Just a quickie. Found this via Pharyngula. (Hint: Choose the most complicated, illogical, unreasonable option every time; it’s a lot more fun that way!)

Happy 66th birthday, Richard Dawkins!

From the RDhomepage, at RichardDawkins.net, an enigmatic poem from Daniel Dennett:

“Hi, kids, the car is drawn.”
While the kids arch inward,
Raw, rich kids and
I skid ranchward
Hard, sick inward.

“Dick’s in hard war,”
I muse; it makes no sense at all.
Thank goodness for
the evolution of
Richard Dawkins!
He makes sense.

Ann Druyan

My birthday message to you, Richard, is, at least in part, a thank you note — to one who doesn’t blow out the candles and make a wish, but instead, uses his prodigious gifts to keep them lit in the darkness.

Happy birthday, Richard.

With love and admiration,
Ann

There’s much, much more at the above RD link!

Curse not the darkness of ignorance; but instead be you a candle unto the Truth!

Inherit the Wind is one of my favorite all-time movies, and IMO this is one of the best scenes in the history of filmmaking.

Summary from Wikipedia:

Inherit the Wind is a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes Trial (the “Monkey” Trial), which resulted in Scopes’s conviction for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to a high school science class, contrary to a Tennessee state law that mandated the teaching of a form of creationism. The fictional characters of Matthew Harrison Brady, Henry Drummond, Bertram Cates and E.K. Hornbeck correspond to the historical figures of William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, John Scopes, and H.L. Mencken, respectively.

Despite numerous similarities between the play and history, the play was not intended as a documentary-drama about the Scopes trial, but as a warning about the evils of McCarthyism, which some see as one of the darkest moments in American history. The play has been hailed as one of the great American plays of the 20th century, and its themes of religious belief, religious tolerance, and freedom of thought resonate down to the present day.

I have been having a little fun with this. It occurs to me at times that the believers are just about as nuts as anyone can be. I try to give the benefit of doubt to people even if I do not agree with any of their beliefs. And then I read their blog and realize my benefit of doubt was misplaced. Read this from Barnwell about Hagee. If you’re like me you think “Well at least someone isn’t afraid of the thuggish christer Hagee”.

“TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran, and He Wants It Now!”

Here is a short excerpt:

Alas, no matter how many false predictions these guys make, or how many damaging theological and political beliefs they espouse, people continue to follow their dangerous teachings. It’s time for both Christian and non-Christian alike to call this crowd out on their bad theology, false prophecies, and deadly worldview.

Hopefully Hagee is right that 2007 is going to be a significant year in Bible prophecy. It would be significant indeed if Biblical scholars, pastors and laymen finally and at long last rescued the doctrine of eschatology from the doom and destruction crowd of militaristic pretribulationists. Here’s hoping that with each passing year the theology of Hagee and his ilk is exposed for how Biblically inaccurate and destructive it really is.

You can read the full article here:

Maybe we should duct tape each of them to a small rocket and rapture them ourselves and be done with them.

“If Europe won’t have babies for me, I’m leaving!”

An unnamed source at the Vatican has revealed that Pope Benedict XVI is negotiating with George WB Godsend to move the entire Vatican enclave to Washington DC.

After almost 2,000 years in Rome, Italy’s capital, the Pope says it’s time to go where the birthrate is increasing, not decreasing as it is in Old Europe. Both Benedict and his predecessor, JohnPaul II, shared feelings of alarm for the trend of increasingly smaller families in formerly strong Christian countries.

The source says that both parties are agreeable on many issues. But one point is preventing progress: President Godsend has offered the Capitol Building, the historic legislative assembly site, which he has plans to vacate. The Pope, however, is holding out for the entire Mall, from the Capitol building to the Lincoln Memorial, insisting that it also be covered by a mammoth glass dome, which will provide a more “temperate climate nearer Rome, Italy, than Rome, Maine”, the source quoted.

Seriously, read Pope: Europe Losing Faith in Its Future.

In countries like Italy, where many married couples have one or no children, the population is expected to shrink dramatically in a generation or two unless the birth rate increases rapidly. Immigrant populations have generally kept the birth rates from decreasing even more.

And here we are: in 2007, faced with probable global collapse due to overpopulation and this RatBastard wants us to have ever larger families–preferably Catholic!

