Episode #73

News Items

    Interview with B. Alan Wallace

    • Dr. Wallace, a scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, has taught Buddhist theory and meditation throughout Europe and America since 1976. Having devoted fourteen years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford.http://www.alanwallace.org/articles by Alan Wallace:Buddha on the brain http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/11/27/wallace/In You Meet Buddha in Salonhttp://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/09/buddha/index.html

    Science and the Supernatural

    • Hello Everyone,I enjoy listening to the podcast each week and it is, by far, my favorite of all the podcasts out there. I consider myself to be skeptically inclined and have been so since I was around 12 and first watched Cosmos on public television. I think that The Demon Haunted World should be required reading in school. I am a big Carl Sagan fan. I also like reading Rebeccas blog and I have also received a Skepchick calendar here in New Orleans. My question for the panel to discuss is this: Is there any potential evidence, experience or phenomenon that you would deem supernatural, if you were to encounter it? Why do I ask this? Well, I have not been able to come up with anything while I ponder it. Anything I come up with on my own would just have me thinking that whatever it was, was something that science had not yet explained. Example: If the skies were to open up and a giant man were to appear claiming to be God, I would not automatically assume it was God. It may be a sufficiently advanced civilization attempting to fool us (a la Ardra on Star Trek: The Next Generation) or mass hallucinations. The only thing I think comes close would be if someone were to accurately and, in detail, predict the future 100 percent of the time. And still, I would try to find the scientific answer to why this was happening. Ghosts, mind-reading, etc. If anyone were able to demonstrate any of these phenomena with reasonable evidence, I would still say there was a scientific and not supernatural explanation for them. So, to the panel: Is there anything that would indicate to you that it was supernatural in origin or is everything explainable within the physical world even if we cannot explain it yet? And by my wording I am in no way suggesting that anyone has been able to demonstrate any of these paranormal or supernatural phenomena. I am merely asking what if? My question was inspired by the ending of Carl Sagans n

    Science or Fiction

    • Item #1 Fiction

      By reproducing the nano-scale structure of butterfly wings, engineers have designed the most efficient photovoltaic cells to date.

    • Item #2 Science

      A German scientist has designed a nuclear power plant that will produce virtually no nuclear waste.

    • Item #3 Science

      Study finds that genes may predict the chance of women cheating on their partners.

    Skeptical Quote of the Week.