William M. Briggs

Why You Should Care About The Philosophy Of Probability & Statistics

"Why, Dr Briggs," asks the earnest Student, "Why must we study all this gobbledegook about philosophy when it's more important to learn all the neat methods of handling data? Why…

Culture

Briggs And The Owl: A Refutation Of Atheism

Note this is not your usual author."The owl of Minerva spreads its wings and takes flight when the shades of night are falling." --Hegel Or, as explained by Wikipedia, "[P]hilosophy…

Book review Philosophy

Which God Are You Rejecting? David Bentley Hart’s The Experience of God, Part I

The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss by David Bentley Hart. A good joke A joke which many atheists think clever goes like this: (speaking to a theist) "You reject…

Statistics

Update On The On-line Probability & Statistics Course. Comments Wanted

It's been a while, but I think I've finally figured out how to make an on-line class work. Details about this will be forthcoming, but for now I wanted to…

Culture Statistics

Prosecute Global Warming Heretics. Update 2: Kill, Nuremberg Them, Too!

Prosecute the heretics! is the new cry from the high priests of global warming. Climate "deniers", they say, are no better than mobsters, good fellas who are extorting the climate,…

Philosophy Statistics

The Mysticism Of Randomness: Philosophy of Probability & Statistics Video Series

Nothing can be caused by "chance". Chance, like randomness, isn't a thing, it isn't real, it isn't physical, therefore it cannot cause anything. Randomness means "unknown." Therefore "random variables" are…

Culture

From Latin & Greek To Remedial English

From Twitter's @LeMarquand came this picture: An overstatement, sure. Not every high school went in for amo, amas, amat or saw students parsing snatches of The Odyssey in the original.…

Culture Philosophy

The “Right” To This, That, And The Other Thing

A good friend of mine, an inveterate lefty who tortures himself by reading Think Progress and other horror sites designed to confirm the worst fears of their readers, posted this…

John Pate on On The Form Of Species: ‘Dance To The Tune Of Life’ by Denis Noble ReviewedDecember 16, 2025
Referring to my previous comment, it's nature via nurture. In any complex system transferring the plans to the finished item…
NLR on On The Form Of Species: ‘Dance To The Tune Of Life’ by Denis Noble ReviewedDecember 16, 2025
It sounds like Noble has some good points. People are increasingly recognizing problems with reductionism. For instance, saying that things…
Bobby Dress on How To Tell How Much Of “IQ” Is Inherited & How Much Is EnvironmentDecember 15, 2025
I’m fairly certain that obtaining my degree from Cornell had the unintended consequence of lowering whatever theoretical IQ I might…
JRob on How To Tell How Much Of “IQ” Is Inherited & How Much Is EnvironmentDecember 15, 2025
I love this debate about the heritability of intelligence. The smart people use a lot math about Gaussian and Pareto…
John Pate on How To Tell How Much Of “IQ” Is Inherited & How Much Is EnvironmentDecember 15, 2025
We know we don't understand consciousness let alone intelligence. IQ testing gets a bad rep though, it's a proxy for…

William M. Briggs

On The Form Of Species: ‘Dance To The Tune Of Life’ by Denis Noble Reviewed

How To Tell How Much Of “IQ” Is Inherited & How Much Is Environment

Class 74: Contra Effect Sizes

Academic Argues For Permissibility of Cannibalism, You Racist

I Finally Read James Lindsay’s Manifesto (Yes, He Has A Manifesto)

The Biggest Mistake In Science Applied To Universe As Simulation

Class 73: How To Tell If You Have Bad Dice

Academic Proposes Mushrooms To Avoid Compulsory Moral Bioenhancement

The Michigan Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Is Wrong: “Guns” are not the leading cause of death in kids

The Perfect Conspiracy Theory

Old Lodge Skins’ Prayer Of Thanksgiving

The Apples In A Sack Paradox: Solve It Or You Get No Pie Tomorrow

Antichrist, by Saint Robert Bellarmine

Donald vs Ishmael vs Esau — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Class 72: Most Claims Of “Controlled For” Are Wrong: The Wrong Way

Black Women Can’t Do Physics As Well As White Men, Says Researcher

On That “Bombshell German Study” That “Exposes the PCR Test Fraud That Locked Down the World”

Masking Morality With Science: Men Pretending To Be Women In Sports

Why Study Probability?

The Dysgenics Of IVF

In Which An Atheist Becomes Sputteringly Angry Over Theist’s Argument