religion
clock | January 16, 2007 *N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences
/Downtown Raleigh/
**Thursday, January 18
"Flock of Dodos" screening with filmmaker, Randy Olson
7:00 p.m. Museum Auditorium
Free
*Filmmaker and Evolutionary Ecologist , Dr. Randy Olson, presents his
new film */Flock of Dodos/*: /*The Evolution / Intelligent Design Circus.*/
"Flock of Dodos" is the first feature-length documentary to present both
sides of the Intelligent Design / Evolution clash and tries to make
sense of the issue by visiting Olson's home state of Kansas. The film
digs below the surface of the debate by examining the language being
used by…
mikethemadbiologist | January 15, 2007You'll hear a lot today about Martin Luther King and race. But what you won't hear nearly as much about, particularly from conservatives, is his views on economic justice. I think that his views on race were inseparable from his economic views which were based on a universal call for justice and equality for all. From a speech he gave to striking sanitation workers in Memphis on March 18, 1968 (italics mine):
My dear friends, my dear friend James Lawson, and all of these dedicated and distinguished ministers of the Gospel assembled here tonight, to all of the sanitation workers and their…
mikethemadbiologist | January 14, 2007So those who oppose global warming are using the same strategy as the creationists: teach the 'controversy.'
This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth."
After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting…
pharyngula | January 13, 2007Usually that bible book is vague, which means the Christianists get to interpret it in whatever wild and wacky way they want. They really need a bible that is a bit more explicit to convince me, I'm afraid.
razib | January 12, 2007I just found this article by Heather Mac Donald in Slate, Send a Message to God: He has gone too far this time. She published it two years ago, and somehow I missed it!
oracknows | January 12, 2007Those of you who've been around this blog for a long time probably remember Dr. Lorraine Day. In fact, I mentioned her in one of the very first substantive posts that I ever did regarding why breast cancer testimonials for alternative medicines are inherently misleading, presenting her as an example of a once respected academic orthopedic surgeon who had fallen deeply into woo. I had also been aware of her association with infamous Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, but I had mainly thought that this was more because of Zündel's love of woo (he claimed that he had cancer and had called Dr. Day…
pharyngula | January 12, 2007And Federal Way is feeling its sting right now.
The kooks who promote foolish ideas are one target for ridicule, and this Frosty Hardison character is a prime example. He's got a reply to the Seattle PI article that exposed him; it's a MS Word file that doesn't help his case. It starts off with a collection of bogus complaints about climate science, and just gets weirder and weirder. Here are a few choice bits.
It's people like Al Gore, in both the Democratic and Republican parties and any other person on earth (no matter their political affiliation) that continue supporting the liberal…
oracknows | January 11, 2007Online prayer benefits breast cancer patients?
At least that's what they were saying a couple of days ago on the Internets:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Praying online in a support group may help women with breast cancer cope with the disease more effectively, a new study shows.
Dr. Bret Shaw of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues found that breast cancer patients who used a higher percentage of religion-related words in their communications with an Internet support group had lower levels of negative emotions, better functional well-being, and more confidence in their ability to…
oracknows | January 10, 2007After having pontificated a bit longer than perhaps I should have about why Richard Dawkins' treatment of the execution of Saddam Hussein as a missed opportunity for psychological or historical research was so misguided, I thought it might be time to take a more pro-Dawkins tilt. After all, even though the majority of my posts about Richard Dawkins have been critical, on balance I do admire the man; it's just that he has a maddening penchant for using historical analogies that make me want to tear my hair out.
A while back, PZ posted something that he called The Courtier's Reply. In essence…
oracknows | January 9, 2007Inspired by the story of the faith healer who claimed that Jesus cured her of a breast cancer she in fact never had and, it turned out, who also claimed that faith had healed her brother of a terminal cancer and covered up the fact that he was dying while promoting her book, here's a proposed cure for televangelists who claim they can cure disease through the power of prayer:
New York - (Ass Mess): A team of plastic surgeons, clinical psychatrists and orthodontists has patented a radical procedure that cures evangelical preachers from claiming Jesus is more effective at healing cancer than…
oracknows | January 9, 2007It is with a bit of trepidation that I write about this.
The reason, for anyone who reads ScienceBlogs specifically or science blogs in general, should be obvious. Richard Dawkins is such a polarizing figure with a penchant for stirring things up with regards to the most deeply held beliefs of both the religious and atheists, that he has all too often served as a flashpoint for battles between secularism and religion or a convenient excuse for the two most popular of my fellow ScienceBloggers to indulge their mutual animosity publicly. Posting about Dawkins, whether you defend or criticize…
mikethemadbiologist | January 5, 2007Now that I've pissed some people off about rape*, I thought I would calm things down by turning to a more sedate topic: Richard Dawkins and religion.
Everytime Dawkins has issued one of his proclamations about religion, I've wanted to respond, but the words have never come out quite right. Thankfully, Barbara O'Brien has written a wonderful post that sums up exactly what I think:
What Dawkins writes about religion is, IMO, generally true of that part of religion he is writing about.
Unfortunately, like every other fundamentalist atheist I've ever encountered, he is profoundly ignorant about…
razib | January 5, 2007With all the controversy around Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, no one seems to be publicizing the first two Buddhists in the House, Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) and Hank Johnson (Georgia).
clock | January 4, 2007Praying Online Helps Cancer Patients, Study Suggests
Breast cancer patients who pray in online support groups can obtain mental health benefits, according to a new study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research that was funded by the National Cancer Institute.
"We know that many cancer patients pray in online support groups to help them cope with their illness. This is the first study we are aware of that examines the psychological effects of this behavior," says Bret Shaw, an associate scientist in UW-Madison's College of…
omnibrain | January 4, 2007Well there's Ask a ScienceBlogger... I think I want to institute "Help a ScienceBlogger."
Can anyone help me find sources about the development of religious beliefs in children?
clock | January 3, 2007If you do not know who Roper is, read this, this and this. A total fundie wingnut in charge of a large teaching hospital! Oy vey! I did not know that fact when I originally wrote this post, but this explains it....(From July 15, 2005)
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Do you know what's wrong with the US health-care system? It was taken over by MBAs, meddling - again - in areas they know nothing about. They have implemented the "business model" of health-care, which is the most nonsensical way imaginable. Medicine never was, is not, should not be, and cannot be a business. It is…
mikethemadbiologist | January 2, 2007So Michael Fumento has issued a challenge to put 'odds' on avian influenza, thinking that somehow I've stated that an avian influenza pandemic is likely (he's also accused me, a scientist, of being "anti-scientist" and "alarmist"). Well, I'm not putting odds down because I've never said that a pandemic is likely. Then again, one should hardly be surprised when a professional conservative completely distorts what one says.
In fact, in the post, I wrote:
We can argue about public health priorities (avian flu isn't my top priority personally).
One would think that was clear, but I made the…
pharyngula | January 1, 2007Somebody warn Dawkins about his analogy!
Athorism is enjoying a certain vogue right now. Can there be a productive conversation between Valhallans and athorists?
Naïve literalists apart, sophisticated thoreologians long ago ceased believing in the material substance of Thor's mighty hammer. But the spiritual essence of hammeriness remains a thunderingly enlightened relevation, and hammerological faith retains its special place in the eschatology of neo-Valhallism, while enjoying a productive conversation with the scientific theory of thunder in its non-overlapping magisterium.
Militant…
mikethemadbiologist | December 31, 2006According to an AP-AOL poll, 25% of Americans think Jesus will return next year. Not 'soon', but within the next 365 days. Twenty-five percent. That's higher than the nineteen percent who think that we will discover extra-terrestrial life next year...