religion
oracknows | June 3, 2011It's been a rough week. No, it hasn't been rough here on the blog; personally I think I've managed to serve up heaping' helpings of the usual expected Insolence--and then some--if I do say so myself. Rather, it's been a bit rough at the old job. Ah, well, it can't all be sweetness and light. Fortunately, there's always some woo to lighten the mood. In this case, it came from, of all places, P.Z. Myers, who took a break from writing about biology, cephalopods, and atheism and led me to some quackery I hadn't seen before. Well, not exactly. It's definitely quackery that I've seen before many,…
jrosenhouse | June 2, 2011That's the title of a new paper from Elaine Ecklund and Elizabeth Long, published in the academic journal Sociology of Religion. I'm playing catch-up here, since other bloggers have already discussed this paper, but why should they have all the fun?
But first, a story. Many years ago, when I was home from college over a summer break, I was sitting in Palmer Square in Princeton, NJ. I was enjoying my lunch from Hoagie Haven, which my Princeton-based readers will tell you is the finest sandwich shop on the planet. On the table in front of me was a chess magazine and an ice-cold bottle of…
jrosenhouse | May 31, 2011Truly there is no end to the vapid inanity the HuffPo Religion section will post. Our latest example comes from David Lose, in an essay titled, “Has Atheism Become a Religion?” Want to take bets on whether the answer is “No”?
I don't recall who first said it, but it has been wisely noted that if atheism is a religion then not collecting stamps is a hobby. That ought to be the end of things, but Lose encourages us not to dismiss the question out of hand. He then presents four lines of evidence. Let's have a look.
1) As recently reported in the New York Times, military personnel who…
pharyngula | May 31, 2011John Loftus criticizes the Courtier's Reply. How dare he? I thought it was Holy Atheist Writ by now.
But the Courtier's Reply as an answer for theology needs to be discussed critically. First off, I do not expect anyone to understand any particular theology in order to reject it. We all do this easily. I doubt very much anyone understands all of the religions they reject. I don't. No one does. We reject them all for the same reasons, because they have not met their own burden of proof. So I agree very much that neither PZ Myers nor Richard Dawkins needs to fully understand the various forms…
pharyngula | May 30, 2011It's as if the media is finally getting it right and timing the news to match the World Atheist Convention in Dublin with stories that show why we must oppose religion. The New York Times tells the story of the Magdalene laundries, in which 30,000 women were used as slave labor (and victims of abuse) to profit the Catholic church. Representatives of the victims are going before the UN to request justice, or at least some sort of rebuke of the church. Somehow, I doubt that they'll get it — there are a lot of factions squabbling in the UN, and many of them defend religion and care little for…
pharyngula | May 27, 2011It's amazing what religion can do. In this case, it motivated some dim old fart who ought to have been loafing about watching Glenn Beck and drowning his anger with a six-pack of Bud to go out and try to murder gynecologists. He didn't actually succeed, fortunately: he was playing with his gun in his cheap room at the Motel 6 when it went off and sent a bullet flying into the room next door…so bad-ass that he is, he called up the front desk to mention that he was worried he might have hit someone else.
Then the police came and found out what he was really up to. He didn't want to accidentally…
pharyngula | May 27, 2011It's a big image, so I put it below the fold, but it's worth it. Click through to see my point illustrated.
pharyngula | May 26, 2011Father Riccardo Seppia is a priest under one of the advisors Pope Ratzi appointed to oversee church reforms in the wake of the pedophilia scandals.
You know exactly where this is going, don't you?
Investigators examining tapped cellphone conversations between a Moroccan drug dealer and 51-year-old Father Riccardo Seppia found evidence of arranged sexual encounters with young boys, some of whom were paid for sex with cocaine.
"I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger," Seppia is accused of having said on the tapes. "Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues."
pharyngula | May 25, 2011Last week, the news was full of stories about this report that supposedly explained the Catholic church's history of pedophilia: the major surprising conclusion that was reported is that the problem wasn't gay priests, it was all those dirty rotten hippies who were miseducated in the free-love Sixties. Until now I've seen one substantial 'analysis' of the report, but unfortunately, it was by Crazy Bill Donohue, who is frothingly angry that it didn't blame the homosexuals. He also blames the hippies, but it's all the fault of all those gay hippies who infiltrated the church, with their weird…
gregladen | May 24, 2011It didn't really occur to me that anyone actually believed that the world was going to end the other day. Honestly. I had assumed that some crazy preacher made the claim, that it was being used to scam the gullible here and there, but that almost no one was really taking it seriously. But, in reading a few of the post-Rapture updates, this is clearly not the case. And, I'm sure that this is one of those things everybody else knew and that I was blissfully ignorant of.
