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.

Hallelujah! A Bible survived a tornado!

http://kfor.com/2013/05/20/lost-bible-discovered-in-tornado-debris-returned/

SHAWNEE, Okla. — The buzz of chain saws is a welcome symphony in Pottawatomie County Monday, the day after a deadly tornado ripped through Shawnee. Lance Carter weathered the storm in his neighbors basement.  When he emerged, his home and five acre property of 17 years were almost unrecognizable.
...
Ross stumbled across that same family Bible; it was still open to the very same page, Isiah chapter 32 which reads, ”A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest.”
...
Alexander and Spurlin rode out the storm a mile away.  Their Bible, it turns out, didn’t go quite that far.  The Bible only made it about 100 feet from home.  The Word, is now back with its weary owners, thanks to the kindness of two strangers.

 I suppose if someone finds a copy of Green Eggs and Ham they would just throw it into the trash, which is a shame.  It has a much better message.

May 18 Links

Try this quiz:  Professor or Hobo?

Atheist literature will now be placed alongside Gideon bibles in Georgia state park campsites.  I wonder how many other states have permitted bibles in their lodges.

Great atheist letter in response to a letter blaming atheists for "moral decay."  This is from the border between Indiana and Kentucky - one of the hickest places in the country.  It's refreshing to know that a person can be born there and still be able to think.

Hidden concentration camp drawings on display in Berlin.  Holocaust deniers will probably have something to say but at least Germans can see what great art they denied the world by killing so many artists.

Irish Quaker woman declared a "righteous gentile" posthumously.  I'm not surprised a Quaker could be a righteous gentile, but I'm surprised one could come from Ireland!

There's a new book on my reading list:  Bible Bullies.  Before I read it though, I think I'll check my blood pressure.

Meanwhile, Rand Paul, named for one of the most famous atheists in history, is courting fundamentalist Christians.

Muslims to Tea Party: Welcome to Our World.  Is turnabout fair play?

Blasphemy charges against a Christian teacher in Egypt should remind Christians of why it's a good thing that the U.S. is not a Christian nation.

...edtied to add:  Herbal medicine doctor convicted of fraud.   Not really a religion, but people who have fallen for herbal/holistic/naturalistic claims cling to them despite all evidence to the contrary, so they are no better than fundies in my opinion.

Video of the Week: Dusty Smith rips apart the Christian video "The Thaw" and its many lies. For those offended by the f-word, well, sometimes it's the only appropriate word to describe shit. Sorry.

FFRF writes to Ball State about creationist "astronomy" course

Jerry Coyne posted the letter and some commentary on his Why Evolution is True blog:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/the-freedom-from-religion-foundation-to-ball-state-university-cease-and-desist-your-religious-indoctrination/

I doubt a lawsuit will have legs, but I'm glad to see them taking action on a phony professor who does a bait-and-switch number on students who register for a science course and get a religion course.

Thank you, FFRF and Jerry Coyne!

Another High School Hero!

Why I Sued Northwest Rankin High School is a letter from a courageous 16-year-old who sued her high school for forcing her to attend a Jesus-drenched assembly.  In the lawsuit she is referred to only by initials, but today she came out with the post at the American Humanist Association site.

Key quotation: 

"I am not an angry atheist. As a matter of fact, I am not an atheist at all. I hold many Christian beliefs and values, and I do not mean to attack the religion or its message. Instead, this is a case about our constitutional right to be free from the government promoting these religious beliefs."

Damn straight!  You can't have a "Christian" school without defining what is Christian and what is not.  This means Catholics who don't believe the tenets of a Baptist minister could be forced to be preached at by one anyway.  It means Seventh-Day Adventists could be told they're not true Christians if they don't go to church on Sunday.  It means that children who find themselves mumbling the "wrong" words at the end of the Lord's Prayer could feel disenfranchised or offended.

Settlers from England certainly knew the sad English history of "official" religions switching back and forth and the murders committed because of it.  No "Christian" is free if any Christian can declare they know which Christianity is the best one.  They knew that "Bloody Mary" murdered Protestants.  They would have known about the Inquisition, too.  And then some of them were deists....  There's no doubt whatever that the Founders wanted the church to stay out of government and vice versa.

So anyway, good for her for standing up for the Constitution and her (and her parent's) right to decide whether and how to worship without bullies in her school forcing it on her.


hat tip: Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True blog

Food Nazis: A Rant

This isn't an atheist topic at all, but as a skeptic & pet-owner, I have to vent about a category of credulous fools that drive me crazy on the interwebs and in person.  They are what I call food nazis.  They are one subtype of the "Issues" flame warrior.

They are against all things "unnatural" or not "organic."  They lobby against genetically modified foods... that is, those that are modified through laboratory manipulation of DNA, versus the "organic" food they eat that represents hundreds of years of genetic tinkering through breeding and cultivation.  They want only pure foods in their bodies, which is fine.  They usually have mysterious maladies that apprently come from eating the same foods the rest of us ate growing up.  They don't want to eat anything they can't pronounce, though they are able to learn to pronounce "edamame" and "acai." They think they will live forever due to their superior nutrition despite scant evidence that food additives other than nitrates will or can cause cancer.  I've actually been told by a woman with fibromyalgia that she will long outlive me.  AHA!  Take THAT!!!  My question: she's in such pain from worrying about whether she's in pain, why would she want to live that long?  (Or will it just seem like she's living longer because she's in pain and she never has any fun?)

