Reducibly Complex

“Let it be so.”

-Guglielmo Marconi, in the first Morse message sent across the Bristol Channel, 1897 (not on this day).  Marconi was an Italian inventor and physicist who invented the wireless telegraph in 1935 known today as radio. On this day in 1896, Marconi gave the first public demonstration of his radio equipment at Toynbee Hall, East London. Also on this day five years later (1901), Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio signal from Poldhu in Cornwall, which was recieved by Percy Wright Pae in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

There is nothing particularly special about this quote other than its simplicity, and I find that amusing.

“A mere inference or theory must give way to a truth revealed; but a scientific truth must be maintained, however contradictory it may appear to the most cherished doctrines of religion.”

-Sir David Brewster, physicist noted for his experimental work in optics and polarized light (light in which all waves lie in the same plane.) He is known for Brewster’s Law, which relates the refractive index of a material to its polarizing angle (which is the incident angle at which reflected light becomes completely polarized). He patented the kaleidoscope in 1817.

I have decided to change things up a little bit with the Quote of the Day. From now on the quote will be from someone in science who was born, died, or did something awesome in science on this particular date.

Sir David Brewster was born on this day in 1781.

I love this quote because of it seems to be an explicit argument for evolution vs. religion, but it was spoken by Sir David Brewster three years before Darwin published his famous On the Origin of Species.

“I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.”

-Wilson Mizner

Education has kept me very busy lately. Faith never does.

I realize that I haven’t written a post for well over a week, now. The are a few reasons for this, but the most important reason would be that I am coming down toward the end of the semester and I have been very busy with my studies and writing papers and tests. This trend is going to continue through until the end of next week; after the 19th of the month I should be able to start writing posts frequently again. In the meantime, look for a few “Quote of the Day” posts, even if these don’t come daily. (After all, Quote of the Day is not a daily post, just that those particular days that there is a quote for - there is a quote for.)

“I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are IMPOSSIBLE.”

-William James

Anything is possible in science, but the degree to which a hypothesis is accepted or denied is directly proportional to the amount of evidence in support of it or detracting from it, as well as to the amount of evidence supporting or detracting from an alternate hypothesis. Creation science and intelligent design are not impossible hypotheses, but the evidence supporting them is lacking, and the evidence supporting an alternate hypothesis (i.e. evolution) is overwhelming.

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“Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.”

-Thomas Henry Huxley (aka “Darwin’s Bulldog”)

I am planning to write a few posts soon on logical fallacies. They will be forthcoming sometime after I finish the “‘Evidence for Creation’ Debunked” posts.

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”

-Bertrand Russell

This is a perfect response to the logical fallacy of argumentum ad populum (appeal to the people). Just because a lot of people think that God exists doesn’t mean that he does. It is not evidence for God’s existence; it is evidence of the popularity of that belief and nothing more.

“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”

-Dr. David Suzuki

Science education has proved worthless in this country at teaching skepticism. Indeed, despite my own coming from one of the best public school systems in the country I, too, found myself believing in pseudosciences until recent years.

“I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.”

-Sir Arthur C. Clarke

I’m excited tonight because I’ve discovered that a meetup.com group has been started recently for Madison Skeptics. I hope it turns into something really cool. We’ll see, I guess.

“I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that’s the way it is, period.”

-Pat Robertson

He said that in 1992, yet he is still, now 16 years later, a major figurehead of the Christian fundamentalists. How it is that someone as intolerant and bigoted as he is could still have notoriety blows my mind…

And pisses me off to no end.

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