Category: Culture | Page 4 | Science and Culture Today

^{Type
post

Date
February 5, 2026

Categories
Evolution
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, bacteria, biosphere, chance, complexity, constraints, contingency, convergence, disparity, evolution, life forms, lineages, necessity, randomness, rules, Science Advances, singularities, Stephen Jay Gould, testing, theory testing}

Gould Said It Was All Contingency and Chance — Well, Maybe Not

_{Science & Culture
February 5, 2026

Evolution, Scientific Reasoning

2}

Appeals to contingency (i.e., in-principle unrepeatable singularities) disable theory testing. If anything can happen…don’t bother to test, because you can’t. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
J. Budziszewski

Date
February 5, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Human Exceptionalism
Tagged
, animals, Bloodhound Gang, cats, children, conversation, Discovery Channel, embodied beings, friendship, Gombe Chimpanzee War, human beings, humans, incorporeal intelligences, J. Budziszewsk, laboratory animals, laws, locusts, mammals, Pandemic of Lunacy, parents, primates, rationality, snakes, spouses, transhumanists, University of Texas, wolves, worship}

Are We Just Animals? A Tempting Delusion

_{J. Budziszewski
February 5, 2026

Bioethics, Human Exceptionalism

5}

Some of my students argue that humans should be wiped off the face of the earth to make room for the other species. Read More ›

Telepathic communication mind power control through thought and mental communication abilities

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
February 4, 2026

Categories
Faith & Science
Medicine
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, Alexander Batthyany, brain, confusion, Denyse O’Leary, human mind, immaterial reality, Michael Egnor, mind, natural world, near-death experiences, neurosurgeons, panic, somnolence, terminal lucidity, The Immortal Mind, theology, Threshold}

When the Mind is Freed from the Brain

_{Andrew McDiarmid
February 4, 2026

Faith & Science, Medicine, Neuroscience & Mind

4}

The strong dependency of mind on brain that gets us through everyday life no longer seems to apply when we come to death and dying. Read More ›

3d render of abstract face in digital cyberspace with a lot of particles around. Technology concept of facial recognition.

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
February 3, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Medicine
Tagged
, Barcelona, bioethics, breathing, commodification, dead donor rule, donation, donor, eating, euthanasia, face, face transplant, heebie-jeebies, Maria José Abadías, medical treatment, medicine, neurovascular microsurgery, patients, Spain, suicide, suicide prevention, surgery, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital}

In Spain, a Transplant Case Gives Heebie-Jeebies

_{Wesley J. Smith
February 3, 2026

Bioethics, Medicine

3}

Euthanasia conjoined with organ harvesting just took a particularly disturbing turn, when a woman was euthanized and had part of her face transplanted. Read More ›

Diverse group of professional scientists talking at the lab

^{Type
post

Author
Rob Stadler

Date
February 2, 2026

Categories
Medicine
Scientific Reasoning
Scientific Trustworthiness
Tagged
, amplification, assumptions, atrial fibrillation, bias, claims, clinical trials, confidence, doctors, evidence, evolution, extrapolation, heart rhythm, medical guidelines, medication, medicine, outcomes, patients, proof, prospective study, regulatory bodies, repeatability, retrospective observational study, When Can I Trust What Scientists Say? (series)}

When Can I Trust What Scientists Say?

_{Rob Stadler
February 2, 2026

Medicine, Scientific Reasoning, Scientific Trustworthiness

6}

Claims are based on evidence, and different kinds and quantities of evidence provide different levels of confidence. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
David Klinghoffer

Date
January 31, 2026

Categories
Computational Sciences
Human Exceptionalism
Tagged
, Andrew McDiarmid, artificial intelligence, baked salmon, ChatGPT, Chicago Tribune, complexity, computer assistance, Copilot, createdness, creativity, engineering, Gemini, Grok, humans, living systems, Nikolai Berdyaev, salmon, scientists}

AI Dependence Makes Us Dumber, but That’s Not the Worst Thing About It

_{David Klinghoffer
January 31, 2026

Computational Sciences, Human Exceptionalism

2}

I realized this when I found myself, not for the first time, asking Grok to remind me again how long to bake salmon at 400 degrees. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
January 30, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Medicine
Tagged
, abortion, activists, authoritarianism, bioethicists, bioethics, British Columbia, California, Canada, Catholic moral teaching, Catholic teaching, courts, doctors, Dominion Health, effective referral, euthanasia, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, hospitals, human life, law, medical institutions, medicine, plaintiffs, uterus, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority}

When Doctors’ Faith Loses to Bureaucratic Power

_{Wesley J. Smith
January 30, 2026

Bioethics, Medicine

3}

In Canada, the family of a euthanized woman, forced to leave a Catholic hospital to be killed, is seeking to compel Catholic hospitals to permit euthanasia. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
January 30, 2026

Categories
Bioethics
Human Exceptionalism
Tagged
, American Kennel Club, animal abuse, animal agriculture, animal husbandry, animal neglect, animal products, animal rights, animal sexual assault, animal welfare, animals, companions, cruelty, dog breeding, fauna, fishing, fur, hunting, IP28, leather, legal equality, meat, Oregon, people, progressivism}

Goodbye, Burger: Oregon Law Would Ban Animal Agriculture, Plus Fishing and Hunting

_{Wesley J. Smith
January 30, 2026

Bioethics, Human Exceptionalism

4}

In an era where many among us “feel” more than “think,” the potential for such radical proposals becoming law cannot be dismissed out of hand. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 29, 2026

Categories
Cultural Anthropology
Faith & Science
History of Science
Tagged
, ancient Greece, atheism, Atheists: The Origin of the Species, Avebury, Bishop of Exeter, Book of Job, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Church Fathers, Corsica, Darwinism, Dennis Harding, False Messiah, Gregory the Great, hochvart, Hugh Trevor-Roper, James Henry Froude, John Aubrey, Judeo-Christian tradition, Kellow Chesney, Lisbon earthquake, London, Middle High German, New Testament, Nick Spencer, Old Testament, Origin of Species, Peace of Augsburg, Pentre Ifan, Poor Henry, practical atheists, Ring of Brodgar, secularization, Sir Leslie Stephen, Stonehenge, symmetry thesis, The Nemesis of Faith, The Victorian Underworld, United Kingdom, University of Edinburgh, Voltaire}

“The Monster in the Sky”: Revisiting Atheism’s Creation Myth

_{Neil Thomas
January 29, 2026

Cultural Anthropology, Faith & Science, History of Science

15}

The fact that Darwin’s evolutionary ideas could not be shown to be scientifically coherent remained for the uncritical a side issue. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Chaberek

Date
January 28, 2026

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, __trending, Adam and Eve, Aquinas and Evolution, Aristotle, Catholic evolutionism, Catholic scientists, Catholicism and Evolution, Christianity, Congregation of the Index, Daniel Kuebler, Darwin and Doctrine, Darwinism, Enlightenment, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, faith and science, First Things, Humani Generis, Kenneth W. Kemp, Knowledge and Evolution, neo-Platonism, Plato, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius IX, Raffaello Caverni, St. George Jackson Mivart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Stephen Barr, Steve Greene, Syllabus Errorum, The Origins of Catholic Evolutionism, Zoonomia}

Catholicism and Evolution: A Response to Stephen Barr

_{Michael Chaberek, O.P.
January 28, 2026

Evolution, Faith & Science

17}

These publications are far from telling, in Barr’s words, “the full story of how the Church did react to the theory of evolution.” Read More ›