I just read an incredibly dumb headline on my @CNN app: “What we call love is actually a chemical process in our brains.” (And on Valentine’s Day, no less! Is nothing sacred?) Needless to say, this is a ridiculous example of reductionism. Love is most surely not the same thing as a chemical reaction in […]
reductionism
Love comes from lousy neurons
Wow, this guy is a real charmer. Here is a great example of why scientists (Linden is a professor of neuroscience) tend to make terrible poets, philosophers, and greeting card writers. Donald McKay, a wise Christian and scientist, used to warn of the naive “nothing buttery” of those who assume that demonstrating a physical, chemical, or […]
What is wrong with this Ancestry DNA ad?
I’ve seen this irritating ad on TV multiple times. And while there are several things wrong with it, let’s focus on one. “Lyn” discovers she is “26% Nigerian.” Apparently a genetic plurality in one’s DNA profile is sufficient to claim any cultural expressions historically associated with that genetic identity as one’s own. Since Nigerian DNA […]
I intended to write this article. So much the worse for reductionism.
I just had a rather long exchange on Twitter with Truth (T) and The Thinker (TT) on the topic of mind, dualism, and reductionism. In the exchange I focused on making a simple but important point: when one types a tweet one brings about an event in the material world (i.e. the tweet’s existence via the […]
Mystics, Skeptics, and Nothing Buttery
In The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks offers an interesting neurological account of the visions of the great mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Sacks recounts one of Hildegard’s writings titled “The Fall of the Angels” where she describes witnessing the fall of Satan and his minions: “I saw a great star most […]
God of the Gaps and Mind of the Gaps
Dan Barker says: “Many of these [theistic] arguments are reduced to a ‘god of the gaps’ strategy. At most, the theists might prove the existence of a current gap in human knowledge, but this does not justify filling the gap with their god. After all, what happens when the gap closes someday? The gaps are […]
Reductionism Propaganda? On the wily ways of the open-minded dogmatist
One of my readers, Mark, forwarded this short video “What is life? Is death real?” and asked for my comment. It’s well worth your time to invest the five minutes to watch it: This is a slickly produced video with a lot of good information. But it is not simply a neutral recounting of the […]
Two anecdotes suggestive of telepathy
In the last week Jonathan and NW have had a rather involved discussion on the so-called paranormal. With that conversation as a backdrop I’d like to share two anecdotes suggestive of telepathy from the last couple days, one which occurred to me and the other to a friend of my wife (let’s call her Jane). […]
Petitionary prayer and the final hours of a Skoal hockey puck
Robert offered the following response to my delightful expostulation on a Bible being so inspired you can’t tell it’s inspired: “And intercessory prayer is so effective it’s effectiveness can’t be tested to have a measurable effect on our world.” Robert then added an explanatory notation for his statement. That qualification is helpful. But I’m going […]
