I disagree with the widely held view that it is metaphysical necessity, not nomological, that matters in the mind/body problem.

The big picture, I think, is that common ancestry is evidentially prior to natural selection in Darwin's theory and in contemporary evolutionary biology as well.

Deism claims that God creates the universe and the laws of nature and then is hands-off, with everything that subsequently happens in nature being due to natural processes.

Earlier attempts to show that simpler theories always have higher prior probabilities have failed, but there is a restricted circumstance in which the claim is right.

I think that the existence of Beethoven is remarkable, but I do not bristle at the suggestion that this event had a low probability given the initial state of the universe.

Biologists now pretty universally regard vitalism as a vestige of a bygone age.

When one theory is simpler than its competitor, this fact is relevant to saying what the world is like.

In many contexts, simplicity is not an aesthetic frill.

Scientists often seek predictively accurate models, rather than models that are true.

Our own species evolved under the influence of group selection, as Darwin emphasized when he discussed the evolution of altruism.

"Tiger is a natural kind" and "Tiger is a historical particular" are incompatible with each other, and evolutionary biology provides a reason for favoring the latter over the former.

In nearly every religion I am aware of, there is a variation of the golden rule. And even for the non-religious, it is a tenet of people who believe in humanistic principles.

This is a national emergency, if Donald Trump wins.

I'm a tomboy. I really love sports. I'm really looking forward to being the sniper gal, running around and shooting zombies. I find that really exhilarating.

It's always weird to shoot when you're really basically not wearing anything.

We need to make peace with who we are so insecurities don't become a distraction to how we live. Just because I sometimes feel insecure doesn't mean I have to be insecure.

This obsession with dignity can ruin your life if you let it.

Donors need to know what their money is being used for.

The house that is built upon the sand will crumble at the first sign of a windstorm.

Be relentlessly generous, without focusing on when it will come back to you.

It's a writer's job to carve with language, to hew close to the bone.