Sunday

Richard Dawkins on Evidence in Science, Life and Love: A Letter to His 10-Year-Old Daughter | Brain Pickings

Richard Dawkins on Evidence in Science, Life and Love: A Letter to His 10-Year-Old Daughter | Brain Pickings
When his daughter turned ten, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins — arguably today’s most vocal atheist and celebrated skeptic — wrote her a simply worded but tremendously thoughtful letter about how we know what we know, stressing the importance of evidence over blind belief. The letter, found in the 2004 essay anthology A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love (UK; public library), is a fine addition to history’s best letters of fatherly advice and an important reminder that it’s never too early for critical thinking.
Dawkins writes:
To my dearest daughter,
Now that you are ten, I want to write to you about something that is important to me. Have you ever wondered how we know the things that we know? How do we know, for instance, that the stars, which look like tiny pinpricks in the sky, are really huge balls of fire like the Sun and very far away? And how do we know that the Earth is a smaller ball whirling round one of those stars, the Sun?
The answer to these questions is ‘evidence’.
Sometimes evidence means actually seeing (or hearing, feeling, smelling….) that something is true. Astronauts have traveled far enough from the Earth to see with their own eyes that it is round. Sometimes our eyes need help. The ‘evening star’ looks like a bright twinkle in the sky but with a telescope you can see that it is a beautiful ball — the planet we call Venus. Something that you learn by direct seeing (or hearing or feeling…) is called an observation.
Often evidence isn’t just observation on its own, but observation always lies at the back of it. If there’s been a murder, often nobody (except the murderer and the dead person!) actually observed it. But detectives can gather together lots of other observations which may all point towards a particular suspect. If a person’s fingerprints match those found on a dagger, this is evidence that he touched it. It doesn’t prove that he did the murder, but it can help when it’s joined up with lots of other evidence. Sometimes a detective can think about a whole lot of observations and suddenly realize that they all fall into place and make sense if so-and-so did the murder.
He then offers an oblique addition to the finest definitions of science:
Scientists — the specialists in discovering what is true about the world and the universe — often work like detectives. They make a guess (called a hypothesis) about what might be true. They then say to themselves: if that were really true, we ought to see so-and-so. This is called a prediction. For example, if the world is really round, we can predict that a traveler, going on and on in the same direction, should eventually find himself back where he started. When a doctor says that you have measles he doesn’t take one look at you and see measles. His first look gives him a hypothesis that you may have measles. Then he says to himself: if she really has measles, I ought to see… Then he runs through his list of predictions and tests them with his eyes (have you got spots?), his hands (is your forehead hot?), and his ears (does your chest wheeze in a measly way?). Only then does he make his decision and say, ‘I diagnose that the child has measles.’ Sometimes doctors need to do other tests like blood tests or X-rays, which help their eyes, hands and ears to make observations.

ut perhaps the most moving part of his letter deals with love, exploring the difference between naming feelings with concrete labels and intuiting them from the living fabric, the “evidence,” of experience:
People sometimes say that you must believe in feelings deep inside, otherwise you’d never be confident of things like ‘My wife loves me’. But this is a bad argument. There can be plenty of evidence that somebody loves you. All through the day when you are with somebody who loves you, you see and hear lots of little tidbits of evidence, and they all add up. It isn’t purely inside feeling, like the feeling that priests call revelation. There are outside things to back up the inside feeling: looks in the eye, tender notes in the voice, little favors and kindnesses; this is all real evidence.
He relates this to the importance of intuition in scientific discovery, something a number of famous scientists have attested to, but only as a starting point:
Inside feelings are valuable in science too, but only for giving you ideas that you later test by looking for evidence. A scientist can have a ‘hunch’ about an idea that just ‘feels’ right. In itself, this is not a good reason for believing something. But it can be a good reason for spending some time doing a particular experiment, or looking in a particular way for evidence. Scientists use inside feelings all the time to get ideas. But they are not worth anything until they are supported by evidence.
After returning to the perils of tradition, Dawkins concludes with some practical advise reminiscent of the Baloney Detection Kit:
What can we do about all this? It is not easy for you to do anything, because you are only ten. But you could try this. Next time somebody tells you something that sounds important, think to yourself: ‘Is this the kind of thing that people probably know because of evidence? Or is it the kind of thing that people only believe because of tradition, authority or revelation?’ And, next time somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them: ‘What kind of evidence is there for that?’ And if they can’t give you a good answer, I hope you’ll think very carefully before you believe a word they say.
Your loving,
Daddy
A Devil’s Chaplain is excellent in its entirety — highly recommended.