The food nazi will lecture you about what you should be eating based on their flimsy diagnosis of you.  A food nazi I had the displeasure of working with several years ago lectured me about eating eggs for breakfast.  She knew the nutritional content of everything I ate and insidiously asked me "ohhh that smells good what is it?"  And then when I tell her... WHAM!  "That's got cholesterol and calories and fat and..."

To which I answered "What the hell do you know?  My cholesterol is 93 so shut up about what I eat and mind your own business!  You're not my doctor!"  (Yes, I said it, and loudly, too)

There is another kind that I really can't abide.  Pet food Nazis.  These people are convinced that feeding raw food to their pet is superior to any feeding method any pet owner could choose, anywhere.  They are, in a word, zealots.

The diet is aptly called "BARF" for "Bones and Raw Food" or "Biologically Appropriate Raw Food."  The followers of this movement insist that their feeding method is better because it's more natural.  Pointing out to them they they are falling for the naturalistic fallacy (or appeal to nature) falls on deaf ears.  Informing them that cats and dogs have been eating the cooked leftovers of their owners for thousands of years falls on deaf ears.  Reminding them that evolution requires only that individuals of the species "survived" just long enough to reproduce and in sufficient numbers is the reason for wolf evolution, not anything in their diet, falls on deaf ears. 

They do respond to a call for proof.  Pointing out that there have been no scientific studies proving their point raises the spectre of Big Food Companies "owning" the vets who do the studies and sell the kibble (despite the fact that most kibble is purchased in stores).  I challenged the manufacturer of one of these raw food diets to conduct a study and they insisted it would cost too much money.  Really?  They have oodles of rabid followers who would gladly pay for bloodwork & stool samples to give them more ammo when they try to shame fellow pet owners into jumping onto their bandwagon.  And how hard would it be to pay a veterinary school to survey pet owners bringing in pets with cancer to see what the pets are eating?  Wouldn't most vet schools jump at the chance to grab some easy grant money? I thought they were easily bought and paid for.

They are as bad as scientologists and their demonization of psychiatric meds. 

The thing is, just as with human diets, there is some truth to the claim that diet and health are connected.  Human food nazis such as the twit I used to share an office with are only too happy to tell you what is in your food and what it can do to or for you.  They read "Prevention" magazine and shop at Whole Foods and listen to NPR, which never has ads for McDonalds or Skittles.  They are superior to the rest of us and they will live to be 100 years old and delight in the fantasy of going tsk tsk to us at our funerals.   We normal people will die young from horrible diseases and on our deathbeds we'll say "You were right.  I should have eaten edamame!"  This fantasy keeps them going as they nibble on their tasteless grub.

There is also a raw food fantasy about human foods, that ignores the fact that we've been cooking for eons.  It's the "cave man" or paleolithic diet.  There is zero evidence that this is good for modern humans.  I was in Paris for a few weeks and almost every cafe serves raw hamburger.  Blech.  The French may have the enzymes or antibodies or whatever for digesting that stuff, but I wasn't going to risk it.  Fortunately, they also have McDonalds in Paris.  (Yes, I did it!  I went to McDonalds in Paris!  Subway, too!)
 

Yes, that's a raw egg!

Animals, such as ourselves, certainly can live to old age, and diet can play a part, but evolution didn't dictate that.  Evolution doesn't really care if we live to old age, except perhaps that men can continue to inseminate women well past the age when women undergo "the change."  But it's not necessary for survival.  Humans only need to live to about 12 to 20 to pass along their DNA, unless grandparenting turns out to be essential to training the young-uns, in which case 40 will do.  In cats, dogs, and other canids, the individual only needs to live to be about 7-8 months old.  Any old diet can keep all of these species "alive" in an evolutionary sense.

The other thing they don't get is that cats and dogs are different species.  YES!  They are!  Cats are much closer to their wild ancestors than dogs are.  They can't survive on table scraps as dogs can.  Dog fanatics will cite books or articles written about cat nutrition and draw a false equivalence. These nutters will also draw an equivalence to people that's totally wrong.  For example, xylitol will cause hypoglycemia in a dog but not at all in a human.  Diabetic humans can eat xylitol and it doesn't affect their glucose level, but a dog could die from hypoglycemic shock from chewing on a stick of sugar-free gum.

So... they may be right.  They may be wrong.  There may be no difference at all between cooked and raw diets, assuming the kinds of foods eaten are the same.  Their own personal experiences are all they need.  Have there been any people or pets killed by salmonella?  Would any of the food nazis who forced their food fetishes on those victims be posting online?  NO!  Would people who died from food-borne pathogens be flame warriors on interwebs forums?  NO!  Dead people can't type!  Would food nazis who got cancer admit that their food fetishes did them no good?  NO!  So we have a biased sampling of opinions based on naturalistic fantasies, erm fallacies.

