November 30, 2011
Category: Policy and Politics
Last April, I blogged a paper by Will Gervais, that showed you could increase people's trust of atheists by simply telling them about how prevalent atheists are in their community. As I said at the time, the result isn't surprising and I didn't think it had any bearing on the debates over New Atheism per se. There were those who disagreed, and insisted that the study validated New Atheist-style "out" campaigns. In a commentary on his research, Mr. Gervais weighs in on those implications of his work: I think the simplest way for atheists to be perceived as more trustworthy...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 3:40 AM • 42 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 21, 2011
Category: Creationism
The Discovery Institute is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Darwin on Trial, the mediocre book that inspired their movement. As part of the celebration, David Berlinski pounded out one of his typical droning missives from his recliner in Paris. As happens so often with the Disco. 'tute, there's little novelty to the argument, but along the way he managed to stick a thumb in the eye of anyone living with a disability: In Darwin on Trial, …[i]t was the great case of Darwin et al v. the Western Religious Tradition that occupied his attention. The issue had been joined long...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:46 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
This morning, OaklandBecks tweeted: I just realized that this is the first morning since Oct 10 that there have been no #occupyoakland camps in Oakland.I'm not sure that's an entirely bad thing. The camps were an effective protest for a long time, but it may well be time for the movement to move on. The first reason is that the camp in Oakland is becoming a divisive issue internally. When the city evicted the camp from Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, a group proposed that the camp move to an empty lot at 19th and Telegraph. But that site is next...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 3:24 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 17, 2011
Category: Academia
Marie-Claire Shanahan teaches science education at the University of Alberta, and blogs about her own research and about the state of science education (and science education training: science education education if you will). Her latest post summarizes her findings from reviewing science teaching guides going back over a century: Educators, critics, and scientists often argue for improving science education by teaching the processes of science, emphasizing critical thinking, and actively engaging students in doing science. Almost always, this is argued to be a great improvement over “traditional” approaches to science teaching that prioritize the rote learning of facts–an approach that is...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:10 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 10, 2011
Category: Creationism
Disco. 'tute president Bruce Chapman is upset. There are ladies with their bloomers in a twist over something or other that they claim Herman Cain said. Let's read Chapman and see if we can guess what Cain is supposed to have done: A number of significant insights are emerging from the charges of sex harassment lodged against Herman Cain. It may be wise to withhold judgement [sic] about the particulars so far. There are a number of groups operating behind the scenes to drive the story one way or another.Aha! Charges of sexual harassment were filed, but we should be...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:19 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 9, 2011
Category: Creationism
A month ago, I posted a link to an op-ed in the LA Times which referred to as-yet unpublished research which purported to show no difference in science literacy between people who don't take part in religion and evangelical Christians. Then I did my own analysis of the data, which found significant differences between evangelicals and the nonreligious. Now, in a special issue of Social Science Quarterly, Darren Sherkat again shows that evangelicals are less science literate than other groups. The analysis I reported in my previous blog post is actually a bit more sophisticated, and Sherkat's graphs are heinous...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 3:41 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 4, 2011
Hand in hand together We shall not be moved "We Shall Not Be Moved," Trad. civil rights song On Wednesday, November 2, the people of Oakland peacefully, politely, closed downtown Oakland and the Port of Oakland – the nation's fifth busiest port. It's hard to say how many people spent at least part of their day at the intersection of 14th Street at Broadway. Broadway was closed for two long blocks, the side streets were, too, and all were filled with people. The plaza in front of City Hall was filled as well, with tents, with free food, with...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:00 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 2, 2011
Category: Policy and Politics
Sorting through the 320 photos I took at the Oakland general strike today will take some time, as will getting all my thoughts together for a blog post. Meanwhile, here's a mini-essay I posted on twitter. Each point was scheduled to go up at half-hour intervals, starting at 8 am, running through 8:30 pm. I also tweeted from my phone throughout the day to give a sense of the atmosphere at Oscar Grant Plaza. I opened with a passage from the great union hymn "Solidarity Forever," a verse I also borrowed from to make my protest sign: Why we...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:54 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 1, 2011
Category: Policy and Politics
Tomorrow, November 2, will be a general strike in Oakland. The move was approved nearly unanimously by the roughly 1600 people voting at last week's Occupy Oakland general assembly, held the night after police from Oakland and several surrounding areas attacked nonviolent protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbags, flashbang grenades, and nightsticks. The plan is to gather at 9 am in Frank Ogawa Plaza - renamed Oscar Grant Plaza by the folks occupying it - and protest. Different people will surely come focused on protesting different issues, but the major theme is sure to be the outsized influence...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:58 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Due to technical problems with my computer, I lost a long blog post I wrote last week about Occupy Oakland. It was a report on the meeting held the night after Oakland police attacked peaceful protesters, hospitalizing an Iraq veteran and others, teargassing people in wheelchairs and protesters (including children) already in flight. I also wrote a bit about the proposal for a general strike which was approved at that meeting, almost a week ago. Tomorrow, that strike goes into effect. Protests will start in downtown Oakland at 9 am, with others at noon and at 5. That last protest...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:27 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
