religion
stcynic | July 6, 2006A reader sent me a link to this blog post about two cases where mothers killed their children, both in Texas, and both convicted by juries. But one mother said that she did it because God told her to and therefore it wasn't wrong; the other said she did it because Satan told her to, but she knew that God would be angry at her for it. The same psychiatrist testified in both trials, but said that the first mother was insane, while the second one was sane:
The similarities between the cases were striking. Laney and Yates, now both 41, were deeply religious, stay-at-home moms when they killed…
mikethemadbiologist | July 6, 2006That was the response of the head of Stop the ACLU to publicizing the names, address, and telephone numbers of the Dobrich family who were suing the Indian River School District in Delaware for violating the separation of church and state by using the public schools to indoctrinate students in Christianity. This led to widespread intimidation that ultimately forced the Dobrich family, along with another, unidentified family to move out of the district.
Jesus' General decided this would be a perfect opportunity for satire, and so, wrote a letter to Nedd Karieva. Karieva responded (italics…
mikethemadbiologist | July 5, 2006An LA Times story about voters' willingness to support candidates of various religious backgrounds completely baffles me. In the story is good news, bad news, and things that just don't make sense.
Razib summarizes findings:
54% of Americans would not vote for a Muslim
37% of Americans would not vote for a Mormon
21% of Americans would not vote for an evangelical Christian
15% of Americans would not vote for a Jew
10% of Americans would not vote for a Roman Catholic
(an aside: I disagree with Razib about Gov. Mitt Romney. I think the real problem Romney will face is not his Mormonism,…
mikethemadbiologist | July 5, 2006
I might have more to say about the Delaware mini-pogrom later, but by way of Bartholomew's Notes on Religion, I found this bit of abject idiocy:
Just two hours prior, while executive session was held, Bennett led nearly 100 spectators in song as they waited patiently for the news.
..."If these kids are taught evolution -- that they came from apes -- and they're not given the basis of faith, what's to stop them from acting like animals?" he said.
"What's to stop them from acting like animals?" I dunno. How about doing your fucking job as a parent, and setting a good example? Not running…
razib | July 4, 2006The LA Times commissioned a poll and found that:
54% of Americans would not vote for a Muslim
37% of Americans would not vote for a Mormon
21% of Americans would not vote for an evangelical Christian
15% of Americans would not vote for a Jew
10% of Americans would not vote for a Roman Catholic
This is relevant because Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is running for president (all but officially). The fact that is that even if 37% is a high water mark of rejection (I suspect it is, and that some voters would warm to Romney as they got to know the person as opposed to the perception of his religion),…
oracknows | July 4, 2006Besides our current President, the other factor that has done perhaps the most to drive me from the Republican Party over the last decade has been its falling under the sway of Christian fundamentalists who want to impose their view of morality, religion, and Christianity on the nation as law. Of course, our current President is simply the culmination of nearly three decades of the party's courting them and using them to attain power, and now moderate Republicans are shocked--shocked, I say--to find out that these folks mean what they say when they assert that God claimed the U.S. over 200…
stcynic | June 30, 2006And out come the wingnuts. Here's the email I just received from someone named James Albright:
Dear Ed,
Noah's ark was discovered by Ron Wyatt, whose ministry is named Wyatt Archeological Research. The news media is only taking attention away from the real ark through your ministry. Please stop this approach in the name of Jesus. Thank you.
Bro. James D Albright
Oi vey. Are there people out there who still take Ron Wyatt seriously? Con men simply don't get much more transparent than this guy. Wyatt was a nurse anesthetist (now deceased) who claimed not only to have found Noah's Ark, but to…
mikethemadbiologist | June 30, 2006Full disclosure: I am a moderately observant Conservative Jew (Conservative is a denomination of Judaism, not a political leaning). Having said that, the bandying around of the term faith is disingenuous. Religious people are supposed to be honest--at least, that's what I was taught.
We hear all the time expressions like "people of faith", "faith-based groups", and "faith-based approaches" [to sex ed, for example]. Of course, "faith" doesn't mean faith at all, but religion. After all, the secular humanist Albert Camus had great faith that there would always be those who armed only with "…
neurotopia | June 29, 2006There is one simple reason why a pharmacist's personal beliefs should not factor into the dispensing of medication that, to me, takes precedence over all others.
Medications rarely, if ever, have one use. A single medication can be prescribed for a variety of reasons. This causes a problem: a pharmacist might refuse to dispense birth control pills on the religious grounds that the pill prevents conception and therefore prevents life. But what if the pill was not prescribed for prevention of pregnancy?
