Recent content by Artorius

Is our freedom at risk? Yes. Ever hear of Dominionism? www.theocracywatch.org

Here's a good article about the ID movement: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/evolution.html?pg=1&topic=evolution&topic_set=

The reason that there is no evidence to support ID is because it is not science. ID has nothing to do with science at all. ID is a religiously-motivated political movement to bring creationism back into the secular public school system. That's all it ever has been; that's all it ever will be...

I like the idea of theriddler876's amendment because it seems to explicitly emphasize the separation of church and state, something that is sorely needed in these dangerous theocratic times. I was wondering: under the law, is a civil union identical to a marriage? In other words, does a civil...

There is little doubt that Aristotle's work in philosophy, logic, taxonomy, and inquiry resulted in major benefits for Western civilization, but there are two areas of Aristotle that I have considered to be major setbacks for scientific progress until the Renaissance and later: 1. No...

Culture establishes what is normal, and the forces that drive the concept of "normality" to an individual include, in order of most to least affect, the immediate family, the extended family, the community, and the society (although in many instances today, the media plays the most important...

Astrology has its root in pattern-seeking, which is an evolutionary survival mechanism. Pattern-seeking can lead to scientifically valid conclusions, but history has shown that it also leads to superstitions, beliefs in supernatural and magic, and correlations that are invalid. In astrology, the...

Just as Newton "stood on the shoulders of giants," Einstein did, too. There are probably more contributors to Einstein's work, but at first thought I can identify 4: 1. Georg Riemann -- laid the mathematical foundations for GR in mid 1800's 2. James Maxwell -- established relation between...

This could be why sexual reproduction was favored over asexual reproduction (which produces genetically identical offspring, like cloning) for complex organisms in evolutionary history. The mingling of genetic information from two genders produces a hardier organism with a greater chance of...

I agree that the internet itself is neither inherently good nor bad. It is simply a tool, but a very powerful one at that. The motivations behind its use is what can be classified as good or bad. The study of such motivations would belong to the realm of ethics and would generate some...

The conclusions of science are neither completely valid nor precise, but are tentative. The progression of science may travel towards greater validity or precision, but this is not a guarantee. Science can promise that it will change over time, which is expected. Perhaps this is not the...

To place in terms of "c", divide your answer by the value for "c" itself, the speed of light, which is usually rounded to 300,000,000 m/s. The ratio is the fraction of the speed of light: 0.75c = three-quarters of the speed of light 0.5c = half of the speed of light 0.25c = quarter of the...

Science can address questions related to the natural universe, which are questions that have the potential of empirical verification or falsification. However, some metaphysical positions (e.g. naturalism) state that all that exists is the natural universe, and in this case any question is...

It may be more accurate to consider science as a subset of philosophy or a type of philosophy (it used to be called natural philosophy 'til the 1800's). Philosophy is more general and can ask any question, whereas science is limited to questions related to the natural universe. Questions related...

This is most likely due to the fact that the methods of science work. Look around. It works. Secular humanists make a better choice when they select science over, o, let's say, ...religion... to explain the natural universe. All the substitutions that are given here are ultimately found in...