Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Pigliucci is professor of evolutionary biology and philosophy at Stony Brook University. He writes regularly for Skeptical Inquirer and has published Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism and the Nature of Science (Sinauer Associates, 2002).
A Secular Stoic Perspective on Death
Ancient Stoic philosophy has much to offer contemporary secular humanists.
The Twilight Zone of Antiscience
Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science, by John G. West (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2007, ISBN 978-933859323) 495 pp. Cloth $28.00. It must be a strange world John West lives in. His book Darwin Day in America is much more ambitious than the title …
Methodological vs. Philosophical Naturalism
Why We Should Be Skeptical Of Religion Is religion a legitimate area of inquiry for skepticism? The humanist community answers with a resounding “Yes,” while skeptics of pseudoscience and the paranormal are more doubtful.1 This essay was inspired by conversations I have had with friends who happen to be prominent on opposite sides of this …
Creationism vs. Scientism
The Twin Dangers of Religious and Scientific Fundamentalism Throughout the twentieth century there has been an ongoing battle for the minds of Americans. This battle, which doesn’t seem to be nearing an end at the dawn of the twenty-first century, sees Christian religious fundamentalism pitted against modern evolutionary biology.1 I see four causes of the …
No Free Lunch for Intelligent Design
Bill Dembski, one of the leading proponents of modern intelligent design “theory,” is an interesting animal. But before turning to him, I should explain why I am telling readers of a freethought magazine about the latest attempt by religiously inspired intellectuals to advance their pseudo-scientific agenda. Surely few readers of Free InquIry would give much …