Eating vegetables & fruits, keeping weight under control, not smoking, not drinking (or not drinking much) are commonsense "rules" for people to follow.  I avoid nitrites because they've been shown to contribute to leukemia.  I avoid fish because I don't believe in strip-mining the ocean for a sandwich, and anyway they swim in their own pee and who knows what pollutants are in them?  (hey, I try to be rational but fish are just plain icky)  My bird gets all-natural food because the company that makes it is careful to balance nutrients he'd get in nature.  (He's a zebra finch - about the size of a mouse).  I wouldn't claim superiority without proof, though.  I just go with my gut and my own best thinking.  If scientific research proved me wrong I'd go with other recommendations in a heartbeat.
Then there's Hitch's example. Despite being genetically disposed to pancreatic cancer, he did everything "wrong" and yet didn't seem to be whining about his decisions after he got sick.  The food nazi I had to endure at work tried to convince me I'd live to be 100 if I ate like her.  I told her I probably wouldn't, but it would feel like 100 years.

Is it wrong to call them "Food nazis?"  Well consider that the Nazis were also health fetishists.   They were anti-tobacco before anyone in the U.S. was.  They made a few good points.  "Racial hygiene" was a repulsive outgrowth of this focus on health and purity.

Not that food fetishists in the U.S. are going down that path, but ya know... they should just shut up about their

So to all the food nazis out there, when you wag your finger at me, I just might show one of mine to you.

May 11 Links

Herb Silverman on how or whether government should define religion

Jerry Coyne summarizes the Pew Report on the Muslim World.  The news isn't good.

Some Jewish women want to wail at the wailing wall.  Lots of Jewish men don't want them to do it.  The military has to intervene to let them.  Crazy.

The Black Ladies of Los Angeles buy their Sunday best from a Jewish Iranian clothier... and never on a Saturday.  I have to admit, I have always admired black lady church clothes.  Nobody does it better, and apparently the black ladies of Los Angeles are the best of the best.

I can see my house from here!  Live stream from the space station.

Unintentionally funny church signs  (found via reddit atheism - yes, I went there!)

The Dark Side of Home Schooling (found via the Richard Dawkins Foundation:  The Dark Side of Home Schooling)

last-minute addition:  Boston pediatric psychiatrist barred because of diagnosing "sprititual" disease.  They won't report which church Dr. Kam took his patient to.  Why?  Shouldn't people be warned away from this dangerous church, too?  (h/t Religion Clause)

Video of the Week: "The Storytelling of Science" hosted by Lawrence Krauss with a stellar panel of sciency atheistic types.  Be sure to make time for the second part. Neil DeGrasse Tyson goes ballistic!



Part Two:

God Works in Mysterious Ways? Seriously?

Like everyone else I think the rescue of the three women in Cleveland is a great story.  Waiting for years for her moment, perhaps earning the trust of her captor in order to create such a moment, Amanda Berry screams to a passerby, who comes to her aid and calls 911 on her behalf.  The police respond, rescue the other two women and the child born into that horrible situation, and now the captors are behind bars and the women are with their families.

The aunt of one said: “I will tell you this because I was there to see her- all three girls. God works in mysterious ways. It’s just unbelievable, unbelievable, these girls, these women are so strong; stronger than I am."  Did she work in her praise for god just out of a sense of duty?  I wouldn't give that callous asshole one iota of thanks for letting the perp have "free will" to deprive three others (and then his rape-daughter also) of theirs.  What kind of "good" god is this?


First of all, God could have given this man ALS or crippled him in a car wreck, preventing him from being able to snatch three girls off the street and systematically rape them.  Or he could have blessed him with visions of His goodness and inspired him to join the priesthood (where he would rape little boys instead).  Or He could have just caused the guy's mother to have a miscarriage and prevented the whole thing.  How many mysterious ways could God have worked on this problem?  A bajillion, at least!

Did "He" choose to do any of those things?  The wise and loving father who looks after the innocent?  NO!  He looked over the guy's shoulder while he was raping those girls!  Or he closed his eyes, or maybe he put all his energy into rigging baseball games in favor of the team with the most prayerful people on their side.  He certainly didn't lift a finger to help these girls.  He could at least have prevented an innocent baby being born into the situation.

This is the classic Problem of Evil.  If god is all-powerful and omniscient and omnibenevolent, then why didn't he intervene?  Either 1)  he's not all-powerful or 2) he's not omniscient or 3) he's not benevolent.  Option four:  he could intervene but chooses not to is hardly a characteristic of a god worth worshiping but people will defend him with that line.  As Tracie Harris said on The Atheist Experience, "If I could stop a person from raping a child, I would. That’s the difference between me and your God."

Coincidentally, the niece's name is Gina DeJesus.  Hallelujah.  I can't imagine keeping that name after what she's been through.

Deconversion Stories of Famous Atheists

Dan Barker, former evangelical preacher and now co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  His autobiography is Losing Faith in Faith and he also wrote Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America' Leading Atheists.





