religion
oracknows | June 18, 2007In blogging, there are some topics that I know that I really shouldn't bother with; yet, somehow they suck me in. A number of things can cause that. Perhaps it's a topic that just gets under my skin to the point where I can't hold back a commentary, even when I know that it might be wiser to remain quiet, be it because of the flak that my commentary will bring (antivaccination lunacy, HIV denialists, certain forms of quackery) or because of the threat to my sanity if I allow the irritation of them to go unanswered.
I address this topic because of the latter reason.
I've discussed why…
pharyngula | June 17, 2007The fundamentalist nuts in this country leave us goggling aghast at the lunacy they propagate, but man, some of the in-betweeners are almost as creepy—and I get to pick on somewhere other than America! This page on the "noble lie" brings up the Straussian hypocrisy that many confused pro-religion people are supporting in the UK — we have to support faith to keep the masses placid.
Many of those who support religious belief agree with Plato. It is not important that religion is a lie - the important point is that the people believe in it and that this belief maintains social order and moral…
evolvingthoughts | June 15, 2007
After the Flood, the earth is repopulated, and so R and P give us a list of notable ancestors. In 10:4-5 they say "And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." [Taken from here]. This could mean either the coastlines of the nations or, as the NAS has it, the maritime nations spread out into their territories or something similar. No matter what the best translation, it is clear that each one of these sea peoples has their own language.…
pharyngula | June 15, 2007Call it a cheap shot, call it easy laughs…but why is it that it's so easy to find crazy preachers on your TV?
mikethemadbiologist | June 15, 2007Joe Klein was very angry last week at 'uncivil' bloggers, and in a storming fit of something that kinda looks like anger, only wimpier, came up with a list of attributes belonging to "left-wing extremists." I've gone through the list and added my own commentary.
Klein's list:
A left-wing extremist exhibits many, but not necessarily all, of the following attributes:
--believes the United States is a fundamentally negative force in the world.
Nope.
--believes that American imperialism is the primary cause of Islamic radicalism.
I think it is one cause. That's why cluster is in the word…
evolvingthoughts | June 14, 2007
Cardinal-Imam George Pell, who threatened Catholic politicians with excommunication indirectly (and exclusion from the sacraments directly) if they voted in favour of stem cell research being permitted in a new Bill, is liable to being held in contempt of the NSW Parliament, just as his west Australian counterpart, Archbishop-Imam Hickey has been. This appears to be a coordinated campaign by the Catholic Church, as commenters noted similar actions in Scotland and Wales in my first post.
In other news, the Catholic Church is opposing Catholics getting involved in Amnesty International, in…
pharyngula | June 14, 2007Inside Higher Ed is reporting on a new sociological study that shows a greater frequency of rejection of religion by young people who don't attend college. We college professors aren't responsible!
Percent of Young Adults Reporting Religious Declines, by Level of Education
Educational Attainment
Decline in Attending Services
Decline in Importance of Religion
Disaffiliation From Religion
Didn’t attend college
76.2%
23.7%
20.3%
Attended, but earned no degree
71.5%
16.3%
14.6%
Earned associate degree
60.3%
15.1%
14.4%
Earned at least a bachelor’s degree…
mikethemadbiologist | June 14, 2007While this particular program on behalf of a religious organization is not nearly as bad as the government-sanctioned anti-Semitism run out of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives*, it still is yet another example of why government and religion require a strict separation:
While all earmarks are troublesome to critics like Mr. Ellis, who called the Canvasback gift an "utter indictment of earmarks," those made for faith-based groups involve special questions about the constitutional borders between church and state.
The Coast Guard ships were given to Canvasback for a secular…
oracknows | June 12, 2007Many of my fellow SBers have blogged about the Gallup poll showing just how scientifically ignorant Americans, and in particular Republicans, are:
PRINCETON, NJ -- The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain.…
pharyngula | June 11, 2007We've got a new Gallup poll on evolution to agonize over. It's nothing but bad news—we are a nation of uneducated morons. Gary chose to weep over the political correlation: look how membership in the Republican party is tied to ignorance about science.
The clear majority of Republicans are screwed up. And you know, I'm not too happy with the Democrats, either. These results tell us that the population across the board is messed up, confused, lied to, and festering in ignorance—it's just that right now the Republican party is a magnet for the stupid.
