Sunspots 344

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science:  USA Today reports on geologist's findings in relation to the Japanese earthquake of early this year. Among the findings: "Fissures stretch the length of football fields and a cliff several hundred feet tall looks freshly exposed at one spot, more than 2 miles deep." 

NPR reports on experiments demonstrating that rats will work to free a rat they are familiar with from a stressful situation, even ignoring nearby chocolate chips to do so.

Christianity:  A Lutheran pastor has a Bible-based Wise Men FAQ: How many wise men were there? How old was Jesus when they visited? and other interesting questions.

A long, but excellent, and understandable, article on translating the Bible into modern English. The article claims that English has changed significantly in some respects within your lifetime, even if you are in your thirties. The main goal of the article is to evaluate the 2011 New International Version, but the article would be pertinent if there had never been such a version.

Image source (public domain)

The Morality of Richard Dawkins

I have read In Defence of the Soul, by Keith Ward. He argues that a completely materialistic view of life makes no sense, and points out that some of those who have argued for such a view are inconsistent:
When the destroyers of the soul have done their work, they usually turn back from the moral consequences of their theories, and end with a rather lame and totally unconvincing attempt to reinstate a modified version of traditional morality. We have seen this in Jacques Monod, in Erich Fromm and Karl Marx in slightly different ways. A particularly clear example can be found on the last page of Richard Dawkins' very entertaining book, The Selfish Gene. Having argued for 214 pages that human life is totally governed by the genes, 'unconscious, blind, replicators', he now says, in the last sentence or two, 'It is possible that yet another unique quality of man is a capacity for genuine disinterested, true altruism. I hope so, but I am not going to argue the case one way or another . . .' This is suitably tentative, but his last sentence reads: 'We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.'* The questions this raises are obvious. How can rational, responsible, altruistic, purposive, conscious conduct be accounted for on such a materialist theory? Why should he hope that altruism is possible, unless he really does have a basic sense of moral obligation? And isn't it odd to see morality as a rebellion against our true natures, instead of as a fulfilment of their potentialities? Keith Ward, In Defence of the Soul. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 1998. p. 161.
*cites Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, 1976) p. 215.

Thanks for reading.