A Thick Layer: A Fine-Tuned Critique of Arvin Ash
Arvin Ash is an engineer with a YouTube channel. He recently posted a video titled “Is God in Physics? Fine Tuning Scrutinized“. It gets almost everything wrong: history, philosophy, science, and...
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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Newton (Part 2)
I recently commented on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s chiding of Isaac Newton for failing to anticipate Laplace’s discovery of the stability of the Solar System. He has commented further on this episode and...
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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Newton (Part 1)
Warning: long post! Abstract: Neil deGrasse Tyson has argued that Isaac Newton’s religious views stymied his science, preventing him from discovering what Laplace showed a century later – that the...
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Deducing the Stars
The following cartoon recently appeared on my Facebook feed, courtesy of Beatrice the Biologist. This provides a neat illustration of the difference between how a biologist approaches nature and how a...
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What Aristotle Got Right
Having read a few good books on Aristotelian and scholastic (meta)physics (and, thanks to Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction by Edward Feser, maybe starting to get a grip on what a...
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Doing cosmology with a brain
A favourite XKCD: Made out of Meat Here’s a few idle, Friday afternoon thoughts. I study distant galaxies. I use mathematical models of the laws of nature (and a supercomputer) to try to predict the...
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Another Sydney Talk: Fine-tuning and Naturalism
Next month, I’ll be in Minnesota at the St. Thomas Summer Seminars in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology, presenting the science of fine-tuning to a bunch of philosophers. I presented...
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Speaking in Sydney: Universes, one after the other
If you’re in Sydney on Monday (18th May, 2015), then come along to The Royal pub in Darlington to see A Pint of Science! It’s an international science festival, with similar events in 9 countries. I’ll...
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Did the Universe Have a Beginning? – Carroll vs Craig Review (Part 1)
It’s been a while, but I’ve finally gotten around to jotting down a few thoughts about the Sean Carroll vs. William Lane Craig debate. I previewed the debate here (part one, two, three, four). I...
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Carroll vs. Craig (3): On Contingency
As I explained in my last posts (one, two), I’m expecting good things from the upcoming dialogue between Sean Carroll and William Lane Craig. Here, I’ll look at a species of the cosmological argument...
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Some cosmological introductions …
I don’t know who Rob Sheldon is, but he doesn’t know much about cosmology. He recently was quoted in this post at uncommondescent.com regarding the geometry of the universe. If I lecture cosmology this...
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Carroll vs. Craig (2) – How to Debate WLC
As I explained in my last post, I’m expecting good things from the upcoming dialogue between Sean Carroll and William Lane Craig. Before discussing the topic, a few comments about debating. An awful...
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I don’t geddit, Daniel Dennett
I’ve read two of Daniel Dennett’s books, and while I enjoyed them at the time I find myself unable to remember what they were about, what their arguments were, or indeed any memorable passages. Maybe...
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Feser on Krauss
Having had my appetite for the Middle Ages whetted by Edward Grant’s excellent book A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century, I recently read Edward Feser’s...
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Classify or Measure?
It’s always useful to know a statistics junkie or two. Brendon is our resident Bayesian. Another colleague of mine from Zurich, Ewan Cameron, has recently started Another Astrostatistics Blog. It’s...
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Finding Science in the Bible
The following table has appeared on my Facebook feed a few times. I have a few points to make in response. What follows is a critique of the table above, not of the Bible or Christianity. (All quotes...
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Derren Brown doesn’t find God – Fear and Faith
I’ve blogged before about my admiration for the remarkable talents of Derren Brown. However, I’ve just finished watching his latest TV offering, Fear and Faith, (Episode 2, first broadcast on Friday 16...
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Why science cannot explain why anything at all exists
I’m going to jump back on one of my favourite high horses. I’ve previously blogged about Lawrence Krauss and his views on the question “why is there something rather than nothing?”. I’ve just finished...
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A Better Roller Coaster Simulator
I remember a technology TV show in the mid 90’s showing a roller coaster simulator ride. The audience is shown a simulation or video of the view out the front of a roller coaster, and the seats jostle...
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In Defence of The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life
I recently posted on Arxiv a paper titled “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life”. A slightly shortened version has been accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical...
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