In his own words:

“One must unfortunately note that Europe seems to be going down a road which could lead it to take its leave from history,”…

Europe’s population trends, “besides putting economic growth at risk, can also cause enormous difficulties for social cohesion, and, above all, favor dangerous individualism, careless about the consequences for the future.”…

“You could almost think that the European continent is in fact losing faith in its own future,”…

“You cannot think of constructing a common European ‘house,’ neglecting the very identity of the peoples of our continent,”…

“that practical attitude, widely diffused today, which systematically justifies compromises on essential human values.”…

Such an attitude could wind up “denying Christians the very right to intervene as such (Christians) in the public debate,”…

Italian church leaders recently urged Catholics to declare themselves conscientious objectors if necessary to avoid any role in policies which contradict the Vatican, including abortion and proposed legislation to give many legal rights to unmarried couples, including same-sex ones.

The desperate words of an increasingly marginalized despot! Fuck off, you Prada-wearing popinjay!

(Oh, and the image? It’s entitled “Pope gives rosary to First Lady”. But I think Ratzi is playing with George’s “Stepford Laura” remote control…)

Thanks to St. Gasoline, my blood pressure has risen considerably.

These brain-dead assholes use every…single…trick in the book. All of which are just that – smoke ‘n mirrors.

It begins with the usual crapola: the claim that Darwin was concerned with the origin of life (quick note – the title of the book was the Origin of Species, along with the Descent of Man – and again the abiogenesis=evolution meme is brought into play).

So it blatters on about molecules organizing through…three guesses, yep, you got it – RANDOM CHANCE! Interspersed with pictures of cute kids and the occasional baby seal (go for the cutesy angle), somehow this video drags in the atheistic angle – “Hey, since we’re all just primordial batter, that’s it! You die, you’re gone!” Little subliminal hints – a clock floats by a floating head on a colored pedestal. “Some people think that evolution replaces God.”

“Life results from the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.” – Dawkins

More crap – “Scientists refer to the theory of evolution as fact, even though in science, theories can never be proven.”

Last time I dropped something, it fell. It’ll fall over and over again. Black holes bend light, due to their gravity wells. All that’s pretty good, for just a theory. Likewise, a mushroom cloud speaks volumes for the theory of relativity.

Obviously, these dimwits don’t have a clue. Quotes Hawking, that “even a single repeatable observation can destroy even the most grandiose theory.”

He (Hawking) is also on record as saying, “We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”

It blathers on about accidents a whole lot in this video. Why can’t scientists create life from ‘dead matter’, you know the whole routine.

It runs the usual crap about fruit flies being bombarded by radiation. “Even though hundreds of mutations occurred, no new species were created.”

Dipstick obviously doesn’t understand what the term ‘species‘ means at all, a demand for some bizarre chimera.

Also, it claims that ’scientists’ are grudgingly ‘admitting’ there had to be some creative force behind the Big Bang, that the universe isn’t eternal (no, but energy most likely is). Of course, there’s considerable evidence that it’s actually a Big Bounce, and that the universe was contracting prior to it.

There’s a lot of dishonest quote mining in this…’scientific’ video. It quotes Jerry Coyne as saying “We conclude – unexpectedly – that there is little evidence for the neo-Darwinian view…its theoretical foundations and the experimental evidence supporting it are weak.”

Strangely enough, the Wiki entry quotes Coyne as saying this :
“Intelligent design, or ID, is the latest pseudoscientific incarnation of religious creationism, cleverly crafted by a new group of enthusiasts to circumvent recent legal restrictions. [1]

“Coyne argues that Darwin’s evidence “destroys the creationist notion that species were created in their present form and thereafter remained unchanged“.

“Coyne goes on to make the theological argument that “A creator, especially an intelligent one, would not bestow useless tooth buds, wings, or eyes on large numbers of species.”

“He also criticizes Icons of Evolution:

“Jonathan Wells‘ book rests entirely on a flawed syllogism: … textbooks illustrate evolution with examples; these examples are sometimes presented in incorrect or misleading ways; therefore evolution is a fiction. [2]“

Of course it vomits up that stale staple of creationism – the 2nd law of thermodynamics. “Everything tends towards disintegration and disorder” – Umm, this idiot might want to look up the zeroth and 3rd law.

And of course, another re-tread refrain of the ‘transitional fossil’ nonsense. It mentions the ‘aquatic animals to land animals’ as if there’s no such fossil (umm…hello? Whales?).

