Rupert Sheldrake: Wikipedia Under Threat

Wikipedia Under Threat

by Rupert Sheldrake

Wikipedia is a wonderful invention. But precisely because it’s so trusted and convenient, people with their own agendas keep trying to take it over. Editing wars are common. According to researchers at Oxford University, the most controversial subjects worldwide include Israel and God.

This is not surprising. Everyone knows that there are opposing views on politics and religion, and many people recognize a biased account when they see it. But in the realm of science, things are different. Most people have no scientific expertise and believe that science is objective. Their trust is now being abused systematically by a highly motivated group of activists called Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia.

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Why Are Humans Different? Is it because of cooking?

As usual, a materialist explanation. Interesting one, though, except for the silly speculation about gender oppression. This book review from the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/books/27garn.html?pagewanted=all

Why Are Humans Different From All Other Apes? It’s The

Cooking, Stupid

DWIGHT GARNER

New York Times

May 26, 2009
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Deriding today’s idols

I am right there with John Anthony West in deriding what he calls the Church of Progress. I am really tired of people pretending they are profound when in fact they are merely sheep following trends. The trend of the past tiresome century, and this one to date, is to regard religion as superstition, as if  blind faith in “progress” or in “science” were anything but superstition.

This piece, via my brother who called it to my attention, from The New York Times http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/god-talk/?emc=eta1 .

God Talk

 Stanley Fish

In the opening sentence of the last chapter of his new book, “Reason, Faith and Revolution,” the British critic Terry Eagleton asks, “Why are the most unlikely people, including myself, suddenly talking about God?” His answer, elaborated in prose that is alternately witty, scabrous and angry, is that the other candidates for guidance – science, reason, liberalism, capitalism – just don’t deliver what is ultimately needed. “What other symbolic form,” he queries, “has managed to forge such direct links between the most universal and absolute of truths and the everyday practices of countless millions of men and women?”

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Plants aren’t as simple as you think they are

This article from The New York Times should be required reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/science/10plant.html?_r=2&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

It’s titled “Loyal to its Roots” and probably it’s going to come as a big surprise — one you shouldn’t miss.

At some point this will be recognized as one more blow to the “mechanistic universe” theory that has done so much harm to our civilization. What’s in this story is entirely congruent with what the guys upstairs have been saying for more than seven years.