Prayer without action

James McGrath has an excellent post on the issue of the parents who refused to seek medical care for their sick daughter, choosing to rely, instead, on prayer.  The girl slipped into a diabetic coma and died.  The parents have been charged with second degree murder, but people have argued that this was their religious right.  James decided to approach it from a biblical perspective, and after discussing the issue in the context of three passages from the bible, he concludes

This is yet one more example of a “Biblical” Christianity that doesn’t know the Bible. Behold the damage that it does. Dare we go so far to say that those who advocate these ignorant forms of Christianity are complicit in murder?

McCain, Clinton, Obama and the gas tax

John McCain proposed a temporary repeal of the 18 cent per gallon federal gas tax over the summer, when gasoline demand peaks.  The idea is that it would give consumers some relief from high gas prices at a time when prices tend to peak.  Hillary Clinton jumped on board, but realising that taxes on gasoline are used to build and repair roads and bridges, proposed that the revenue shortfall be made up through taxes on windfall profits by the oil companies.  Apart from making only a trivial difference to most consumers as envisioned, ($3.60 if you buy 20 gallons of gas), Saurabh explains why consumers are unlikely to see the full 18 cent reduction in prices.

Only Barack Obama has said something sensible on this issue – that these are short-term measures that do more harm than good (road construction, for example, generates a lot of jobs).  But none of them seem to have mentioned one key point – higher prices are good, because they reduce demand.  The higher prices of the “summer driving season” are due to the fact that people do a lot of driving in the summer.  The increase in consumption also increases greenhouse gas production.  Higher prices reduce demand, which, in turn, should moderate the spike in gas prices.  Higher prices also push consumers towards smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles.

It makes me wonder whether anyone has tried to determine what effect a repeal of the gas tax is likely to have on gas prices.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it resulted in higher gas prices.  It definitely will have a bad effect on greenhouse gas emissions.

Restoration ecology versus conservation biology

Writing in the journal Biological Conservation, Truman Young wrote:

The conservation mind set is one of more or less permanent loss; the implicit assumption is that all trends are down, and that our goal is to slow or stop degradation (declining population paradigm) or to maintain the remnants as small fragments of the original (small population paradigm). Delisting endangered species is met with (justified?) suspicion.

The restoration mind set is one of recovery after temporary loss. Conservation problems are viewed in the context of this future recovery. When restoration ecologists hear a statement like, ‘This endangered population of 250 individuals has a 50% chance of extinction over the next 100 years’, they think, ‘Why would we let this population languish at 250 individuals for so long? Let’s restore it!’

One may even say that restoration ecologists tend to be optimistic, and conservation biologists pessimistic. This has led to conflicting interpretation of trends (Richter, W., 1997. Restoring ecosystems. Science 278, pp. 997–998.Richter, 1997; Dobson et al., 1997. I would argue that both contain elements of truth.

I find that distinction fascinating; I can really relate.  At heart, I think more like a restoration ecologist than a conservation biologist, but I can see both paths.  One is optimistic, almost to the point of being naive.  The other is pessimistic, sometimes to the point of despair.  It’s like poetry – reading what you have always felt, but never quite figured out how to say…

Young, Truman P. 2000. Restoration ecology and conservation biology. Biological Conservation 92:73–83. doi:10.1016/S0006-3207(99)00057-9

Critical thinking and creationism

In his review of Expelled, Mike Biedler writes:

You’d think that Expelled‘s deliberate misrepresentation of the facts, both in terms of movie production and presentation of the scientific evidence, would make me angry. Not so much… So what is making me angry? Honestly, it’s the fact that one year ago I would have fallen for Stein’s presentation—hook, line, and sinker. I’m also angry at how easily Christians fall for half-truths and outright lies. I’m angry at how often we Christians check our brains at the door and are perfectly willing to serve as messenger boys for the most outrageous urban legends, folk sciences, doctrines, and just plain idiotic belief systems.

There’s a large segment of American Christianity which sees itself as a persecuted minority threatened by a secular mainstream culture intent on its destruction.*  When you’ve locked yourself in a bunker you are almost obligated to believe that they people inside are on your side.  If you applied critical thinking to the situation you would have to admit that you have locked yourself in a room with people who are actively working to promote lies and deception.  And that realisation is probably far too terrifying.

