religion
evolvingthoughts | October 3, 2007
LOLCats are one of those things you either hate or hate really really a lot. But the idea of translating the entire Bible into LOLCatese? Priceless.
Someone has way too much spare time (and will we see battles fought over the Auterised Bibel translation versus the VulgarCat version? I hope so), but at least they are making us all chuckle.
Note for the translators - sometimes it's Invisible Man, and other times it's Jerry. Make sure you get the usages right.
[Hattip to Jason, who also has too much spare time, obviously]
evolvingthoughts | October 3, 2007
The estimable and overproductive Neil Levy* at CAPPE at my alma mater, has sent me Terry Pratchett's and Stephen Brigg's book/diary Lu-Tse's Yearbook of Enlightenment 2008, with a note "To help you chart your course into unemployment". For which I give much thanks, as it also contains many analects of the Way of Mrs Cosmopilite. Of course, I read the title as "Lu-Tse's Yearbook of Enplightenment", which no doubt says much more about my mental state right now than the universe (assuming there's a difference). For which, Neil, many thanks. I have achieved wisdom.
* Yes, I know, it's being…
neurotopia | October 1, 2007Recently Orac took apart the findings of another acupuncture study. Those who administer acupuncture typically insinuate that a mysterious vital energy known as "chi" travels along meridians in the body, and that normal flow of chi is necessary for good health. Orac pointed out that this recent study effectively disproved the notion of meridians in traditional Chinese medicine.
Similar woo also permeates the martial arts. If one's chi is properly aligned, supposedly the practitioner can make their body do amazing things such as selectively exploding an opponent's internal organs when…
oracknows | October 1, 2007One of the best retorts to the claims of faith healers is the simple question: If faith healing works such miracles, why has there never been a documented case of faith healing regrowing an amputated limb? Now that would be truly miraculous. That would make even a curmudgeonly old skeptic like me sit up an take notice.
Now, a woman named Carole Miller McCleery-Greene is claiming just that; so I had to check it out.
When I came across this Carole's site on a mailing list, I originally filed it away, thinking it would make a good installment of Your Friday Dose of Woo. Then I thought about it.…
evolvingthoughts | September 30, 2007
Thinking some more about PZ's latest comedic act, I think I see what the problem is.
People do not change their beliefs just because someone offends them. They change their beliefs because opponents offend them. If someone is a Muslim, they won't become an Islamist because another Muslim teaches something different, but because that Muslim is a member of an opposing sect. The friend of my enemy is my enemy.
There is not exactly a continuum of ideas between theism and atheism, because there is not a single dimension or variable along which a continuum might be drawn as a spectrum. But…
neurophilosophy | September 30, 2007
Below are a few quotes from this interview with theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, whose new book, A Many-colored Glass, is about to be published.
On science, religion and Richard Dawkins:
I think it's only a small fraction of people who think that [science and religion are at odds]. Perhaps they have louder voices than the others.
I think Richard Dawkins is doing a lot of damage. I disagree very strongly with the way he's going about it. I don't deny his right to be an atheist, but I think he does a great deal of harm when he publicly says that in order to be a scientist, you have to…
mikethemadbiologist | September 30, 2007And some Republicans wonder why most Jews don't vote Republican. Well, conservative talk radio is one answer. Here's what conservative talk radio host Mike Rosen has to say:
Sure. [Caller], you have exceptions like Milton Friedman, for example, a brilliant free-market economist who was more libertarian than conservative and one of my all-time heroes. Milton Friedman certainly understood the big picture, but so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have, I don't think, a good grasp of the big…
razib | September 30, 2007I have to say, this Ian Buruma op-ed, Religion as a force for good, read my mind in relation to the events of the past few days. Another rebellion civil society against an autocracy coalescing around the predominant religion of a society. What's surprising? The Iranian revolution against the Shah, the Christian led protests against the dictatorship of Syngman Rhee (himself a Christian) in South Korea, Buddhist protests against the persecution of the government of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam, the role of liberation theology across Latin America. The list goes on. Of course, religion…
tqa | September 30, 2007
It's hard to believe, but there was once a time when I had some respect - even admiration - for John McCain. Now, all I have is pity. The guy sold his soul to the Christian Right, but they haven't paid up. So what does he do? He tries to get them to take the last pitiful shreds of his intellectual integrity, too. He just did an interview with Beliefnet, and tried his best to make sure that he said all of the things that they wanted to hear. I just hope - more for his sake than anyone else's - that he doesn't actually believe them himself.
