Statistical Inference for Everyone - Book Announcement
For anyone interested in statistical inference or probability, you should check out my new book (released under the Creative Commons license). You can download it here:
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Category: wordpress_migration
New Year and New Website
I've completely redone my website, http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais! I may be moving my blog over there at some point, depending on how it goes. For right now I …
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A New Year and a Deepity
A short video by Fr. Robert Barron, to start off the new year.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zMf_8hkCdc&w=560&h=315]
Here is the summary:
- He …
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Religion and the Illusion of Moral Authority
This post in response to a comment I received about the source of morality in society:
But I realize religion, even with its negatives, remains a net positive in human …
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A story of humanity...
Carolyn Porco always finds a way to inspire...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJS77VR2OZI&w=560&h=315]
Check out Session 3 in the excellent Beyond Belief workshop …
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Life, Meaning, and Entropy
I just watched a very nice video about our short time on this planet. I particularly like how he says we "defy entropy and impermanence through our films and our …
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The Trinity and Coherency
When I hear things like this (taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but could well be from any Christian Church):
The Trinity is One. We do not confess …
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Science as Entertainment
This past weekend I was at a Girl Scouts "Mad Science" program, not as an instructor but as a parent. There was a lot of interesting things presented, and the …
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Knowledge, Faith, and Belief
Words have meaning, and if we are going to communicate with each other we need to make sure to use words as carefully as we can. Otherwise, misunderstandings abound. It …
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Nobel Prize - The "Higgs" and Predictions
So around 50 years ago a number of scientists made a prediction for an unseen particle (typically referred to as the 'Higgs boson' but also sometimes as the 'God particle' …
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The Fallacy of All-Natural
I wasreading an article about the anti-vaccine movement, encouraging pro-vaccine supporters to be more vocal - something I support whole-heartedly. In the article there was an awesome quote, that really …
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MOOCs and Treadmills
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are a hot topic in education, and no one seems to know quite how it will play out. After sitting in on several of these …
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What to do when you're not an expert
So I was listening to the very interesting discussion between William Lane Craig and Lawrence Krauss at the City Bible Forum, which I'll discuss another time. There was a good …
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Origins of Religion - Two Hypotheses
In one of Don Johnson's podcasts, he gave some "data" which he claims is supported by the theistic worldview and not the atheistic worldview. The points he raises are:
- everyone …
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The Supernatural and the History of Cosmology
I hold the view that the term "supernatural" is simply an incoherent concept. No one has been able to demonstrate that that the set of "supernatural" things is not empty …
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God in the head
On the Unbelievable Facebook page, Delia Ives posted:
The evidence that God exists as an idea inside peoples' heads and the lack of evidence that he exists elsewhere is so …
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Presuppositions and Science
I heard on a podcast a theist say that he had a problem with Victor Stenger. The critique was phrased something like, that Dr Stenger put his atheism first in …
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Textual Transmission Bottlenecks
So I've been thinking about the origins of Christianity and the texts that we have which concern it. Then I watched Richard Carrier's new presentation on why he thinks Jesus …
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Trying to figure out fiction I like - Game of Thrones semi-fail
So I just read the first book of the Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones), and am not going to read any more. In fact, I pulled a "24 …
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What would it take for me to believe the Resurrection?
So in a comment on a previous post, I am asked
“what sort of evidence would convince you of, let’s say, the resurrection of Jesus?”
I want to break …
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A question for theists: why do you not believe UFOs are alien spacecraft?
Now, I am really not trying to be snarky here, so please hear me out. Try to honestly ask yourself the question:
what evidence would make you reasonably sure that …
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