Bart Ehrman, Biblical scholar who trained to be a pastor and became an atheist.  He peeked behind the curtain and found out that the Wizard was a fraud.  Most of the video summarizes the main problems in the transmission of the books of the Bible and early debates about Jesus:



Seth Andrews, former Christian broadcaster and now podcaster and speaker, wrote Deconverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason.

Jerry DeWitt, another ex-pastor (Pentecostal), wrote Hope After Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism. He is the first graduate of The Clergy Project, started by Dan Barker and Richard Dawkins to give closet atheist pastors a safe place to discuss transitioning to secular life.



Teresa Macbain, also a member of The Clergy Project. She came out despite certain unemployment, and she is now a speaker and Public Relations Director for American Atheists. (Mute until she is at the podium b/c there's terrible feedback):



Matt Dilahunty of The Atheist Experience:



Michael Shermer (blog post): he read up on evolution in order to debunk it, and became a skeptic and atheist


I don't know if this guy is famous but he ought to be!  He tried to convert "natives" and they deconverted him:



And the classic, "Why I am Not A Christian" by Bertrand Russell (not read by him):



His answers to lame questions in an interview. His deconversion is part of the interview:

May 4 Link Round-up

Moon Landing Faked!  Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories  Skeptical article in Scientific American ... not by Michael Shermer

 Real paleontologists visited the Creation Museum.  Fortunately they were not left speechless.

The survey says:  Christians are more like Pharisees than like Christ

PZ Myers destroys the aquatic ape hypothesis idiocy.

10 Things Most Americans Don't Know About Themselves

Interview (.pdf) with the author of Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live

Florida freethinkers win the right to distribute atheist literature in a Florida school system.  The schools had allowed a group to leave Bibles on a table for students, so freethought literature will now be available as well.

A printable electronic ear has been developed so borg people can now be their own ipod.  Add Google Glass to become a total Borg, but it may not last:  Google Glass:  Too Dorky to Live?

Rep. Randy Forbes tells Congress that the Obama administration is waging war on Christians in the military.  Politifact says Mostly False:  "This did happen in at least one briefing at a reserve center in Pennsylvania. The Army says it was a mistake -- made by an individual, not the command -- that was corrected upon the first complaint."

Westboro Baptist "Church" threatens to picket George Jones' funeral.  They're trying so hard to make conservatives hate them.  Why isn't it working?

More affinity fraud, this time pastors in Toronto, who bilked their congregation of $9 million Canadian (it's still a lot of money even if it is Canadian)

It's Buddhists vs Muslims in Sri Lanka and Burma, with Buddhists adopting violence contrary to their religion.

Richard Carrier reviews a book with mythicist arguments against the historical Jesus so you don't have to.  Really.  Doesn't sound like a very good book.  Carrier's review is good reading, though.

Video of the Week: The Four Horsemen in Conversation (Dawkins, Dennett, Carrier and the late great Hitchens)

Dawkins and Krauss Go on the Road

A new film is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival this week.  It's called "The Unbelievers," starring Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss.  Apparently it is edited from various conversations they have held with each other and with diverse audiences around the world. 

Watch their television promos, thanks to the Jesus Saves ... at Citibank youtube channel.  I'm also  sharing two of their road trip videos below the telly appearances.  The two videos  come from the Australian leg of their road trip.  The first is Richard Dawkins vs. an Idiot Catholic Cardinal (Caradinal Pell).  The second is from the next day, with Dawkins & Krauss together in front of a less hostile audience.  They reference the appearance with Cardinal Pell during that video.

Toronto Television:


Dawkins & Krauss on CNN, with Dawkins not letting the interviewer get away with a last-minute nod to believers:


Dawkins vs. the Cardinal:



Dawkins & Krauss in Australia:

Reading List

After seeing the shockingly bad reading list for the Ball State course purporting to be about the "boundaries of science" but being totally just ID/creationism, I started thinking of which books I would recommend as the counterbalance to his creationist/ID list for undergrads.  This is what I've come up with.  Any suggestions?

Coyne.  Why Evolution is True

Darwin.  On the Origin of Species

Dawkins.  The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Dawkins.  The Selfish Gene

Festinger & Carlsmith.  "Cognitive Dissonance" (article)

Hawking.  A Brief History of Time

Krauss.  A Universe from Nothing

Mills.  Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism

Sagan.  A Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Shermer.  How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God

Shermer.  Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design

Sokal.  Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture

Stenger.  God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist

Tyson.  Origins:  Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution

Richard Dawkins (Politely) Gives an Hour of Time He'll Never Get Back to a Y.E.C.

I don't know how he does it, or why he's called "strident" or "militant." He's waaaaay more polite than I would be toward this idiot (note that in the comments there's a debate over whether you can call the interviewer an idiot).

April 27 Links

ACLU tells Kansas school system to stop having mandatory assemblies for creationist crap.  I hope they win.

Salon asks if atheists secretly believe in God.  uhh NO!

Conspiracy Theory flowchart

Autism associations in Turkey bristle against an official's statement that atheism and autism are linked.  Yet there's some truth to it.  This study links autism and atheism.  Another links autism with a fear of God in Calvinistic denominations.

