Most of us in the reality based community have at least some appreciation of science, and many of us are downright excited about it. Of course, we have also learned to recognize that not everything claiming to be scientific is in fact science. According to Panda's Thumb, Ken Ham's Creation Museum is hosting a creation "science" fair next year. As Pharyngula notes, there is certainly nothing wrong with Christians engaging in science, however, this fair has precious little to do with science. Among the entry requirements, the children must agree to AIG's Statement of Faith.
I am hard pressed to think of anything less conducive to the scientific method than the injection of faith. Panda's reaction is spot on:
Those, of course, are the antithesis of science. Having kids sign on to presuppositions that reject the evidence that has been accumulated over centuries is the height of science denial, and it is a fraud to label the exercise “science.”
Absolutely. Reading the statement should make it clear to anyone that creation "science" is not science at all. It is merely religious dogma thinly veiled in pseudo scientific jargon.
Pharyngula adds:
That's not how science works: you don't get to specify ahead of time what answers you will find acceptable. If you read that statement of faith, you will discover that many of its article insist on the truth of claims that have long been refuted — such as that there was a global flood, the earth was created in 6 literal 24-hour days, the earth was created recently, etc. — and others are just plain silly. You have to agree that homosexuals are perverts in order to present at this "science" fair!
Events like this remind us that we all have a vested interest in promoting scientific literacy.
What does one get when one watches Religulous and then finds oneself thinking about Miss California? I had one more fleeting observation about Religulous that did not make it into my review and Miss California's infamous quote somehow solidified it. In watching Religulous, one of the things that struck me was how little many religious believers seemed to know about their claimed religions and the scientific or historical consensus surrounding many of their claims. I should have mentioned this in my review, but it was not until I read and re-read Miss California's quote several times that the full significance of this observation hit me. When one is exposed only to dogma and not to reality during one's upbringing and when one is taught not to question the teachings of one's parents and one's church, this is precisely the outcome the rest of us should expect. Many of the religious believers in Maher's film were like Miss California - they had been raised to think this way and never really bothered to question it.
It is widely recognized throughout the atheist community that we frequently know more about religious teaching than do those who claim to practice the religion. In part, this is because many of us are ex-practitioners ourselves. However, I believe that this is more about the process of questioning and exploration that many of us went through before discarding superstition. It was through critical examination that many of us were able to escape.
In watching Religulous, I was initially shocked to see Christians at the Holy Land Experience who seemed to have no idea that their bible was written decades after the death of their alleged savior. How could they not know this? Enter Miss California. They were raised to believe certain untruths and have not yet embarked on the process of critically evaluating much of what they were taught.
An earlier scene in Religulous is instructive here. Maher visits a truckers' chapel at a truck stop and is asking a handful of congregants about their beliefs. It does not take him long to get to what will strike most of us as fairly basic questions that no one in the group can answer (e.g., why is believing in things without evidence a good thing?). One man says something like, "If you are challenging my god, we're gonna have problems - I'm not listening to this" and storms out the moment it Maher begins to sound even mildly skeptical. So desperate was this man to protect his delusion that he was not willing to tolerate even a few minutes of disagreement with his religious convictions.
It occurs to me that millions of Americans are exactly like this man, not just when it comes to their Christian delusion but also with regard to their political views. In fact, I suspect that this is precisely what makes Fox "News" so appealing to some. Remember the reports about Dick Cheney's handlers having to arrive early at wherever he would be staying to set the TVs to Fox "News" lest the Grand Torturer might be confronted with dissent? Unfortunately, Cheney was not unique in this regard.
Just look at how the torture debate is shaping up. "We do not torture because torture is bad, and we don't do bad things" runs smack into the reality that we did in fact torture. The resolution simply cannot be acknowledgment that we did bad things, and so it is perverted into "What we did was not torture" or even "Torture is usually bad, but it was not bad when we did it because we had no choice." Such massive bullshit and yet really not that different from how countless people maintain their religious beliefs every day.
If you are an atheist using Twitter, check out the new atheist page at Twithash.net and add yourself to the directory. It is a good way to find like-minded folks to follow and perhaps get some more followers yourself.
For those who are not familiar with Twitter or tried it and could not figure out the point, this might help.
The Republican Party has been having a difficult time since...well, at least since Sen. McCain listened to those who said he should choose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Did they hit rock bottom with calls to "teabag the White House," or can they sink even lower? I suppose time will tell. One thing is clear, however, just because the GOP is no longer viable does not mean the Democratic Party is not going to make mistakes.
It is almost as if some Democrats are jealous that the Republicans have become a sectarian party, inextricibly linked to fundamentalist Christianity. Take New York State Senator Rubén Díaz, for example, now organizing a rally to oppose marriage equality. As Pam Spaulding reminds us:
This is a perfect example of why the Democratic party needs to check itself -- just because someone has a (D) behind their name does not mean they hold Dem principles, or even engage in rational thought -- a lack of understanding of the separation of church and state should at least be a baseline for god's sake.
Díaz, also a Pentecostal minister, has called for Gov. Paterson's removal for supporting marriage equality. And yet, as Pam points out, Díaz is essentially untouchable because his party would rather have numbers than real progressives. By way of compromise, they allow him to engage in bigotry.