Beliefnet questions are in bold; McCain's drivel is…
evolvingthoughts | September 30, 2007
The arch-Enemy of all humanity, PZ Mocals, has posted what he no doubt thinks is a funny skit. I told him good, I did. There's no way we can tolerate this attack of godlessness.
tqa | September 29, 2007
Those tricky Culture Warriors - they've gone and launched the latest assault in the War on Christmas early this year, denying the Evil Secularist Conspiracy the chance to properly prepare for battle. They didn't wait until Thanksgiving this year, or even until Halloween. They're in the stores and fighting now:
tqa | September 29, 2007
A couple of weeks ago, I posted two ridiculous quotes that are found in the Bob Jones textbook that's involved in the California Creationism lawsuit. I'm still wading through these texts and Behe's report explaining why it's really a very good book for high school students to use to learn biology. It's a slow process, and a painful one, but I've found another couple of outstanding quotes to share with you.
This time, I'm including three different types of quote. There are a couple where the authors say things have absolutely nothing to do with science of any kind (and are totally out to…
razib | September 29, 2007
Pew has a new survey out, Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism. The table to the left summarizes the most important points in the survey: Americans dislike Islam somewhat more than Mormonism, and they think Mormonism is a pretty weird religion (and on the whole, barely Christian). And of course atheists are the gold-standard in terms of being disliked. There are a few points which I think are important to keep in mind. First, many Americans have vague understandings of their own religion, asking them about Mormonism or Islam is pretty humorous. What you're gauging here are…
pharyngula | September 28, 2007Andrew Brown is so kind: he calls me one of America's most notorious atheists in an opinion piece on the wretched Archbishop Chimoio. He also makes an interesting game theoretic argument that, in purely pragmatic terms, the Catholic Church in Africa is simply following a winning strategy that maximizes the differential fitness of their group. It's probably true, except that I think a rational secular strategy would work best of all … if anyone were playing that side of the game.
pharyngula | September 27, 2007What a charming representative for Christianity! A Catholic archbishop is claiming that condoms and retroviral drugs have been intentionally spiked with HIV. That's getting down and dirty with best evangelical strategy: lie, smear, and promote evil ignorance.
Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.
"Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries.
"They want to finish with the African people. This is the…
tqa | September 27, 2007
Today's New York Times has a story up on the upcoming Ben Stein "documentary" on the alleged persecution that ID proponents face in the academic world. The NYT article quotes a number of scientists who were interviewed for the movie (including Scienceblogs own PZ Myers) as saying that they were told that the interview was going to be for an entirely different movie.
Bill Dembski posted something about the article, with a brief comment of his own:
I can't say I feel sorry for these atheistic scientists in agreeing to interview for EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED. When the BBC…
razib | September 26, 2007Regular readers know that I often check in on the results from The Barna Group, an evangelical Christian polling outfit. On the one hand I think The Barna Group tends to be a bit alarmist (they have a very narrow definition for a "Biblically based Christian," e.g., Catholics don't count), but on the other hand you can be sure that they aren't going to be pushing atheist wishful thinking. So I was really interested when I saw that a new study had come out, A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity. In short, the authors find that a growing number of young…
tqa | September 25, 2007
Most of the readers of this blog are intelligent, interested, scientifically literate individuals, but I'm guessing that at least a few of you aren't familiar with one of the nouns in the title. Those of you who do know what a conodont is are probably wondering what it has to do with the others. If you bear with me for a little bit, the connection will be clear shortly. It has to do with fossils, fossilization, and the latest spectacular misunderstanding of those two things at Uncommon Descent.
Conodonts are (or, rather, were) an interesting group of animals. They were around from late in…
pharyngula | September 24, 2007The Atheist Alliance convention is coming up this weekend in Washington DC, and one of the things that they're planning to discuss is a generic atheist symbol. Among others, they want to consider the Affinity symbol that was proposed in this thread, oh so long ago (by the way: Godfrey Temple, email me so I can put you in touch with someone). Here's an unfortunate twist, though:
Ironic note on the poster of Atheist Symbols for the Atheist Alliance International convention: I went to have it made today, at a local shop which specializes in posters, worked happily with the designer -- and then…
oracknows | September 24, 2007While wandering through the medical center last week, I came across a rather unusual vending machine, one quite unlike any that I had ever seen before. It definitely hadn't been there the week before, but there it was now, around the corner from the hospital cafeteria:
Perfect if you're on call and feel the need for a potato knish at 3 AM.
I am, however, amused by the "24/6" label on the machine. Doesn't it work on the Sabbath?