In God We Teach

A video documentary is finally being put together about the Kearny, NJ case where a high school student exposed his history teaching for overtly evangelizing during class time to his students.  The student, Matthew LaClair, recorded his teacher, David Paszkiewicz, in the act of pushing creationism and religion in the middle of instruction time.  The ACLU has helped Matthew file a suit - standing up for his rights has resulted in harassment from students and teachers, as well as a death threat.

Here's a preview of the upcoming documentary:

I Stand With Planned Parenthood

Via Liz via fousheezy:

Did you hear? The House voted to bar Planned Parenthood from federal funding.  They cut funding for HIV tests, cancer screenings, birth control, and more, putting millions of women and families at risk.  We can't let it go unanswered.  It's time for you and me to Stand with Planned Parenthood.  Sign the open letter to the reps who voted for this bill - and to the senators who still have a chance to stop it.  Don't just reblog: SIGN IT!  

I signed it - you should do it too!  Maybe these sorts of petty funding battles wouldn't be so partisan if there were more women in Congress ...

You Can't Explain That!

Many of you might know that conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly made a fool of himself when interviewing president of the American Atheists, David Silverman, by trying to explain the existence of god by saying, "Tide comes in, tide goes out.  No miscommunication.  You can't explain that".  Justifiably, Bill'O has become a laughing stock of the internet.  Again.

Now there's a fun meme going round that puts similarly stupid phrases above a picture of Bill O'Reilly as arguments that you just can't explain, so it must be true!  Joel shared this via Google reader.  So in the spirit of lampooning foolish TV figures that use terrible reasoning skills, I've made one of my own with the meme generator:

Help Balance the NC Budget!

I love transparency in government!  While we'll probably never be at a level that I totally approve of, any attempt to actually use the internet to engage the public with government decisions and processes is really a positive attribute in my book.  Check out this new website by Governor Beverly Perdue of North Carolina (my home state!).

You can actually go through all of the different options to decide what funding gets cut and what revenues get raised to balance the NC deficit.  Give it a try!  I cut 1.265 billion dollars of spending and raised 1.5 billion dollars in new revenue to give NC a surplus of 0.340 billion dollars.  Of course, realistically, these decisions are much more complicated, but it's nice to see the options and have an idea of what sorts of financial cuts and gains are plausible.  What can you do to fix the deficit?

Prop 8 is Delayed. Again.

The Advocate reported today that the supreme court case concerning Proposition 8, the bill passed in the California 2008 election making same-sex marriage illegal, is now delayed because of an appeal to 'standing'.  Ironically, this delay is actually being caused by gay rights advocates.  Prop 8 had been overturned earlier in the year (thankfully) by Justice Vaughn R. Walker.  The decision was appealed, but not by the state of California, the governor, or the attorney general.  Now the legal battle will be fought to determine whether general voters of California (supporters of Prop 8) actually have the right to appeal.


History says that voters do not have the right to appeal.  According to the Advocate:

Last month a three-judge panel for the ninth circuit asked the California Supreme Court whether Prop. 8 supporters who have defended the ballot initiative in the federal case Perry v. Schwarzenegger "possess either a particularized interest in the initiative's validity or the authority to assert the State's interest in the initiative's validity ... when the public officials charged with that duty refuse to do so."

Fortunately the process is being expedited, but don't expect a decision on this matter any time soon.  It seems that there is light on the horizon for the Prop 8 opponents - with a little more time, gay and lesbian couples will no longer be formally discriminating against by the government.  Better late than never.


In other news, the Hawai'i legislature approved civil unions today for same-sex couples, and the Governor plans to sign the bill.  This brings the tally up to 10 states that offer domestic partnership and 5 states plus Washington DC that allow same-sex marriage.  It's a long road, but we'll get there eventually. 

Empty the Clip

Tea Party Jesus is keeping politician comments in perspective.  Alabama Senator Scott Beason recently said this about the topic of illegal immigration:

Really?  Empty the clip?  A gun reference that suggests firing all ammunition at immigrants until the weapon is empty?  How can this person be serious? Such bigoted comments should be exposed, and voters in Alabama should vote for "the other guy" in the next election.

