religion
jrosenhouse | January 5, 2010Of course, the focus of that last post was a development in New York City, which is considerably more civilized than most of the country. In rural Mississippi things do not seem quite so cozy. This is from a reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog:
If you travel down any road, you will see churches popping up everywhere. I've lived here my entire life, and it used to be that each community had one church, usually Baptist, with a place name. Now they have names like Bread of Life, The Living Water, and By Faith; single-word names like Cornerstone, Compass, and Centricity.
They pop up in the…
jrosenhouse | January 5, 2010Here's an encouraging story:
Ken Bronstein was excited to notify us of a great coup: six members of his organization, the New York City Atheists, attended Mayor Bloomberg's annual Interfaith Breakfast this weekend. It's believed to be the first time nonbelievers have been invited, as nonbelievers, to the event.
We asked Bronstein why atheists would even want to attend an Interfaith Breakfast, seeing as they don't, in point of fact, have faith.
“Oh, we have faith,” Bronstein told us. “Just not in God.”
A spokesman from the Mayor's office confirmed that the Mayor had invited the guests as…
catdynamics | January 4, 2010The annual AAS meeting opened up with the award of the van Biesbroeck Prize of the society to Father Dr George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory.
The van Biesbroeck Prize is for extraordinary service to astronomy, in particular his role organizing the Vatican Observatory Summer Schools, and the role he has played at the juncture of science and religion.
A topic that occasionally stirs sciencebloggers, and their readers, from torpor.
Dr Coyne gave a brief and gracious speech, but touched on what I thought was a bit of a strawman: he appealed, and I paraphrase, for people to…
pharyngula | January 4, 2010I tend to think that most religious people are not interested in flying planes into buildings or making themselves a belt out of dynamite, but that doesn't excuse them: they still make irrational decisions with evil consequences, they are simply a bit more remote and indirect. The same people who would be horrified at the idea of personally lynching someone for blasphemy have no problem with praying that someone else will do the job for them, as we all saw in the reaction to that little cracker incident last year. One of the most revolting examples of this principle at work is the recent…
pharyngula | January 3, 2010I told you yesterday that it was amazing that a religious crank could serve an adoring audience with 55 radio stations, all pumping out Grade A Prime lunacy. It was a bit depressing that all an old fool needs to do is babble about God and the Bible and people will throw money at him.
But then I'd also pointed out that another phony, Rick Warren, had suffered a major financial shortfall of almost a million dollars, and was begging for more donations. That makes you feel a little better, right? Stupidity is not a smooth road to riches, at least.
Despair some more, people. Warren put out his…
grrlscientist | January 3, 2010tags: bible, religion, comedy, humor, fucking hilarious, Ricky Gervais, streaming video
This funny video is from atheist comedian Ricky Gervais's live stand-up show, Fame. In this clip, he discusses the Bible and religion.
grrlscientist | January 2, 2010tags: Religion Has Had Its Day, religion, comedy, humor, fucking hilarious, Argumental, Marcus Brigstocke, Rory McGrath, streaming video
This amusing video is from the television show, Argumental. In this third season episode, Marcus Brigstocke argues FOR while Rory McGrath argues AGAINST the topic, "Religion Has Had Its Day."
pharyngula | January 2, 2010Oh, yeah, but they screwed up. Probably the best known of the inflammatory anti-Islam Danish cartoons was the work of Kurt Westergaard, who drew the prophet Mohammed with a bomb for a turban. It was a very misleading portrayal of a Muslim, which was demonstrated lately when a Somali fanatic tried to break into his home and kill him while yelling "revenge!" and "blood!" …with a knife and an axe, not a bomb!
I'm sure Westergaard will be publishing an apology and retraction now. Or maybe he'll just have to admit his error and redraw Mohammed with more personal nasty weapons of death and…
terrasig | January 1, 2010Steve Silberman and Rebecca Skloot just pointed out to me an editorial from science writer Chris Mooney that has appeared online and will be in the Sunday, January 3rd edition of The Washington Post.
