Site: editorial philosophy

These are ideas which I keep in mind when choosing content and books for the website. I believe many of them are expressed in Richard Dawkins' work.

• The public understanding of science is important.

• A goal of science is to explain reality, not just to blindly measure it, or to make empirical predictions. [1]

• No muddlespeak. Reality is not vague, only our understanding of it can be. Appeals to holism, chaos, and self-organization, are more often than not, excuses not to dig too deep.

• No sacred cows. All assumptions and beliefs are open to question. That includes areas where science and religion overlap.

• "Heresy does not equal correctness." [2] Self-proclaimed revolutions come cheap. They threaten to overturn the reigning "paradigm", until you look closely behind the bloated rhetoric. Most scientific progress is cumulative (and quoting Kuhn won't make the claim any truer).

• Don't confuse an "is" with an "ought". Science can tell us how nature works, but from that knowledge we cannot directly conclude what is "right" in an ethical sense. The fruits of science can inform our ethics, and our ethics can help determine the science we do. It also follows that scientific conclusions cannot be judged according to how palatable or politically correct they are.

• <insert your theory here> - "god in the gaps" theories are not science, they are pure speculation, no matter how intriguing. Historically these arguments tend to die when the gaps in scientific knowledge shrink, and they will continue to shrink.

1. The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch, Allen Lane, 1997

2. Why People Believe Weird Things : Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer,W H Freeman & Co, 1997