What's the cause? Look a little more…
pharyngula | June 11, 2007The Power Team is one of many evangelical circus shows—they specialize in doing energetic school assemblies where they rip telephone books in half and breaking bricks, all with the intent of getting people to attend their tent revival shows where they somehow argue that all the machismo makes them better Christians. In a beautiful example of fighting meat with mind, though, John Foust has an excellent page of information on their evangelical intent that he has successfully used to shut down their shows in public schools. If your local schools start advertising one of these meathead shows,…
evolvingthoughts | June 10, 2007
The Flood is perhaps the most scientifically interesting story in Genesis, and it has, in fact, been discussed by scientists for over 400 years. Now we are taking the text to tell us of a world, not taking the world to tell us what to think of the text, but let's consider what the Flood story might mean for a world in which it occurred.
First the P author gives us a list of genealogy from Adam to Noah. These individuals live very long times - in Methuselah's case almost a thousand years, so obviously the harm caused by the Fall did not take effect immediately. In fact, the collapse of YHWH…
evolvingthoughts | June 10, 2007
In case you are getting all confused about which creationist organisation ot oppose and why, Duae Quartunciae has an excellent roundup of the present AiG/CMI dispute.
evolvingthoughts | June 10, 2007
The world is divided, runs the old joke (which I heard when it wasn't so old), into two kinds: those who divided the world into two kinds, and those who don't. [There's actually an interesting feature of the history of logic here that... never mind. Later.]
We all, or very nearly all, like to divide the world into those who are like-minded to us and those who are not. It is not just a matter of religion, but of sport, music, politics, ethnicity, and tastes in literature. And although we do not express it out loud, we think that we have chosen the best of all these alternatives. Of course…
evolvingthoughts | June 9, 2007
Bertrand Russell, a leading philosopher in his prime, was also a wonderful writer. And, it appears, many of my views were formed when I was but still Young in the Discipline of Philosophy by reading Russell. Here is an essay (stolen from here) from 1953, when I still was not, in which he expresses quite clearly what the differences and implications of being an agnostic are relative to atheists. He steadfastly refuses to call atheists rabid dogs or militant terrorists, however, though he was no milquetoast.
I think, re-reading this after 40 years, that we might suggest that those who think…
grrlscientist | June 9, 2007Every time I hear about a teacher quitting his or her job because a kid dares to read a Harry Potter book, I automatically think this person is a religious wingnut employed somewhere in the United States. So it was surprising to me to learn that this basic scenario occurred recently in south London. I didn't know they had religious wingnuts in Great Britain: the Brits strike me as being so sensible.
The basic story is this; a teaching assistant, Sariya Allen, gave a seven-year-old girl a book that was "too easy" to read, according to the girl's mother. So the girl then chose to read a Harry…
grrlscientist | June 9, 2007tags: evolution, creationism, Gallup Poll
I read the results of the most recent Gallup/USA Today poll of 1007 Americans, asking them about evolution and creationism. Not only was it appalling to see how many supposedly intelligent people indulge themselves by believing in the hocus-pocus of creationism, but further, I was confused by the results from two conflicting questions (below the fold), making me wonder how stupid is the average American?
These conflicting questions and their responses;
Do you think evolution, that is, the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from…
pharyngula | June 9, 2007Those nerds over at Marginal Utility have been analyzing some interesting data — the results of the General Social Survey have been released, and you know those guys. Give them a file full of numbers and they go nuts.
Here's an interesting correlation. They compared general beliefs about scientific issues, in this case on the idea that humans evolved from other animals, with classes of religious belief, from hardcore fundie up to those militant agnostics and wishy-washy nonspecific unbelievers. The results were predictable.
In this graph, the blue bars are good, they mean the respondents in…
clock | June 8, 2007Why didn't I hear about this before? Why is it not in the media? On blogs?
Lindsay reports on the new book "Steeplejacking" that documents how the Religious Right, hand-in-hand with the hawkish conservative Democrats, systematically, over the past couple of decades, performed hostile take-overs of liberal churches. Whenever a pastor/priest/whatever preached peace (and tolerance, equality, need to fight the environmental problems and problems of poverty, etc), the "Institute on Religion and Democracy" would move in and, using various heavy-handed tactics, including lawsuits, remove such…
evolvingthoughts | June 8, 2007
This is the last section I will discuss in detail. It is, of course, the story of Cain and Abel. Cain is a farmer, and Abel is a herdsman. Both of these are agrarian pursuits, in the new agricultural period. But YHWH (just the single name now) seems to value meat more than crops, for when Abel brings him an offering, YHWH treats it with respect (sha'ah, meaning to gaze upon), but not Cain's. Since YHWH is still around chatting to the folk, he is still a physical deity, so I guess he needs his meat. His greens, not so much.
After Cain does the deed of murdering his brother in jealousy (…