(Thanks to Cathie for sending this in.)

So much for the RCC’s clear support of Darwin. Is this gonna get ugly?

Pope to grapple with Darwin

Benedict to brainstorm with ‘Creationism row’ cardinal

(ANSA) – Rimini, August 24 – Pope Benedict XVI is to brainstorm on evolution with a top theologian accused of championing controversial theories that rubbish Darwin.

The theologian, Vienna Archbishop Christoph Schoenborn, announced the September 1-3 session at a Catholic rally this week where he reaffirmed his belief that the universe could not have come about in a random way .

However, this time Schoenborn was keen to stress that so-called ‘intelligent design’ – a subject of massive controversy in the United States – did not rule out some element of “the unplanned” .

“The alternative to the process of pure chance is not absolute determinism but rather the interaction between the actions of creatures and the divine creator who sustains their actions,” Schoenberg told the influential conservative Catholic youth movement Comunione e Liberazione .

The closed-door think-in at the pope’s summer residence of Castelgandolfo is expected to nail down a firmer position on evolution, which has been keenly debated since Pope John Paul II’s famous pronouncement that Darwinism was “not just a theory” .

The Church has been accused of sending mixed signals, with Schoenberg’s views being challenged by prominent Catholic scientists and some theologians. Schoenborn, a former university pupil of the pope’s, grabbed headlines a year ago with a New York Times editorial seen as backing moves to teach intelligent-design theories alongside Darwinism .

This week the prelate said his NYT article had been misconstrued but admitted that it had been a little too “cut-and-dried,” laying it open to misinterpretation .

Supporters of intelligent design (ID) pounced on the article in their fight to win intellectual credibility for a theory most scientists see as Creationism – the core Bible story – dressed up to gain bogus respectability .

In response to Schoenborn’s blast against Darwinism, the director of the Vatican Observatory, Father George Coyne, said critics of evolutionary theory underestimated God’s willingness to give “freedom” to Nature .

The Baltimore-born Jesuut, 73, who has just stepped down after 28 years at the helm of the Vatican’s flagship science programme, rapped Schoenborn for “underestimating” the US context in which he was speaking and branded Creationism as “a religious movement devoid of all scientific basis” .

Schoenborn responded by clarifying his position, saying that evolution as a body of scientific fact was compatible with Catholicism, but that evolution as an ideological dogma that denied design and purpose in Nature was not. In the months that followed, the Vatican newspaper ran a piece by another leading Catholic scientist who said ID wasn’t science .

Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, said teaching it alongside evolutionary theory only creates confusion .

Like Coyne, Facchini said ID should be confined to religion classes .

On Wednesday Schoenborn – a media-friendly intellectual heavyweight tipped by many to get the job that eventually fell to Benedict – steered clear of where such theories should be taught .

But he stressed that more attention should be given to the holes in Darwin’s theory, “which (Darwin) himself recognised and regretted” .

“The open questions of the theory of evolution should be exposed” rather than pushing Darwinism as the explanation for how life developed, the cardinal said .

In a veiled reference to Coyne, Schoenberg also cast doubt on the propriety of a religious figure coming out in favour of Darwinism .

Coyne, who is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer, has been forced to quit because of the pressures of work at a prestigious astronomy lab that has offshoots all over the world, including Arizona in the US .

Shortly before filing his retirement request this month, the stargazer penned an article for the authoritative science monthly Newton in which he said “God isn’t a designer and life is the fruit of billions of attempts” .

“People who want to see designers…should go to Milan or, if they’re looking for engineers, to Dubai where they’re building a whole new city,” Coyne wrote. The Vatican has denied a report in the London-based Daily Mail that the ailing prelate was “removed” because he had “irritated” the pope .

Benedict – who taught Schoenborn at Regensburg in Germany before becoming the Vatican’s dogma watchdog, his previous job – was last heard on the subject on World Youth Day in April .

He told his young audience in St Peter’s that “science supports a reliable, intelligent structure of matter, the design of Creation” .

Schoenborn will be joined under his old master’s wing at Castelgandolfo by other former pupils of the pope including a Jesuit professor of philosophy, Paul Elbrich, and political philosopher Robert Spaemann .

In December a US local court ruled against the teaching of ID alongside the theory of evolution .

Several US states teach the theory, claiming it is as credible as Darwinism. Supporters of ID hold that some features of the universe and living things are so complex they must have been designed by a higher intelligence .

Critics say ID is merely camouflaged Creationism .

They say it does not belong in science curriculum .

On August 29th, Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism will participate in a moderated, non-partisan dialogue with Phil Burress of the Citizens for Community Values.
Mr. Burress openly takes credit for the 2004 Bush Ohio win through having gotten out the Religious Right vote based on his efforts to place the Marriage Amendment on the ballot. He remains a key figure in the movement, both statewide and nationally.