This is not an uncommon occurrence. There is a range of therapeutic value for birth…
clock | June 29, 2006I hope you have heard the Diane Rehm Show on NPR this morning at 10EDT (the first hour of the show). The guest was the presiding Episcopal Bishop-Elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to lead the Episcopal Church. She is an amazing woman. You should listen to the show here (Real Audio) or here (Windows Media) (the best parts are starting at about 8th minute). I especially liked the way her training in oceanography influences the way she looks at the world and the way her church should be organized.
For instance, she is aware that greater species diversity makes an ecosystem more…
clock | June 28, 2006
This is one a couple of posts about Creationism, written originally on May 1st, 2005.
Creationism Is Just One Symptom Of Conservative Pathology
I am not an "evolutionist". I am not a "Darwinist". I am a biologist. Thus, by definition, I am an evolutionary biologist. Although my research is in physiology and behavior, I would never be able to make any sense of my data (or even know what questions to ask in the first place) without evolutionary thinking.
As I am also interested in history and philosophy of biology, I consider myself a Darwinian. But not a "Darwinist" or "evolutionist" - those…
razib | June 27, 2006A random hot chick approached me and started talking to me on the street, real aggressive like. I was pretty taken aback until I realized she was a Jehovah's Witness, though I didn't comprehend that until I looked at the literature she gave me. I don't really know what she said, and I left the literature in the coffee shop where I got my morning fix, but this is certainly the first time that I've been approached by a smokin' JW. But I don't know if it's good for the spread of the faith since I doubt this individual induces moral rectitude in most males who she approaches with a bright smile…
stcynic | June 27, 2006Like between 6/29 and 7/04, according to this press release from a group of Bible scholars. The folks at truebiblecode.com have it all figured out (just as Nostradamus predicted they would) and say that there will be a nuclear terror attack on Manhattan between those two dates. They've got a really fancy system worked out, all based on Isaac Newton's mathematics plus a Green Hornet decoder ring they got from a Cracker Jack box.
razib | June 21, 2006At my other weblog Jason Malloy points me to Half Sigma who crunches the data from the GSS and finds that yes, religiosity is a predictor of lower intelligence. One of the most googled postings of mine from years back is where I showed that there is a positive trend for mean national IQ to predict mean national religiosity. Of course, by the numbers, most high IQ people are still religious, they are simply less religious than those of lower IQ. Anyway, here is a follow up rant from Half Sigma.
Of course, another fact is that the non-religious also probably like confirmation of the fact…
clock | June 20, 2006 This is an early post of mine, written on February 11, 2005, a rare one in which I discuss my own lack of religion:
I had major computer problems last week so didn't think I would have the time to write a blog entry of my own for the third installment of the Carnival Of The Godless (found here), so was going to post a link to an old post, but the title of one of the new Carnival entries, I, Bloginette, made me think that my blog also has a bird as symbol (a quail, not a magpie), and I also remembered how much I loved the old TV series "I, Claudius", and how wonderful it would sound if I…
clock | June 19, 2006The July issue of Discover Magazine has an excellent article on The Future of Terrorism. You should readthe whole thing, online or in hardcopy. Here are some choice quotes by people interviewed for the article:
"The war on terrorism is really a proxy for saying what is really a war on militant Islam. If we can't confront the ideology, if you're not willing to take on the ideology and try to develop a reformist, moderate Islam that makes militant Islam a fringe element, we haven't much hope to stamp it out."
Andrew C. McCarthy, former federal prosecutor who led the case against Sheik Omar…
clock | June 17, 2006Back To The Woom is a blog that needs to get much more exposure. It is written by a very smart couple here in Raleigh, NC. The posts are always very thoughtfull and well-researched and the topics range from Ann Raynd to immigration, from capital punishment to harsh capitalism. Always worth your time to read (even if you disagree on a detail or two).
This time, I'd like to point your attention to the latest post - The moral majority is watching your inner child molester:
The implication is that, without the threat of eventual punishment at the hands of an omniscient cosmic dictator, many…
clock | June 15, 2006It is something like homeschooling, except there is no learning involved. People are performing their own private church services at home instead of going to the local megachurch. Why do you think this is catching on? Is it good or bad?
jrosenhouse | June 15, 2006The current issue of The New York Review of Books features this article by physicist Freeman Dyson. The subject is Daniel Dennett's recent book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. Dyson begins as follows:
Breaking the spell of religion is a game that many people can play. The best player of this game that I ever knew was Professor G.H. Hardy, a world-famous mathematician who happened to be a passionate atheist. There are two kinds of atheists, ordinary atheists who do not believe in God and passionate atheists who consider God to be their personal enemy.
Describing an…
clock | June 14, 2006Amanda reviews the lies about sex and contraception that are peddled by the Catholic church in their pre-marital classes:Pandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar
andPandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar, Pt. II