June 8 Link Round-Up

Oldest (yet) primate fossil found in China.  It's as small as a mouse and was probably cute as a button.   Who's my widdle primate fossil?  *tickle tickle*

Frank Lautenberg's legacy includes legislation that enabled Jewish immigration from Russia.

How the human face may look in 100,000 years.  I think they grossly underestimate the time to sense-enhancing implants and grossly overestimate the changes to our eyes, but you can't get into Forbes by keeping the eyes the same!

Essay confirms (my) theory that evangelicals are more interested in the psychological effect of their love-bombing religion than in the theological tenets. 

Piers Morgan interviews schizoid game-playing parent-killer, Joshua Cooke, who credits God with whatever sanity he currently possesses.  (Link is to the part about video games, but by the time you see this there may be a link to the whole interview)

Baptists still divided over predestination.  The Southern Baptist Convention issued a statement because seminaries are turning out hard-line Calivinists who are out of step with the majority.  Hey, if they can't agree within their own denomination, why do they think they should take over the government?  Meanwhile, their numbers are falling.

The FBI will follow hate crimes against more religions, including Hindus and Sikhs.  Atheists were already on the list!

Hick town south of Dayton, Ohio considers creationism in the schools.  The Tea Party approves of the creationism idea.  Big surprise!

Methodist pastors have doubts about creationism.

Video of the Week:  Dan Dennett "You Might be an Atheist if..."




Second Video of the Week: Cenk Uygur (The Young Turks) interviews Todd Stiefel:   "Is Religion a Drug?"

This Breaks my Heart

There are so many horrible things in the news every day.  I can't say that I understand murder, rape, suicide bombing, genocide, "honor" killings, etc. but at least most of these crimes have a motive, albeit a sick one.

Throughout history there have been religiously or personally inspired crimes and brutalities, and I have some sympathy for people who want to blame these things on "the devil" or the "sinful nature" of humans.  I don't agree, but I sympathize with the desire to explain away the inexplicable.

My Facebook buddies and I are animal lovers, so I have seen many instances of neglect but this one just really got to me.  "George the Friendly Duck" of the San Antonio River Walk was killed by two young men who had no more regard for him than for a gnat.  They seemed to have specifically gone after him because he was friendly to restaurant customers and well loved by the locals.

I do believe that there are "evil" acts and "evil" people, but I don't believe it's supernatural.  I hope someone tracks down these two guys and gets an explanation, however demented, out of them.

Thousands of people loved and fed "George," and two people killed him.  I still believe in humanity, but I am mystified what goes on in the minds of outliers like these two.

R.I.P. "George"

June 1 Link Roundup

How did the turtle get its shell?  I had no idea the subject was divisive amongst biologists but I love how this story unfolds.  Scientists took a new look at old evidence based on the discovery of new evidence.  This story would be a great example to tell people who believe that scientists are "dogmatic."

And the dark side of evolution: collapse of ecosystems.  In Brazil, deforestation has reduced the number of birds, which has reduced the size of seeds, which could cause the rest of the forest to fail to thrive.

New book, Bible Bullies, looks at the bullies and their un-Christian policies, from the perspective of liberal / mainstream Christianity.

Stats on religion of immigrants to the U.S.  14% nones

The local paper publishes an ignorant rant about the local creationist professor.  I hope this is the bottom of the barrel.  If there are people here that are more ignorant than this guy they probably can't put pen to paper.

Picture of the week:  Weather Channel Storm Chaser vehicle, which got too close to a big one, got picked up then dropped and rolled several times.  No fatalities but I suspect all the passengers needed a change of underpants:

Video of the Week: Lip-Synch to Tom Lehrer's "New Math"
Who says Math Club kids are geeks? This guy rocks

Jessica Ahlquist Interview

The brave teen has won a First Amendment Award at the Playboy mansion, and she was interviewed for the web afterward:

Reading the Children's Bible While Drunk

And now for something completely different, reading about the spritis after imbibing of the spirits. He's not as funny as he wants to be, but then again he's drunk and consider the material.

Atheist Bible Study: Jesus Gives Up The Ghost & Is Buried by Joe Dixon


The Resurrection, Part I:

May 25 Link Round-up

St. Denis face-palming the hard way

In France, a right-wing nutjob commits suicide in Notre Dame to protest gay marriage.  Really.  You can't make this shit up.   The best part: he put the barrel of a gun into his mouth.  Was that a message or a Freudian slip?

Wolf Blitzer tries to get a godly soundbite out of a young mother who survived the May 20 tornado, and it turns out she's an atheist.  Whoops!  (Don't try to find this on CNN's site.  Somehow they didn't archive it)

Ricky Gervais tells twits people on Twitter to do something instead of praying for tornado victims.  Twitstorm ensues.

An introverted mathematician achieves superstar status (in that field) for solving ages-old problem.  He credits perseverence.  God gets no credit.

Faith-healing-killing couple accused of third degree murder for the death of a second child.  Their pastor blames them... for a "spiritual lack."

Indy 500 Week includes prayer and Catholic masses.  If you want to drive in circles at 200 mph you're fucking insane to begin with.  Why would God protect you?  Check your tires instead, dumbasses!

Google in the Galapagos!  Cool!

Cornell study of WW2  veterans finds they are more religious if they experienced heavier combat.   Is this lovely quote a swipe against atheists or the internet?  "They don’t see themselves as an isolated person surfing on the Internet"

Home-schooled kid kills two siblings.  Besides the anti-science indoctrination, I disagree with homeschooling because it gives the parents double the time to fuck up their kids psychologically.

Seth Andrews, The Thinking Atheist, has been disappeared from the history of the Christian radio station where he used to work.

ACLU warns Ohio school system to drop plans to add creationism to their curriculum.

14-year-old kid with an IQ higher than Einstein, giving a TED Talk for Teens.

Evolution in action: cockroach variety losing its sweet tooth.   The best news in the article: there is a species of cockroaches that lives in ant nests.  That gives me some Schadenfreude.

Video of the Week: How to Spot a Liar
(posted for anyone tempted to watch a video of William Lane Craig)

The Local Paper on the Ball State ID Course

BSU prof accused of preaching Christianity

MUNCIE — Ball State University is investigating a complaint that one of its assistant professors in the department of physics and astronomy is preaching rather than teaching.The Freedom From Religion Foundation, whose mission is to act as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the principle of separation of state and church, filed an objection to Eric Hedin’s teaching.

...But Provost Terry King, a chemical engineer and the university’s chief academic officer, said, “Faculty own the curriculum. In large part, it’s a faculty matter. But we have to ensure that our teaching is appropriate. All I have so far is a complaint from an outside person. We have not had any internal complaints. But we do take this very seriously and will look into it.”

I hope they really mean that!  They interviewed Jerry Coyne, who first brought this to light:

It appears Hedin “presents a non-view of science in a science class,” said Coyne, author of the book “Why Evolution is True.” “The students are being duped. It’s straight theology with no alternatives. It’s a straight Christian intelligent design/creationist view of the world, which is wrong. It’s not science. It’s not that it’s not science, it’s science that has been discredited. It’s like saying the Holocaust didn’t happen.”

If you've been following this story from Coyne's blog, you already know that the syllabus from a comparable course by Hedin is online and that the chair of the department acknowledged the Honors course syllabus that Coyne forwarded to him.  Nobody's making this stuff up. Hedin is teaching non-science.