When: Tuesday, August 29 7:00 p.m.
Where: The Cintas Center at Xavier University
Sponsored by: The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue
and UnderOneTent.org

I don’t think it’s possible for Phil Burress to be nonpartisan but, having read Michelle Goldberg’s wonderful book over the weekend, I’m quite confident she’ll hold her own. If you haven’t read “Kingdom Coming”, you owe it to yourself to do so. Shit, I almost forgot the entire purpose of this post.

You can listen to this event here.

I was just gonna taunt you all with the fact that I’m going but I figured that wasn’t fair. Maybe I’ll yell out “God Is For Suckers!” really loud in the middle of one of Phil’s homophobic rants.

Totally unrelated to anything — except the fact that George Bush deserves constant abuse… Time to revisit the most raunchy thing the Daily Show has ever done. Not safe for work without headphones!

Sean did a story on this guy a while back, and it seems he just won’t go away:

Committee says Darby not welcome in Alabama Democratic Party

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Democratic Party Executive Committee wants Larry Darby, whose radical views include the belief that the Holocaust did not happen, to stay out of future Democratic Party primaries. [...] Darby made headlines during the campaign when he denied that millions of Jews died in the Holocaust during World War II. He also called for martial law and the posting of troops on intersstate highways entering Alabama to check for illegal immigrants.

Look, Larry, don’t go away mad. Just go away.

And, in other news (just in case anyone was starting to feel optimistic)…

75% in Arkansas, Alabama believe Bible literally true

When I read this stuff, I’m often reminded of that cool quote from Sam Harris:

Some 46 percent of Americans take a literalist view of creation [...]. This means that 120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer.

I’ve stopped by your little web site here on the International Earth Internets to clear up a few things.

Sectarianism among my dozens of flocks was amusing my somewhat malicious, superior mind until recently. Now it hath begun to piss me off.

Firstly, let’s take this place you called Iraq, which I intentionally tried to convince through thetawave transmissions to the French and British colonialists should be called “I Rock”, after the future form of music that I knew would transform the world (through my disappointment of a second son, “Kid Rock”).

Here is the situation in Iraq:The Shiite faith of “Imamah” implies that after the Prophet (pbuh), there shall be no other prophet, but the only true leader of the Muslims, at any given time, is an “Imam” who, like the prophets of God, is directly appointed by God. The appointment of the first “Imam” was made by God through the last Prophet (pbuh), while every subsequent “Imam” is appointed through the “Imam”, who precedes him. Another qualification of the “Imam”, according to the Shiite belief is that he shall belong to the family of the last Prophet (pbuh). The Shiite belief holds that the “Imams”, like the prophets of God, are “ma`soom” (sinless, innocent) and, therefore, should be obeyed in all matters and under all circumstances. The “Imams”, according to the Shiite faith, are thus not just the political leaders of the Muslims but also their religious leaders and clergy. The Sunni school, on the other hand, does not ascribe to any such belief.

This may, at first sight, seem to be a trivial difference between the two schools. However, a close analysis reveals that it amounts to a difference in the basic sources of religion and religious knowledge information and directives for the two schools. The Sunni school, because of its lack of belief in the institution of “Imamah” holds the last Prophet of God and the book revealed on him as the two primary sources of Islam, while the Shiite school, because of the importance and position it gives to the “Imams” holds them to be an autonomous source of their religion. Anything that an “Imam” says, anything that he does and anything that he narrates is “religion” for the Shiite school. Differing with an “Imam” in any matter is of about the same consequence as differing with a prophet. Not submitting to the directions of an “Imam” is as grave a sin as refusing to submit to the directions of a prophet of God.

Now… Firstly, I must apologize for all the “pbuhs!” There is something long and stringy in my throat and has been there since this morning.

Look. I am God, and this baffles the fucking hell out of me. Mohammed was kind of a violent idiot, so I let his shit go along for a while like I let most violent shit go along for awhile. Makes for good evening news. But here we are centuries later and these motherfuckers are killing each other for something I don’t understand written in some language I abandoned a long time ago.

Solution #1: Sunni and Shiite Muslims must now immediately throw down all your weapons, walk en masse to the local convenience store, order a beer and “snap yourself a Slim Jim.” If you do not do this, I will burn your brains in hot tar for all eternity.

Next, I hear tell that some dumb Polock posing as a Celt at a Scottish football match, nearly got himself pummeled or stuck in the thumbscrews or some shit for making the sign of the cross during the game. This apparently pisses off some Protestants, so authorities were forced to give him hell for it.

Solution #2: The Protestants are right, start wearing condoms you dumb fucking Catholics. The world has had enough of you filling it up with bloody children you can’t bloody feed.

