The Earth Is Flaticular
Scott Sherman sent me this cartoon this morning.
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense
Back in 2002, Scientific American ran this hold-no-punches piece “15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense” to provide a concise rebuttal against the arguments of the people who continue to favour mythology over reason.
Why am I harping on this theme again? Someone emailed me a link to this site from the American-import-cum-Australian Christian evangelicals at Hillsong Church:
Many eminent scientists in different fields are currently saying that the complexity and balance of the universe points to intelligent design. This has re-opened the debate about whether God and science should be studied in the same classroom. The answer comes down to our understanding of science. If science is the search for truth, as some scientists argue, then God should be mentioned in any classroom that pursues it.
Much of the debate about the origin of life and the universe is speculation. It comes down to a question of belief.
At Hillsong Church we believe that God created the world. In other words, the universe is a product of intelligent design. We also believe that science is part of humanity’s search for truth, and it is therefore important for science curricula to include all valid viewpoints of the origins of life and the universe, including intelligent design.
* Comments from Ps Brian Houston, Senior Pastor Hillsong Church & National President AOG in Australia.
This is the nonsense these people are filling children’s minds with. Someone needs to defend the kids against having their minds tarnished with this kind of appalling rubbish. Outwardly they present the image of being nice, toothy people who just want to do good works (okay, except for Brian’s father Frank, who held senior positions in the church, but was forced to resign in 2000 “following exposure of his homosexual paedophile activities.”) However they are really subverting young minds, turning them away from reason and rational thinking – and as far as I’m concerned, that is the definition of evil – almost as evil as the paedophilia.
Let’s examine the website quote.
“Many eminent scientists” – who? Name them.
“If science is the search for truth, as some scientists argue” – What do the other scientists argue? That science is the search for falsehoods? This suggests that science could possibly be something other than the search for objective knowledge which is the very definition of the word – “then God should be mentioned in any classroom that pursues it.” – Why? Science uses evidence to support theories for how the universe works. God is a theory completely unsupported by evidence. It is completely unscientific, because it is not testable or falsifiable. It has no place in the science classroom.
“Much of the debate about the origin of life and the universe is speculation. It comes down to a question of belief.” – Rubbish. Trying to understand the origin of life has nothing to do with belief. There are a range of scientific theories at present. On the other hand, the origin of the universe, aka “the big bang”, is supported by overwhelming evidence. As we discussed here, the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded for that evidence just last year.
“it is therefore important for science curricula to include all valid viewpoints of the origins of life and the universe, including intelligent design.” – again, intelligent design has no relationship to science. It denies facts and ignores the evidence, as several court cases in the Unites States have now determined.
I know we’re unlikely to pass a law preventing people like this from polluting the minds of children with this rubbish – in fact, I’d probably be the first to protect their right to free speech (a right, I’m continually reminded, we don’t actually have in Australia, as we don’t have a Bill of Rights), but I hope we are not far from the day when making these kinds of statements in public will be similar to advocating the genocide of the Jews or suggesting blacks are an inferior species. It needs to become completely socially unacceptable to pollute young minds with the idea that denying evidence is somehow valid and rational.
James Cameron Reveals Jesus’ Coffin
From Time’s site:
Let’s go back 27 years, when Israeli construction workers were gouging out the foundations for a new building in the industrial park in the Talpiyot, a Jerusalem suburb. of Jerusalem. The earth gave way, revealing a 2,000 year old cave with 10 stone caskets. Archaeologists were summoned, and the stone caskets carted away for examination. It took 20 years for experts to decipher the names on the ten tombs. They were: Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua.
Israel’s prominent archaeologist Professor Amos Kloner didn’t associate the crypt with the New Testament Jesus. His father, after all, was a humble carpenter who couldn’t afford a luxury crypt for his family. And all were common Jewish names.There was also this little inconvenience that a few miles away, in the old city of Jerusalem, Christians for centuries had been worshiping the empty tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Christ’s resurrection, after all, is the main foundation of the faith, proof that a boy born to a carpenter’s wife in a manger is the Son of God.
But film-makers Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have amassed evidence through DNA tests, archaeological evidence and Biblical studies, that the 10 coffins belong to Jesus and his family.
