Religion & Law

Sermonizing

Posted on December 06, 2008
The ... um ... select few readers of this blog will probably be thoroughly sick or Richard Hofstadter's renowned book, Anti-intellectualism in American Life by the time I get done reading it but this section has a clear lesson for us now:Today the evolution controversy seems as remote as the Homeric era to intellectuals in the East, and it is not uncommon to take a condescending view of both sides...

99% Ape

Posted on December 05, 2008
.This looks good:99% Ape: How evolution adds up, is a new book from the Natural History Museum published last week.The book introduces the topic of evolution, and leading experts at The Open University explain this fundamental yet often complex subject, guiding the reader through the latest evidence...

Future Shock

Posted on December 05, 2008
A thought:By the end of the [19th] century it was painfully clear to fundamentalists that they were losing much of their influence and respectability. One can now discern among them the emergence of a religious style shaped by a desire to strike back against everything modern -- the higher criticism, evolutionism, the social gospel, rational criticism of any kind...

Gob Smacking

Posted on December 04, 2008
Some things in life just have to be filed under "Huh?"James Madison University has a campus club of Freethinkers that meets Wednesday night. Nothing very surprising there. Okay, the fact that a staff member of the JMU Campus Crusade for Christ chapter regularly attends is perhaps a little unusual but if freethinkers can't tolerate opposing views, who can?"I think it's really good that they come," said [Shannon] McKernin, the Freethinkers secretary...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Patoot

Posted on December 04, 2008
Dr. Steven Novella has been deconstructing Dr. Michael Egnor's "logic" again, an exercise with some similarities to going after piscines in a barrel with a quater pound of C-4. Here are the posts by Dr. Steve [one, two].Now Egnor is at it again, this time riffing off a blog post by David Chalmers, a philosopher of mind who argues that consciousness is a non-material but wholly naturalistic phenomenon...

Changing Faces

Posted on December 03, 2008
Marcus du Sautoy is about to take over from Richard Dawkins as Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. The New Scientist has an interview with him, that includes some questions about his predecessor:Will you be as confrontational as [Richard Dawkins] is?I certainly intend to defend science but I see this position as more about helping to create connections with society and scientists, to help encourage dialogue, to involve people in doing science and to get people so excited that they want to become scientists...

Practical Science

Posted on December 02, 2008
I'm reading Richard Hofstadter's Anti-intellectualism in America and it is striking how little has changed in the last 45 years. One thing that seems fresh on Hofstadter's page is the way anti-intellectuals go about the business of marginalizing the life of the mind: The case against intellect is founded upon a set of fictional and wholly abstract antagonisms...

Screamin' Memie

Posted on December 02, 2008
It seems I was too lenient with the last malefactor perpetrating misdememeors in the neighborhood, only arranging for a bit of time at the military's little vacation spa in Cuba. This latest transgressor may need the Qaddafi à la Gipper treatment.In any event, the Five Fifty-Six Meme is supposed to go like this: take the first 10 books you see, open it to page fifty-six, transcribe the fifth sentence, and challenged your readers to guess the books...

Marching Minds

Posted on December 01, 2008
A thought:To those who suspect that intellect is a subversive force in society, it will not do to reply that intellect is really a safe, bland, and emollient thing. In a certain sense the suspicious Tories and militant philistines are right: intellect is dangerous...

Carnival of Elitist Bastards, VII

Posted on December 01, 2008
The November (almost) Carnival of Elitist Bastards is soaking up some caffeine at Café Philos. Here is a sample that particularly tickled my elitist sensibilities:I'm pretty sure I threw something at the TV when I found out that some skid mark was sueing CERN because he was certain that none of the hundreds of trained physicists could possibly have thought about black holes being made in the LHC...

Meaner Than Meme

Posted on November 30, 2008
Despite threats to turn perpetrators of the internet terror known as "memes" in to Fatherla ... um ... Homeland Security and have their sorry asses transported to Gitmo for a little arbeit macht frei, occasionally someone makes the grave error of meming me...

The True Spirit of American Christmas

Posted on November 29, 2008
Not far from where I live:The throng of Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night, filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control, and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order...

A Bibliophile's Celebration of the Winter Solstice

Posted on November 28, 2008
Rob Boston has a post at the blog of Americans United for Separation of Church and State entitled "Good Gifts: Holiday Ideas For The Church-State Separationist On Your List." You can go over there for short descriptions of the books or just look through the links below:Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom by Barry W...

Designing Turkeys

Posted on November 27, 2008
It is particularly appropriate to deal with the newest argument for Intelligent Design today.[T]urkey [is] loaded with the narcotic tryptophan?that stuff that proves to all the stubborn secularists out there that intelligent design is everywhere, if only they had eyes to see...

