You can tell a lot about people from signs. For instance, the atheists at the University of Alberta went to extra effort and expense to make a nice canvas banner that they could reuse at their events — so some helpful Christians decided to decorate it. They’re going to have to make a new sign, but I think they should keep the old one, too, to remind everyone of the tolerance of the opposition.
This sign says a great deal about the person who made it, don’t you think?
Well, he is part plain-woven sheer to coarse cotton fabric, isn’t he?
But he wouldn’t be make believe if you were here with me! (musical fever, I think)
Oh, I hate those half-breed muslins. Any thread count below 300 just chafes way the hell too much.
What’s a “half-breed muslin”?
Is that a mixed fabric? If so, I could understand why the Leviticus fetishists would be so up in arms.
Can a textile run for public office?
Inquiring minds wanna know!
No kings,
Robert
Huh, I think I’m wearing a half-breed muslin shirt right now. What’s wrong with that??? Reminds me Of Gilda Radner/Emily Litella from SNL. “Violins on televison? Why would anyone be against violins on televison? ohhh…Never mind.”
Aalberta is the Texas of the great white north.
Was anyone punished for vandalizing the University of Alberta banner?
You know, sometimes when I walk by a Christian sign/banner, I feel this burning urge to retort on it with a permanent marker. It’s irrestistable, the allure of defacing someone’s hard work with your opinion; the feeling of making the world a better place through force, etc.
But I don’t. Not because I lack a permanent marker, but rather because some instinct tells me randomly harassing people will not make my life a pleasant one. The basic innate feeling of empathy enables me to associate with whoever made the sign and imagine the effort they put into it. I’d be quite pissed if someone damaged my work, and thus I feel the same for the maker of the sign — note, regardless of the difference in opinion.
So I just make some mental retorts in my head and walk by. Peace remains untroubled on that little tiny plot of human territory. The sun shines on, and we all enjoy our day.
There is a time and place for battles of ideas. The corridor is generally not one of those.
Simple, isn’t it?
So is Muslin to Muslim like Iran is to Iraq?
half-presidential candidate, half-textile.
“God loves you.”
The Jebus assholes forgot the first part of it: “You’re going to hell. God loves you.”
Leave it to a religious moron to get his “threads” mixed up! Egypt contributes both, but sure prefer the high thread count than the “other” high count. These religious morons are so desperate that rationalism is making inroads(?) into their insanity that any action, no matter how puny or significant, will suffice to assuage their god and their scrambled brains. Morons.
Obama is half-Muslin is now a meme!
All in favor, say, “Yay!”
All opposed?
Psi Wavefunction:
That’s why I make my defacements (as infrequent as they are) easily reversible. Post-It notes work well, or another sign nearby pointing at the original…
That Jesus, he needs to learn that there’s more to life than coming. But the Xians keep on about his sexual habits, always telling us that he’s coming again.
At least he has better things to do than be worried that we might have some freedom. Then again, do I really care if he’s coming again?
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
“God Loves You” with a little heart inside the godly ‘o’ gave me goosebumps.
It’s not a hate crime, y’all. It’s a LOVE crime! The scariest thing about these fucking people is that they honestly don’t see anything wrong with these kinds of actions. They’re all just so full of the holy spirit they can’t help but spread it around, especially when they see an individual or organization so obviously in need of ‘enlightenment’.
@ #4 NanKay – “What’s all this I hear about the Presidential Erection? …Ooooh Nevermind”
“Half-breed Muslin”? Is America ready for a fabricated president?
When Jesus is coming, does he say “Oh me oh me oh me OH MEEEE!”, or “Oh Dad oh Dad oh Dad OH DAAAAAD!?
I’ve said it before. God may love you, but you should still make him wear a condom.
The University of Alberta Atheists and Agnostics
They need to remove the word Agnostics. Agnostics have not completely ruled out the idea there’s a magic fairy hiding in the clouds, and that’s sucking up to religious stupidity.
An, of course, we know FOR SURE it was a “hate fueled” Christian and not just some bored dick with a marker pen? It’s jackassery, but “serious hate crime?” C’mon…
Obama is half-Muslin is now a meme! All in favor, say, “Yay!” All opposed?
“Obama Loves You”, “What Would Obama Do?” and “Obama Is Coming” work better for me. ;-)
Well – perhaps they’re just trying to adobt slowly to Simplified spelling?
Though “muslin” is a funny speech impediment.
No, no, no.
Muslin is to Muslim as Iran is to Iram.
and no, I don’t know what that means either
See what happens when alumni like me graduate and leave school? Our Alma Maters go right down the toilet.
