Archives 2008

Ben Stein Deteriorates Into Bad Self-Parody

Pop quiz: one of these quotations was written years ago by a young-earth creationist so ignorant that other YECs have tried to distance themselves from him. The other was published today, by a proponent of Intelligent Design (which, we are told, is Totally Not Creationism, Nuh-Uh) who enjoys respect within the ID community. Can you guess which is which and who the authors are?

Evolution is presented in our public school textbooks as a process that:

  1. Brought time, space, and matter into existence from nothing.
  2. Organized that matter into the galaxies, stars, and at least nine planets around the sun. (This process is often referred to as cosmic evolution.)
  3. Created the life that exists on at least one of those planets from nonliving matter (chemical evolution).
  4. Caused the living creatures to be capable of and interested in reproducing themselves.
  5. Caused that first life form to spontaneously diversify into different forms of living things, such as the plants and animals on the earth today (biological evolution).

Just a few tiny, insignificant little questions.

* How did the universe start?

* Where did matter come from?

* Where did energy come from?

* Where did the laws of motion, thermodynamics, physics, chemistry, come from?

* Where did gravity come from?

* How did inorganic matter, that is, lifeless matter such as dirt and rocks, become living beings?

* Has anyone ever observed beyond doubt the evolution of a new mammalian or aviary species, as opposed to changes within a species?

These teeny weeny little questions are just some of the issues as to which Darwin and Darwinism have absolutely no verifiable answers.

Answers after the jump. Read More

Where Are all the Reflective Christians?
Carnival of the Godless

One recurring criticism of Dawkins’s The God Delusion (and Hitchens’s God Is Not Great, Victor Stenger’s God: the Failed Hypothesis, and others) is that these authors attack a simplistic conception of God, one that no intelligent, educated person believes in anyway.

Plantinga, for instance, writes:

According to much classical theology (Thomas Aquinas, for example) God is simple, and simple in a very strong sense, so that in him there is no distinction of thing and property, actuality and potentiality, essence and existence, and the like. Some of the discussions of divine simplicity get pretty complicated, not to say arcane.

Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that this is the sort of semantically empty babbling that I’ve complained about before, and take him at his word. Plantinga and Dawkins could agree on a great number of things: God is not a magic bearded man in the sky. God does not whisper to you where you found your car keys. Chemotherapy works better than prayer at curing cancer. Jesus will not descend from the clouds by next Thursday at the latest and whisk all the unbelievers up in a flash of special effects to live forever in happy-cloud-land.

But why is it up to atheists to point this out?

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McChurch

Christianity Today has an article about the latest thing in religion:

Eddie Johnson, the lead pastor of Cumberland Church, espouses the franchising concept when it comes to the relationship between his church in Nashville, Tennessee, and North Point Community Church in metro Atlanta. On his blog, he states, “Just like a Chick-fil-A, my church is a ‘franchise,’ and I proudly serve as the local owner/operator.”

According to Johnson, his job is to “establish a local, autonomous church that has the same beliefs, values, mission, and strategy as North Point.” He completed a three-month internship at North Point and continues to receive training and support. He claims to rarely deviate from the “training manual.”

“Just like that Chick-fil-A owner/operator,” he says, “I’m here in Nashville to open up our franchise and run it right. I believe in my company and what they are trying to ‘sell.'”

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Google Maps Illustrates How Averages Can Fail

Call me easily amused, but I thought it was funny that if you search Google Maps for Florida, the green arrow points at the Gulf of Mexico (and the one for Michigan points at Lake Michigan).

Even better, if you search for Maryland, the arrow points at Virginia.

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Huckabee at UMD

I was going to write up Mike Huckabee’s visit to UMD, but Ariel Alexovich than I would have. Plus, her article has a photo that might plausibly have me in it (the second guy on the rent-a-cop’s shoulder).

Mike Huckabee at UMD
(Photo: Chris Maddaloni for The New York Times)

Okay, a few comments below the fold.

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Classy, Mitt. Real Classy.

Mitt Romney, bowing out of the race:

Now, if I fight on, in my campaign, all the way to the convention … I want you to know, I’ve given this a lot of thought – I’d forestall the launch of a national campaign and, frankly, I’d make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.

Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

Asshat. Is fearmongering really all the Republicans have left?

Huckabee and Obama at UMD; What to Ask?

For anyone in the DC area, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama will be visiting the UM campus in the next few days.

I’m considering going to see Huckabee. I don’t know whether there’ll be a question-and-answer period, but just in case, I’d like to have a question or two prepared. Anyone got any suggestions? (Preferably ones that won’t get thrown out immediately if questions are screened.)

FCC’s Head Up Its Sexual Organ?

The Language Log has an article about ABC showing an episode of some show where a woman’s buttocks were visible. “So nu?” you might think if, like me, you were kickstarted into puberty by seeing boobs on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the Benny Hill Show in the 70s and 80s.

But no, the FCC decided that showing a butt demanded a $1.4 million fine. the most puzzling bit is this statement by the FCC:

Although ABC argues, without citing any authority, that the buttocks are not a sexual organ,22 we reject this argument, which runs counter to both case law23 and common sense.

Does the FCC really think that buttocks are involved in sex as more than erogenous zones? If so, they’ll need to ban everything from eyes to well-turned ankles. Is “asshat” a sexual term?

The Language Log does a fine job of fisking this arrant nonsense, from both linguistic and legal standpoints, so go read that. But in an amusing coincidence, I was watching Australia’s The Chasers War on Everything and something from the BBC, and wondering why they get to say “fuck” on TV, while Jon Stewart gets bleeped when he says “blow job”.

Welcome to the US, the last industrialized nation that

Error Message O’ the Day

Yes, I occasionally listen to the Intelligent Design the Future podcast. But I had trouble today downloading the latest episode:

Error message

For those who can’t or won’t read the image:

There was a problem downloading “Predictions from an Intelligent Design Perspective”

I Don’t Understand Fundies

A while back, some people were getting bent out of shape because Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials had sex in a children’s book.

(Spoilers after the jump.) Read More