Read and discuss:
- I and the Bird #24 (illustrated!)
- Skeptics’ Circle #35 (hosted by a pseudo-Skeptico…or is it a pseudo-pseudo-Skeptico?)
- Carnival of the Liberals #13
Or talk about anything you want. The pope’s presence annihilates ice cream and tampons. Bill Frist really needs to take a shower before working in the Senate. What kind of penalties would be appropriate for Kenny Boy? I’m sure you can all think of something to talk about—I’m buckling down for a few hours to finish reviewing a paper.
Some Inuit in northern Quebec don’t want their children to be taught human evolution because it offends their Christian and traditional beliefs.
http://www.cbc.ca/north/story/nor-inuit-evolution.html
Cheney got called in to testify in front of Fitzgerald’s grand jury. Expect an indictment by the end of 2006.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/24/AR2006052402597.html
Ice Cream and Tampons… sounds like a good name for a chick-rock group!
Bill Frist left this comment on Pharyngula.
So Bill professes a feeling of closeness with the apes now. What is this, spin? Does he actually accept evolution these days?
The Pope, ice cream, tampons, and MC KatKillah Frist all in one post.
Remarkable!
.
“Frist cut out a dog’s heart and held it in his palm. It continued to beat for a slippery minute.”
Just one line from the worst-written article I’ve ever read.
From the ice cream article:
********* hypocrites.
And remember, Frist’s wife refers to the newly heartless pooch as his first “patient.”
I am a student who regularly reads this blog and who has never commented before. I have a dear classmate who is a Bible literalist and young-Earth creationist. She believes:
1. The Earth is ten thousand years old.
2. Dinosaurs died after Noah’s flood made environmental conditions harsh, but before that, humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
3. Carbon dating is inaccurate.
4. “If evolution is true, why are there still animals? Why hasn’t everything evolved into humans?”
5. Microevolution can happen, but not macroevolution.
6. “Evolution takes the glory away from God.”
7. The Earth was created in six days.
8. The Big Bang means that God must exist.
And so many more.
Is there any way I can explain things to her? Something she can read, maybe? The problem is that I can’t argue with her without calling her faith into question. If she thinks the Bible is literal, then there is no way that evolution is compatible with her beliefs. And I have hardly studied enough biology to refute her arguments satisfactorily (especially the “life is too complex to have happened by chance” argument). I need help.
j,
If you can find it, a recent issue of National Geographic posed the question, “Was Darwin Wrong?”. Long story short, their answer is “No!”. It’s a very accessible article; I highly recommend it.
Hey, that family that died in Indonesia recently of Avian Flu? They sought out help from a Witch Doctor, against the advice of other Indonesians!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aiu7Xi_3TZEY&refer=asia
Mythology loses again!
What the hell is wrong with the writers for Doctor Who?
When they wish to, they can be witty and sophisticated… and then they turn around and have the Doctor act profoundly stupidly, and pretend it’s some kind of moral stance.
If they intend it to be so, it’s a perversely retarded form of morality that abhors violence at any cost but glorifies past human violence as heroic and not only justified, but required.
j,
Here’s a link to the “Was Darwin Wrong” article:
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0411/feature1/fulltext.html
Here’s a great link: Understanding Evolution
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/
and there have been some good book recommendations made in earlier posts on Pharyngula. Your friend may not read them, but read them yourself. It’s important not for the sake of converting your friend (good luck with that!) but to know what evidence is, and how it differs from anecdote. Best wishes.
Maybe that comet that’s due today could land on Kenny Boy? Splat, bang, innards all over…
Hey, have people heard about this news about mouse genetics out of Britain?
Basically, researchers have found a gene that seems able to exert an effect on offspring when the parents have the gene, but the child doesn’t; the current guess at a mechanism is massive amounts of messenger RNA carried in the sperm.
However, go read what the BBC has to say.
Testing. Testing. Just testing the comments. I’ve tried to make two comments on this blog and neither has appeared. Hope this one works!
How can so many people think of philosophy as quaint and antiquated when it is busy solving important questions relevant to our modern existence, such as, which came first, the chicken or the egg?