CategoryScience
Evolution Journal Editors Resign After AI Takes Over
Publisher Elsevier seems to have created a lot of extra work for the editors by introducing AI-generated errors into the publishing process
Michael Shermer: Wokeness Poisons Science and I Am No Longer Woke
A number of well-known one-way skeptics and atheists are beginning to feel the consequences of prescribed insufferable virtue
Consciousness Blurs the Line Between Philosophy and Science
In contrast to the New Age emphasis on self-realization as an end in itself, the theistic approach sees self-awareness as a gateway to understanding our dependence on the divine
Why Scientism is A Dead End for Science As Well As Philosophy
Canadian journalist Patrick Keeney’s thoughts on the topic — just as the Notre Dame fire smoldered out — are well worth revisiting
The Lab Leak Theory for COVID’s Origin Is Accepted. So What Now?
Here at Mind Matters News, we have long favored the lab leak theory — even back in 2021 when powerful legacy media like the New York Times were smearing it
Why Do Science and Tech Writers Hate Elon Musk?
It's partly because he encourages bottom-up media but also he encourages a sort of vision that is now largely lost
Woke SciAm Editor Resigns in Post-US Election Uproar
Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine and former Scientific American columnist, offers a thoughtful response
Nature Editorial Attacks Trump for Ignoring “Scientific Consensus”
Mistrust of the state, which the editorialists fear, doesn’t weaken democracy. It is essential to its proper functioning. Hence the Constitution and Bill of Rights
Did Stephen Hawking End His Career by Giving Up on Truth?
A philosopher argues the case. But has the rejection of truth in physics spread widely into popular culture?
Free Will: A Materialist Thinks It Might Somehow Be Real
Psychiatrist Ralph Lewis thinks that Darwinian evolution can explain human consciousness but now hesitates to debunk free willEarlier this year, University of Toronto psychiatrist Ralph Lewis wrote a two-part series at Psychology Today titled “The Strongest Neuroscience Arguments in the Free Will Debate” (here and here). He looked at Mitchell (yes) and Sapolsky (no), both of whom published serious books on the topic in 2023. And he concluded, For now, for practical purposes, given our current level of incomplete understanding of the complexities of the brain’s decision-making processes, and our inability to predict human behaviors in most situations, we might as well regard ourselves as having free will—or rather, degrees of freedom. We do know that our brain has highly evolved systems for self-control—even for those of us who struggle with this relatively more than others, and Read More ›
Rodney Stark: A Historian Finds a History Amid Cultural Myths
As his views matured, Stark found himself more and more opposed to the nineteenth-century positivist founders of social science
Richard Dawkins as an Unlikely Evangelist
As a recent book of essays demonstrates, the once much-vaunted new atheism spurred many thinking people to become Christians
Top Journal Nature Promotes Views of Anti-Israel Demonstrator
What any of this has to do with promoting science is beyond me. It’s politics and ideology, pure and simple. Perhaps that’s why the interview is not behind a paywall
Presidential Pundits—a P-Hacking Parable
In politics, as elsewhere, too many studies flop when other researchers attempt to replicate them with fresh data
After Dawkins Is Canceled, What Comes Next? Not Better Science!
As the National Academies of Science try to blend traditional lore into science findings, the concept of truth that atheists and theists clash over is irrelevant
Is True Artificial Intelligence Possible? A Science Perspective
Many will conclude that true AI — AI that thinks like humans — must be possible because we hear so much about it from so many sources
Science Writer Tells Top Science Mag: Quit Endorsing Politicians!
Scientific American's display of political partisanship comes at an awkward time. Trust in science is in steady, ongoing decline
The Science Establishment Continues to Politicize “Science”
And that ain’t good for science