Marcus Miller – Bruce Lee

où Francis Collins se plante

Vous connaissez bien entendu Francis Collins, le créationniste à qui Jean Staune veut ressembler (il n’y arrivera probablement jamais le pauvre). Francis Collins qui utilise le fric de la John Templeton Foundation pour tenter “the integration of science and Christian faith” à BioLogos.

Collins a dit :

angry atheists are out there using science as a club to [to] hit believers over the head

Il exprime l’idée de travers. Ca colle mieux à la réalité ainsi :

Angry Atheists are out there using rationality (including science) as a club to hit irrational beliefs over the head (including religious beliefs), hoping to make them vanish.

Mais il nous la joue martyre à la chrétienne

α5β1 Integrin-Mediated Adhesion to Fibronectin Is Required for Axis Elongation and Somitogenesis in Mice

α5β1 Integrin-Mediated Adhesion to Fibronectin Is Required for Axis Elongation and Somitogenesis in Mice.

Girós A, Grgur K, Gossler A, Costell M (2011)

PLoS ONE 6(7): e22002 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022002

simplicity

An integrated semiconductor device enabling non-optical genome sequencing

An integrated semiconductor device enabling non-optical genome sequencing

Jonathan M. Rothberg et al.

Nature 475, 348–352 (21 July 2011) doi:10.1038/nature10242

Ion Torrent by Life Technologies

des chemises et de la religiosité

A little bit less than a year I was posting “the world’s best countries come with atheists“, followed two weeks later by “A correlation between poverty and religiosity“.
Again from Coyne’s blog,”Why is religion stronger in economically unequal societies?“. And this time he looks satisfied by the analysis of the data.

I haven’t read the paper (if you have access please share) but Coyne have a nice presentation of it (and I trust the guy).

From the conclusions:

1. “Increases in inequality in one year predict substantial gains in religiosity in the next,” while “past values of religiosity do not predict future values of inequality.” In other words, the correlation between religiosity and inequality is driven by the former responding to the latter, and not the other way around. Unequal incomes lead to societies becoming more religious.

2. “Holding inequality constant, gains in per-capita GDP are estimated to depress subsequent levels of aggregate religiosity.” In other words, increasing the average economic well being of people makes them less religious.

“l’homme heureux n’a qu’une chemise et le bonheur en plus” hein, quelle connerie Enfin, sauf si on veut maintenir les inégalités porteuses de religiosité.

Appendage expression driven by the Hoxd Global Control Region is an ancient gnathostome feature

Appendage expression driven by the Hoxd Global Control Region is an ancient gnathostome feature.

Schneider I, Aneas I, Gehrke AR, Dahn RD, Nobrega MA, Shubin NH.

PNAS Published online before print July 15, 2011, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1109993108

Domains of expression denote
regulatory potentials of CsB (blue), CsA (red), and CsC (yellow), adapted from transgenic embryos reported.

ré-enchanter le monde ?

Grégory Ficca a deux posts intitulés “La science peut-elle ré-enchanter le monde ?” (#1, #2).

Je pense que ça vaut la peine de les lire.
Je suis irrité par l’envie d’enchanter les gens, surtout quand c’est la science qui est sensée servir de charme et qu’on n’a pas pris soin d’éviter tout élément mystique. D’habitude ça finit par l’une ou l’autre forme de charlatanisme, sinon pas directement au moins par la bande.

Les exemples sont nombreux pour ne pas commencer par les prendre en compte, allant de la John Templeton Foundation qui joue sur la religion (une forme d’ignorance) jusqu’aux HIV-deniers qui jouent sur l’ignorance directe.

J’attends de la science qu’elle explique, au mieux de ses moyens, le monde, pas qu’elle l’enchante et j’ai froid dans le dos quand on veut l’utiliser pour l’enchanter. Une des fonctions primaires de la science me semble être justement la destruction des illusions que l’on peut trainer.
Et je préfère l’Art pour pourvoir à mes besoins d’émerveillement.

J’aurais suivi Grégory dans sa réflexion un peu plus si les définitions des termes “enchantement” – “désenchantement” avait été plus tranchées dans mon sens.

Sharia law at work in Australia

SHARIA law has become a shadow legal system within Australia, endorsing polygamous and underage marriages that are outlawed under the Marriage Act.

Not only they are OK with polygynist marriages, but the director of the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations seems to blame the way of living of Australia, at least for the frequency of it:

It’s definitely a minority, but unfortunately is does exist and I think it comes down to the standard of living that Australia affords many men who normally would not be able to afford such a situation,” Mr Seyit said.

threat to faith