Delegitimation: a force for anarchy and liberation

Posted on 15/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

Peter Boghossian is a US philosopher who has recently drawn attention to the post-modern phenomenon of “delegitimation.” Boghossian is a militant atheist, and no friend of Christianity, having worked on rather crass ways to “deprogram” believers in casual conversations, on the mistaken belief that we are captive to irrationality imposed by authority. But in these strange times, the champions of Enlightenment rationalism can sometimes be co-belligerents, simply because the Enlightenment grew out of Christianity’s commitment to truth, and we are now, without hyperbole, rushing into a post-truth society.

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

Dr W.H.O.’s COVID prophecy

Posted on 13/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

Many decades ago in a galaxy far away, before Dr Who became a vanilla woke propaganda vehicle, it was a science fiction series for older kids. When it began in 1963 (the day President Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley and Anthony Burgess all died) I was already a seasoned Sci-Fi buff, filling my head with Heinlein, Asimov, Simak, Blish and Aldiss, and my 11 year old verdict was that Dr Who was very good science fiction. For TV.

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Reflections on the Pfizer COVID vaccine trial

Posted on 12/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

You can download the FDA Briefing document on the new vaccine, presumably compiled by Pfizer, here, which is the nearest we have yet to a scientific paper on the vaccine trial used to authorise the vaccine here in Britain.

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Considering an ancient Adam

Posted on 06/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

The Genealogical Adam and Eve paradigm, as described in my book and that of Joshua Swamidass, makes a recent Adam plausible in the context of the mainstream sciences. Some objectors to this “recent Adam” interpretation wants to put Adam and Eve much further back in the past (which is equally compatible with GAE), and their main reason is the status of the “people outside the garden” in our scenario.

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Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology | 15 Comments

Controlling the virus

Posted on 04/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

Boris Johnson, in the recent parliamentary debate on Tier restrictions, laid great emphasis on the need to “control this virus” (once again reference was made to the non-existent “sole alternative” of “letting it rip,” further diminishing the credibility of the government’s assessment of evidence). The next day, rebel Conservative and former leader Sir Iain Duncan-Smith defended his position by saying that lower Tiers had proved sufficient to “control the virus.” It is rare to find anyone question whether the virus has ever been under control at all. But it is the key question.

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Ten (non-anti-vaxx) reasons not to be vaccinated against COVID-19

Posted on 02/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

Wikipedia is always pretty mainstream, because their zealous moderators censor anyone they consider not to be mainstream. You don’t do well if you’re deemed a “pseudoscientist” or a “conspiracy theorist.” That being so, it’s instructive to read their article on RNA vaccines, because today is the very first time one of these has been given official approval to whack into the whole population of Britain, starting with the most vulnerable. The roll-out has been greeted with vast enthusiasm – at least from official sources – rather akin to that which greeted Tony Blair as a kind of Messiah in his election victory in 1997. Journalists and legacy news consumers are jubilant as well, and I think it is because they know nothing and assume everything.

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Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 8 Comments

Divine right redividus

Posted on 01/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

For non-Brits, today there is a parliamentary vote on bringing in a lockdown disguised as a tier system to replace the lockdown that is ending. Up to a hundred Conservative MPs may rebel, because the cost-benefit analysis that they demanded and were promised, published yesterday (long after the policy decision!) has turned out not to be one. Most of the rebels, on past performance, will not vote against the measures, since they put their careers above the public good. The Government will win anyway, because the equally useless Labour opposition is demonstrating its disapproval for the measures… by abstaining.

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Dealing with the culture of secrecy

Posted on 28/11/2020 by Jon Garvey

At the height of the pandemic earlier this year, I clocked a little-noticed remark by that renowned guardian of the people Matt Hancock, when he was announcing a new initiative in the House of Commons. “It is time to get rid of this culture of secrecy,” he said.

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Posted in Politics and sociology | 3 Comments

A not-so-tenuous connection

Posted on 27/11/2020 by Jon Garvey

Isn’t the internet wonderful? (Ans: Yes and No!) The hint of a memory, and I found a complete web-page about a Sci-Fi story I read in a tacky comic I bought in 1959.

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COVID Conspiracy theories are dangerous!

Posted on 24/11/2020 by Jon Garvey

All reputable journalists and scientists dealing with COVID-19 are quick to say, “I am no conspiracy theorist,” shortly before expressing sheer mystification over how things are being handled by the government, by official advisers, and by a fairly monolithic mainstream media.

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Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 1 Comment