Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
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Based on the latest research, we can continue to maintain that sentience, and the higher order consciousness that springs from it in humans, is the most widespread accident in the history of life, completely unnecessary, but somehow omnipresent, or we can reject that view and assume it serves a deep evolutionary purpose. Thought experiments can… Continue reading The evolution of consciousness and the omnipresence of sentience
Can octopuses feel pain and pleasure? What about crabs, shrimp, insects, and spiders? The phrase “thought provoking” is frequently overused, but Professor Jonathan Birch’s new book on animal sentience and what we can do about it deserves the accolade and then some. When I was asked to review an advance copy of Professor Jonathan… Continue reading The Edge of Sentience and the beauty of being wrong
We, indeed all life on Earth, are as ancient as we are new, as grandly complex as we are simple. Indeed, it is fair to say that complex life wouldn’t exist at all without this contradiction. The mammalian ear is significantly more complex than our bird and lizard cousins in the vertebrate family. Rather than… Continue reading Evolution: Three new studies highlight the marvelous contradictions between preserved forms and new innovations that support complex life on Earth
A new study from the University of Vienna on the inner ear in mammals offers valuable evidence and insight, while upending at least some of the conventional wisdom by finding the shape of the ear in some lineages is more directly connected to habitat and lifestyle than genetics alone. Counter intuitively, we can find evidence… Continue reading The shape of your inner ear, convergent evolution, and the evolution of evolvability
Is your beloved dog really excited about a treat or is looking excited simply an evolutionary strategy to get more treats? How about our own emotions, can they be as selfish or even more so? Our greyhound, Rosie, is by all outward appearances a very happy dog most of the time, literally hopping with excitement… Continue reading The dogs we love, the emotions they might or might not experience, and what it means for ourselves
For hundreds of millions of years, life persisted on Earth with no meaning at all. Trillions upon trillions of creatures lived and died, born as dust and returned to it without remark. Humanity changed all that, making the meaningless, meaningful. Nature means nothing without people might seem a bold statement on the surface. Nature, after… Continue reading Nature means nothing without people and the experts have all gone insane
Surprise, surprise, the experts and the media suddenly discover that the internet age and the rise of Artificial Intelligence requires a lot of energy and other natural resources, contributing to global warming and threatening the environment. It’s a common trope in science fiction, one that needs no introduction to anyone familiar with the genre: Computers… Continue reading Computers are killing the planet
When Charles Darwin set off on a five year journey around the world in the Beagle, he was not yet the thinker he would become. Instead, he was merely a product of his time on his way to becoming a man for all time, as all world-changing geniuses are. Charles Darwin is among the most… Continue reading Charles Darwin, colonialism, cancel culture, and the irrepressible nature of genius
A new study from the University of Ottawa attempts to resolve the insurmountable challenges facing the Big Bang theory by proposing the universe is almost twice as old as previously believed and that light loses energy over the eons. The scientific community appears to have largely shrugged, but it’s a good start. Almost two years… Continue reading Physicists finally get off their ass and propose a new theory for the origin of the universe
After decades of claiming the Earth was warming past the point of no return, a new study claims the warming will prompt an intense cooling, encasing parts of Europe in ice in a scenario straight out of a science fiction film. In 2021, I posited that “The pressure to ‘act’ on climate change is more… Continue reading No, New York is not about to freeze in a scenario right out of The Day After Tomorrow, whatever the so-called scientists say
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 