*There’s an interesting case you can make here that the “new atheists” feed this mentality, that they make the problem worse.  I think that’s a mistaken perception.  The bunker doors have already been locked.  They already see secular society as evangelically atheist.  A book by Dawkins or Hitchens just confirms what these people already “know”.  I think the net effect is trivial.  Of course, I may be wrong – I am going on nothing but a gut feeling, devoid of data.  Just like the critics of the “new atheists”.

Derbyshire on Expelled

I’m no fan of conservative columnist John Derbyshire, but he’s worth reading on the issue of intelligent design.  Writing in the National Review, Derbyshire comments on the rank dishonesty of the creationist movie Expelled and intelligent design creationism as a whole.  He writes

I think this willful act of deception has corrupted creationism irredeemably. The old Biblical creationists were, in my opinion, wrong-headed, but they were mostly honest people. The “intelligent design” crowd lean more in the other direction. Hence the dishonesty and sheer nastiness, even down to plain bad manners, that you keep encountering in ID circles

I can’t say I agree with him on the first part – that biblical creationists are “mostly honest people”.  After all, not only is Hovind in jail but many creationist claims are just blatant falsehoods.  But it’s true that they are more honest than the IDists on a certain level – they are honest about what they are campaigning for.  They are willing to admit that they are motivated by their own (mis)reading of the bible (or other religious texts, presumably).  The IDists, on the other hand, built their whole movement on dishonesty and deception.  They claim that theirs is a scientific objection to evolution (and science as a whole, actually).  They claim that their endeavour is not religious, despite the fact that they have built a “big tent” in which young-earth creationists and old-earth creationists can put their differences aside and work together.

But Derbyshire’s main point isn’t the dishonesty of the IDists.  He sees it as an attack on one of the proudest achievements of Western civilisation.

Western civilization has many glories….And there is science, perhaps the greatest of all our achievements, because nowhere else on earth did it appear. … None of them ever accomplished what began in northwest Europe in the later 17th century, though: a scientific revolution. Thoughtful men and women came together in learned societies to compare notes on their observations of the natural world, to test their ideas in experiments, and in reasoned argument against the ideas of others, and to publish their results in learned journals. A body of common knowledge gradually accumulated. Patterns were observed, laws discerned and stated.

The Discovery Institute‘s Wedge Strategy makes it pretty clear that their enemy is the Enlightenment.  Their problem is with modernity.  Derbyshire writes

The “intelligent design” hoax is not merely non-science, nor even merely anti-science; it is anti-civilization. It is an appeal to barbarism… made by people who lack the imaginative power to know the horrors of true barbarism.

Gotta give credit where it’s due.  I disagree strongly with much of what Derbyshire has to say, and even here I don’t much like the way he spins things.  But he makes some excellent points.

H/T Jeffrey Shallit

Fatal plane crash in Oklahoma

MIAMI, OK — One person was killed in a fiery plane crash that shook buildings here earlier this afternoon when a single-engine propeller-plane nosedived into the Will Rogers Turnpike.

From NewsOK.com

On our way home today, we started seeing signs in southern Missouri announcing that the highway was closed in Oklahoma and we would have to get off at Exit 313. But as we approached Exist 313 (the Miami exist), the highway had been re-opened, albeit only a single lane. From the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles, it was obvious that there had been an accident. As we approached the crash site, I was first stuck by how little wreckage there was (especially since the entire road was blackened). The second thing I noticed was the size of the engine block – it seemed much too big for a car, which made the small pile of burnt wreckage even more striking. Then I noticed the propeller. It was only at that point that I realised that we were passing the remains of a plane.

It was quite a shock. First there was the realisation that there was no way anyone could have survived that crash. Then there was the disturbing sense of planes falling out of the sky onto the highway. Suddenly I felt very exposed, out there on the road.

My condolences to the family and friends of the pilot. So far, he hasn’t been named.

Bats

These guys have moved into a mango tree in my parents back yard. It’s kinda cool.

Here’s a detailed picture. I’m not sure what species they are – my sister is hoping to get an ID, but if anyone knows…

Update: Apparently they are Phyllostomus sp.

Genomicron moves to ScientificBlogging

Genomicron has moved from blogger to the Scientific Blogging network.

ERV moves to ScienceBlogs

After running into some problems with blogger, ERV has moved to ScienceBlogs.  While she hasn’t supplied any details, apparently it was more than a glitch at blogger

I view it as malicious behavior, though I sympathize with the Blogger folks and the sheer volume of crap they have to deal with, so no hard feelings.

Berry Go Round #4

The fourth edition of Berry Go Round is up at Foothills Fancies.  For all your plant-related reading, head on over.