If you're not familiar with the work over at TPJ, the author takes quotes from religious conservatives (usually Christian) and puts them in the mouth of Jesus - because conservatives think they're following Jesus' way of life, TPJ switches the character speaking the words and let's the reader decide if it's something Jesus would do.  It doesn't take twelve years of Sunday school to know that Jesus would never say "Empty the clip, and do what has to be done."

Obama *is* Jesus

It's amazing how hypocritical many religious conservatives are, especially the evangelical Christian variety.  In fact, shouldn't the phrase "conservative Christian" be an oxymoron?  In what way would Jesus have been a conservative?  I mean, really.  The number of Christians who go to church and hear/read about the Beattitudes in the book Matthew are oftentimes the ones who go out and vote to disenfranchise groups of underprivileged people - is that really what Jesus would do?  The website Tea Party Jesus has done a fantastic job at revealing the hypocrisy of religious conservatives by taking old images of Jesus in many different settings and putting words in his mouth that are spoken from religious conservatives - it's hard not to cry sometimes at how abject the hypocrisy seems.

Of course, conservatives also like to turn our current president, Barack Obama, into a scary Marxist monster.  Conservatives have accused Obama of being too dark-skinned/muslim (the same thing in conservative speak), too socialist, too peace-making, and wanting to "give" away healthcare to the poor.  Religious politicians from the right have attempted character assassination, implying redistribution of wealth and universal healthcare to be terrible ideals ... of course, they think they know what Jesus would do.  This picture pretty  much summarizes my thoughts on the matter:

It's Natural

In my limited experience, this is still the most effective argument to win people over and get them to understand that homosexual desires are as natural as fruit bat blow jobs during copulation or male Right Whales double penetrating a female under the midday sun.  Via wickedgayblog:

Chik-Fil-Gay

Chik-Fil-A likes people to eat their chicken, but probably not if they're gays.  It's no secret that they're more Christian than other fast food chains.  They've been in the news recently for supporting antigay politicians in Pennsylvania, and the company gave money to the antigay group Focus on the Family in 2009.

This time they're excluding gay couples from a counseling camp in Rome, Georgia.  Chik-Fil-A funds the WinShape foundation which sponsors couples retreats for both unwed and married couples.

The foundation was asked if gay couples could attend and their response was (via Good as you Blog):

"WinShape Retreat defines marriage from the Biblical standard as being between one man and one woman. Groups/individuals are welcome who offer wholesome, educational conferences and programs that are compatible with Biblical values and WinShape's purpose."

In a follow up response Chik-Fil-A directly indicated that they do not accept homosexual couples at the retreat according to their contract.

Surprise, surprise: a Christian funded group is excluding gays from their couples oriented activities.  Which part of this is "hate the sin, not the sinner" mentality that I grew up with in the South?  Besides, Jesus never had a girlfriend.  And we all know that a man who's in his thirties but has never gotten laid is probably as gay as the day is long - especially if he wasn't laid by age thirty in the year 30 BCE, when people were marrying at age 12.  I know that god must have a soft-spot for gays anyhow - King David, one of god's favorites, had a raging hard-on for Jonathon for like half of the old testament.  Plus, god makes rainbows.  Ergo, god is gay.

So, biblical standard is what is important, right?  Chik-Fil-A wants to keep gay couples out because the bible says so?  Then maybe they should stop and think about whether or not they should abide by any more of the rules set forth in the old testament (or New Testament for that matter).  I bet they would let divorced couples attend the meeting - and it's clear that divorce is frowned upon.

But of course Chik-Fil-A doesn't care about this because their reasoning is not sound - it's just an excuse to bolster their own cultural discomfort in failing to understand something that's foreign to them.  You could try to reason with them, but I have learned in my old 27-years of existence that you're best not to do that: you can't reason someone out of something that they didn't reason themselves into in the first place.

Show me on the map where religion touched you

Who would have thought that dogmatic celibacy could be a bad thing??? Well, when people use it as cover for sexual deviancy, perhaps it could at least be re-evaluated as a practice. Unless you're the catholic church.

Deliver us from evil is a movie that explores the depraved indifference the catholic church has for the ill-effects its pedophile clergy has on parish members and their children.

You should visit the website. It's replete with a US map indicating the number of catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct. It's quite shocking to see. Makes you think twice about leaving your child at an after school day care run by a religious organization. The poor assumption that it's safe to leave your son or daughter with a man of the cloth simply because they are a member of the clergy is shown to be an incredibly poor assumption in this movie.



And if you're feeling particularly good about the human race and need to be brought down a couple of notches, you should hear what head of the catholic league, Bill Donahue, had to say about the recent atrocities reported out of Ireland, perpetrated by clergy of the Irish catholic church.

Fortunately my morals do not come out of religion, so I am able to see how inhumane these acts are, even if Bill Donahue cannot.

Religion Kills

How about a handgun with your Sunday morning coffee and salutation in the pews? The NYTimes has reported that Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in the middle of the church he was attending. Why? No one is quite sure, except he is a well known doctor who performs late-term abortions, but always within legal limits.

Where did this take place? Wichita, Kansas ... are you surprised? Probably not. He had been persecuted before, even shot in both arms yet recovered from the wounds. He had also been investigated by a citizen-initiated grand jury, according to the article.

I wonder if we'll see outcry from the catholic or protestant (any denomination) church as to the death of this man. Or will any claim that this is divine retribution for his career choice? If it were in my power I would prosecute the perpetrator with a hate crime. When separation of church and state cannot be maintained because of vigilantism, secular and social judgment should be swift and severe.

Non-smoing Tobacco State

It's official - WRAL.com has reported that today, Gov. Beverly Perdue signed a bill into law making it illegal to smoke in almost all restaurants and bars (private clubs and cigar bars are exempt).

Hooray for finally catching up, and protecting our citizens from about the only thing that the medical profession has definitively shown time and again has major detrimental effects. Of all the medical studies, research assignments, and lab experiments, nothing is as clear cut as the negative side effects from smoking. I understand that our state was built on tobacco money, but it's nice to see that we've caught up and begun to move past it.

Now, if we could just get them to take the anti-sodomy laws off the books ...

It's funny cuz it's true

Please, PLEASE let's not have to lie about science for political purposes this time around ... well, at least not as much.

Enimas

Today our nation celebrates the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and in tandem we will celebrate the inauguration of our new president, Barack Obama, tomorrow at noon.

In lab today we were chatting about the preparations for the main event, and our attention had been caught by an article from slate.com mentioning that FOUR different pastors/preachers would be giving sermons/homilies during the festivities.

Is all of that really necessary? The religious figures run the political spectrum from right (Rick Warren) to left (Joseph Lowery) to far left (V. Gene Robinson and Sharon Watkins). But they all still include their magical superstitions, regardless of political affiliation. Where's the atheist who represents reason and sensibility?

I thought our nation had a separation of church and state based on the establishment clause of the constitution. I respect those who have morally sound life philosophies, but to constantly credit a magic man for the motivation seems incredibly childish. Why won't these people just grow up?

And lest we forget the long-term damage true believers can do - Jerry Falwell for example. If only there were a hell for him to burn in. So much hate and bigotry came from that one person, who claimed faith in a paternalistic, ego-maniacal, narcissistic god. My lab mates and I agreed that Christopher Hitchens put it best with his *very* last comment in this riled up interview on FoxNews that took place right after Falwell's death and which is shown below: "If you gave Falwell an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox."

Anti-science Brought to you by: The Republicans

Last week Christopher Hitchens published a fantastic article entitled "Sarah Palin's War on Science." This topic surfaced as a result of a pointedly ignorant remark by Sarah Palin (the VP nominee for the Republican party) that, "sometimes these dollars, they go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit-fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not." Watch it here.

As a scientist, it's hard to stomach this sort of anti-science attitude, particularly because of the ignorance of the statement. The fruit-fly is one of the foundational research models to study human disease, including disorders such as fragile X syndrome, autism, immune function, sexuality, etc.

This is the VP of a candidate who has denounced spending on grizzly DNA research and projectors for planetariums as "unbelievable." Hitchens summarizes it best:

Scientific American pointed out, there is no way to enforce the Endangered Species Act without getting some sort of estimate of numbers, and the best way of tracking and tracing the elusive grizzly is by setting up barbed-wire hair-snagging stations that painlessly take samples from the bears as they lumber by and then running the DNA samples through a laboratory. The cost is almost trivial compared with the importance of understanding this species, and I dare say the project will yield results in the measurement of other animal populations as well, but all McCain could do was be flippant and say that he wondered whether it was a "paternity" or "criminal" issue that the Fish and Wildlife Service was investigating. (Perhaps those really are the only things that he associates in his mind with DNA.)

Again, Palin has been a past advocate of the idea that global warming doesn't exist, and even if it did, humans aren't responsible. Now on the campaign trail she's said that it doesn't matter what caused it, just that we try to fix it ... what a dumbass thing to say.

And that brings me, yet again, to the things that Gov. Palin DOES believe in - and for that, I'll leave you with Hitchens once more:

Videos taken in the Assembly of God church in Wasilla, Alaska, which she used to attend, show her nodding as a preacher says that Alaska will be "one of the refuge states in the Last Days." For the uninitiated, this is a reference to a crackpot belief, widely held among those who brood on the "End Times," that some parts of the world will end at different times from others, and Alaska will be a big draw as the heavens darken on account of its wide open spaces.

High points, also available on YouTube, show her being "anointed" by an African bishop who claims to cast out witches. The term used in the trade for this hysterical superstitious nonsense is "spiritual warfare," in which true Christian soldiers are trained to fight demons. Palin has spoken at "spiritual warfare" events as recently as June. And only last week the chiller from Wasilla spoke of "prayer warriors" in a radio interview with James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who said that he and his lovely wife, Shirley, had convened a prayer meeting to beseech that "God's perfect will be done on Nov. 4."

Haven't we had enough of religious fundamentalism and anti-science (not to mention anti-reason) in the white house? I'm with Christopher on this one: "On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity."

Not a moment too soon ...

It's been such wonderful weather lately - I was wearing shorts and t-shirts just last week before the temperature took a turn for the colder. Halloween is almost upon us, then the election (don't forget to vote!), then I'll teach a Saturday for Duke TIP, then the Graduate Student Symposium when Dr. Robert M. Hazen comes to talk about his origins of life research, then Thanksgiving, then our big choir concert, then finals, then some gift shopping, and finally a little christmas time with family. And right on time (about 2 weeks before Halloween) Rev. Donald Wildmon is starting his 'fight' to take back christmas!

That's right, we can't even get to "trick or treat" before we have to hear conservative wingnuts complain about the infamous and imaginary 'attack-on-christmas' propaganda. Rob Boston said it best in his blog entry:

Some stores, aware that not all of their customers celebrate Christmas, use a generic greeting. No one is trying to offend you or ruin your holiday. In fact, if you are really bothered by the type of holiday greeting you receive from a drug-store clerk in December, I'd like to suggest that you need to ask Santa to bring you a life.

Does anyone seriously think Christmas is under assault in the United States? Retailers certainly don't. In fact, they are starting to panic. Worried that the economic downturn might reduce spending this year, retailers are looking for ways to boost Christmas spirit - and sales. I imagine big corporations will instruct their employees to use any greeting possible if it will encourage more buying.

And therein lies the problem. Wildmon and his obsessive Religious Right pals continue to fixate on the use of the phrase "Merry Christmas," as if store workers' by-rote repetition of it will somehow cause Americans to infuse the holiday with more religious meaning. (It reminds me of how the Religious Right persists in believing that 30 seconds of watered-down, generic prayer in public school every day will make kids more devout.) Wildmon is looking at the business community to make Christmas more religious - the business community!

The 'Rev.' Wildmon is from the American Family Association. To fight back against the war on christmas they employed the use of ... buttons! Indeed, there are buttons and glossy stickers of all different sizes (and different prices for that matter) that you can buy to push back against the evil-doers who might be inclined to say 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry christmas' to be more inclusive of strangers they might meet.

In the words of the 'Rev.':

It's hard to believe that there are companies and individuals who want to ban "Merry Christmas" and replace it with "Holiday Greetings" because, they say, they don't want to offend anyone.

It gets better:

Christians can take a stand and proclaim to our communities that Christmas is not just a winter holiday focused on materialism, but a "holy day" when we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We can do it in a gentle and effective way by wearing the “It’s OK to say Merry Christmas” button.

But fighting back isn't free:

Purchase enough buttons for each member of your church and enough Glossy Stickers for each family to have one to go on their automobile. Urge your fellow members to wear their buttons and display the Glossy Stickers during the entire Christmas season.

If you are unable to sponsor your church yourself, ask your Sunday School class to make it a class project. You can even order buttons and Glossy Stickers to share with co-workers, children in Christian schools, customers, etc.

And for any of you nay-sayers who think that asking big-business to stop being so inclusive of everyone by wearing buttons won't work:

Some might think simply wearing a button or displaying a Glossy Sticker is a small thing, but God can use small things to make a big point, and to create opportunities to share the Good News. And what a great time to do that at Christmas!

That's right, is there anything god, zeus, athena, thor, apollo, ra, purple spaghetti monster, etc. can't do?

In response to their button, I'd like to offer my own:

Evolution is ... Jewish?

One of my friends sent me a link this week to a website that exposes a particularly sinister PAC called the 'Fair Education Foundation.' Upon initial examination you might suspect that this is some sort of joke, but after careful scrutiny you'll find that the people behind it are quite serious.

It turns out that this particular exposure is a little dated (from Feb of 2007) but worth an entry on my blog for the sake of demonstrating the kind of kooks you can find trying to tamper with our government.

The following is a memo purportedly sent from the office of Ben Bridges (R-Cleveland, GA) and concerns how to combat the teaching of evolution in the public school science classroom:
Particularly interesting is the strategy: since creationism and intelligent design (ID) can't be taught in the science classroom because of their religious agenda, Mr. Bridges will attempt to make evolution the agenda of Judaism. I'm sure they would love to live in this fantasy world where they can defeat evolution/science while also scoring points against another rival religion. Too bad this is one of the most absurd ideas and would never fly in a court of law.

Overlooking the apparent anti-semitism, the supporting evidence that is offered is the best part of the whole ordeal. The actual website for the PAC also includes further information about our planet and universe. Specifically they suggest 'evidence' for the idea that our planet does not revolve around the sun, but that it is suspended motionlessly in space by magnets ... magnets that were placed by god, no less:

So the take home message is that according to the Fair Education Foundation not only is evolution a lie from a cult Jewish sect, but the heliocentric model of our solar system is blatantly incorrect - all evidenced by scriptures from the christian bible.

It's sad that they believe this - though it's even more depressing that while Ben Bridges denies issuing this memo, claims to support it more than he would 'evolutionism' or 'big bangism.' To be exact he says, "I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory,” ... “I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?"

He is a state REPRESENTATIVE! Well, why would we expect someone who graduated from Barber College to actually understand basic 7th grade science?

Ontological, Schmontological!

Well, the final presidential debate is over, and not a moment too soon. I'm so tired of stump speeches, negative campaigning, and cliché pandering I could almost go vote for Ron Paul ... almost. If all else fails, we can just get Joe the Plumber to run our country.

At the very least it would be nice to listen to a real debate. If I wanted to hear weak arguments employing poor logic that is essentially lost in semantics or word play, I'd go listen to a religious believer or deist try to convince me of god's existence using a classic ontological argument.

So, why is the ontological argument so silly? For starters, it's essentially a tautology - an argument that takes as a premise its own conclusion. Let's examine one of the more classic interpretations:

1) By definition, God is perfect and thus greater than anything a human being could imagine.
2) If you can imagine something, it would be 'better' or 'more perfect' if that imaginary thing were actually real.
3) Therefore God must exist.

