People keep sending me interesting news stories! More than I can handle! So let me do a little linkdump here, and you can sort through them and see if anything is of interest.
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Ben Stein is visiting Baylor! You knew they'd rush to squeeze in one more dramatic scene of the oppressive atmosphere at a Baptist university while the Marks/Dembski noise is still hot. The ass-prod, Mathis, is going to be cruising the campus for footage, and he claims the biology majors are reluctant to talk to him: "If you were a biology student, you wouldn't dare touch this." The implication is that biology majors are afraid of being blackballed. More likely, they know that the ID clowns are dishonest frauds. Or maybe they've heard that Mathis misrepresents himself, and they just don't trust him.
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There's an effort on the way to 'frame' environmentalism as a principle of religious obligation — it's an attempt to win the faithful to the cause of saving the earth. Some people object.
Something will have to give, and fundamentalist environmentalists are not about to budge on their deeply held convictions. Ultimately, evangelicals will have to sacrifice their deeply held convictions if they are to continue to team up with dogmatic environmentalists.
As Rabbi Daniel Lapin observed on Dr. James Dobson's radio program, the whole purpose of the environmental movement is to do away with Genesis 1-3.
Oh, my goodness. I would never have predicted that.
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It's always nice to hear about a day in the garden.
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Here's an interesting article on Southern Fundamentalists and the civil rights movement. It suggests a source of the fundamentalist problem in this country today:
This study suggests that the civil rights movement created a cultural and religious crisis that compelled southern fundamentalists to respond. At the same time, their response to particular social, political, and racial imperatives was filtered through their self-proclaimed fundamentalist ideology. While fundamentalism itself is not inherently racist, the southern fundamentalists cited here expressed their own racist sentiments largely through the medium of their fundamentalist theology.
If only those civil rights agitators had been a little bit more courteous and deferential…maybe they could have compromised on some of the issues that most angered fundamentalists. Like these:
The civil rights movement was unacceptable to southern fundamentalists for several reasons. First, it promoted a form of racial "mingling" which undermined the God ordained separation of the races and increased the possibility for racial intermarriage, a clear violation of biblical teaching. Second, it fostered social and political anarchy which disturbed the social order and engendered violence, riots, and civil disobedience, a violation of biblical teaching on authority and government. Third, at best it was a tool of socialists and communists in their efforts to bring down American democracy. At worst, the movement was itself a communist inspired attempt to destroy the nation, a threat to Christian civilization and freedom. Fourth, it was led by religious modernists, infidels, and apostates whose views on Scripture, the virgin birth, and other fundamental dogmas made them enemies of true religion and genuine faith, a violation of biblical doctrine.
That list of the crimes of the civil rights movement sure sounds like the same stuff we hear about evolution, doesn't it?
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Family isn't getting along? Need to abuse the spouse in a socially sanctioned way? Use the Bible! It's the ethical way to alienate children and parents!
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The Pentagon is being sued … for trying to compel soldiers to be Christians. I have mixed feelings about that. The military has a clear and valid interest in turning it's soldiers into blindly obedient, amoral killers, and what better way than to make sure they are all fervent members of a mindless death cult?
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Ben Stein seemed quite good on Win Ben Stein's Money, until one realised the only questions he regularly nailed were ones on American history.
Even his geographical knowledge sucked.
The Gumby background has been screwy lately, for me anyway (I'm running Firefox). While there is usually a whole crowd, recently there's only been one of him. Just so you know.
PedZed changed the Gumby background a while ago due to complaints that it made the text hard to read. Maybe on darker, dying monitors it does, but I've never had a problem.
"Christian" and "civilization and freedom" are impossible to conflate.
The fellow quoted in the second bullet point has some, well, rather odd notions:
Emphasis added.
The christians in the Pentagon who want a Jesus-loving military just support my conjecture that religion arose in part to help enforce dominance hierarchies. After all, Anne Coulter said that the U.S. should kill Muslim countries' leaders and convert their populations to christianity. What better way to subjugate weaker tribes to America's alpha christian males?
Yeah, um, might as well document Marks' being expelled from Baylor. Oh, he wasn't? Yeah, but you know how it is, his website for a nonexistent "lab" was expelled, and will have to end up on one of the other thousands of available servers. You don't think that's censorship?
