalo, without access to a computer and with a rather limited selection of channels on the television, it's that you get a lot of reading done. I managed to plow through all of Edward Humes' book
Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education,…
I'd like to thank Barry Karr of The Center for Inquiry for the invitation to speak at their Darwin Day event. The event itself went off smoothly, and I was well taken care of during my travel woes. All in all, a highly successful weekend.
The afternoon began with a screening of Inherit the Wind…
My quick little jaunt up to Buffalo ended up being not so quick. The plan was to fly up on Friday, do my thing on Saturday, then fly back on Sunday. Quick and painless!
Sadly, a snowstorm in Buffalo coupled with an even bigger storm in Washington DC left me stranded for an extra day in Buffalo.…
Just a reminder that this Saturday, February 24th, I will be speaking at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. The festivities start at 3:00 with a screening of Inherit the Wind, Then, after a dinner break, I will be speaking at 6:00. More information can be obtained by contacting Barry Karr at…
Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. A combination of life being busy, busy, busy and the outside world being icy, icy, icy.
I did, however, manage to wander down to Bridgewater, VA last night to attend an evolution/ID debate between Skeptic Magazine publisher Michael Shermer and longtime…
From today's New York Times:
There is nothing much unusual about the 197-page dissertation Marcus R. Ross submitted in December to complete his doctoral degree in geosciences here at the University of Rhode Island.
His subject was the abundance and spread of mosasaurs, marine reptiles that, as he…
Alon Levy of Abstract Nonsense has posted the inaugural edition of the Carnival of Mathematics. If you're looking for some great math blogging, I recommend having a look.
This Monday, February 12, I will be giving a talk to the JMU Freethinker's Club on the subject of evolution and creationism. The talk will be from 7:00-8:00 in room 303, Taylor Hall on the James Madison University campus. If you live anywhere Harrisonburg, VA, stop on by!
Then, on Saturday,…
Sam Harris has replied to the Andrew Sullivan essay I discussed in Wednesday's post. Let's consider some highlights:
I am, of course, unconvinced by your response. But this can hardly disappoint you, as it was not intended to convince me. You simply wrote to inform me that you have never doubted…
American Society for Microbiology has now issued this statement in support of evolution and against intelligent design:
Knowledge of the microbial world is essential to understanding the evolution of life on Earth. The characteristics of microorganisms--small size, rapid reproduction, mobility,…
The blogalogue between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan on the subject of the reasonableness of religious faith continues. We pick up the action with Sullivan's latest salvo. He is responding to the following question asked by Harris: “What would constitute “proof” for you that your current beliefs…
From CNN comes this useful article about a planned display of fossils at a museum in Kenya:
Deep in the dusty, unlit corridors of Kenya's national museum, locked away in a plain-looking cabinet, is one of mankind's oldest relics: Turkana Boy, as he is known, the most complete skeleton of a…
Having just spent three hours explaining the value of trigonometric substitutions and partial fraction expansions to not very enthusiastic calculus students, I'm not really in the mood for a lengthy post today. So how about yet another variation on the Monty Hall problem.
In this version the…
Theologian Alister McGrath offers these thoughts about Richard Dawkins. Let's have a look.
Actually, the fun begins with essay's headline: “Do Stop Behaving as if You Are God, Professor Dawkins.” McGrath is about to devote roughly a thousand words to explaining all the ways in which Dawkins has…
Remember Kearney, NJ? That was where history teacher David Paszkiewicz routinely lectured his students on the fine points of getting into heaven and about which trendy scientific theories were not scientific. I described the basic facts of the case in this post.
The case was remarkable not just…
It's been a while since I've replied to anything over at Uncommon Descent. But this entry from Salvador Cordova really caught my eye.
It is based on this paper, by mathematician Gregory Chaitin, The paper's title: “The Halting Probability Omega: Irreducible Complexity in Pure Mathematics.”…
Keith Olbermann routinely declares Bill O'Reilly to be The Worst Person in the World, but I thought yesterday's edition was especially amusing:
And our winner? Oh, it's a two-for, Bill-O offering you this splendid deal, buy a copy of his book, “I'm Squinting While Wearing a Wind Breaker” -- no, I…
From the blog of Oxford University Press comes this essay from philosopher Phillip Kitcher. The subject: evolution and religion. Let's look at some highlights:
The answer, very often, is that particular pieces of scientific knowledge are viewed as threatening. Acknowledging the truth about…
Speaking of chess, we really ought to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that the first major grandmaster chess tournament of the year has now ended. I refer of course to the annual event at Wijk aan Zee, in the Netherlands. This year's event ended in a three-way tie between Veselin Topalov,…
Over at Pure Pedantry, Jake Young reports on a major study into the reasons for the dearth of women among competitive chessplayers. His conclusion:
I am going to make an analogy to make this data make more sense. Why does it seem like the US has substantially fewer good soccer players than the…
Via ThinkProgress comes this irritating story about a recent Congressional hearing on the political manipulation of climate change science. Tennessee Democratic representative Jim Cooper told the following story, about a dinner party he attended:
REP. JIM COOPER (D-TN): Second, let me mention a…
The stereotype about acedmics living in ivory towers does have a germ of truth to it. For the latest example, have a look at biologist J. Scott Turner's take on the ID situation. He was writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
He begins:
I'd never had a heckler before. Usually, when I'm…
