Yesterday I attended Seed/Harvard Bookstore/The Edge's sponsored event: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it. The discussion narrowed down to key topics ... consciousness, free will ... etc.
Here's a link to a Harvard Crimson article about the whole affair: Profs Debate Consciousness.
(I'll write a longer entry on the whole "What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove" lecture later today.)
One tidbit that came out: apparently Freeman Dyson (noted cosmologist and member of the faithful) had some nasty things to say about Daniel Dennett. When I find out exactly what the noted Templeton Prize winner said, I'll let you know (or if you know, please do tell). Hopefully it won't be as stupid and childish as what the most recent winner said about Richard Dawkins and Biologists in general (and it's right on the Templeton's website too - I guess the Templeton folks really wanted to let you know how they felt about biologists).
Also, not only was there an excellent edition of Tangled Bank, but coturnix was hosting the 62nd edition of the Carnival of Education over at one of his hang outs, The Magic School Bus. Check 'em out.
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I have no respect for that Dyson. Too much hokus pocus. When scientists run out of things to study they speculate, and some turn into Dysons: smart guys inventing crazy ideas. And I hate it when they anthropomorphize the universe as if humans are the center of everything. If they reread their science textbooks they would have noticed that every major scientific discovery has argued the reverse.
Hubris ...