In the essay, "On issues like global warming and evolution, scientists need to speak up," Mooney continues his longstanding call to scientists to take ownership in combating scientific misinformation, invoking the very weak response of the scientific community to the aftermath of e-mails and documents hacked from the Climatic Research Institute at the University of East Anglia.
The central lesson…
grrlscientist | January 1, 2010tags: Right Wing Calls For More Profiling Of Muslims, terrorism, politics, public policy, religion, crackpots, streaming video
After you watch this video, you too, will fear for the future of America. It's simply amazing what passes for logic among the right-wing religious crackpots. In fact, the evidence suggests that religion -- any religion -- causes brain damage. Don't believe me? Watch this video!
"Nobody still hasn't [sic] refuted the fact that 100% of Islamic terrorists are Muslim."
pharyngula | December 31, 2009Rick Warren's Saddleback Church is bleeding money. He just sent out a letter begging for almost a million dollars from his followers.
With 10% of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated. Still, with wise management, we've stayed close to our budget all year. Then... this last weekend the bottom dropped out.
On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive - leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year, unless you help make up the difference…
jrosenhouse | December 30, 2009My post about science/religion disputes has prompted responses from my SciBlings Bora Zivkovic and Mike Dunford (here and here respectively. Since they are among my favorite bloggers, it pains me to have to disagree with them. Alas, disagree I must.
I will begin with Bora, since I fear he has misunderstood my central point. The starting point of my post was my disagreement with this statement from Thomas Dixon:
Historians have shown that the Galileo affair, remembered by some as a clash between science and religion, was primarily about the enduring political question of who was authorized…
clock | December 29, 2009In a recent post, my SciBling Jason Rosenhouse with whom I usually agree on these matters, voices a strong disagreement with this quote (from Thomas Dixon's book Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction, published by Oxford University Press in 2008):
Historians have shown that the Galileo affair, remembered by some as a clash between science and religion, was primarily about the enduring political question of who was authorized to produce and disseminate knowledge.
Jason counters that Galileo affair, as well as the more modern Creationist wars, are primarily and perhaps entirely…
pharyngula | December 29, 2009The Jews have been waiting for a messiah for a few thousand years. What's the hold-up? It seems that abortions have been causing a "delay [of] the messianic redemption". This sounds like a fine idea to me — thank you, ladies, for your efforts to scare away the boogeyman.
jrosenhouse | December 28, 2009Does anything strike you as odd about the following sentence:
Historians have shown that the Galileo affair, remembered by some as a clash between science and religion, was primarily about the enduring political question of who was authorized to produce and disseminate knowledge.
It comes from Thomas Dixon's book Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction, published by Oxford University Press in 2008.
Afficionados of science/religion disputes will recognize in this a standard gambit of the genre. Specifically, the attempt to recast situations that are obviously conflicts between…
laelaps | December 28, 2009"Yeah, well like they say, it takes as much faith to believe in science as religion."
I had just been suckerpunched. After spending the last several minutes explaining evolution and its relevance to the history of our species I was hit between the eyes with that old one-liner. Even worse, there was no time to respond. Given that I was a guest in an evangelical home on Christmas and dinner had just been set I simply replied "I don't think that's true at all."
Asserting that science is just as much a religion as Christianity must be one of those things that Christians like. It is a comment…
pharyngula | December 27, 2009True, heartwarming tales from the Bible, sure to gladden the hearts of children everywhere:
oracknows | December 27, 2009Seen in a parking lot while shopping about three weeks ago:
I sense a disconnect between the two messages contained on the back of a very large SUV...
grrlscientist | December 26, 2009tags: What Would Jesus Buy? - Beat The Devil, religion, parody, satire, funny, humor, streaming video
This video is by producer Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and director Rob VanAlkemade. "What Would Jesus Buy?" examines the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America's mass consumerism…