But I blame the closing of campus pubs for this one. Back in the day, there were three campus pubs at the U of A: Dewey’s, the Powerplant, and RATT, each generally inhabited by humanities students, science students, and engineers and AgFors, respectively. Dewey’s was as close to a salon as one can find nowadays, the ‘Plant was a great place for a cheap sandwich and a coffee during the day and gigs at night, and RATT has one hell of a view of Edmonton’s skyline (such as it is).
Now that only tiny little RATT remains, students have nowhere to go to sit and discuss the issues of the day with each other, their profs, and people from outside their disciplines.
I suppose this is as clear an indication that I should go back to complete my Master’s and kick a little uncritically-thinking ass.
Agnostics have not completely ruled out the idea there’s a magic fairy hiding in the clouds, and that’s sucking up to religious stupidity.
Fuck you. I’m agnostic, but I’ve pretty much ruled that one out, thanks. There’s a lot of different levels of agnosticism. Stop assuming you know what millions of other people think, or are you claiming to possess the power of mass telepathy?
he’s really Muslin? whoa! because i heard he was a Satin-worshipper …
Quiet_Desperation,
What are you talking about? The only places the phrase “serious hate crime” appear in this thread are in your comment, and now here. Get a grip.
Ugh. Alberta is NOT the Texas of Canada.
Nick Gotts:
And in the linked article.
There’s no suspects, and no videos, and I’m pretty sure Campus Security isn’t going to try very hard on this case.
@ Nick Gotts:
Ian @ Terahertz (the blog to which PZ linked for the full story) said:
Seems like there’s an ongoing campus confrontation of which this is only one sortie.
Jesus H Christ, what a stupid religion.
Jesus is coming. Nah, he’s just breathing hard.
The public school down the street leases out its multipurpose room on Sundays to a church, and they erect this same, stupid sign every Sunday. I have been tempted to vandalize it, but, you know, I’m a mature adult now, and that seems so infantile.
But I have harrassed and laughed at people as they go in.
(Kidding.)
Hey, has anyone else heard about this ridiculous Tony Alamo guy?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/23/alamo.evangelist.raid.ap/index.html
What an idiot.
I really don’t cotton to these silly puns. Chintzy humor, if you ask me. Best to put a stop to it now lest we get folks linen up to fleece us with more.
Anyway, I doubt anyone will be suede by a bad protest sign.
A simple sign, with scarlet letter–
Surely, one could make it better!
I knew I could, and so I drew
A heart, and cross, and “God Loves You”.
“Jesus Is Coming”–there, I’m done;
That’s much improved, and so much fun!
But now, sit back and watch–I’ll bet
Those angry atheists get upset;
They’re not content to turn a cheek–
They’re uppity, they’ll want to speak!
It’s just like them, to be so rude…
And that’s why they deserved it, dude.
@Nick Gotts: Well, I, for one, actually *read* the linked article where it did call it a hate crime. Right back at you with the “get a grip.” (rolls eyes)
“There’s a lot of different levels of agnosticism”??
Say what? I thought agnosticism meant you weren’t sure, so are you saying that today you might be 10% sure there’s a bearded guy farting in the F-layer, but next week, you might be 60% or 2% sure?
Benjamin Geiger @13:
“I’m with stupid —>”?
Epic Faille. Cast off damask of superiority and lighten up, pal.
I’m one of the hosts of Q Transmissions, a new skeptical radio show in Edmonton, Alberta. We’ll be doing a short interview about the vandalism with a representative from the UAAA group at the start of our program this week.
We’re live every Friday from 6-7pm MST, and you can listen online at http://www.cjsr.com.
Thanks!
Desiree
Can you imagine the uproar if atheists had defaced a church? But then I remembered… atheists don’t do stuff like that.
Speaking as a Theatre Stage Manager, I would hate to think that someone had defiled our Sacred Muslin by fornicating with it. I’m sure the theatre gods would be incredibly upset at the thought that Muslin would be used to such a purpose as breeding a thoughtful, intelligent, well spoken man.
I can also understand why the Christian extremists would be upset at such a thing. Why would you want someone born of fabric to deign to aspire to the presidency. Someone might point out that muslin is quite a rough fabric that has been around for a long time. It is kind of a cousin to burlap. I’m sure their precious baby jebus might have been wrapped in muslin or burlap, and I’m sure they’d hate to think of that being defiled by an upstanding christian who doesn’t think exactly like they do.
Quiet, #33: Don’t be feeling too khaki about yourself.
Perhaps there has been some mistake and Obama is really a Demicravat?
Well, I hate to say it, but I hope someone tried washing the thing first.
