1. A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash

Comment #236589 by AtheistRamblings on August 24, 2008 at 8:50 pm

Off topic, but any teachers out there may find the Australian "Philosophers and Critical Thinkers in Senior Schools", http://pactiss.org/, of use.

It's a resource for high school teachers who want to teach philosophy and critical thinking in their classes. It may give science teachers some material or ideas on teaching evolution, especially equipping them with answers to creationist and ID nonsense.

2. Sincerity no substitute for evidence

Comment #233953 by AtheistRamblings on August 20, 2008 at 4:27 pm

We shouldn't get to smug here. For instance most people would be surprised to know that a large number(if not most) medical treatments are not evidenced based. That is to say that no trial has been done to test the effectiveness of the treatments in a blind trial.

A british study has demonstrated that doctors continue to treat patients with out of date and discredited "cures" because that is the way that they always have treated the symptoms. Even when there has never been any evidence that the treatment actually worked, and they know that better treatments exist. Studies also showed that patients were reluctant to ask doctors what evidence existed that the treatment would work, what the chances were of success or what were the possible side effects. And in some cases when they did the doctor (usually a surgeon) got angry that their opinion was being challenged by an uneducated pleb.

Hands up those who know that stretching before and after exercise will reduce injury? Well how do you know that, up until now no evidence based study has been made of that fact. Currently there is a 3 year study going on in Oz to find out if that little bit of medical knowledge is actually correct.

http://www.abc.net.au/health/consumerguides/stories/2006/10/25/1837390.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s537546.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s102153.htm

3. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185344 by AtheistRamblings on May 27, 2008 at 2:44 pm

Unfortunately in Oz religious schools are allowed and they are partly funded by both the state and Federal governments. The Islamic school in question would still have to meet the academic standards/syllabus of the NSW Department of Education.

The main opposition to the Camden Islamic school has been fired by Christian groups (look up Fred Nile in Wikipedia). The main factors in Camden are xenophobia and racism and has nothing to do with protecting the secular state, or the "Australian way of life".

While I don't support religious schools, especially those funded (even partly) by tax payers money, if a society allows Anglican, Catholic, Jewish schools, then they have to allow Islamic, Scientologist (which unfortunately is considered a religion in Oz), and Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster schools.

Another interesting point about religious/private/independent schools in New South Wales it that they are all exempt from the New South Wales anti-discrimination act. So they can refuse employment to teachers who do not represent the churches teachings read "gay", or even teachers who are atheist or a religion not in accordance with the philosophy of the school.

4. Contribute to science directly by volunteering some of your computer's processing power!

Comment #139808 by AtheistRamblings on March 6, 2008 at 2:17 pm

I run boinc as a service on a number of machines, so I don't get the fancy screen savers. Ive set Boinc up to run only when nothing else is running (ie, when cpu/core is in idle). I was also worried by the sounds the fans were making on one dual core machine after a night running boinc so I set the cpu/core usage to 50%, runs a lot better now. Snuck boinc onto my son's PC and he hasn't even noticed.

You can also configure boinc to run only after you haven't touched the keyboard and/or mouse for several minutes.

As well as specifying CPU usage you can also specify how much memory disk space it can take up. I've used Boinc for over a year now and Seti before that and I haven't had a problem. Give it a try and if you think it causes issues on your PC then remove it; it's very easy. I recommend the service install (especially if you have several logins on the machine) the downside is that you don't get the fancy screen savers ... unless they fixed that.

5. Contribute to science directly by volunteering some of your computer's processing power!

Comment #139736 by AtheistRamblings on March 6, 2008 at 12:54 pm

I'm a big fan of BOINC and I've joined the Richard Dawkins BOING group. However, supercomputers aren't that expensive any more
http://www.smh.com.au/news/articles/new-supercomputer-is-a-rack-of-playstations/2008/02/26/1203788327976.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

and in the downtime you get to play Call of Duty 4!

6. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112307 by AtheistRamblings on January 16, 2008 at 7:54 pm

"Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same. ".

Most people would realise that this is an incorrect assumption. If everybody was making $250,000 rather than $25,000 most people would know that prices would increase. So I guess they have problems reconciling economic fact with Mr. Shermer's fairy tale, so it's no wonder they make the incorrect choice.

7. The Bible's literary sins

Comment #63256 by AtheistRamblings on August 13, 2007 at 5:02 pm

I have to agree with Damien White. Many, many, moons ago I too sat down and read the King James version of the Bible along with the two volumes of Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible. Don't do your head in just go with the Guide much easier to read and more fun. If you want really fun though do the above but substitute one of those modern versions of the Bible .

8. Wanted: Moral Education for Secular Children

Comment #48419 by AtheistRamblings on June 7, 2007 at 9:31 pm

This article from the St James Ethics Centre in Sydney (don't be fooled by the St. tag) on ethical training might be of interest to some:
http://www.ethics.org.au/about-ethics/ethics-centre-articles/ethics-subjects/education-and-training/article-0068.html

A number of years back the St James Centre proposed an ethics course for primary students in NSW. Currently in NSW there is an optional scripture class where kids are taught by representatives of their parents preferred religion. If you opt out the child is sent to the library where they basically fend for themselves. St James proposed an ethics course as an option. This was deemed unnecessary by the then education minister in NSW. The churches also voiced protest against the idea, because they felt that if the school put on an ethics course kids would stop going to their scripture classes; Duh!

Here is a link to the St James project:
http://www.ethics.org.au/about-us/ethics-services/ethics-projects/ethics-in-education/index.html

What parents want
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/parents-want-class-teaching-secular-views-of-morality/2006/08/04/1154198329014.html