Archive for December, 2009

Oh noes. Now it’s Rick Warren who needs money for his ministry. Like, 900 large. And he needs it by, oh, tomorrow. Warren said the church managed to stay within its budget, but “the bottom dropped out” when Christmas donations dropped. “On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive — leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year,” the letter reads…. Warren’s appeal presents an opportunity for those who haven’t been hit by the recession to step up and help, Ross said. I got the impression Warren himself hasn’t been hit especially hard by the recession. I bet some of his royalties from The Purpose Driven Life would cover that shortfall pretty handily.

…in the lousiest decade in living memory. It can’t end too soon. Sure, we had all sorts of things to be happy about. For one thing I think the ‘aughties will become known as the era personal tech came into its own: laptops, iPhones, Blackberries, and more keeping us connected to the world at large wherever we are and giving us huge leeway in personalizing the experience. But does that make up for eight nightmare years of misrule that sped us down the path to global economic collapse? Not quite. Let us hope the ‘teens will be a time of prosperity. Kind of like the ’90s. You know, we may have had a philandering dolt with dubious taste in interns as president and a pronounced gift for acting even dumber than Tiger Woods in the aftermath. But at least we wrapped up the decade with a nice fat budget surplus. And the music was better then too.

We received a letter from a viewer asking about how some theists interpret evidence. In his view, it appeared some people don’t care about evidence, and I agree. I also note that this is nothing limited to theists. But in my reply, I noted that it’s important to know whether someone cares about evidence before you expend too much time correcting factual or informational errors presented to you by the other party. In his last reply, he added this: “The question to ask the faithful is, how would you distinguish the difference between faith in something true and faith in something false without evidence?” This reminded me of the question I have often asked, “How does a theist know the god he believes in is moral, if he asserts that humans are not able to judge his god’s actions when they appear to be wrong?” But it also put me in mind of a recent conversation I had over the holiday. A theist asserted that it’s not reasonable for people to assert there is/is no god, since there’s no way to prove or disprove it. It’s an old, tired, and well-rebutted refrain, but, somehow, it never seems to lose steam. The interesting thing about this particular exchange is that the theist rebutted herself in short order. I replied, “Of course we can prove if a thing exists. It’s like Big Foot. First we have to have a clear definition of what it is we are claiming exists: a great ape. Then we define how it manifests—in this case, where this thing can be discovered: North American woodlands. Then we go looking for a great ape in the North American woodlands. If it’s there, eventually the evidence to demonstrate it exists should become available—and when it does, we can say it exists.” To this she replied, “But what if you don’t find any evidence?” To which I replied, “Well, then I would wonder why these people were asserting that a great ape lives in the North American woodlands.” ...
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Yes, gang, today is Isaac Newton’s 367th birthday! Celebrate by eating 367 apples.

Yes, this is funny. Now everyone go enjoy your day off.