Oh, this should be fun. I’m hoping that, at the moment of maximum tension, James Cameron’s flings back the lid of Jesus’ coffin and a real-life Jesus springs up out of the coffin, fixes the press corps with a menacing stare and then liquid-mercury morphs into a T1000. It’s time for another Cameron-directed Terminator film
I was the machinima film festival at ACMI with Tommy Reynolds yesterday and we interviewed NY-based machinima guru Paul Merino. The video will be up early next week. He was talking about James Cameron’s new machinima film “Avatar” which is due to start filming in April. Amazing he has time to to the pre-production for his most ambitious film ever AND totally dismantle the basis of 2000 years of Christian mythology in his spare time. The man is a god!
The Brian Flemming Who Wasn’t There
I’m sitting here waiting for filmmaker Brian Flemming, creator of “The God Who Wasn’t There” to turn up for our interview. I don’t think he got my email confirming the date/time. Ah well. Meanwhile I’m reading Brian’s blog and there are some great links to information I was going to talk to him about. I might as well share some of it with you now.
Join “The Blasphemy Challenge“!
The Rational Response Squad is giving away 1001 DVDs of The God Who Wasn’t There, the hit documentary that the Los Angeles Times calls “provocative — to put it mildly.” There’s only one catch: We want your soul. It’s simple. You record a short message damning yourself to Hell, you upload it to YouTube, and then the Rational Response Squad will send you a free The God Who Wasn’t There DVD. It’s that easy.
Go to WellingtonGrey.net to find out how George W. Bush’s decision tree works.
He’s also explains the difference between the scientific decision tree and the faith decision tree. Very enlightening.
The Center for Inquiry Transnational, in conjunction with its Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) announces the creation of the Jesus Project. The Jesus Project will enlist the talents of scholars from many disciplines to try to determine the likelihood of Jesus of Nazareth having ever existed.
Spearheading this important undertaking is the Chairman of CSER, R. Joseph Hoffmann. The goal of the project, according to Hoffmann, is not to “prove” the non-existence of Jesus, but to take the theory as a “testable hypothesis” and use the best methods of critical inquiry to reach a probable conclusion.
Would Jesus Be A Christian?
An interesting post on Andrew Sullivan’s blog recently from one of his readers who says:
I am an atheist (who was once a Christian) and wanted to comment on your latest missive to Sam Harris. I would describe my own embrace of science and secular humanism as being motivated by a form of faith that is deeper than Christian faith. I believe that if Jesus lived today, he would be a secular humanist and would reject Christianity, just as he “rejected” Judaism and inspired Christianity. Christianity was once the vehicle for the boldest and most honest thinking about reality, the brotherhood of man, and the human condition. I think in light of the advances in science and our exposure to other religious traditions, it is time again to humanize further our understanding of “God” (or the source of all truth, goodness, and beauty) and come to a more universal understanding of religion.
I’m not sure I agree with the author’s claim that Christianity was ever “the vehicle for the boldest and most honest thinking about reality” – bolder than vedanta? However, he makes a good point that, from what we know about the man called Jesus (which as we saw from my podcast with John Dickson, is very little), he doesn’t seem to have been overly concerned about tradition or authority.
Would he have been like Father Bob Maguire, who I had another of my regular skirmishes with last week?
Ted Haggard: “There’s a lot about blood.”
Andrew Sullivan recently linked to this 2005 article about now-defunct American Pastor Ted Haggard.
This quote from him lends weight to my recent arguments that Christianity is incredibly violent at its very core:
“I teach a strong ideology of the use of power,†he says, “of military might, as a public service.†He is for preemptive war, because he believes the Bible’s exhortations against sin set for us a preemptive paradigm, and he is for ferocious war, because “the Bible’s bloody. There’s a lot about blood.â€
If you buy the bible as the word of god, then you have to buy its view that everyone who disagrees with you should be killed, maimed or tortured. So I don’t buy this excuse that “oh it isn’t Christianity that’s violent, it’s just a few bad apples”.
I also love this bit about how Ted built his church early on:
He staked out gay bars, inviting men to come to his church; his whole congregation pitched itself into invisible battles with demonic forces, sometimes in front of public buildings.
It puts his forced admission late last year of ice-fueled illicit gay sex into some perspective.