Category Archives: atheism

Bad Science kills. When quality is repeatedly sacrificed for quantity, we all pay.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001b1k (from 28th November 2018) An episode of Richard Dawkins‘ “Trust Me, I’m a Scientist.

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, atheism, Boston Ethical Society, evidence, obfuscating data, science, Science magazine | Leave a comment

“The Unchained Goddess”, Bell Science Hour, 1958

A tad nostalgic, for the day where humanity could have stopped a bunch of harm from climate change. Also, although from a STEM perspective, the entire show is worthwhile, only the last seven minutes are pertinent to climate change. Moreover, … Continue reading

Posted in atheism, climate change, Cosmos, global warming | Leave a comment

On the dominance of the `Demon Haunted World` in the United States

Trump is a symptom. Science … is after the way the Universe really is, and not about what makes us feel good. — Carl Sagan

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, atheism, Carl Sagan, science, science education | Leave a comment

I’m afraid, dear progressive friends, Mr Maher is 110% correct

I see nearly every week in the comedy called progressive plans for energy sources in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Progressives, it seems, eschew cooperation with business and attorneys and, as a result, never get anything respectable done. They are, as … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, Bill Maher, Buckminster Fuller, Canettes Blues Band, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, Daniel Kahneman, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, electricity markets, engineering, environmental law, fossil fuel divestment, free flow of labor, global warming, green tech, greenwashing, Hermann Scheer, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, Kevin Anderson, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, local self reliance, Michael Osborne, politics, rationality, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, zero carbon | 5 Comments

`Message from Sally Yates to Justice Department lawyers before she was fired’

The story. On January 27, 2017, the President signed an Executive Order regarding immigrants and refugees from certain Muslim-majority countries. The order has now been challenged in a number of jurisdictions. As the Acting Attorney General, it is my ultimate … Continue reading

Posted in atheism, Donald Trump, dump Trump, ethical ideals, justice, secularism, UU, UU Humanists | Leave a comment

Happy Newtonmas!

When knowledge conquered fear … And, what better way to celebrate than watching the National Geographic Cosmos episode, When knowledge conquered fear, hosted by the great Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

Posted in abstraction, astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, Bill Maher, Bill Nye, Boston Ethical Society, Buckminster Fuller, Carl Sagan, Cosmos, geophysics, Isaac Newton, mathematics, Neill deGrasse Tyson, physics, science, science education, the show | Leave a comment

On the rise of the Trumpistas …

Just a couple of things to write about The Obvious. I have written a couple of longer thoughts as Comments, here and here, at … And Then There’s Physics. I reiterate that I don’t believe any voter was hoodwinked, that … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Solar Energy Society, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, atheism, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate zombies, coastal communities, consumption, corporate supply chains, cynicism, Daniel Kahneman, denial, disingenuity, Donald Trump, dynamical systems, Equiterre, exponential growth, extended supply chains, Exxon, fear uncertainty and doubt, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, ignorance, Joseph Schumpeter, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, meteorology, Minsky moment, moral leadership, oceanography, organizational failures, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reason, reasonableness, risk, science, science denier, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we'' | 2 Comments

Frum on Trump

Great interview, on On Point.

Posted in atheism, Boston, citizenship, civilization, corruption, cynicism, David Suzuki, denial, Donald Trump, economics, ethics, evidence, false advertising, fear uncertainty and doubt, ignorance, politics, risk, the right to know, the stack of lies | Leave a comment

It’s hotter than you think

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, atheism, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, civilization, climate change, climate disruption, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Guy McPherson, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, James Hansen, Kevin Anderson, meteorology, methane, mitigation, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, sustainability, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Pale Blue Dot

Compassion, yes. Love, no.

Posted in astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, Bill Maher, Bill Nye, bollocks, Boston Ethical Society, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, compassion, ecology, geophysics, humanism, NASA, physical materialism, physics, population biology, Sankey diagram, Spaceship Earth, statistics, stochastics | 1 Comment

Carbon Worshipers and Worship

There’s agitation and angst in some circles regarding the proper term to dub individuals who, however technical their training, reject the conclusions of climate science, physics, and even Exxon from the 1970s. (Graphs are from Greg Laden’s blog.) There’s denial, … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, chemistry, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate data, climate models, Cult of Carbon, denial, energy, environment, Exxon, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, IPCC, meteorology, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, zero carbon | 3 Comments

Ahmed: arrested for having electronics in his possession simpler than a smart phone

I have made my comments at The Times news article on the subject. If I, as a youngster, brought my Newtonian telescope lens-in-progress into school, and because it looked like it was wrapped in putty, would I, in this day, … Continue reading

Posted in astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, Bill Nye, Boston Ethical Society, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, Dan Satterfield, disingenuity, education, engineering, ethics, humanism, ignorance, physical materialism, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, Susan Jacoby, the right to know, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists | Leave a comment

Bob Inglis: “Energy optimists. Climate realists.”

Kudos. http://climateeye.republicen.org/ http://blog.republicen.org/ http://republicen.org/areyouen/ http://republicen.org/the-solution-element/ http://republicen.org/the-solution-element/realist-guide/ I’m not, by their definition anyway, a conservative. In fact, I’m pretty apolitical these days although I will do things like demonstrate. But it’s completely clear to me this problem isn’t going to get … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, bifurcations, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, capricious gods, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, education, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, ethics, finance, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sociology, statistics, sustainability, Tea Party, UU Humanists | 1 Comment

“Mother Nature is not sitting idle”

This is an extension of Eli Rabett’s earlier piece. Eli Rabett offers a sobering post. (Click image for larger picture.) That’s from Solomon, Plattner, Knutti, and Friedlingstein, PNAS, 2009, “Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions”.

Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, capricious gods, carbon dioxide | Leave a comment

Excellent. With musings on religion and mass extinctions.

And sometimes, just sometimes, I can feel the same way about some religions. Now, it’s not that many aren’t doing good, and many aren’t getting people to realize that we have painted ourselves deeply into a climate corner, but it … Continue reading

Posted in art, atheism, Bill Nye, Boston Ethical Society, bridge to nowhere, Carl Sagan, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate education, climate justice, climate zombies, Darwin Day, denial, ecology, environment, ethics, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, history, humanism, mass extinctions, Neill deGrasse Tyson, physical materialism, politics, population biology, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, sociology, temporal myopia, the right to know, UU Humanists | 1 Comment

George Carlin on religion; Ricky Gervais on the Bible

Yeah. Ogden and Sleep, “Explosive eruption of coal and basalt and the end-Permian mass extinction“.

Posted in atheism, capricious gods, carbon dioxide, Carl Sagan, chance, mass extinctions, rationality, reasonableness, UU Humanists | Leave a comment

“Gray matters [not much, truly]” (Christian Robert)

Gray matters [not much, truly].

Posted in atheism, Boston Ethical Society, capricious gods, citizenship, civilization, education, ethics, history, politics, rationality, reasonableness, the right to know | Leave a comment

International Darwin Day: 12th February 2015

http://darwinday.org/ http://darwinday.org/about/

Posted in atheism, biology, Boston Ethical Society, Charles Darwin, civilization, Darwin Day, ecology, environment, evolution, science, science education, UU Humanists | Leave a comment

Stephen Fry: “God … Bone cancer in children? … Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god …?”

A God as a monster.

Posted in atheism, capricious gods | Leave a comment

Codium fragile, for Saturday, 17th January 2015

With today’s post, I’m beginning a new tradition at 667 per cm, posting a potpourri of short observations collected during the week, not necessarily having dense citations to work which inspired them. (Although if interested, please do ask and I’ll … Continue reading

Posted in art, arXiv, astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, chemistry, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, energy, engineering, environment, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geoengineering, history, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, methane, microgrids, NASA, Neill deGrasse Tyson, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, notes, nuclear power, oceanography, open data, open source scientific software, physics, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, the right to know | Leave a comment

Je Suis Charlie Hebdo

That’s my comment. More reason for atheism, I’d say. Sam Harris may be overly tough on religion, but in this case, he’s spot on. The Economist has a tabular graphic describing the perceived fraction of Muslims in various countries, principally … Continue reading

Posted in atheism, citizen science, civilization | Leave a comment

“Stochasticity!”

RadioLab’s show/podcast this week was a tour of the world of probability, and its interface with people. I judge it great, but, then, I would. Their description? Stochasticity (a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness), may be at the … Continue reading

Posted in atheism, Bayesian, Boston Ethical Society, citizen science, citizenship, education, ethics, mathematics, maths, rationality, reasonableness, risk, statistics | Leave a comment

Why I don’t eat commercially caught fish

And, of course, I don’t eat land animals either. I will sometimes have scallops and clams.

Posted in atheism, biology, Boston Ethical Society, ethics, humanism, oceanography, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists | 1 Comment

Carl Sagan Speaks

Posted in atheism, Boston Ethical Society, Carl Sagan, Neill deGrasse Tyson, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk | Leave a comment

Defeating “The Index” in Gilbert, Arizona

“Home rule” means a lot of things. But, as the Catholic hierarchy in Rome once did, the educational authorities of Gilbert, Arizona, USA, are apparently taking it one step too far. Dan Satterfield reports that certain pages in a biology … Continue reading

Posted in atheism, biology, Boston Ethical Society, citizenship, ecology, education, environment, humanism, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, scientific publishing, the right to know | Leave a comment

“I very much enjoy taking those people on, but, meanwhile, it breaks my heart”

Amen, brother Bill. I very much know what you mean. It really hurts.

Posted in astrophysics, atheism, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, compassion, ecology, economics, education, engineering, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, humanism, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, Neill deGrasse Tyson, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, solar power, wind power | Leave a comment

Hope. This is why, in part, I am an atheist.

Carl Sagan’s last interview on Charlie Rose: The point is, how can any world view which is based upon either ignorance of, apathy towards, or misconception about the physical universe offer any realistic promise or hope or optimism, any more … Continue reading

Posted in astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, biology, Boston Ethical Society, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, ecology, education, engineering, environment, geophysics, history, humanism, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NASA, Neill deGrasse Tyson, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science | Leave a comment

“Laughin’ Fool Blues”

It’s midsummer, and time to hear from Doc Snow, and some “Laughin’ Fool Blues”.

Posted in atheism, carbon dioxide, citizenship, climate, climate education, conservation, economics, education, geophysics, notes, obfuscating data, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science | 1 Comment

AGU Chapman Conference — Climate Science: Michael Mann

Time to get angry, with Imhofe, Barton, and the origins of fossil fuel disinformation.

Posted in atheism, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, conservation, ecology, environment, forecasting, geoengineering, geophysics, history, meteorology, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, statistics | Leave a comment

On Stenger’s narcissistic America, and picking and choosing what science to believe

People may criticize the view as unfair to religious scientists and something which fans the flames, making Science appear more incompatible with religion than it is, but I think atheist leader Dr Victor Stenger has a point. Interviewed by the … Continue reading

Posted in atheism, history, humanism, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science, Unitarian Universalism | 1 Comment