On a Curiosity Bender
I have two strikes against me as a skeptical thinker: (1) I live in the U.S. of A. and (2) I was raised by direct descendants of both the Puritans as well as one of the early co-founders of the Seventh Day Adventist church. Consequently, in disproportionately large numbers, I am surrounded by loved ones (and others) who are “Believers” when it comes to personal “miracles” having completely logical explanations.
So it is deeply refreshing whenever I come upon a well-crafted treatment of rational thinking prepared expressly for the average but open-minded (oxymoronic though that may be) curious mind. Last Thursday, while driving to work, listening to the excellent Bob Edwards show on XMRadio, I heard portions of an interview with Robert Krulwich discussing his show RadioLab hosted by WNYC. What a find! RadioLab (now in its sixth season — cannot believe I’ve not heard of it before) has as its tag line “On a Curiosity Bender”. I love it.
To my beloved miracle-believing friends: I implore you to listen to “Stochasticity“.
Yesterday at work, someone sent out a spam-o-gram to the entire company with a forwarded urban legend heavily suggesting a supernatural connection behind the Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences. I replied back (adding the proper ‘Not Work Related’ subject tag) with a link to Stochasticity. While several immediately replied and dropped by with “Thank You!”, I suspect several others were silently offended.
One day, I am sure, this will no longer be such a delicate topic.