Almost a hundred years ago, some guy named Miller came up with the idea that the world would end in 1843 or so. I…
mikethemadbiologist | May 24, 2011When I return from the ASM2011 meeting, I hope to discuss this excellent post by Michael Bérubé about the political centrality of the culture wars. Until then, I'll leave you with the post from the archives, "Abortion Is a Blessing":
Abortion isn't the lesser of two evils--it is a just and good thing. So says Reverend Katherine Ragsdale:
Let's be very clear about this: when a woman finds herself pregnant due to violence and chooses an abortion, it is the violence that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing.
When a woman finds that the fetus she is carrying has anomalies incompatible…
pharyngula | May 24, 2011The world didn't end last Saturday (obviously), but Harold Camping and his predictions are just a smokescreen, and everyone is missing the heart of the problem.
Camping has now spoken. He now claims that Jesus did arrive 'spiritually' on the 21st, and that in his generous mercy, God has decided to spare us the 153 days of the tribulation, but that the world will still be ending on 21 October. This is no surprise. This is exactly what these crackpot prophets do: they're never right, but they are great at rationalizing.
His followers are busy readjusting. Here's a radio interview with one bible…
gregladen | May 22, 2011It's all just a matter of calibration. Let me 'splain.
One day I was driving along a suburban street with the sun low on the horizon and the windows covered in rain drops from a sudden sun-shower moments earlier, insufficiently caffeinated and distracted by something. That's when I saw a large black dog transmogrify into a lawn mower. No, seriously, I really did see this. It reminded me of the time I saw a giant UFO over Boston Harbor (details here: The Night I Was Almost Abducted by Aliens in Boston).
What happened with the dog was this: The distraction was a set of children and other…
pharyngula | May 21, 2011We all knew this was going to happen. The Bastrop High School graduation ceremony began with a prayer.
Do I have to say it again? That's what the moment of prayer is for. If you feel the need to give "glory to your lord", go for it, do it then. But telling everyone else to give glory to your lord is grandstanding and drafting unwilling people to promote your freakish cult.
I know, I shouldn't bother. They're Christian. Telling them again is pointless—mindless evangelism is part of their culture.
oracknows | May 20, 2011I'm a dog lover. I love dogs as pets and can't imagine my life without having a dog as a pet. When our dog Echo died unexpectedly of a particularly nasty form of cancer at 8 years of age, I was devastated. Our current dog is a great dog, and quite the character.
But what would I do if I were one of those fundamentalist Christians who apparently believe that we are at most 26 hours from the Rapture? (Or maybe not. No one said what time zone is the time zone that determines when the Rapture occurs.) I'd be whiffed straight up to heaven, but what about my dog? He'd be left to fend for himself!…
pharyngula | May 19, 2011Bastrop High School promised to obey the law against school-led prayer at official events, although they were also petty and mean about it, and have been making life hellish for the young man who complained. Now here's the surprise (not): in an official function called Senior Night, they announced a moment of silence…and then said a Christian prayer anyway, to the cheers of the Christian majority. Never mind that it was illegal, never mind that they broke their agreement; religious sanctimony trumps all.
And we have video.
I suspect that at the official graduation ceremony tomorrow, they'll…
pharyngula | May 19, 2011Tomorrow is Draw Mohammed Day. Have you created your artwork?
Watch this video:
Then see the instructions, upload your drawing to the group flickr page, and watch the slide show.
pharyngula | May 19, 2011The Dallas News has drawn in a group of theologians to discuss the thesis that science is responsible for literalist religion. At least they aren't blaming atheism for creationism this time!
British theologian and Anglican cleric Keith Ward contends that the growing role of science in the world, where countries depend upon scientists and inventors to drive their economies, has led to a growing literalism.
Or so reports Michelle Boorstein on the Washington Post's On Faith blog. Writes Boorstein;
"Keith Ward, a British philosopher who was for years the canon of Oxford's cathedral, argued…
pharyngula | May 19, 2011File this under "religion unites people". Sure it does. It unites them to harrass unbelievers. Damon Fowler of Bastrop, Louisiana asked his school to obey the law and not impose sectarian prayer on his high school graduation, and for that he's being ostracized.
My graduation from high school is this Friday. I live in the Bible Belt of the United States. The school was going to perform a prayer at graduation, but due to me sending the superintendent an email stating it was against Louisiana state law and that I would be forced to contact the ACLU if they ignored me, they ceased it. The school…
pharyngula | May 18, 2011I hope Australians are getting good and mad. They've been exploited into supporting this dishonest chaplaincy program in their public schools, and recently Evonne Paddison, one of the cult members pushing for more chaplains, was caught openly, even proudly, admitting that it was a program intended for Christian evangelism. Now the local priesthood is desperately trying to cover their tracks, including Paddison herself, who has lately been waving her hands frantically and claiming she isn't advocating christian proselytization in the public schools.
Unfortunately for her, she's on tape. This…