PZ Myers weighs in on the Ball State prof who teaches creationism as astronomy.

edited to add:  The press are being lazy or dishonest about the accountability of the West fertilizer plant and the collusion of Texas legislators in not protecting the public.   Oh, and the legislators who want the feds to cough up disaster relief money for this man-made disaster voted against relief for Hurricane Sandy.  Nice folk.

Video of the week: Neil DeGrasse Tyson on The Perimeter of Ignorance

Creationism taught as "Science" at Ball State

Jerry Coyne, who wrote the book, Why Evolution is True, uncovered this "Science" course that's really a course in "intelligent design" and creationism.  He posted about it on his blog, and he confirmed it with the head of the Physics & Astronomy department.

Ball State offers a Ph.D. in Science Education!  How can they let a creationism course be listed as a science course???

The course is cross-listed as a science and culture course within the Honors College, but also as Astronomy 151.  The professor who teaches it also teaches Astronomy 100, possibly the only astronomy those students will ever get, and maybe the only science they'll ever get, and students from that class complain about his frequent diversions into Christianity.

Rather than rehash his post, I just urge you to go to the post for the details.  He even has the syllabus posted, with a reprehensible reading list.

I hope they fire the teacher and whoever has been allowing this prosletyzing under the banner of "science" to continue.

Book Review: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

I was initially going to review Ariely's latest book, The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How we Lie to Everyone, Especially Ourselves, but this book inspired me to read his more popular book, Predictably Irrational.

We atheists fancy ourselves to be rational, and proudly so.  Dusty Smith's outro slogan is "Logic!"  The forum formerly attached to the Secular Web spun off and chose freeratio.org as its URL.  An online group calls themselves the Rational Response Squad.

But according to Ariely, we are hard-wired to behave in predictably irrational ways due to cognitive biases.  He turned a devastating burn injury into a burning question of how people make decisions.  Whether to remove bandages quickly or slowly was on his mind during the 23 hours between his daily changes of bandages.  What else did he have to think about?  Later, he studied how people make economic decisions, because economics is is about trading pain (loss of money) for benefits.

He put into words some of my objuections to the Ayn Rand libertarianism that is based on the assumption that people will choose to do what's best for themselves.  You can't plan for rational behavior in humans because humans do not behave rationally.

His book is sometimes a little dry, with summaries of various studies he has conducted, but each study reveals more and more about human tendencies.  The one that inspired me to blog about the book is his study of dishnesty and whether being reminded to be honest by seeing the Ten Commandments would reduce the amount of dishonesty in his subjects.  Despite what we atheists believe, it does indeed remind people to be honest.  Since he was interested in general tendencies, not religious tendencies, it isn't clear whether any kind of reminder will keep people honest, but it's possible.  People will cheat less if they believe they might get caught, so strong believers in a watchful Sky Daddy may feel that Big Brother effect.  But... his studies reveal that people's honesty is dependent on their self-perception more than what others will think.  When there's no chance of getting caught there will be cheating but not to a serious degree.  He also studied whether pledging an honor code would have equal results to the Ten Commandments, and it did.  I went to a college with a strict honor code and people still cheated, but I don't know how many of them would have cheated more, or whether more of us would have cheated.

I will read his further research because he is aware of the potential flaws in studying college students rather than prisoners, trailer trash, or us atheists... all of whom would be major cheaters according to stereotype!  I must admit that having grown up in poverty has made me a bit different from the majority in some of his studies.  I will do things (not necessarily cheating things) that middle class people wouldn't.  I see things slightly differently.


I read this book awhile ago so I can't review its contents in detail, but I want to recommend it to anyone who fancies themselves to be a rational person.  He will be attending The Amazing Meeting this year.  I can't imagine a better speaker for a group of skeptics.  (Also, he has a good sense of humor)
Here he is at Google headquarters explaining irrationality:

April 20 Links

Just a few links this week:

Atheist pianist in Turkey found guilty of blasphemy. 

I'm not sure I understand the metaphor exactly, but this People Who Can Eat a Bag of Dicks about the Boston bombing post saved the rest of us the trouble of monitoring the moronic segment of the population's twittering on twitter.  Media Matters also followed the lunatic fringe but they aren't as fun.

Alex Jones and his enablers.  What a bunch of nuts.

The Taliban kills 17 and wounds 60 then apologizes for hurting the wrong person.  Hello, if you want to kill just one person, don't use a fricking BOMB.  Apparrently the Taliban are not just wrong-headed they're empty headed!

Homeless Jesuss sculpture rejected by two churches. 

The Guardian reviews the History Channel's The Bible.  Headline: "History Channel's The Bible series is worse than reality TV"

Malala on the cover of Time in the Most 100 Influential issue

Poster of Internet Memes.  How many do you recognize?

I met some friendly atheists today!

The local university atheist student club had an "Ask an Atheist" table today and I stopped by to say hello.  We had a nice conversation.... and then I saw one of my fundy coworkers heading toward the table.... then veering away when he saw me.  I'm dying to know if he was going to ask a question!  He's a smart guy (for a Christian).  I hope he wasn't going to ask why they're so angry, or bring up Pascal's wager.

