{"id":71887,"date":"2019-03-22T15:16:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T21:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=71887"},"modified":"2019-03-24T00:47:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T06:47:22","slug":"atheism-is-inconsistent-with-the-scientific-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/atheism-is-inconsistent-with-the-scientific-method.html","title":{"rendered":"“Atheism Is Inconsistent with the Scientific Method”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Near<\/a>
View of the long house in Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, near Los Alamos, New Mexico
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other day, I posted a blog entry<\/a> about my own very occasional and very amateur (and very armchair or, perhaps better, very car-seat) interest in geology:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plainly, one of the readers of this blog \u2014 although, like me, he isn\u2019t a trained<\/em> or professional<\/em> geologist \u2014 is a much more serious amateur<\/em> geologist than I am. \u00a0Here is a blog that he maintains:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wanderlusting the Jemez: Geological adventures in the Jemez Mountains and surrounding areas<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here is some of his more sustained writing on the subject:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Supervolcano: A Geologic History of the Jemez<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Incidentally, in response to my 20 March 2019 blog post \u201cThoughts on a few controversial topics related to science,\u201d<\/a> in which (among other things) I recounted my one experience, of decades ago, with what seems to have been a case of water witching or dowsing, he mentioned his own. \u00a0Since I\u2019ve been ridiculed, elsewhere on the web, for telling that story \u2014 it appears that having had that experience and being willing to admit it demonstrates me to be both absolutely clueless about science and irrationally superstitious \u2014 I presume that the same ridicule would, consistently, be directed at him, as well. \u00a0Which, since I know what his background is and how he makes his living, I find screamingly funny (in an ironic sort of way).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to Kevin Taylor for bringing this item from Scientific American<\/em> to my attention. \u00a0I fully anticipate that the reactions to it will be uniformly serene, dispassionate, and charitable:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAtheism Is Inconsistent with the Scientific Method, Prizewinning Physicist Says:\u00a0In conversation, the 2019 Templeton Prize winner does not pull punches on the limits of science, the value of humility and the irrationality of nonbelief\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For some additional background information on the scientist in question, you might enjoy the following:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAward-Winning Physicist: \u2018Science Does Not Kill God'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But enough of such unpleasantness! \u00a0Here\u2019s an article on another subject \u2014 a subject that is much less likely to jar the tender sensibilities of some of my readers than the thought of theism does:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJack the Ripper identified by DNA evidence, forensic scientists claim\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I worry, in this instance, about the chain of custody of the tested item, and about the likelihood of contamination and sample degradation. \u00a0But this finding is unquestionably interesting. \u00a0If it\u2019s right, a mystery that has remained a topic of speculation and debate, not to mention horrified fascination, since 1888 \u2014 that\u2019s fully 131 years \u2014 has finally been solved.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 The other day, I posted a blog entry about my own very occasional and very amateur (and very armchair or, perhaps better, very car-seat) interest in geology: \u00a0 Plainly, one of the readers of this blog \u2014 although, like me, he isn\u2019t a trained or professional geologist \u2014 is a much more serious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Atheism Is Inconsistent with the Scientific Method"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    The other day, I posted a blog entry about my own very occasional and very amateur (and very armchair or, perhaps better, very car-seat)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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