My life at Penn State (aka why I care about creationists)
A couple friends reminded me I should better explain my motivations for writing on this topic. Why does a random Jamaican-Indian-American* former space plasma p...
Month: November 2013
Consistency and fairness in public policy
Ross Douthat believes tradition-based rules can be socially useful even they are arbitrary and inconsistent: One point I didn’t get to, though, is the extent to...
Does understanding always matter?
Reflecting on evolution as the “foundation” of biology reminded me of my teaching days in grad school. I’ve had to teach Maxwell’s Equa...
Evolution: the “foundation” of biology?
“Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution” – Theodosius Dobzhansky Dobzhansky’s sentiment, or something like it, ...
A few definitions
A good friend wants me to define some basic terminology: When you have time I would be interested to understand the distinction you see (if there is one) betwee...
Honesty vs rationalism in real human beings
I understand why scientists push hard for more evidence and rationality in public debate. There are many sloppy, dishonest, ill-conceived arguments out there. W...
On slippery slopes, evidence and fairness
Commenter Geremy worries about the long-term implications of allowing intelligent design in science class: I think my problem with [reading] the paragraph is th...
A thought experiment
The importance of separating facts from ideology was perhaps the most important lesson from my fellowship in DC. It stems from the basic belief that there is an...
The good, true, and beautiful
I quite often feel that my greatest task as a father is to raise children who love what is good, true, and beautiful, and who are therefore aliens in this popul...