Baby with shit-eating grin added to post for no particular reason

Looky What I Got in the Mail!

This kind-hearted speaker is coming to my sweet little town to warn us about the Second Coming! Mr. Dwight Kruger is so popular that he needs a hotel for his presentations, not a measly church!

And they spare no expense! This 4-page glossy full-color brochure was sent to everyone in town. Boy howdy he must love Muncie!

There's next to nothing on the website: http://www.bibleprophecyseminars.com.  Yep, not a ministry, a seminar!   If you want to know when they'll be coming to an out-of-the-way fundytown near you, you just choose your state and you can see the schedule.   But if you don't live in the Midwest, or the deep South, you lose!   They only preach to the choir.

After a little googling I found that this Dwight Kruger is a Seventh-Day Adventist, and in 2009 he was pastor at three Indiana churches.  He's currently the pastor at the local Seventh Day Adventist church.  I wonder how he manages what with all his traveling around warning people to be afraid of tornadoes!  It's Spring in the Heartland.  God will whip up a tornado if you don't listen up!

(The tablet has 1776 in Roman numerals)

"Be Prepared for the Next Earth Shaking Event!"

Yes, there are four horsemen!

 

The small print:

 You will learn about these topics:

• Israel in Prophecy
• The Millennium
• America in Prophecy

 

Richard Dawkins Interviews Dense Idiotic Creationist Woman

I am ashamed for my gender, but men have Ken Ham so I guess there's idiocy all around.

What I'd like to know is how Richard Dawkins can talk to her for this length without slapping her. He deserves a medal of honor. She only has a few points that she makes over and over: Eugenics, no fossils, eugenics, no fossils, eugenics, no fossils... each human is unique in their DNA (unlike every other animal on the planet?)

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself if you can take it:

April 6 Link Round-Up

Last weekend was the American Atheist's 50th Anniversary Conference in Austin.  I wish I had gone!  I used to live in Austin, and I missed it a LOT this winter!  Some videos:

• Richard Carrier on Atheism Plus (summary: don't be a dick)
• Matt Dillahunty on Atheism & Skepticism (summary: don't be a sucker)
• Hector Avalos: Religion and Violence (summary: holy books say go ahead and be a dick)

North Carolina wants to assert states' rights over the Establishment Clause 

Man who defrauded Christians receives sentence of 65 months in prison.  No word on his time in Purgatory.

Apparently Christians are easy marks for Ponzi schemes.  The Foundation for New Era Philanthropy scammed $135 million in the 1990s.  Members of an Atlanta megachurch and other churches (including Osteen's church) were fleeced to the tune of  $11 million.  "He quoted scriptures!"  Well then of course he was trustworthy!  the term for this is "Affinity Fraud."  Let us prey!

Nevada legislator receives death threats after admitting she had an abortion as a teen.   If you threaten to kill someone are you still "pro-life?"

The Psychiatric Treatment of the Fundamentalist Patient in Medscape Today accuses psychiatrists of not being understanding enough of the benefits of religious belief.

50 Ways to be a Loser in Life (Note that reading blogs isn't one of them)

Get into your wayback machine and check out Frank Zappa defending music against censorship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISil7IHzxc  He mentions incest in the Bible and says the biggest threat against the U.S. is movement toward a Fascist Theocracy in 1986.  The conservatives are heated up over Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher."  The conservative resorts to Hitler, predictably.

And now for something completely different, your favorite Biblical characters do the "Harlem Shake"



The cast of "Jesus Christ Superstar" has way too much fun with "The Harlem Shake"



A Christian youth group jumped on the meme and they're finding out how sensitive their religion is now! 180 downvotes vs. 69 upvotes. Let's upvote the poor kids! They need encouragement.



Pentecostal Style!

Ladies, Stand up and Be Counted!

According to the results of the atheist census so far, 75% are male!  Can this be true?  Or is it just that more male than female atheists have been counted?  I only just discovered the census this week, so maybe it's not getting enough exposure.  Well, I'm exposing it here:

http://www.atheistcensus.com/

Go get counted, whoever you are!  Fewer than 200,000 have been counted so far.

Acquire the Fire: Coming Soon to an Arena Near Me (and probably you too)

I'd never heard of this until it hit the local paper today:

Ball State to "Acquire the Fire" this Weekend

MUNCIE — Acquire the Fire youth ministry is back in Muncie this weekend, gathering thousands of young people in Worthen Arena for what its website bills as “a highly charged spiritual event.”

The two-day rally has become a repeat visitor to Muncie, using Ball State University as one of its many venues nationwide for years now.

Ball State, in turn, is happy to welcome Acquire the Fire each year, according to Dan Byrnes, director of sports facilities.

Worthen is primarily a sports venue, so it doesn’t bring in a lot of non-sports events such as this one, but Brynes called Acquire the Fire “a very positive event, full of energy, and we love it have it. We’re glad they keep coming back.”

