religion
gregladen | May 20, 2009I really have nothing against homeschooling, but it must be admitted that among the homeschoolers, there is a disproportionate share of crazy people that should not be allowed near children. And, the way homeschooling operates politically, the children of homeschooling families are less likely to be rescued from their abusing parents (when there are abusing parents) than other kids. That is a simple fact, and all the homeschoolers who are not abusing their own children but who maintain that society must simply turn away are part of the problem, not the solution.
In this context it is not…
pharyngula | May 20, 2009Colleen Hauser has flown the coop. She has defied a court order to bring her sick son, Daniel Hauser, to a qualified doctor for essential medical care. The boy has Hodgkins lymphoma, a disease with a very good prognosis if treated soon, but is a painful death sentence within a few years if neglected. His mother, though, is fervently religious, and no doubt smug in her righteousness, has bundled her son into a car and is devoutly driving to Mt. Moriah. I hope she's not expecting an angel of the lord to appear and spare her son.
What she has done has gone even deeper. Daniel is 13 years old; he…
gregladen | May 20, 2009I used to smoke. And I would roll my own. Bible pages work great for that. So, I'm kinda glad Glddeon has been leaving these bibles around everywhere.
But I don't want them to think it is a good idea. So please visit PZ and learn about the latest poll. For you. To crash.
grrlscientist | May 20, 2009tags: religion, morality, godlessness, atheism, occam's razor, aesop's fables, streaming video
This video is an interesting testament to why one man is an atheist, and what forms the root of human morals. My opinion? Let's just say that I prefer Aesop's fables to the bible [7:06]
Most christians know less about morality than Stephen Hawking knows about ballroom dancing!
tqa | May 18, 2009
Yesterday, the LA Times ran an opinion piece that is nothing short of appalling. The column in question was titled, "Atheists: No God, no reason, just whining". Sadly, that remarkable headline does appear to very accurately reflect the content of the column. The LA Times apparently decided, for reasons passing understanding, that it was a good idea to give Charlotte Allen the opportunity to present a ~1300-word long explanation of why she doesn't like "atheists."
Just so we're clear, that's how she presented herself - not as someone who doesn't like some, many, or most atheists, or someone…
grrlscientist | May 18, 2009tags: religion, creationism, bananas, pineapples, masturbation, streaming video
This informative video discusses the banana and why it is a creationist's nightmare. Conclusion: gawd wishes humans to masturbate, so get beating, everybody! [10:16]
evolvingthoughts | May 17, 2009The custom of making abstract dogmatic assertions is not, certainly, derived from the teaching of Jesus, but has been a widespread weakness among religious teachers in subsequent centuries. I do not think that the word for the Christian virtue of faith should be prostituted to mean the credulous acceptance of all such piously intended assertions. Much self-deception in the young believer is needed to convince himself that he knows that of which in reality he knows himself to be ignorant. That surely is hypocrisy, against which we have been most conspicuously warned. [Ronald Aylmer Fisher, BBC…
nisbetmc | May 17, 2009Angels & Demons opened this weekend with a less than expected $48 million just edging out the still hot Star Trek ($43M, $150M over two weeks). I took in the film at a 3/4 filled theater in Georgetown.
Angels is worth seeing and a better film version than Davinci Code. The film is also likely to spark conversations among movie-goers on the relationship between science and religion, a theme that is heavy throughout the film and the novel.
Without spoiling the plot, Angels features a Pope inspired by science and who views research on the so-called "God Particle" as a means for engaging the…
grrlscientist | May 17, 2009tags: religion, fundamentalist nonsense, poison, humor, satire, comedy, streaming video
In this video, we are reminded about Mark 16:17-18, which tells us that drinking poison will do no harm to those who believe in god. Edward Current celebrates this amazing gift from our loving Father by drinking a bottle of cyanide that is so potent that it can kill an adult atheist in less than ten seconds [3:50]
pharyngula | May 17, 2009President George W. Bush was a god-fearing child given control of our military apparatus…or perhaps he was a child manipulated by a military that found religion a convenient hook. Frank Rich describes the internal propaganda used during the war. What I find shocking is that Bush received regular intelligence briefings with covers that invoked a combination of G.I. Joe war imagery and militaristic bible verses.
