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  • Quote of the year

    If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write only for yourself you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish that you were dead.

    - Thomas Merton, from New Seeds of Contemplation

  • Acknowledgement

    Image of Saturn (tbsp) and Rhea courtesy NASA/JPL

    Archive for the "Biology" Category

    Keep Austin somewhat less weird

    Lucky LaRue, Altoids That Bite, 2009. At the South Austin Popular Culture Center. This is the kind of weirdness we like. There are kinds not so likeable. Used with permission of the artist. Image source: redbubble.com it hurts a bit that I’ve never been to weird Austin, Republic of Texas. Alas for me: Everyone I [...]

    Sharing evolution: The medium is the message

    Ernst Haeckel, Geneological Tree of Humanity, 1891. I love the way science and art meet in this drawing. Of course, the science is no longer much good, apart from the general impression that Homo sapiens is one among many interrelated species (although we get top-center placement). Haeckel’s evocative rendering of the tree makes a subject [...]

    Jerry Coyne falls into the gap

    Eugene Berman, The Good Samaritan (1930). The Samaritan, a clear out-group representative from the perspective of Jesus’ audience, was plenty good. What Jesus didn’t know is that it was “evolution and secular reasoning,” and not God, that made him good. Turns out that’s what made Jesus good too. Image source: Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum [...]

    Mind the gaps

    Illumination from the Codex Aemilianensis, 992. In the tenth century we had no reason to suspect Adam and Eve had not been actual people. Now we do. Image source: University of Florida God lives in the gaps. And the gaps must be getting downright cozy for God. The God of the gaps fallacy runs deep. [...]

    Keep your eye on the story

    As Scott at Scotteriology says, this must be what drove Noah to drink after the flood. WARNING Part 1 (above) is fantastic but Part 2 gets really tedious and features some harsh language Henry, my 11-year-old son, has a new hobby: magic. He’s getting pretty good at it, too. Whenever I take our toddler out [...]

    Leonard Pitts Jr. on the de-evolution of America

    LPJ knows which end of the stick is up. Image source: The Salt Lake Tribune We have always loved Leonard Pitts Jr. for his insight, wit, and humanity. So we thought we’d pass along this piece to all Alert Readers. It pretty much speaks for itself, and certainly speaks for us when it comes to [...]

    Irony 101, Lesson 7: Creationists co-opt Scopes

    John Thomas Scopes was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, who was charged on May 5, 1925 for violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools. He was tried in a famous case known as the Scopes Monkey Trial. He later said of the trial, “I furnished the body that was [...]

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