Many people have been writing me to tell me that the last episode of The Sopranos had an interaction between Tony and a creationist (hmmm…which is worse, a mobster or Kent Hovind?), but I only have basic cable so I haven't seen it. Fortunately, One Good Move has the clip. It's nice to see we've got the Mafia on our side.
(via Majikthise)
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There is no Mafia, and you'll wise up if you know what's good for you.
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weird. I didn't have to delete cookies to comment on your site that time. I usally do.
Oh, a wise guy, eh? Nyuk nyuk nyuk....
Tony Soprano seemed to be humoring the guy, who said he was once addicted to strippers. When Tony says the guy should come buy his, Tony's, restaurant/bar, the guy says something like, "It's a strip club, isn't it?" Tony says, with that winning, would-be guileless, smile, "Oh. So you've been to the Bing, then?"
Oh noes! Tony Soprano and company are on your side! What a crippling argument! Whatever will we do?
I loved Tony's incredulous response after the religious guy said that dinosaurs and humans lived on the Earth at the same time.
I love the fact that the cretinist uses a number he pulls out of his ass saying the 11% of surgery patients that were involved in prayer showed no signs of complications and that it was on the show the same week the STEP study's results were released.
Hilarious.
Oh no, I can hear the call from Kent Hovind to the Department of Homeland Security now:
"PZ Myers has admitted that the evolution movement is being funded by the mob! Myers won't rest until all of our children are subverted into running bookie notes and talking about their monkey relatives. I think you had better check this guy out. Plus, I happen to know he has been showing child squid porn (and nude pinups) on his so called science" blog."
Of course, many Biblical creationists would have you also believe that animals didn't prey on each other in the Garden of Eden, so Adam and Eve had nothing to fear from dinosaurs until they brought sin into the world.
Of course, many Biblical creationists would have you also believe that animals didn't prey on each other in the Garden of Eden, so Adam and Eve had nothing to fear from dinosaurs until they brought sin into the world.
Correct. 'Doctor' Hovind has pointed out that Tyrannosaus Rex was in fact a fire-breathing vegetarian.
That episode was fantastic. At first I was wondering why Tony was reading a dinosaur book.. well because he liked dinosaurs... then the creationist came in to visit... wonderful.. and Hal Holbrook appeared as the quantum guy. I had just finished blogging about the study which says prayer may have an adverse effect on sick people when Carmella mentioned another study that said prayer was good. The writers will have to straighten that out next week. I think the study she was referring to was about praying over your houseplants, but I could be mistaken.
I also learned that in order to gain "street cred", gangster rappers need to be shot. Who knew?
Congrats to Pharyngula on the Koufax Award. I am a regular reader and just love it.
Even funnier to discuss with creationist is to bring up the subject different dino's like Allosaurs, Dimetrodon, etc., because they think they all lived at the same time.
Hmm. I have QuickTime 7, but the video wouldn't download. Oh, well, I'll just have to catch it, when the episode repeats.
Rex was a vegetarian? What did he use those sharp, pointy teeth for, then?
Buddha on a pogo stick, these people are stupid.
Rex was a vegetarian? What did he use those sharp, pointy teeth for, then?
Hey, you questioning God? C'mon, he had to have them ready for when sinful man ruined everything, like having a trap ready to spring.
"T-Rex in the Garden of Eden? Bullshit. Adam and Eve woulda been running around scared shitless all the time!"
THAT was a quote from the episode by a mobster, right after the preacher-dude said dinos were 'created' 6000 years ago.
The simple, yet succinct logic of the mafioso triumphs again.
Actually it was Ken Ham who claimed T-Rex was a vegetarian before the Fall. He handwaves around the problem of the teeth by saying that the curse also involved physical changes. With God all things are possible, you know. Kent Hovind may believe the same thing, I have no idea.
Ya know, here's something sad. I grew up in a church that just circumvented the whole dino/people issue by saying that the Devil put the bones and fossils in the Earth to trick humans. And that God was testing you to see if you had enough faith to believe HIS TRUTH in the face of evil science facts. ::Sigh:: How did I ever end up in grad school???
Off topic, but I saw that on last night's Charlie Rose show, Daniel Dennett was interviewed by Bill Moyers about his new book, "Breaking the Spell". Dennett seemed to be quite soft on religion, actually. Certainly nothing was said that I could imagine being offensive to religious folk.
Aw man! Nothing bad happened to him! I half expected the guy to get worked over.