Tuesday

CBC: non-religious targeted for 'blasphemy' on social media

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/12/arrests-for-blasphemy-on-social-media-increasing-worldwide.html?cmp=rss

Over a dozen people in ten countries have been arrested for acts of "blasphemy" on social media networks this year, according to the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Their new report, which the organization describes as the first of its kind, takes a closer look at freedom of conscience laws in 60 countries around the world, including Canada. It has tracked, among other things, an uptick in the number of non-religious people being targeted for their activities on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

"As more people are able to share their thoughts with a public audience, it seems that more people are able to take offense at those thoughts and to provide public proof of them," the authors note, adding that some governments even go after those who "like" or re-tweet other people's posts.
The group highlights several specific cases, including that of an Egyptian teen sentenced to three years in jail for posting "blasphemous" cartoons online and a Greek man charged with "insulting religion" after creating a Facebook page that poked fun at believing in miracles.

This trend of prosecuting blasphemies on social media sites, they note, is "most marked" - but not exclusive to - Muslim majority countries.

"Across the world the reactionary impulse to punish new ideas, or in some cases the merest expression of disbelief, recurs again and again," the report's editor, Matt Cherry, said in a statement.

But social media isn't the only arena in which non-religious people are met with hostility or outright violence.
The report also argues that non-believers are increasingly being targeted by groups who seek to ban them from raising children, marrying believers and entering politics, among other things. The organization says atheists could even face execution in Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

While the report notes that Canada's constitution and legal system largely protect freedom of belief, the authors take issue with public funding of religious, largely Roman Catholic schools - some of which they say discriminate against qualified but non-religious teachers or can exclude non-religious students.

Monday

The Continuum of Humanist Education- online courses

The Continuum of Humanist Education // Current TV
More free online courses from the COHE
COHE is the Internet’s first website offering interactive courses in humanist thought.  COHE is a service of The Humanist Institute, a non-profit U.S. organization with a mission to educate leaders and potential leaders to shape and deliver the message of Humanism.  Our vision is to be an outstanding center for Humanist education, drawing students from all branches of Humanism.
Each course in the Continuum of Humanist Education is authored by qualified experts in their field. Read the faculty bios below to find out more about each course's author:
  • Matt Cherry
    Introduction to Humanism
  • Dr. Steven Goldberg
    Humanist Activism & Organization
  • Dr. Massimo Pigliucci
    Science and Humanism
  • Dr. Reid Johnson
    Psychology and Humanism
  • Dr. Tim Gordinier
    Law and Politics
  • Dr. Jeaneance Fowler
    Religion and Spirituality
  • Lewis Vaughn
    Ethics
  • Howard Radest
    Philosophy and the Humanist Connection

Saturday

Commemorating World AIDS Day  - December 1, 2012

Commemorating World AIDS Day  - December 1, 2012

World AIDS Day is on December 1, 2012.  It brings together people from around the world to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.  Leading up to this annual observance is the Canadian HIV/AIDS Awareness Week (November 24 – December 1).  Communities from across the country will be hosting events and/or activities to commemorate the importance behind the day.  The goal – to increase awareness on the continued struggles as well as to highlight the perpetual hope for a cure.  It is a demonstration of international solidarity in the face of this pandemic.  World AIDS Day is also an opportunity for public and private partners to advocate and shepherd continued progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care for people living with the disease around the world. 
World AIDS Day is dedicated to the memories of those who have lost their battle to the disease but also to honour those who continue to live with it.  The day also celebrates the amount of progress already achieved in the global response to HIV/AIDS. 
To look for an event in your area, click here: http://www.cdnaids.ca/wad