Who are these wonderful people?  A few minutes on google, which is apparently more time than the author of this post was willing to spend, and I saw that it is a cultish Christian organization that has been profiled on MSNBC.   Acquire the Fire is a high energy rock concert that is a "ministry" though it seems totally for-profit to me.  It is the hook to reel in kids for their Teen Mania internships.  The internships cost $8,000 for a year of abuse and working as slave labor in a call center.  Teen Mania has (belatedly) dropped their ESOAL hell week ritual, which drew complaints for years, and was broadcast to the world on the MSNBC documentary and a local television news show (linked below).

ESOAL was modeled on Navy Seals training, but with one big drawback: no medical or psychological screening for the program.  Some kids graduated from their "internship" and claim it did wonders for them.  Others were traumatized and now need therapy for PTSD.

I am trying to decide whether to buy a ticket and video part of this or to paper all the cars with flyers about the cult they just supported with their allowance money.

These arena type things are harmless generally, with the rock concert experience culminating in an altar call, but this one in particular gives me the creeps.  Former Teen Mania victims are ambivalent about the event.  It's a happy time rah rah for Jesus weekend, but also the introduction to the abuse they suffered.

Inside Teen Mania from MSNBC (2011)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

A local television station story on the abusive ESOAL program (2010)
Part 2
Part 3
Follow-up


Belated cancellation of ESOAL
 They are justifiably embarrassed but it took years of criticism for them to drop it.

Recovering Alumni blog
Recovering Alumni youtube channel

Secular Leaders' Open Letter to the Secular Community

I'd have changed the title to communities because we agree on only one thing, or non-thing so we come in many stripes.  But otherwise I like this statement linked below:

http://www.atheistrev.com/2013/04/secular-leaders-address-incivility-in.html

Having experienced scathing incivility at a blog that's moderated by someone who thinks it's okay to insult people, I'm rather skeptical of the success of this statement.  Nice people will behave nicely.  The rest make us look bad as a whole, rather than representing only themselves.  They need to be reminded how to be civil.  This statement is a good start.

Debate: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

Bart Ehrmann vs. William Lane Craig. Craig starts by "establishing" his "four facts." Hilarity ensues.  Happy Easter!

"Baby Moses" laid to rest

A tragic story in Indianapolis:  a dead baby was found in a creek.  The mother has still not been identified.

In the old days, babies like this would be named "Baby Doe" and laid to rest by the city.  When the family is identified, the baby would join the family plot if that's the wish of the family.  The family would have the right to name the baby if they wanted, too.

Today the little guy was laid to rest by some arrogant Christians who took on the right to name him and bury him:

http://www.wthr.com/story/21835067/memorial-held-for-newborn-found-in-creek

Linda Znachko named the baby Moses, and her ministry, "He Knows Your Name" organized Saturday's funeral.

"I have dressed Moses in a white garment. I did that to symbolize his spiritual freedom that he know has with Jesus Christ," said Znachko.

Some Christian group was able to take possession of the body, give the baby a name, and conduct a service in their denomination.  This just strikes me as so arrogant, yet the city released the baby to these people who have NO CLAIM to it!


grrrrrrr


I know that some so-called Christians will take issue with my anger about this but I don't care.  This was a selfish selfish act conducted by self-congratulatory people who really believe they are doing something right... and of course let the cameras show it on television.

It's certainly possible to be respectful toward an unknown person's body without claiming it for Christ:

March 30 link round-up

This is mostly news but I got tired of trying to sift through the Easter crap and the Supreme Court stuff and that stupid trial that a certain supposed "news" station is obsessed with.  So I offer up a mixture of the sublime, ridiculous, scary, and icky:

In Egypt, women are being blamed for an epidemic of sexual assaults against them.

Also in Egypt, a lady cartoonists takes aim at fundamentalists.  She's been charged with blasphemy.  And I worry about offending my fundie coworkers!

Malala signs a book deal.  Good for her!

In Bangladesh, Islamic protesters demand blasphemy laws against BLOGGERS!  OMG we're dangerous!

Berlin's Jew-in-a-Box exhibit more controversial than expected.   

About damn time!  Baptists finally take on something that's actually immoral:  predatory payday loans that hurt the poor. 

Man gets probation in mercy-killing of his wife.

Hindus celebrate the festival of Holi.  Yes, their holiday is Holi day!

A fat naked man called "Billy the Fridge" sat on a fake Phelps family member and yelled "Who's your daddy now?"  The rest is impossible to summarize so I'll leave it to you to read the rest.

Ladies, here's one good reason not to go skinny dipping.
Men, you're not safe, either.

The Huffpo's public service post of the week:  How to be a bitch, bitch! (I'm a natural, so I won't read any of those books!)

Randomly found video:  Scientologist corners James Randi between bites of something that looks rather tasty:

Good Friday, Friday, Gotta Die on Good Friday ...

Happy Good Friday!

Richard Carrier Interview

Excellent interview with Richard Carrier. If you haven't been listening to The Thinking Atheist (a.k.a. Seth Andrews) podcasts, I highly recommend them. He mixes up interviews with atheist celebs and callers, and he even had a great interview episode with a Methodist minister.  He's in Texas right now at the American Atheists Convention.  Send him my regards if you see him!  I am one of his most loyal subscribers.