And never mind the BS about students being "afraid" of talking to fuckwit Mathis, some almost certainly will, they're just setting it up so that they can call the freedom of speech on campus a "courageous act" of bucking the establishment. It's all pure lies.
BTW, I really don't mind that in Baylor's environment there is some fear of looking like a complete idiot by supporting pseudosciences like ID. Has there ever been a pack of lies properly disrespected by academia that has ever been able to create a false sense of persecution like ID has done? Probably not, which is why, of all the pseudosciences, it is the most worrisome (of course its whining success is due to religion, but that's another matter).
Not saying anything new here, but obviously if ID were a "persecuted science" the ID blogs and "on-line ID journal" would be presenting the actual evidence that is suppressed, in order to support their claims of suppression.
What makes Ben Stein a rebel? Not because he's saying anything startling or rebellious, but because he's whining (stupidly and wrongly) about persecution. You know, that's what makes a person a rebel, after all.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Re: the post regarding Judeo-Christian versus "enviromentalist" viewpoints, this gem of a post also includes this lovely piece of jaw-dropping HUH???:
Yes! Let's bring EVERYONE ON THE PLANET to Texas!!!
No, there are no doughts! No catastrophic floods that disrupt agriculture on a massive scale!
While I agree that some hunger issues are directly related to politics or warfare, I find it mind-boggling that he finds this planet sooooo limitless in resources.
Is the 80-90% decline in most commercial fisheries also due to politics?
Hey, not often Boise comes up! I attend the church mentioned in the second article. I won't be attending the conference, due to scheduling issues. However, I do appreciate my church's active involvement in environmental issues.
As an Idahoan, I have been repeatedly disgusted by the Idaho Values Alliance. Bryan Fischer comes off as paranoid ("...the whole purpose of the environmental movement is to do away with Genesis 1-3,") and unBiblical ( Genesis 15: "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.")
I just wish fewer of my neighbors agreed with this guy.
There was also a very entertaining debate between a representative of the ACLU and Bryan Fischer last year on the topic of evolution. Fischer got stomped. He repeatedly tried to put words in the other guy's mouth, and came off looking like a jerk and an idiot.
As another Idahoan, I just have to say:
*rrrrrrt rrrrrrrt rrrrrrt* (the sound of my teeth grinding every time I see Bryan Fischer's name)
I wouldn't mind him if the local media didn't seem to be at his beck and call every time they think they need a quote from the theocrat wing.
Here's my letter to the editor I just sent to the Baylor newspaper:
"Baylor's In Trouble Now!
Most academic debates are ultimately resolved by the evidence. Once-marginalized theories like plate tectonics or genetic transposition could no longer be ignored in light of later discoveries. However, the rules of acceptance are different for Intelligent Design. Instead of answering dismissive critics by producing incontestable data, Intelligent Design advocates resort to juvenile and underhanded tactics to spread their anti-science message.
For the jejune, there's William Dembski's flash animation of Judge John E. Jones III and others involved in the Dover, PA case. The scholarly-minded Dembski thought it appropriate to intersperse fart noises between comically high-pitched sound bites from the opposition. Dembski only admitted his connection to the animation after someone slowed down the recordings to reveal his voice. It should be noted that Dembski was working closely with Dr. Robert Marks before the latter's Web site was removed (unfairly, in my view) from Baylor's servers. More recently there was an ill-considered letter purportedly composed by President Lilley posted on Dembski's weblog, which was later revealed to be a parody. (A source material is usually required for something to be considered a parody, but what are mere literary conventions to William Dembski, Mathematician Extraordinaire?)
For the unscrupulous, there's the quasi-deceitful manner in which some interviews were obtained for the upcoming Ben Stein film. One ID critic, biologist PZ Myers at the University of Minnesota at Morris and author of the popular science weblog Pharyngula, was interviewed by a production team for a movie called "Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion." Myers later discovered the footage was actually being used in "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." He asked the production company why they concealed the true nature of the documentary when he would have been just as upfront about his views had he known what the movie was really about. Mark Mathis, an assistant producer, responded defensively: "Please know that I strongly disagree with the insinuations and characterizations made in your e-mail to me." No other explanation was given.