Take the one dated April 3, 2003, two weeks into the invasion, just as Shock and Awe hit its first potholes. Two days earlier, on April 1, a panicky Pentagon had begun spreading its…
evolvingthoughts | May 16, 2009This is to note that u n d e r v e r s e, the blog that uses nineteenth century German emphatic spacing, has been added to my blogroll (I hope - I'm not good that these customisation things), wherein you can read deep, intelligent and Chamberlainist musings by Chris Schoen. Highly recommended.
razib | May 16, 2009Does secularization of the USA spell social meltdown?:
That's certainly what two European sociologists, Loek Halman and Thorleif Pettersson, have concluded. Using data from the European Values Survey, they found that there was no relationship between how religious a country was (on average) and a rich it was in social capital.
For example, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have similar levels of social capital, although Slovakia is far more religious than the Czech Republic. Some of the countries with the most social capital, Sweden and Denmark, were also the least religious.
In fact, in…
oracknows | May 16, 2009Over the last week, I've written about the case of a 13-year-old chemotherapy refusenik named Daniel Hauser, who lives in Minnesota. After having been diagnosed with a highly curable form of cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, back in February and having undergone one cycle of chemotherapy that apparently made him very sick, he refused further chemotherapy and his mother actually went to court to justify this decision. As part of their justification, they tried to use freedom of religion based on Daniel's supposedly being a "medicine man" in a cult of faux Native American wannabes called Nemenhah,…
pharyngula | May 15, 2009The persecution complex runs deep. Here's another another example of laughable letter to the editor, complaining about a story that referred to "wafers and wine":
…the Roman Catholic Church doesn't now, nor has it ever offered a wafer and wine as Communion. We do offer the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which in John's gospel he proclaims to be our source of life in Him. To refer to the Eucharist as a wafer and wine is to demean the value of this sacrament, seemingly equating it to an evening snack.
I suggest that Mr. Kush apologize for his lack of respect to Bishop Reilly and the faith of…
nisbetmc | May 15, 2009
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Blockbuster movies, The Daily Show: As I discuss in forthcoming articles, these are the new tools for "going broad" and motivating interest among mass audiences on issues related to science and society. Watch Tom Hanks above have fun and talk some of the implications of Angels and Demons. You can fret over the accuracy of Hanks' banter when it comes to anti-matter, but some portion of the Daily Show audience and the audience for the…
nisbetmc | May 15, 2009
Not only will Angels & Demons likely jump start conversations about physics, as some scientists hope, but the summer blockbuster will also be a launching pad for audiences to drive home discussing the relationship between science and religion.
I'm heading up to Georgetown tonight to check out the film and will have more to report on this angle. But for now, check out this short trailer put together by the Angels & Demon's publicity team addressing the science and religion theme in the film.
pharyngula | May 14, 2009I've been waiting for this for a long time. James Dobson gives up.
I want to tell you up front that we're not going to ask you to do anything, to make a phone call or to write a letter or anything.
There is nothing you can do at this time about what is taking place because there is simply no limit to what the left can do at this time. Anything they want, they get and so we can't stop them.
We tried with [Health and Human Services Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius and sent thousands of phone calls and emails to the Senate and they didn't pay any attention to it because they don't have to. And…
pharyngula | May 14, 2009In a bizarre conversation, Murphy-O'Connor demonstrates a Catholic version of open-mindedness: human beings must have a sense of the transcendent, and must search for god. And those atheists? "Not fully human".
It's not that unusual a sentiment, and I've heard it often. Usually it's not said as directly; most often, the phrase is that "religion is a human universal," or some such nonsense. It's not often announced that I don't qualify as a member of their species.
There is a temptation to agree with them, I'm afraid: the idea that I'm a post-human mutant bestowed with the super-powers of…
jrosenhouse | May 13, 2009Writing in Slate, Marc Oppenheimer has a thoughtful piece about bringing his young daughter to synagogue:
I don't kid myself that Rebekah has some unusual, precocious spirituality. She loves ritual, as all children love ritual. Nothing, except milk and maybe Graham crackers, is more comforting to a toddler than a fun routine enjoyed at predictable intervals. Little boys and girls love the sense of mastery that comes with repetition. They're so proud to finish our sentences as we read them a book for the 50th or one 100th time (“old lady who was whispering...” “hush!”). If we skip bath time,…