Tag public policy

Academic Freedom, Down Syndrome, and Cognitive Dissonance

My fellow SINner Russell Blackford has put up a post called “Down syndrome, disability, academic freedom” that he is getting a lot of flack about.
In it, he defended the rights of Professor D Gareth Jones of Otago University to publish an academic paper called “Testing times: do new prenatal tests signal the end of Down syndrome?” In this open-access article, Professor Jones and his co-author (a student) discuss the current state of prenatal screening for Down Syndrome (DS) in New Zealand and possible implications.

Intelligence & Religion (part 2) – Religious Beliefs & Education

This is the second installment of my five part series on what we know (and don’t know) about intelligence and religion. Inspired by questions about and challenges to a video I was in, particularly questions about my statement that the religious are not more or less intelligent than the non-religious. In part one, I introduced the series by briefly discussing some of the very diverse areas of one’s life that are impacted by your religious belief system.