Science is about being open and honest. Criticism is to be expected and, more importantly, encouraged. Intelligent Design advocates have had over fifteen years to present real, challenging evidence for their hypotheses. Instead, they prefer to circumvent the criticism of their qualified peers by appealing directly to a public which they can more easily deceive.
A least we can look forward to a new Ben Stein film. Here's hoping it has plenty of fart noises."
I swear, they leave out all the good bits in their articles.
The Pentagon is being sued for trying to compel soldiers to be Christians?
I've always wondered how Christian soldiers rationalise their job with, given the sixth Commandment they supposedly follow.
If you believe that countries have a right to regulate resource extraction, pollution and other externalities within their sovereignty, then yes. DDT banned, larger birds start making a comeback. Stop over-fishing by imposing limits on commercial and sport fishermen and you'll get increases in fish-stocks. Force those giant corporate farms to treat their agricultural run-off and you fix many wetlands being poisoned by selenium and other toxins. Force those pig farmers to properly dispose of waste and limit their holding ponds to prevent industrial accidents and a lot of the waterways in the Carolina's could recuperate.
All technologically solvable problems and we're only lacking a political will to force corporations to internalize the full costs of production. But since our government was long-ago bought by corporate interests, it's hard to see that happening.
...valid interest in turning it's soldiers into blindly obedient...
Hey, PZ, what does "...valid interest in turning IT IS soldiers..." mean, anyway?
RE the article on Southern Funda mentalists and racism:
This article shows how the current Evangelical, Fundamentalist movement (including the original Moral Majority) was born from the reaction to forced integration and racial hatred.
"The death of Dr. King and the election of Richard Nixon marked a decline in the attention which southern fundamentalists gave to the civil rights movement. They had clearly lost in their efforts to support the southern racial status quo. Their attention turned to new social and political issues such as the Vietnam War, the peace movement, abortion, school prayer and other concerns. Many fundamentalist congregations formed private academies aimed at snatching the souls of school children from the jaws of secular humanism, public education, and, of course, integration. They grudgingly acquiesced to the changing racial situation in the South."
A noble and Christlike beginning. They should be proud.
Steve Fisher
Um... why are people sending you eight-year old articles on racism? Send them to me, instead! Please!
Did anyone send you the WaPo article the other day on how many people are becoming atheists (or becoming more vocal about their atheism) because of all the violence and other problems caused by religious fundamentalists? It has one of my all-time favorite grafs from a newspaper article:
"The majority of nonbelievers say they are speaking out only because of religious fanatics. But some atheists are also extreme, urging people, for example, to blot out the words 'In God We Trust' from every dollar bill they carry."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR20070…
Behold, the newest incarnation of the ID movement. And don't forget the theme song:
My, my, my, my ID hits me so hard
Makes me say oh my Lord (whoops!)...
Every time you see me, that Dembski's just so hype
A dope on the floor, but magic on the mic
Now why would I ever stop doing this
With others makin' research that I can cherry-pick...
I've been around the world
From Baylor to K-Y
It's Dembski go Dembski William Dembski yo Dembski
And the rest of the D-I, can't touch this!
(try rapping that at full speed)
"If you were a biology student, you wouldn't dare touch this."
Mathis then licked his finger, touched it to his rear end and made a hissing noise.
Windy and Rey at #18, 19.
Science may never be able to describe the magnitude of your awesomeness.
You had me at "My, my, my, my ID hits me so hard/Makes me say oh my Lord (whoops!)..."
The US photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders can't get his portrait series of invalids shown in US. The problem seems to be that they are US soldiers from the Iraqi war - "Injured soldiers back from Iraq". [Sorry, no english version. But at least you can see some of the portraits, with an online gallery here.]
Apparently the war must be self-censored, yet Greenfield-Sanders seems to be known for a controversial earlier portrait series "XXX: 30 p*o*r*n-star portraits". [Remove *'s.]
Instead Greenfield-Sanders has gotten a swedish art gallery (Wetterling gallery) to show them, and later this year take them to an art exhibition in Miami.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders [roughly]: - I think these portraits show a dignified human nature, even if it is difficult to be dignified in their situation.
But HBO has apparently started to show "Alive day memories - home from Iraq" where these portraits are used. Kudos for them.
And the missing ingress was:
"Excellent, I was looking for a place to put a comment on a current news story here:"
PS. Oh windy and Rey, the rap kings of Pharyngula! Now if only Dembski could get away from fart noises, that pitch is neither accompanable nor accompaniment.
