I can recognize a bad argument when I see it

noevil

Shall I give you an example? Here’s one I’ve actually heard from atheists: “Christians don’t really believe in God, because the god idea is stupid. They only go to church because they’re afraid of death/need social reassurance/were brainwashed.” Another permutation of that is that since the god idea is stupid, the only people who believe in a god are the really stupid people.

It’s a somewhat popular sentiment because, face it, once you’ve seen the illogic of religion and become an atheist, it can be hard to understand how people can still fall for that baloney, and we struggle to make sense of their irrational decision. And then we come up with what seems a simple and obvious answer — nobody can seriously accept that zombie jesus/redemption by blood sacrifice crap, right? — that also has a kind of self-centered appeal (we must be the smart ones!) and it’s hard to resist.

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Joss Whedon gets it wrong

dust

I can tell Comic Con is going on, because suddenly the interwebs is full of leaked superhero movie trailers, gleeful enthusiastic fans, and transcripts of celebrity nerd panels. In this one, Joss Whedon gets asked that simple question, “What is the meaning of life?”, and he starts out well, but then screws up.

“You think I’m not going to, but I’m going to answer that. The world is a random and meaningless terifying place and then we all—spoiler alert—die.

Yes. There is no “meaning” of life. Grasp that, and a whole lot of things make sense. But stop! Don’t mess it up!

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It could be worse

dinner

I’ve written before about the godawful rat race many highly educated academics suffer through: the ghastly adjunct position, in which you’re paid a small sum to teach a class, and the only way to make a living is to teach many courses piecemeal, often at a variety of different colleges. Well, it turns out that there could be a worse system: Southern Virginia University is advertising for volunteer professor positions.

Volunteer Professors. For almost two decades generous volunteers at Southern Virginia University have enriched the lives of students, faculty, and staff in a variety of ways. For example, distinguished retired professors have taught a host of classes in such areas as English composition and literature, classics and foreign languages, creative writing, communications, chemistry, family and child development, and Russian literature.

You could teach a class…for free! But the university does offer some recompense: you get to stay in an apartment, no charge, and they will generously give you five free meals a week. I guess you have to fast through the weekend, but they probably don’t expect you to teach then, either.

Just imagine: you could get years of training in some difficult discipline, and then your reward is a few hots and a cot while you train some young people to go on to assume your exalted position someday.

I wonder if the students at SVU ever consider the example of their underpaid professors, or if they don’t think that far ahead and just appreciate the fact that it saves them a few bucks on their tuition right now.

Convergence gets good press

cvg2016

Look at that: the Mary Sue talks about Convergence Improving Diversity and Creating Safe Spaces for Geeks. It really is a delightful conference that way — 7,000 Social Justice Warriors all wanting to talk about science and books and movies and games, with a simple set of humane rules to help everyone get along.

We’ll be there again next year, and you should make plans to come out to Bloomington, MN, 30 June-3 July for Convergence. The theme for 2016 is …

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Distilled nonsense

steam

Why are “health” sites so full of shit? It’s getting to be the case that when I see “health” (or worse, “wellness”) in the title of an article, I have the same aversive reaction I get when I see the word “family”. It’s a good word that has been hijacked by loons.

The latest mania in the “health” community is the danger of reboiling water. I read this and was appalled at the basic misunderstandings in it.

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I have no illusions that this will end the nonsense, either

Paul Nurse, friend to Tim Hunt and co-recipient of the Nobel prize, had a few things to say.

Sir Tim Hunt deserved to lose his job over his infamous “trouble with girls” speech, the President of the Royal Society has said.

Sir Paul Nurse, a joint-Nobel Prize winner and friend of Sir Tim, told the Telegraph the embattled professor’s “chauvinist” comments had “damaged science”.

Of course, he didn’t really lose a job — he lost an honorary position, as I’ve been saying repeatedly. I have learned that he lost the accompanying photocopying privileges at UCL, which is the biggest cost to him I’ve heard yet.

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Disgraceful quackery from Bioharmonic Technologies, and shame on the Autism Society

S-C_CD_Jacket_FNL_W138_Cover.indd

I just learned that someone I know was at the Autism Society of America’s annual conference, and got to experience the joys of a major seizure, because the society allows quacks to be exhibitors. This particular quack, Bioharmonic Technologies, was happily blasting attendees, a group they ought to have expected to consist of a large number of known non-neurotypical individuals, with their magic music. I had to look these guys up. You want to see New Age nonsense? They’ve got it for you.

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Normalizing the intolerable

hamsterwheel

I tell you, the Careers section of Science magazine is a perpetual source of pain and aggravation. In the latest, Eleftherios Diamandis explains exactly what you need to do to be a success in science. The secret, apparently, is to be noticed, and the way to be noticed is…by doing exactly the same thing all the other lab rats on the exercise wheel are doing.

Be an excellent scholar. Publish well. Work hard. Communicate with the public and your peers. But a well-planned, long-range effort to ensure your visibility among those who have hiring responsibilities can be the deciding factor.

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