In this interview, Richard Carrier summarizes quite a bit of the scholarship about Christianity and the Bible, not just the question of whether Jesus existed.

Taking Apart the Nicene Creed

This statement of beliefs is supposedly the minimum necessary belief set that one must agree with to be considered a Christian.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;By whom all things were made;who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead;whose kingdom shall have no end.And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

Let's take this apart.  The first part reaffirms monotheism and The God is the creator of everything: We believe in one God.  So far so good.  Christianity is indeed an outgrowth of Judaism, right?

Not so fast, buckaroo.  Christians worship more than just this one God.  Christians also believe in the son, so apparently they're not monotheists after all:  And in one Lord Jesus Christ.  Well, he's the son so maybe he doesn't really count.  After all he's really only half-god, right?  Like the old demi-gods of Ancient Greece.

Not quite.  ...Very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father.  So Jesus was his own father, and we now apparently have the answer to the question "Who made God?"  God made God, of course!  He just didn't tell Moses because that would have confused the old codger. 

SO ... God made himself, at least once.  But wait... came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost...  So God made himself at least twice, first making the Holy Ghost and then making Jesus, and a third time if he made himself too.  This is the ta-da... *drumroll* .... TRINITY!




At the beginning of Christianity there was no such concept.  Jewish Christians believed Jesus was an ordinary man until his baptism.  Gnostic Christians believed he was 100% spirit.  How do you combat "heresy?"  Make them all only partially right!

The next bit rehashes the basic "facts" of the Gospels, Jesus was crucified, died, then came back to life.  The four Gospels agree on the crucifixion at least. 

The sacrificial stuff is a little more muddled and you have to wonder what the writers were thinking.  They've already said that God "Came down from heaven... for our salvation."  This is already a little messed up, as we're being saved from his own punishment, which he could easily have just decided to drop. 



But no... he had to crucify himself to appease himself.  And then after this horrendous death, he sits at his own right hand, judging people, though he had been sacrificed for us....  so what's to judge?

Now, to part three, because threes are holy in Catholicism.  And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.  So when the prophets were speaking (are speaking?) this ghost is doing the speaking, but it's not really the ghost it's really God because he comes from God just like Jesus did. 


Or perhaps it's a she, because of course Jesus was the only-begotten son, so if the ghost proceedeth from the Father, that sort of means it's the child of the father.  Conveniently, the creed in English doesn't use a gendered term.  Sadly, my theory doesn't work because spiritus, the Latin term, is a masculine word (fourth declension masculine to be precise).  It derives from the word for "to breathe," which explains why it powers the speech of prophets.  So... God has two sons, not one.

...In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; doesn't really mean not protestants.  Catholic means for everybody, and apostolic means they derive their authority from the apostles.  Even if you accept that Matthew and John actually were apostles and actually wrote the gospels attributed to them, this doesn't compute because Mark and Luke weren't apostles.  Also, Paul never knew Jesus and his writings (and writings falsely attributed to him) constitute most of the rest of the New Testament.  Luke was Paul's pal, so we have even less "apostolic" -ness than the creed would suggest.

One baptism for the remission of sins always struck me as a funny concept, because Jesus' sacrifice was supposedly the mechanism for that.   But then after you've been baptized, and Jesus has been sacrificed for you, you still get judged by Jesus.  That's all in this one little creed.  Gives you some idea of what the Bible is like!

We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  I never understood what this delay was supposed to be about.  Christ supposedly went right up into heaven, as did his mother.  Why can't the rest of us?  Why have all the bodies laying around in cemeteries, or worse... at the bottoms of seas or out in the woods... waiting for centuries for the resurrection?  In the literalist Catholic theology the actual bodies have to stay intact to be able to get up and move about after the resurrection.  That's why they're buried rather than cremated.


But what about the people who died without being buried?  What if wild animals made off with the bones and scattered them in all directions?  What if they burned up in a forest fire?  They'd be cremated, then.  Could God resurrect those people but not intentionally cremated dead people? 

Eek!  A Zombie!!!

And what if someone drowned at sea and their body is under hundreds of feet of water?  Will they have gills long enough to get up onto dry land?  What if they drowned because they were crappy swimmers?   Wouldn't they still be crappy swimmers? 



And what about all the amputees and people born with birth defects?  Wouldn't these be some scaryass zombies?  If a deformed baby died because it couldn't survive its birth defects, would it be resurrected as a healthy adult?  It died before it even learned language.  Wouldn't it be a zombie, or at best an automaton?

This creed wasn't codified until almost the end of the Fourth Century.  It was supposed to unify Christian thought, but I think it was more of a brainwashing tool.  If you say this every week, or every day if you're in a monastery or cathedral, the repetition would numb out the parts of your brain that would pick up on the inconsistencies and illogic of it.

 

Wikipedia on Nicene Creed.
Old Catholic Encyclopedia (1911)
Old Encyclopedia Britannica (1911)
Wikipedia: English Versions of the Nicene Creed