Monthly Archives: January 2008

I Had No Idea Intelligent Design Proponents Were So Stupid

I had no clue that ID proponents were so stupid, until today when I heard the Diane Rehm NPR podcast about teaching evolution vs. creationism. Intelligent Design proponents think bacterial antibiotic resistance has nothing to do with selection pressure and population genetic changes, nothing to do with evolution at all. We think everyone should get …

January 8, 2008 – 9:43 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (6)

Is It Wrong to Believe Your Beliefs Are True?

Chris, at Nihil Fit, and John DePoe, at Fides Quaerens Intellectum, are both blogging about something I was thinking about a while ago: Is it wrong to believe your beliefs are true? I phrased it as the question, “Come to the wrong conclusion, or wrong to come to a conclusion?” Some people consider it an …

January 8, 2008 – 3:04 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Thinking Christianly | Tagged | Comments (35)

“How thoughts arise”

Science Centric has a report on a new, more effective approach to simulating neural networks: In their doctoral theses, Arvind Kumar and Sven Schrader have simulated large neuronal networks that, for the first time, take this neuronal feature into account. Especially in the neocortex, neurones are intensely interconnected, i.e. they receive many input signals that …

January 8, 2008 – 1:42 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (22)

Evolution Book Sees No Science-Religion Gap – New York Times

This is going to be interesting. I’ve just ordered my copy, which should be here within a week. On Thursday, [the National Academy of Sciences] produced a third [book on teaching evolution]. But this volume is unusual, people who worked on it say, because it is intended specifically for the lay public and because it …

January 8, 2008 – 10:38 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

What Christ Does For Us, Part 3: The Extent of Brokenness

God created us for relationship with Him, and with genuine moral significance as part of our makeup. We turned away from Him and broke that relationship. Our connection to the true source of life and love was broken, and death and alienation entered our experience. This we learn from Genesis 1 through 3, as covered …

January 5, 2008 – 6:04 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (21)

Blog Page Improvements (Mostly)

I think I’ve solved some pesky problems with IE 6, and with comment previewing and subscribing. Internet Explorer 6 was truncating the sidebar. Firefox and Camino insisted on placing the comment enhancements far at the bottom of the page, below the blogroll. We fumbled around with a lot of things, trying to fix this. I …

January 5, 2008 – 7:51 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Unfiled | Comments Off

Internet Explorer’s Blog Appearance

Did something just change here in the blog’s appearance on Internet Explorer for Windows? I use a Macintosh, so I don’t check it with IE very often. Today, after doing some experimenting to improve the placement of the live comment preview, it appears that on IE the sidebar gets truncated. It may not happen when …

January 4, 2008 – 11:50 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Comments (2)

The National Academy of Sciences and the Fact-Value Dichotomy

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), as reported in this morning’s Los Angeles Times, has made another statement in favor of teaching evolution in schools. There were the usual distortions in their report, but it’s only been a few days since that topic came up here on this blog, and there’s no need to go …

January 4, 2008 – 11:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (1)

What Christ Does For Us, Part 2: Broken Roots

Yesterday we saw that God created humans to have great dignity, and superior value and worth, above every other created thing. We were in fact created for relationship with God. He has always intended to love us, and for us to love Him. This is not love between equals, though, for God created us to …

January 3, 2008 – 10:42 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Tagged , , , , | Comments (10)

What Christ Does For Us, Part 1: Our Roots In God’s Plan

I shouldn’t have been too surprised to discover that this post on how we need Christ needed more explanation. I’m actually pleased to have this occasion arise; it gives me a chance to reflect on what Christ has done for us in the past, and what he does for us still. The objection doctor(logic) raised …

January 2, 2008 – 9:49 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Tagged , , , | Comments (44)