bblais on the web

Here's a response video by Lydia McGrew that misses the point entirely: https://youtu.be/yazFM_qlsHI?

My post about inflating Bayes Factors with nothing has given Lydia McGrew a lot to talk about over on her blog.

There has been a bit of time since my original response to the Christopoulos-McGrew series, along with some responses such as: Modern Atheist gave a response to Video 6 A twitter post by Paulogia, with a long comment thread afterward Some comments to me by

I was recently directed to some work by Lydia McGrew, as I was responding to hers and Than Christopoulos's 9-part response to Paulogia's video featuring me where we were responding to a blog post by Than Christopoulos.

Here I am responding to a series of videos from Lydia McGrew and Than Christopoulos. https://youtu.be/ubw1d5QH2gE?

The Physics Diet essentially is Energy In < Energy Out.

On Alex O'Connor's podcast, he discusses with Joe Schmid, Atheist Slogans You Should Stop Using (https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/alex-oconnor4/episodes/Atheist-Slogans-You-Should-Stop-Using---Joe-Schmid-e3eqc52).

Here's a video where Dr.

Is the "Maximal Data Case" for the resurrection of Jesus a sophisticated historical argument, or just "for the Bible tells me so" with extra steps?.

I wrote about the Nines Deck here as an example of multiple model comparison.

I realized that I don't have a blog post about my favorite simple probability example, the High-Low Deck Game.

Another piece from this article by Than Christopoulos which caught my eye.

In Paulogia's response video, he defines Bayesian analysis as: "Bayesian analysis is a quantification and mathematical description of presuppositions and natural decision-making processes" which Than and others took umbrage.

I've been thinking lately about a particular criticism of apologist techniques.

In a response video with Than Christopoulos, Than says at 35:10 : "I have a video titled "Do Christians make excuses for their faith" [...] why this constant complaint from internet atheists about post hoc rationalizations is really bad and them just not…

I just listened to the Debate Between Than Christopoulos and Matt Dillahunty about the question "Did Jesus Rise from the Dead" and the response by Paulogia and the reponse to the response from Than and others.

I read with interest this article by Than Christopoulos after seeing his debate with Matt Dilahunty which I hope to respond to at some point.

Been a while since I've written here, so getting back into it with a short observation.

A friend of mine recently sent me this video to get a response.

Going back a few years I published an article simplifying the calculations for atmospheric greenhouse gas effects for undergraduate non-science majors, Blais, B. (2003).

My mentor and friend Leon Cooper has died at the age of 94.

It is said that a published work without the code is little more than an advertisement.

I've had my disagreements with Jonathan McLatchie a few times, some of it here, and now there is another interview Bayesian Probability and Intelligent Design: A Beginner's Guide that someone forwarded to me.

I've read the entire Bible twice, the most recent time this past year.

As part of the Unbelievable Project, I am taking notes and "arm-chair" responding to each of the Unbelievable podcast episodes satisfying a set of simple rules.

An "undesigned coincidence" is used in an argument for the reliability of the Gospels, notable by Jonathan McLatchie, Tim McGrew and Lydia McGrew, and is defined as When you have multiple (at least two) accounts that report an event where one account answ…

Can science explain everything?

So National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is here, and it has its usual ups and downs as expected.

In this talk, I will present a framework for rational inquiry based on probability theory.

My work with Kamil Gregor on the reexamination of the analysis of names from Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses has been published: Gregor, K., & Blais, B. (2023).

So I listened to the Bible in a Year podcast with Fr.

The fine-tuning argument is an argument in philosophy and cosmology that suggests the existence of a fine-tuned universe points towards the existence of a intelligent designer or a purpose behind the universe.

Here's my short rambling rant about the claims-evidence distinction.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan I think no pithy quote has caused so much angst with apologists than this one from Carl Sagan, directed in particular to religious miracle claims.

In a previous post I examined a simple model of the interaction of testimony with scientific inquiry, and how it can affect the probabilities of the truth of miracle claims.

So I was poking around on the web and decided to watch the video "THE Game Changer for Learning to Code" https://www.youtube.com/embed/H1fBdboJeBo and then attempt to use it on code I use in class.

I'm giving a talk at the Fall Cross-Disciplinary Research, Teaching and Technology Symposium on Wednesday November 9th, 2:00PM – 5:00PM at Bryant University.

Matthew and Andrew welcome me back to talk about miracles.

So I recently had a bit of a discussion which ended somewhat abruptly with complaints of category errors on my part and implied scientism.

In this YouTube episode, Bad Apologetics Ep 18 - Bayes Machine goes BRRRRRRRRR I join Nathan Ormond, Kamil Gregor, and James Fodor to discuss Timothy and Lydia McGrew's article in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology entitled "Chapter 11 - The Argu…

In this YouTube episode, Bad Apologetics Ep 18 - Bayes Machine goes BRRRRRRRRR I join Nathan Ormond, Kamil Gregor, and James Fodor to discuss Timothy and Lydia McGrew's article in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology entitled "Chapter 11 - The Argu…

An "undesigned coincidence" is used in an argument for the reliability of the Gospels, notable by Jonathan McLatchie, Tim McGrew and Lydia McGrew, and is defined as When you have multiple (at least two) accounts that report an event where one account answ…

When asked the question raised by McLatchie, I would have to say that new testimony does not raise my probability for a miracle, mostly because all prior attempts to do so have been debunked or at best shown to be profoundly unreliable.

I was recently reading some articles about dubious medical procedures, and the claims of miraculous healings.

In this YouTube episode, Bad Apologetics Ep 18 - Bayes Machine goes BRRRRRRRRR I join Nathan Ormond, Kamil Gregor, and James Fodor to discuss Timothy and Lydia McGrew's article in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology entitled "Chapter 11 - The Argu…

Here I summarize the (9 hour!)

In this week's Unbelievable Podcast the topic was miracles.

A particular response has now happened twice in an ongoing discussion about extraordinary claims, and I felt I needed to think about it more deeply.

I'd like to thank Jonathan McLatchie for the detailed response to my two-part response.

In the Unbelievable podcast episode Do extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence?