Religion & Law

Revisionist Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2008
Just to follow up on the excerpt from The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford I posted, here is a commentary by one A.W.R. Hawkins, a columnist for Human Events (an outlet that seems to think Ann Coulter is a serious political voice):It's Christmas time but Christmas cheer isn't abounding as it did when we were kids...

More War on Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2008
Here is an excerpt of an excerpt from The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford, available at the NPR website:... There were no Christmas cards in 1843 England [when Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol], no Christmas trees at royal residences or White Houses, no Christmas turkeys, no department-store Santa or his million clones, no outpouring of "Yuletide greetings," no weeklong cessation of business affairs through the New Year, no orgy of gift-giving, no ubiquitous public display of nativity scenes (or court fights regarding them), no holiday lighting extravaganzas, and no plethora of midnight services celebrating the birth of a savior...

Ridin' the Range

Posted on December 25, 2008
The National Center for Science Education is reporting that the third draft of Texas's proposed new science standards has removed the latest version of the "strengths and weaknesses" language that is an obvious ploy for injecting creationism into public schools...

Holiday Prayer

Posted on December 24, 2008
A loved one is going through a difficult illness and, on top of the big issues, some smaller, but not insignificant, annoyances, exacerbated by bureaucrats, have cropped up to make matters worse ... okay, making the bureaucrat squirm was a minor consolation...

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Bah!

Posted on December 23, 2008
Because of life's circumstances I may not be posting for a while.Merry Christmas!Happy Chanukah!Cheery Kwanzaa!Super Solstice!Happy Monkey!Special Saturnalia!Happy Holidays!.

Bleedin' Choir Invisibile

Posted on December 22, 2008
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Year's Gifts

Posted on December 21, 2008
.National Geographic has a list of the "Top Ten Dinosaur & Fossil Finds" of 2008:10. "Amazing" Dinosaur Trove Discovered in Utah9. Odd Fish Find Contradicts Intelligent-Design Argument8. PHOTO IN THE NEWS: DNA-Based Neanderthal Face Unveiled7. "Bizarre" New Dinosaur: Giant Raptor Found in Argentina6...

Passages

Posted on December 20, 2008
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Hard on Pants

Posted on December 19, 2008
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It Must Be Somethin' In the Water ...

Posted on December 18, 2008
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Don't Let the Door ?

Posted on December 17, 2008
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As Others See You

Posted on December 16, 2008
A thought:[The following are] the ideal assumptions of anti-intellectualism. Intellectuals, it may be held, are pretentious, conceited, effeminate; snobbish; and very likely immoral, dangerous, and subversive. The plain sense of the common man, especially if tested by success in some demanding line of practical work, is an altogether adequate substitute for, if not actually much superior to, formal knowledge and expertise acquired in the schools...

IQuestions

Posted on December 16, 2008
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Not Perfect Yet

Posted on December 15, 2008
Here we go again with more evidence of what is in store for Texas children if the creationist wing(nuts) of the State Board of Education get their way. Ken Mercer is a member of the SBOE and here is what he thinks the "weaknesses" of evolutionary theory are:The controversial "macro" evolution was commonly understood as those major changes that could occur if one species jumped to another...

This Explains a Lot

Posted on December 15, 2008
David Klinghoffer is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. He has an Op-Ed piece in the Los Angeles Times that, among other things, makes this extraordinary statement:The latest scientific theory holds that particular brain functions evolved for purposes suited to the survival of the species, but then got "hijacked" by religious and other supernatural beliefs...

Dangerous Fool

Posted on December 15, 2008
Mark Chu-Carroll has an excellent must-read post on why Dr. Michel Egnor's blather about evolution being useless in medical practice because natural selection is supposedly a tautology ("what survives, survives") is not only wrong, it would be, even if true, only trivially so and why Egnor's misrepresentations, on the other hand, are not themselves trivial and must be constantly and forcefully opposed...

Catchup

Posted on December 14, 2008
Because of the recent need to replace my computer, and the general havoc it has caused, I have been slow in my blog perusing. I have managed to be late to reading several good posts on Dr. Steven Novella's Neurologica Blog:Dr. Steve follows up on his "Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part I ? Background" with "Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part II ? Creationism...

Firing Squad

Posted on December 14, 2008
Heh! Ed Brayton notes that the Washington State Department of General Administration has declared a moratorium for exhibits and displays in the Legislative Building:[A]ll pending applications - including one for a Festivus pole - an homage to the made-up holiday featured in the comedy series "Seinfeld" - have been put on hold until the department completes a review of the current policy for exhibits and displays in the Legislative Building...