Solution #3: Protestants make me sick. You’re a religion of intolerance, a pestilence. And I never voted for you. So get lost.

I won’t even go into the various relations between Jews, Muslims and Hindus right now. Even I don’t know how to get them to stop fucking shooting eachother.

Here’s a start, maybe: Bacardi and coke every evening after work. Orgies on Saturdays (with condoms). Dried pork rinds for those that can stomach them. Mandatory hands-on group sex therapy for all.

That will do for now. Get crackin’ right away or I’ll shove a lightning bolt up your ass.

(Thanks to Simon for this one.)

Celtic player gets police caution

Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc has been cautioned for a breach of the peace by police for blessing himself in an Old Firm match at Ibrox in February.

The Crown Office said the procurator fiscal had issued the caution as an alternative to prosecution.

A spokesman explained that Boruc’s actions “included a combination of behaviour before a crowd in the charged atmosphere of an Old Firm match”.

And that the Polish keeper’s behaviour had “provoked alarm and crowd trouble”.

And…

Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church, said the move to caution Boruc was “regrettable”.

He said: “It’s a worrying and alarming development, especially since the sign of the cross is globally accepted as a gesture of religious reverence.

“It’s also very common in international football and was commonplace throughout the World Cup.

“It is extremely regrettable that Scotland seems to have made itself one of the few countries in the world where this simply religious gesture is considered an offence.”

Hey, man. I support the guy’s right to drink the blood of a goat if that’s what gets his game on.

I just wonder if it occurs to anyone that some progressive nations that have been under the yoke of this medieval shite for hundreds of years might actually be getting fed up with it all.

Seems Scotland is to some extent.

Still, does it not again offend free speech? Just telling people to shut the fuck up? There is, I think, a fundamental difference here between how Europeans and Americans view these rights.

As I was reading through our comments, I came across this gem and decided to bring in a second installment of “Fun With Comments.” This week, we have Watcher!!!

I have just a few comments:

Always a good start. Let’s see what Watcher has to say.

1) Creation vs. evolution: I recall being taught in school (’60’s-70’s) that apes evolved into Neandertals then Homosapiens, except for a “missing link” which “will be discovered.”

Now-a-days there are TV documentaries that claim Homosapiens wiped out the Neandertals. Well, maybe Homosapiens did not evolve from apes!??! Hmmm…

Oh my gosh, The Science Channel ran a special discussing whether or not Neanderthal man went extinct or mixed with homo sapiens, this guy saw the commercials for said special, and now he thinks he has disproved evolution. Furthermore, he mentioned that “a missing link” hasn’t been discovered, thereby saying that absence of evidence is evidence of absence.

2) Initial posts referenced the killing of “civilians” or the children. Hezbohla placed those women and children into harm’s way, not Isreal. It is the Islam Fundementalist terror groups that should be the target of everyone’s rage. Those people are evil.

Notice that nowhere does he disagree with the statment that civilians and children are being killed. He simply states that “Hezbohla (sic) placed those women and children into harm’s way” without offering any analysis of Israel’s tactics and whether or not those women and children were guilty of anything other than being Lebanese.

3) Yes, there are alot of believers who feel these are the “end times.” I believe in the Bible and, while I am not a “Bible scholar,” I wish to keep an eye on what is going on, in relation to Biblical revolations. You could say that I am keeping my options open. That sounds like a skeptical christian’s point of view, but oh well…

In other words, I have no inkling of what I believe in but I believe it anyway.

4) I just read a webpage that mentioned how society has turned away from the “absolute truth” of the Bible and how “relative truth” is taking over.

I let someone think for me because it’s easier.

For ages, the Bible has provided the foundation for our deffinition (sic) of good vs. bad. Without a clear reference (that holds consequences) society and the “family unit” appears to be breaking down. Anyone old enough to remember when being gay was a bad thing can understand.

I assume you’ve ignored the statistics which have shown that divorce rates are higher among xians. Furthermore, “being gay” was never ” a bad thing,” just an accepted form of discrimination, much like being black “was a bad thing.”

It does not appear to me that the consequences, of breaking the law (man’s law), i.e.: going to jail, is a sufficient deterent to reduce the wrongs that people commit against each other. There was a time when you could leave your house unlocked and, when you returned, your stuff was still there! There was a time when people would help each other and not be in fear of being sued or something.

What I am getting at is: without an agreed upon, permanent set of rules (i.e.: commandments) for what “truth” is, truth becomes a lie. What is right is only right when or if you want it to be. This sounds like a recipe for destruction.

How exactly does religion allow you to keep your house unlocked? Furthermore, we have an “agreed upon, permanent set of rules,” it’s called the Bill of Rights. “Man’s law” has done more to advance humanity than any commandments, the latter of which only serve to limit our rights as opposed to the former which protect our rights.