Category Archives: Science

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

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.

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

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

Why lockdown kills everybody

Posted on 31/01/2021 by Jon Garvey

I’m pretty sure a new word is soon going to become part of the English language: “zoomed-out.” I keep hearing the concept, if not always the phrase, used by people who are, ostensibly, doing reasonably well under lockdown. Whether it’s our own student pastor, doing all his church and college work on a screen, or historian Neil Oliver comparing dreary lockdown life with the buzz he felt from a live audience on a book tour before all this, or even my old school-fellow J. J. Burnel commenting ruefully on trying to compose a new Stranglers album via Zoom (having sadly lost his friend and keyboard player, Dave Greenfield, to COVID … Continue reading →

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

Whole-cost denialism – wilful blindness or myth?

Posted on 21/01/2021 by Jon Garvey

An historical perspective Fifty years on from that obscure episode in history between 2020 and 2023, now generally known as “The Covidiocy,” it is perhaps now time to reflect on one of its darker aspects. The whole period was one of darkness, of course, largely forgotten now only because of the greater darkness to which it led, culminating in the implosion of the World Equity Government after the sack of Beijing

Posted in History, Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 3 Comments