As we get closer to the National Day of Prayer, many atheists are going to hear the same question: "What is wrong with the National Day of Prayer?" The exact phrasing will vary, but the essence of the question will be along the lines of this: "I understand that you don't pray, but why do you have a problem with other people doing so? I mean, what is so bad about having a National Day of Prayer anyway?" Of course, the obvious response says something about separation of church and state. After all, the National Day of Prayer was designated by an act of Congress and certainly seems to be a case of favoring religion over no religion. However, this is only part of the reason for opposing this event. I encourage you to review the others at Americans United for Separation of Church and State's page, "What's Wrong With the National Day of Prayer?"
The Tennessee General Assembly is currently considering bills that would permit the state to issue specialty vehicle license plates for a specific church, the Church of God in Christ. The bills were sponsored by two Memphis legislators. If passed, this would mark the first time a license plate has been allowed for a specific religious denomination.
If you have an opinion on whether states should offer specialty plates for churches and why or why not, consider e-mailing a brief (3-4 sentence) response to Hot Button at hotbutton@commercialappeal.com by May 6. They also request that responses include identifying information (e.g., name, home address and daytime/evening telephone numbers) so they can contact the authors of comments they want to publish.
One of the most popular questions atheists get from Christians is, "What would it take for you to believe?" The question is sometimes intended to obtain support for the popular misconception atheism involves some sort of faith. Other times it reflects genuine curiosity about the sort of evidence atheists would accept as supporting the theistic belief claim (i.e., some sort of god or gods exist). Atheist responses vary (mine is here), but one of the more common involves the direct experience of a god appearing in the absence of altered states of consciousness or mental illness. What we now have is not quite this convincing, but it does appear to be a true miracle. I expect many atheists will soon convert to Christianity upon hearing this news (many probably already have).
The Associated Press broke this amazing story late this week. I am saddened that it has not received the attention it deserves and am no wondering about some sort of atheist media bias. After all, what else could explain why the following miracle is not the lead story on every major news network?
CALEXICO, Calif. – The hottest thing on the griddle at the Las Palmas restaurant these days isn't the food — it's the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that a cook says she saw on the griddle.
Restaurant manager Brenda Martinez says more than 100 people have flocked to the small town of Calexico on the California-Mexico border to gaze at the likeness of the Virgin Mary since it was discovered as the griddle was being cleaned.
Among the awe-struck was a group of masked Mexican wrestlers who arrived Thursday for an exhibition at a nearby swap meet.
One, known as Mr. Tempest, says: "This is amazing. It's a true miracle."
Since the discovery, the griddle has been taken out of service and placed in a shrine in a storage room.
I'd like to offer the following observations about this story:
It really does not seem to take much to get a group of religious people to "flock" somewhere.
Any story mentioning "masked Mexican wrestlers" deserves way more attention than it is likely to receive.
Idiocy this astounding deserves attention, and attention it shall receive! Right here in the weekly Idiot of the Week series. Look for a new winner to be declared right here each Saturday.
There was a particularly crowded field of competitors this week. I was able to narrow it down to three contenders, but it was quite a challenge to pick just one. In the end, I had to go with former Navy chaplain, Gordon James Klingenschmitt, for calling on supporters to launch “imprecatory” prayers against Barry W. Lynn (Americans United) and Mikey Weinstein (Military Religious Freedom Foundation).
Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty, including Barry Lynn and Mikey Weinstein, who recently issued a press release attacking me personally,” prays Klingenschmitt on his Web site. “God, do not remain silent, for wicked men surround me and tell lies about me. We bless them, but they curse us. Therefore, find them guilty, not me. Let their days be few, and replace them with godly people. Plunder their fields and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants. And remember their sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Idiocy is one thing, but Klingenschmitt skillfully combined it with Christian extremism, pushing him over the top.
Black Sun Journal has a great post integrating some of the recent high profile reporting on the atheist movement. His conclusion is that the very same tactics for which atheists are frequently criticized appear to be working. One of the lessons I take from this post is that it is important for us to pause periodically and take stock of what we have been able to accomplish so far. In addition to realizing how far we still have to go on the road to atheist equality, it is important for us to take some pride in the progress we have made.
BlackSun uses recent coverage of the atheist movement from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other sources to demonstrate that the commonly heard criticism about in-your-face tactics is misplaced.
These are objections the entire movement has been dealing with ad nauseam. And they’re clearly bunk. This bellyaching has always demonstrated to me more than anything else where a person’s true sympathies lie–with the believers. It’s also self-refuting.
The critics who claim that we are too harsh, need to be nicer, would "catch more flies with honey," and the like are missing the signs of progress. Of course, this is by no means a call for complacency. We acknowledge that our work is far from finished. Rather, it is a reminder to give credit where credit is due.
Fund raising for secular political action is entering the same orders of magnitude as the top religious lobbying groups. The scare tactics and attempts at intimidation by accommodationists have not only failed, but failed spectacularly.
To all who have been working tirelessly to promote atheism and call out bigotry, keep doing what you are doing. It is working, and we are all in your debt. And a big thanks to BlackSun for reminding us to take pride in our accomplishments.
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