Confused yet? It's saying that if you try and imagine a 'God', he's probably perfect (meaning lots of fun things like awesome, good, the best). The twist (and assumption) is that if you can imagine something incredibly crazy cool, wouldn't it be that much COOLER if what you imagine actually came true?! If 'God' is perfect, and a perfect real thing is better than a perfect imaginary thing, then by the definition that perfect is more perfect in reality 'God' must be real.

This is as much word play as it is anything else. The base assumption that something perfect is 'more perfect' if it is actually real rather than imaginary seems to us (in modern days) a very unwarranted assumption. I reckon that many years ago it did not seem so odd.

More importantly, if we were to apply this logic to other ideas many people would find it laughable. Take Santa Claus for example (SPOILER ALERT!). Santa Claus is a fictitious character (hope you knew that already) that is a part of many cultures - at least, most of you who read this will think that. But I'm sure someone out there will claim that, in fact, Kris Kringle is as real as you and me, and he has amazing powers at Christmas time. You might say that that someone out there is crazy. Until that someone looks you in the eye and says "Santa Claus is perfect/the best/awesome at delivering gifts to everyone at Christmas time." By the logic laid forth above, Santa Claus must be real since the mere construction of the belief in this kind of perfection dictates its reality ... by definition! We have our tautology and with that, we can begin to imagine all sorts of crazy things into existence. Go ahead, try it! I've always wanted a pink-eared, fuzzy-bottomed, lion-tailed, ostrich-winged goldfish as a pet.

If you want a really great explanation/discussion of this ancient play on words, visit the skeptics guide to the universe and download podcast #80.

Now, if only I could find a politician who could even explain what the ontological argument IS, much less refute it, I would at least feel comforted knowing the intellectual capacity of the person running my government is better than a bush. If I cannot have a more skeptical candidate, at least I can have HOPE.

Fake Religion Fakery

Twenty-one days until the presidential election, and both campaigns are out in full force. Currently the news looks disheartening for McCain as he's seen a big drop in poll numbers recently:


Social conservatives don't like the fact that they are about to lose their hold on the American government and have been showing their distaste accordingly:

The incompetence is running amok this election year ... though I'm not inclined to believe it's ignorance any more. Citizens motivated enough towards political activism (in this case organizing, making posters, and protesting) generally check their facts before writing on the white board. Even a cursory glance at the news online or on television would indicate the fallacies of this protest poster. This sort of display is less an example of ignorance to the facts as much as it is intellectually dishonest about the facts ... a much more dangerous sin.

I believe FiveThirtyEight.com said it best, "Just to be clear, we at FiveThirtyEight are against Muslim-murdering Presidential Christian babies !FOR! Ohio." And I here at 'A Journey to Reason' blogspot am against intellectual dishonesty and the propagation of false ideas.

The marriage of Hitchens and ... Obama?

Worlds colliding for me today - Christopher Hitchens, one of my idols for critical thinking and independent inquiry, has just today endorsed the Obama-Biden ticket. While I agree with Hitchens in many realms, politics is not usually one of them as he considers himself a neo-conservative. One thing is for sure though; I may not agree with him, but his positions are very well thought out, intellectually honest, and defended with great vigor. I'm pleased to see that he is now supporting a candidate that I also believe to be the best choice.

His characterization of the McCain campaign's current predicament and national spotlight attention is quite keen:

Last week's so-called town-hall event showed Sen. John McCain to be someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience.

Mr. Hitchens does not coat any argument with even the slightest bit of sugar. Here's what he has to say about Palin:

I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed.

His arguments are pointed and frankly undeniable in most cases. The point with which I disagree is that he wishes the election could end post-haste as to save them more disgrace. I openly admit that I'd like to see this part of the campaign drag on - it's time for dirty campaign rhetoric to be exposed as the filthy manipulation that it is. With enough media attention to the non-sequiters and attack ads that McCain-Palin have hurled, I hope we could shore up enough embarrassment to last us at least two more elections in the future - maybe more.

The constant fear-mongering that is put out by the republican party must come to an end. Only when people realize that voting out of fear is not the best method to choose wisely will we be able to clearly rationalize a path into the future.

As for now - let the topsy-turvey worlds unite ... Christopher Hitchens for Obama!