Siege Mentality

Posted on December 14, 2008
According to Misty Upton, "Christians are under siege again."Why? Because people dare to say there is no God ... gasp ... in public![T]he American Humanist Association is launching an ad campaign appearing on Washington, D.C. buses. The ads read, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake...

Educational Malpractice

Posted on December 13, 2008
What's wrong with this Op-Ed piece about the upcoming curriculum fight in Texas?:In response to the Express-News editorial of 12/1 ("Don't Water Down Science Curriculum") we at San Antonio Bible Based Sciences Association would like to ask how you can water down a curriculum which is almost exclusively evolution already by changing the wording which has existed in the curriculum for many years? Also, no creationist organization in this state is trying to insert new language, change the evolutionary science curriculum of this state or insert creationism in any way during this adoption cycle...

The Party of Lincoln Hoover

Posted on December 12, 2008
Um ... why did the short-term rescue of US automakers fail?[Sen. Bob] Corker [Rep. KY.] said he proposed that wages and benefits of U.A.W. members be competitive with lower rates at American plants run by foreign rivals ? Toyota, Honda, Nissan and B.M...

Hoisting the Holidays

Posted on December 12, 2008
Concerning the continuing contretemps in the Capitol of Washington State, Ed Brayton has pointed out that the Governor has no choice but to allow access to the atheist group due to a settlement the state made last year in a suit brought by the conservative Christian Alliance Defense Fund...

Let the Games Begin!

Posted on December 11, 2008
This should be interesting:A Kansas-based church that has blamed deaths in Iraq on U.S. tolerance of homosexuality has asked Gov. Chris Gregoire's office to approve a "Santa Claus will take you to Hell" message to display among other religious statements in the Capitol's third-floor hallway...

Thinking Design

Posted on December 11, 2008
Here?s an interesting article by Hania Köver for the Berkeley Science Review entitled ?The psychology of teleology.? It is a brief report on a study by Berkeley psychologist Tania Lombrozo on why some people find teleological explanations, such as Intelligent Design Creationism, so compelling...

Poll Cats

Posted on December 10, 2008
The Harris Poll released a new nationwide survey of 2,126 U.S. adults surveyed online between November 10 and 17, 2008. Some of the results:-- 80% of adult Americans believe in God - unchanged since the last time we asked the question in 2005. Large majorities of the public believe in miracles (75%), heaven (73%), angels (71%), that Jesus is God or the Son of God (71%), the resurrection of Jesus (70%), the survival of the soul after death (68%), hell (62%), the Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary) (61%) and the devil (59%)...

Of Birds, Feathers and Flocks

Posted on December 09, 2008
Mike Dunford of The Questionable Authority has a bit of a (justifiable) rant about the lack of honesty of Dr. Michael Egnor, The Discoveryless Institute?s brainless surgeon. Perhaps, in the end, what is most notable about Mike?s post is the fact that, once circumstances were pointed out to him that suggest that the example from Egnor's article he was particularly focusing on might have been the result of sloppiness on Egnor?s part (a peculiar trait for a neurosurgeon) rather than the result of malice, Mike acknowledged it immediately, though Mike still thinks Egnor is ethically challenged...

Navel Observatory

Posted on December 09, 2008
.In an exercise with more than a little midrift gazing, Australian astronomer Dave Reneke, who is also news editor of Sky and Space magazine, has announced yet another candidate for the ?Star of Bethlehem.? Using a computer program to map the night sky as it would have appeared over the Holy Land more than 2,000 years ago and using Matthew's Gospel as a reference, he pinpointed the slightly inconvenient date of June 17 in the year 2 BCC as when:"Venus and Jupiter became very close ...

Cracker in Training

Posted on December 08, 2008
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Surprise, Surprise

Posted on December 08, 2008
The Supreme Court has refused to hear an emergency appeal from Leo Donofrio of New Jersey, who claims President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible for the office because he had dual nationality at birth, since his mother was American and his father was a British subject from Kenya and, therefore, he cannot be a "natural born citizen...

Please Stand By

Posted on December 07, 2008
. Because of technical difficulties, I've had to replace my computer and I expect it will take some time before I can become proficient on the new one. Therefore, I expect posts may be somewhat sparce for a few days at least. We apologize for any inconvenience...

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