Category Archives: Cosmology

The Range of Human Perception

Posted on 29 April 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Alternet, Chris Mooney: Why Right-Wingers Think the Way They Do: The Fascinating Psychological Origins of Political Ideology These experiments suggest that conservatives actually do live in a world that is more scary and threatening, at least as they perceive it. … Continue reading →

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Cosmos So Far

Posted on 24 April 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I should update my thoughts about the new version of the TV series Cosmos, since earlier I posted a mild critique about it needing to explain the background of scientific discovery – presenting not just the grandiose conclusions humanity has … Continue reading →

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Kalam Cosmological Argument

Posted on 22 April 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

The Kalam Cosmological Argument is one of the traditional, philosophical, arguments for the existence of God. The idea is that everything must have a beginning; therefore the universe must have a beginning, therefore God. (Which those who use this argument … Continue reading →

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The Need to Feel Special

Posted on 9 April 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

The scientific kerfuffle of the past couple days has been about a documentary supporting geocentrism (as if the creationists are not crazy enough), the idea that the Earth is the center of the universe, immovable, and that the sun and … Continue reading →

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Creation Myths

Posted on 3 April 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

The TV series Cosmos has gotten some flack from Christian conservatives who think their creationist ideas are being dissed. In a science show! This article at AlterNet details the many creation myths that Cosmos is not covering. The critics complaining … Continue reading →

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A Telescope Is a Time Machine

Posted on 3 April 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I like to think that the vast mysteries of the cosmos flabbergast (or offend) so many people just because they have never thought about anything outside the parameters of their own experience, or at best, beyond the scope of the … Continue reading →

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Cosmos and Creationism

Posted on 25 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

A writer at Think Progress says that Cosmos is, indirectly, giving a lot of time to creationist ideas, despite the creationist critics demanding equal time (for nonsense vs sense, apparently). http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/03/25/3418425/creationism-is-getting-a-lot-of-time-on-cosmos/ By discussing standard creationist arguments about the impossible perfectibility … Continue reading →

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The Cozy Cosmos vs. Growing Up

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Some religious folks don’t like Cosmos because they prefer a cozy universe with human beings at the very center: nice article by Adam Lee about Why Small-Minded Religious Fundamentalists Are Threatened by Wonders of Universe. For the vast majority of … Continue reading →

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Fox, Certainty, Arrogance, Evidence, and Cosmos

Posted on 12 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Follow-up article in Salon about the man whose father was lost to the paranoid outrage of Fox News. (The original article on this topic inspired my explanation about how science fiction represents the antithesis of such dead-end traps of ideology … Continue reading →

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Another Fermi Paradox idea

Posted on 11 November 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

The Fermi Paradox is the observation that, while calculations of the number of likely planets in the galaxy (or universe) that can support life suggests that there might be millions or billions of them — recent news stories, e.g. CNN, … Continue reading →

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