Giving Thanks

Posted on November 27, 2008
.Happy Thanksgiving to all with hopes that all our friendsaround the world have equal reason to be thankful!.

Liberal Education

Posted on November 26, 2008
Ed Brayton has a couple of posts about conservative Christians blaming education and (shudder) atheistic professors for suicides among their youngsters. One father (via the ever-reliably lunatic WingNutDaily) blames Richard Dawkins for his son's suicide and Dr...

Trading In Texas

Posted on November 25, 2008
Lisa Falkenberg has a good opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle on the whole mess that is the state's Board of Education. First of all, there is this on the motivation of the creationist wing of the Board:"Strengths and weaknesses" is a new buzz phrase that's replaced "creation science" and "intelligent design," and other science curriculum labels that incorporate teachings of faith, which courts have consistently struck down...

Mockup

Posted on November 24, 2008
How come no one told Indy?Though no one knows if Valencia's grail is the true Last Supper chalice, a group of experts says it has tremendous cultural value due to its impact on history and literature.This was affirmed by members of the international congress "Valencia, City of the Holy Grail," focusing on the chalice traditionally associated with the institution of the Eucharist...

Wising Up the Fools

Posted on November 23, 2008
Brian Burgess is upset.[A]s a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University, I was grieved when I read that professors at each of Abilene's "Christian" universities have joined a fundamentalist group bent on destroying academic freedom and banning from public schools scientific data that clearly refutes their dogmas...

Iced Dice

Posted on November 22, 2008
David White has an interesting take on Intelligent Design Creationism from a theist's viewpoint:[C]reationism's familiar yet totally unscriptural chimera of "accidental evolution" now lives on as the centerpiece and all-around bogeyman of intelligent design...

Booking the Perpetrators

Posted on November 21, 2008
Just in case there was any doubt about why the creationists on the Texas State Board of Education are so intent on keeping the "strengths and weaknesses" language (or "strengths and limitations" in it latest cosmetic morph) in the state's science standards, there is this report in the friendly confines of the Baptist Press: [Board Chairman Don] McLeroy has said such statements only add to his desire to put both the pros and cons of evolution into the textbooks for students, allowing high school students to think critically about generally held theories of science and question whether those theories are valid...

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Posted on November 20, 2008
In the first round of hearings in Texas over the new science standards for the public schools there, the overwhelming majority of speakers supported good science education, a fact that did not get by the Texas State Board of Education Chairman: Board Chairman Don McLeroy said the lopsided turnout was part of an orchestrated campaign and flatly dismissed the notion that the board is intent on sabotaging the teaching of evolution in public schools, which would defy the U...

Anti-elitism At Its Finest

Posted on November 20, 2008
Jonathan Saenz of the Free Market Foundation, a group that works to limit government and promote free enterprise and Judeo-Christian values, testifying at the Texas State Board of Education hearings concerning the proposed revisions to the state?s science curriculum:Darwin was from England and Einstein was from Germany...

Public School Faith

Posted on November 20, 2008
This statement by Rabbi Ana Bonnheim, Assistant Director for Education at the Union for Reform Judaism?s Greene Family Camp, delivered at the Texas State Board of Education hearings concerning the proposed revisions to the state?s science curriculum, is worth repeating:?On the surface, teaching about the ?strengths and limitations of scientific explanations?? may not seem like teaching religious beliefs...

Testing ... Testing ...

Posted on November 19, 2008
Bud Kennedy has a good Op-Ed piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, tying the push to foist creationism on Texas public schools to state politics:[Gov. Rick] Perry has said bluntly that he wants so-called intelligent design ? creation theology ? taught in science classes...

Warnings

Posted on November 19, 2008
As reported by Ed Brayton, Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the story about the disappearance of Cynthia Dunbar's commentary accusing Barack Obama of not being eligible to be president and all but plotting with terrorists to attack America so he can declare martial law and wield dictatorial powers...

Whine and Jeez

Posted on November 18, 2008
Well, I said that we should expect another round of whining about how elitist academic Darwinists are stifling the academic freedom of Joe Sixpack and his little packlets. That didn't take long. Robert Crowther is at the Discovery Institute's Ministry of Misinformation boo-hooing about the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund's poll...

Life

Posted on November 18, 2008
One of my near and dear is seriously ill so posting may be somewhat spotty for a while. Do carry on without me if I'm not around as much....

Poll Tex

Posted on November 17, 2008
The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund has arranged to survey science faculty in the state concerning the upcoming battle over the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, curriculum standards that will not only decide what children in the state are taught in public schools but could also decide what biology and other science textbooks are approved by the second largest purchaser of school books in the country, thus potentially effecting science education across the country...

Dreamin' of a White Xmas

Posted on November 17, 2008
From the Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association.Maybe some kind soul should donate one for the White House lawn._____________________________Via Larry Moran and Ed Brayton..

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.