It misquotes Gould (oh, whadda surprise!): “The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil records persists as the trade secret of paleontology.”

“But paleontologists have discovered several superb examples of intermediary forms and sequences, more than enough to convince any fair-minded skeptic about the reality of life’s physical genealogy.” – Stephen Jay Gould, Natural History, May 1994

It goes over the Cambrian Explosion. Then it quotes Hugh Ross as per the Goldilocks effect.

It even quotes Isaac Asimov – known evolutionist and atheist. Followed by Michael Behe (he of the debunked irreducible complexity and mousetrap fame).

It devolves rapidly into the Watchmaker theory. And all the pictures of cute little kids.

I keep hearing from people that religion is supposed to make people better somehow. But I just ain’t seeing it.

 For folks what claim the higher moral ground, they sure do seem to enjoy wallowing in the mud on the valley floor.

For your viewing pleasure, the Commander-in-Thief teaching creationism in class – and the consequences.

As I have alerted you in a recent thread, we have a fundie who decided to debate in the archives. He calls himself big sucker (no asshatting on our part here, he calls himself that and nice of him to at least be honest about something.) At first, big suck came by to drop this little turd:

atheists always make me laugh. can’t ever make up their mind about evolution. exactly which one of the myriad of thoeries is the right one. of course all along they’re missing the most fundamental problem. PROOVE life from non-life. oh yeah, i forgot, atheists don’t pay attention to REAL science (law of biogenesis), just conjecture with no PROOF. how about just PROVING that information can occur without intelligence. when atheists can do that then maybe i’ll begin to feel that i have to prove there’s a god. BTW, Nietzsche believed that blacks and jews were subhuman….great guy.

Big sucker seems to have overlooked that fact that evolution is accepted by theists and atheists alike regardless of their position on the existence of the supernatural. As Austin Cline states: “The mere existence or nonexistence of supernatural beings is ultimately irrelevant to evolutionary theory.”

Since he wasn’t proseltyzing and telling us how much we need jeebus, I let him in the door. You can read the rest of his comments, and the comments of those of us who responded here.

After questioning our intelligence, big sucker has told us,

“evolution is a religion (or cult as you would put it). Now I don’t have a problem admitting that I believe in something I can’t prove (although I can deduce it logically), but the atheist/evolutionist is self-deluded if they can’t admit the same. Look, I know I’m not going to change your mind, but a lot of people on this blog have been brainwashed into thinking creationists are stupid. I beg to differ.”

Austin Cline has a very good response in his article titled: Is Evolution a Religion? Is Evolution a Religious Belief System Based on Faith?

Evolution & Religion:
It has become common for critics of evolution to claim that it is a religion which is being improperly supported by the government when it is taught in schools. No other facet of science is singled out for this treatment, at least not yet, but it is part of a wider effort to undermine naturalistic science. An examination of the characteristics which best define religions, distinguishing them from other types of belief systems, reveals just how wrong such claims are: evolution is not a religion or a religious belief system because it does not possess the characteristics of religions.

ENTIRE ARTICLE

While looking through YouTube for a video on evolution and religion, I came upon this video that is even more disturbing than Jeebus Camp! Here is idiot Ken Ham in the process of brainwashing of children to dismiss science and accept unquestioningly his nonsensical beliefs about evolution and dinosaurs, etc., and in turn he and others like him are pumping out more and more “big suckers” into the world.

You gotta love the tenacity of some religiosos…

The Last Jew in Kabul gets his Matzos from N.Y.

When the Taliban fell in 2001, Simanto and one other Jew were found in living in a crumbling building in Kabul, apparently locked in an intractable dispute over a 500-year-old Torah that had been taken by the government in 1999.

Following the death of his elderly neighbor in 2005, Simanto is believed to be the last member of Afghanistan’s Jewish community.

Abraham, who keeps in contact with Simanto, recalled a home video of the synagogue Simanto uses for prayers. The floors were cracked, the windows were taped up and walls were black from smoke.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute,”’ Abraham recalled. “’This is the synagogue my father helped build?”’

He sent money to have the synagogue repaired and its door fixed so Simanto would not have to climb through the window.

BTW: It doesn’t say if he’s married or if he has a family–all irrelevant details, I’m sure, since the important part is that he is a faithful-male-alone-but-upholding-Jewish-tradition-against-all-odds-
and-is-heroic-by-any-measure.

Too bad Jews don’t have saints… (h/t to the great VastLeft)