NOTE: If you doubt this is possible, how is it there are PYGMIES + DWARFS???
It is true that there is currently enough food for twice the human population. All that's missing is money for the hungry. As Jean Ziegler famously said at the UN: "Every child that starves today is being murdered."
Still, the calculation is obvious nonsense. The average family is larger than four. The soil in Texas is for the most part rather worthless for agriculture. And people have other needs than just food... there are reasons why the rainforests are shrinking at such horrible rates...
Plus, all land that can be made arable has been made arable, and then some -- and I haven't even mentioned desertification and stuff from overuse of formerly arable land.
Re: The Pentagon is being sued ...
Here is a really lovely comment on the subject from Military.com forums:
http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/672198221/m/3750009641001…
"If this kid or any other claim to be atheists how do the make the following statement?
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution
of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true
faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the
United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations
and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
So help me God.
Are they liars? Have they perjured themselves in order to get into the military?
How the hell can they even say the Pledge of Alleigance without lying?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Atheism is confined to one factor: the existence or non-existence of a deity.
Atheism can involve the positive assertion that there is no deity. This is sometimes referred to as "strong Atheism." It is the most common dictionary definition for the term "Atheist."
Atheism can be the absence of a belief that there is a deity. This is the belief promoted by the American Atheists group and many individual Atheists.
Kick em out, give em the boot."
Lovely...
This coming from someone who apparently doesn't support the first amendment.
Using current world population estimates (6,602,274,175 - CIA World Factbook) and an almanac's figure for the size of Texas (695,575 sq km), Sowell's formula yields a result of about 105 sq m per person.
Indeed, a family of four might well be content in a house of 21 by 20 meters; at least, until someone wanted a view from the window that wasn't a look into the neighbors' house, or tried to get a pizza delivered...
"Indeed, a family of four might well be content in a house of 21 by 20 meters"
Maybe the house is multi-storey?
:)
Hall (the atheist soldier) has been receiving death threats from some of his fellow soldiers. They've threatened to 'accidentally' hit him with friendly fire and/or beat him severely.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092107Z.shtml
PZ: You are about the most unpleasant know-it-all I've encountered on the Internet. Who appointed you keeper of all things scientific? As far as I can see, you're an associate professor at a second-rate university in the middle of nowhere who spends his life trashing everything and everyone who doesn't agree with his narrow point of view. Why don't you actually buckle down and do some real science for once? People like you contribute nothing positive to society. You exist merely to tear down the efforts of others. I mean, seriously, is that how you want to be remembered? And why the compulsive need to get everyone to agree with you?
The US photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders can't get his portrait series of invalids shown in US. The problem seems to be that they are US soldiers from the Iraqi war - "Injured soldiers back from Iraq". [Sorry, no english version. But at least you can see some of the portraits, with an online gallery here.]
Apparently the war must be self-censored, yet Greenfield-Sanders seems to be known for a controversial earlier portrait series "XXX: 30 p*o*r*n-star portraits". [Remove *'s.]
Instead Greenfield-Sanders has gotten a swedish art gallery (Wetterling gallery) to show them, and later this year take them to an art exhibition in Miami.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders [roughly]: - I think these portraits show a dignified human nature, even if it is difficult to be dignified in their situation.
But HBO has apparently started to show "Alive day memories - home from Iraq" where these portraits are used. Kudos for them.
And the missing ingress was:
"Excellent, I was looking for a place to put a comment on a current news story here:"
PS. Oh windy and Rey, the rap kings of Pharyngula! Now if only Dembski could get away from fart noises, that pitch is neither accompanable nor accompaniment.
NOTE: If you doubt this is possible, how is it there are PYGMIES + DWARFS???
It is true that there is currently enough food for twice the human population. All that's missing is money for the hungry. As Jean Ziegler famously said at the UN: "Every child that starves today is being murdered."
Still, the calculation is obvious nonsense. The average family is larger than four. The soil in Texas is for the most part rather worthless for agriculture. And people have other needs than just food... there are reasons why the rainforests are shrinking at such horrible rates...
Plus, all land that can be made arable has been made arable, and then some -- and I haven't even mentioned desertification and stuff from overuse of formerly arable land.