Author Archives: Jon Garvey

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About Jon Garvey

Training in medicine (which was my career), social psychology and theology. Interests in most things, but especially the science-faith interface. The rest of my time, though, is spent writing, playing and recording music.

It’s always the models

Posted on 23/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

I’m getting more and more convinced about the centrality of our animal physicality, in everything from benefiting from nature to worshiping God “in spirit and truth.” A rather saddening recent essay suggests that the greatest harm to children from “online education” in lockdown is going to come from “derealisation,” whereby they become increasingly undistinguishing between reality and the virtual world. Worse still they become less able to see that the difference matters. There seems to be a similar problem in the sciences.

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | Leave a comment

Good Creation revisited

Posted on 21/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

A couple of new reviews have appeared on my book Good’s Good Earth, in Studies in Christian Ethics and Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, the latter of which rolls it together with a review of Generations of Heaven and Earth. You can find them by linking to the respective book tabs on the menu above, and clicking on the “Endorsements and Reviews” links.

Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology, Theology of nature | 7 Comments

Meeting public expectations

Posted on 19/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

I came across a little-known story about the London Blitz yesterday, best summarised in this article by Londoner Simon Webb, or if you’re impatient of more reading, in his YouTube video on the subject.

Posted in History, Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | Leave a comment

When will we beat the false positives?

Posted on 17/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

Daily Telegraph headline today: “Covid lockdown to continue until cases drop below 1,000 a day.” It’s accompanied by a graphic projecting the current fall in UK cases to make April 7th the likely date. But there is reason to doubt this optimism.

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 1 Comment

A sense of place

Posted on 16/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

I’ve just read two books to lift the heart above the media’s COVID monomania, albeit it in a bittersweet way. The second was Meadowland: the Private Life of an English Field, by John Lewis-Strempel, a birthday gift from my daughter. It traces the year in the life of a hay-meadow in Herefordshire as observed by its owner, which resonates with me because I own a hay-meadow in Devon.

Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | Leave a comment

Proportionality

Posted on 14/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

Just a couple of UK-based graphics to consider this wintry Sunday:

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 2 Comments

When public truth becomes subjective

Posted on 09/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

In my last post I wrote about the subjectivisation of truth in the progressive programme. But it would be a mistake to think this is restricted to specific examples like race and gender, because the postmodern element of progressivism extends it to the whole of life. It is all truth that becomes subjectivised to a preferred narrative, not just particular instances. Needless to say, this has profound implications.

Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Paranoia and Patriarchy

Posted on 08/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

Paranoia is a pretty distressing symptom in its common setting of schizophrenia. My in-laws once went for a house viewing, only to find the place full of scrap metal structures intended to prevent US satellites spying on the owner. But it can occasionally be potentially lethal as well.

Posted in Medicine, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science | Leave a comment

Those best placed to know

Posted on 06/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

Bret Weinstein, in discussion with Heather Heying, makes some interesting observations on why “scientific consensus” is not always the virtuous thing it seems. His topical example is the increasing evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from the virology laboratory in Wuhan, as the evidence for the “wet market” hypothesis becomes less and less persuasive.

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The English, the English, the English are best…

Posted on 04/02/2021 by Jon Garvey

I guess it’s now pretty well known around the world how the one successful part of Britain’s COVID policy has been its vaccine procurement and distribution. I mean, we were pretty well the first to OK the Pfizer vaccine, and we seem to have got away with it rightly judged its safety. And the Oxford vaccine, with a little tradesmen’s help from those Swedish chaps, was a close second on the scene.

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | Leave a comment