If anyone like that ever spouted such nonsense to my face, especially in that self-righteous I-know-the-real-story manner, I don't know what I'd do, but I can't imagine I'd be very hospitable.
I'm gonna keep telling people to listen to the Ricky Gervais Show podcasts. Karl Pilkington is the highlight of the show and often uses the same arguments as creationists, only he isn't one particularly - he's just humorously ignorant. It's hysterically funny stuff.
"Actually it was Ken Ham who claimed T-Rex was a vegetarian before the Fall. He handwaves around the problem of the teeth by saying that the curse also involved physical changes"
So, theoretically Mr. Ham should be able to find some pre-Fall T. Rexes with bunny teeth?
Ya know, here's something sad. I grew up in a church that just circumvented the whole dino/people issue by saying that the Devil put the bones and fossils in the Earth to trick humans.
And of course God just let's Satan go around trying to ruin everything for his beloved creations. That makes a lot of sense.
And that God was testing you to see if you had enough faith to believe HIS TRUTH in the face of evil science facts.
Yeah, God's a really nice guy who only want's the best for us.
It's nice to see we've got the Mafia on our side.
Oh, you are so getting reported to the Department of Homeland Security.
They totally nailed that creepy plaster-cast evangelist grin and trademark coiffure. See it with Hovind and that Rev in the 'Root of All Evil'.
By the way, did anyone catch the scientist named by Tony? I can't make out what he says.
Kent Hovind once responded to the "but T-rex has carnivorous teeth" fact in a debate between himself and Massimo Pigliucci.
He claims that those sharp, dagger like teeth are adequate to eat fruits and veggies.
Take a look at the fruit bat, he says, with their lack of grinding molars. They have sharp incisors throughout.
And then he says that we have found fossilized T-rex teeth with grass stains.
I haven't verified either of those claims, but they sound plausible enough on their own. His conclusions, on the other hand...
By the way, did anyone catch the scientist named by Tony? I can't make out what he says.
I had to rewind a couple of times to catch that myself, but would up a little disappointed because I think all he said was, "guy next door's a scientist..."
I think it's very funny that anyone proposing that the garden of Eden was so peaceful that even T. Rex was a vegetarian. Vegetarian? All those peaceful plants and vegetables get slaughtered just so no one eats meat? Why the special case? I mean I hear the "man has dominion over all animals" bit, but I didn't realize there was an unspoken hierarchy whereby animals have dominion over all plants and so forth. I think there's room for substantial theological research (and subsquent meaty grants) here.
On a side note I recently pointed out to our building managers that reseeding the grass beneath our fir trees every year was a losing game because those trees are very aggressive. Nothing will survive in their shade except some fungus so either they had to go or she was going to have to cope with the needle strewn bare earth. That led to a long discussion about just how exactly that was aggressive behaviour.
So I vote no fir trees in the garden of Eden.
If T Rex was a vegetarian in Eden, then it only logically follows that it would have eaten The Forbidden Fruit, and hence that is obviously why it is extinct. God smoted (smat?) it.
BlueIndependent: Even if you were trying to *sell* something to the fool in question? ;-)
Jay Ray: Fossilized grass *stains*? Another groaner for Hovind....
PZ,
you've just got to watch the whole episode. The one clip of the exchange between Tony and the creationist doesn't do the episode justice. It's just brilliant - you'll be in stitches.
The dark humor of The Sopranos applied to creepy preachers works in ways that can't be explained until you see the whole thing.
I have it TiVo'd... I'm watching it again right now.
He claims that those sharp, dagger like teeth are adequate to eat fruits and veggies.
And I assume the powerful running muscles and huge jaws were to chase after the fruits and veggies and bring them down when they resisted?
And I assume the powerful running muscles and huge jaws were to chase after the fruits and veggies and bring them down when they resisted?
Good question. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that Hovind would suspect that the buff dinosaurs served mankind as beasts of burden. And also as Adam and Eve's bodyguards from, let's say, renegade vegetables. Haven't you seen Attack of the Killer Tomatos?
I mean, who wouldn't want a friendly T-Rex watching your back?
"So, theoretically Mr. Ham should be able to find some pre-Fall T. Rexes with bunny teeth?"
Of course not, silly! Nothing died until after the Fall, so there'd be no fossils to find! Stupid evilutionists...
Jay Ray -
Only if the T. Rex is in an F-14, because, well, that is just so much cooler