Another Year in Review Item:
"I don't think creationists are stupid. I wish people would not attribute that to me, because I simply don't believe it. In fact, most of the active creationists are pretty darn smart."
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When you get a chance (but not right now, only when you have absolutely nothing whatsoever else to do) have a look at Matt Nisbet's latest thinly veiled attack on PZ myers*.
It is the usual crap. Atheists are not allowed to express annoyance, disgust, or anger, or to vilify, sillify, or nullify…
Attention, class!
You'll recall that in my About section, I state the following:
I wish that I could also say, like Twisy [Faster], that this is not a feminist primer. But Twisty has the luxury of dealing with the rest of the academy (and much of the workforce) that marched bravely forward starting…
That would be an interesting headline to see. Even more interesting is the fact, as far as I know, that we haven't seen it. For that, there should be consequences. Rant below the fold. Not work safe. Grrrrrrrr.
Julian Assange and his Hactivists can kiss my ass. Did you hear that? KISS MY…
Half Sigma is mining the GSS to try and understand the correlates of acceptance of the fact of evolution. He notes:
Of course it's not surprising that smarter people are more likely to believe in evolution, but the difference is pretty extraordinary. Only 15% of people with Wordsum 10 disbelieve…
Another reminder that the Nisbet bitchbot is a discredit to Scienceblogs as a whole. Although, one could take the position that his uinbelievably shitty arguments only reinforce the wisdom and validity of those he criticizes.
There's just something wrong with his brain. He has no answers to a problem whose parameters he grasps no better than a four-year-old could, making him clueless from beginning to end.
Should down the religious bigots and tell the apologist fuckabouts like Nisbet to suck it. If anyone has a better strategy I'd love to hear it.
There was a comment on the linked post to the effect that Nisbett was censoring comments to his blog posts back then. IS that still the case?
The irony of Matt is that somebody who preaches about good science communication is so appallingly bad at it.
The irony of Matt, is that somebody who preaches about framing, hasn't the least damned clue what framing is all about. He really seems bent on the notion that framing is a singular notion, that it requires formulating a generic message. That is in polar opposition to the notion of framing, which recognizes that different demographics require different framing.
Look at it this way; Say you want to write a pro-vaccine response to the anti-vax nonsense being peddled so heavily today. Say you want this message to go out in Rolling Stone, New Parent's, Parade any alt-weekly and Catholic Monthly. Are you going to write the same article, using the same frame, for all those venues? Not if you want to convince the different primary demographics that read those periodicals.
An aside, is it Ok to be an uppity ex-Christian, if I don't happen to be an atheist, except in the very broadest definition of the word?
Define "uppity"
As far as I can tell, in this context, uppity means not neither silent nor apologetic.
Let's go, Steph. You and I need to have a discussion behind the woodshed about the grammar in that comment.
Wrong blog for that, Janie. Besides, it's not bad grammar. It's bad editing. Very, very bad editing.
"Wrong blog for that, Janie." And what is that s'pposed to mean exactly?
It means that Mike has a very interesting comment policy in that there are rules that only apply to me. Janie has been waiting for a chance to enforce them, but I haven't given her one. Obviously, she's getting a little desperate if she's trying to apply them here.
Actually Steph, a wise woman recently said, "The way into a girl's knickers is through her grammar"... or something close to that.
I was hoping to turn you on.
;)
Kisses
clinteas -
Steph pretty much has it. I went through significant trauma, when I could no longer manage the reconciliations and outright denial necessary to maintain my faith. Not to mention the absolute horror of honestly believing that people I loved and uncounted billions of people I didn't know, were going to be condemned to eternal damnation, not because they're bad people, but because they either didn't worship god, didn't worship the right god, or worshiped the right god the wrong way.
So I am awfully fucking uppity when it comes to merely attempting to undo the damage I've done, leading others to that delusional house of horrors. And I have a lot to atone for, because in my terror driven zeal and because I am fucking awesome at most everything I really put my mind to (not arrogance, seriously, it's not) I managed to "help" a lot of people find salvation through Jesus Christ.
Anything I can do to help others get away from that earnest, loving zeal, I am all about doing. And sometimes that means being really brutally fucking honest - painfully honest. I know from personal experience how painful it can be and still is. But at the same time, it is a massive weight being lifted, shackles falling away. And in that painful, brutal honesty, I am also right there loving the person I am with and trying to help.
My name is DuWayne, I'm an ex-fundie and I have the scars to prove it.
I should also note that I wrote that initial comment after completely losing it with yet another Christian who was quite certain that I was just missing something, that if I read more and prayed more, their god would show me the way.
To be clear, I used to have a fanatical level of belief, that is no less than that which causes people to strap bombs to their chest and blow up themselves and unbelievers. The only difference is in what I believed my god wanted me to do - the Faith was exactly the same. I find it insulting to the extreme, when people assume that I was negligent in my attempts to rationalize those beliefs and reconcile them with science and my belief in human rights and equality. More so when the people trying to "bring me back into the fold" do it with so much arrogance and so little love.
So it really could be said that yes, I'm getting a bit uppity about it all. Angry too.