I recall a prank by performance artist Boyd Rice where he and some friends “defaced” the giant lemon of Lemon Grove, California … but did it with something completely water soluble! Of course the folks of Lemon Grove didn’t think of this and repainted the entire ersatz citrus because, as the tut-tutting opinion piece in the paper said, they “so loved the lemon” ….
Yes, it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Alberta
Even the wiki article mentions this nickname.
If they want to respond crudely, they could add the atheist bumper-sticker text featured on another science blog earlier this year:
Jesus is coming? Don’t swallow that.
Half breed Muslin? Obviously this is a very clever reference to Leviticus 19:19
That or just dumbfucks being dumbfucks.
Does that second image go with the first? It isn’t mentioned or shown in the linked blog you retrieved the first image from. Where did it come from?
That sucks the groups banner was vandalized, personally I wouldn’t classify it as a “serious hate crime”, maybe if it said “atheists get out, or else!” or “We will crush you infidels!” or some text along those lines I could see it that way, but I don’t see any threatening statements or symbols. Still vandalism is a crime, so hopefully the guilty will be busted and have to pay the penalty for that crime.
Wow. That second one literally stopped me in my tracks, and I was unable to do anything but sit slack-jawed and stare at the screen for a couple of minutes. Astounding.
As for the first, Christians are petty. Nice for them to make sure everyone knows.
@#17
We already have one of those.
Yes, but he’ll be weaving office soon. Besides, Obama’s more appealing to weft-wing voters.
Posted by: Chris Swanson | September 23, 2008 1:16 PM
“Half-breed Muslin”? Is America ready for a fabricated president?
You mean a President that takes no sheet?
Phaedrus:
1) If you read Douglas Adams (or even the God Delusion), it becomes clear that what some folks consider atheism is really very strong agnosticism. By some definitions, everything other than a 7 on Dawkins’ scale is not atheism (note that Dawkins rates himself about a 6.8-6.9, if I recall correctly). So the choice of words is really one of semantics.
2) The U of A has something like 23 Christian groups on campus (of varying degrees of religious-guided mandate; some are full-blown How Big Is Your Jesus evangelical while others have their first purpose be charity), to say nothing about other faiths in student groups. There is precisely one freethought student group — the UAAA. Would you propose we alienate free-thinking individuals simply because they accept uncertainty or NOMA? (That said, I volunteered at the club fair and of the folks who signed up, I recall at least one deist and one pantheist as well. These are definitely not atheistic or agnostic positions, but they aren’t bound by religion or dogma. Where else would they go?)
Alberta really is the Texas of Canada. Admitting you don’t believe in a sky fairy (or, depending on where you are, admitting that the sky fairy you believe in isn’t the vengeful desert god) is almost as bad as being — *gasp!* — liberal (small OR capital L). There is no reason to discriminate further against free-thinkers just because they live a rational life for different reasons than some of us do. We get plenty of that from the Christians — just see the sign. (On Ian’s blog, he recounts a letter from one nutjob (also in his comments…) who thinks that separation of church and state is evidence that secularism is attacking Christianity… even when it’s the Christian groups, especially our resident Big Jesus On Campus group, that are using vandal tactics on the atheists.)
Strange (but not unexpected) link fail there.
Dumbfucks
I especially love the lower-case “d” on the second sign. That’s what gives it that delicious illiterate je ne sais quoi.
Here’s a very nice and timely sign; more info (including video link) here.
Well let’s put all those agnostics on board the Golgafrincham Ark Fleet God… err… Zeusdammit!! We need definitive action! None of this fence-sitting stuff!
Obama’s a Muslin, eh? Must be a Sheetite.
ROTFL!!!
The big J, too, is somewhat off. It looks more like a Dīng (this Chinese surname).
Oh dear. Why didn’t they use the internet, where all their worries would have been laid to rest here:
http://isbarackobamamuslin.com/
I spent a month in Edmonton once. The best part? The large banner in the airport that read “EDMONTON: ALBERTA’S CAPITAL CITY”.
That’s one heck of a town motto.
This doesn’t surprise me one little bit.
The Obama sign is in the grand tradition of rightard own-goals such as:
this pro-war guy.
Oh, and I’d like to see PZ do something to anger the muslins, if he’s brave enough!
But I don’t. Not because I lack a permanent marker, but rather because some instinct tells me randomly harassing people will not make my life a pleasant one.
Yeah, same here, pretty much. My family’s fundamentalist, and my dad used to embarrass the hell out of me as a kid by stopping at the bulletin board whenever we went to the library and removing any fliers for religions and political stuff he found objectionable. It’s left me with a lingering chuckle whenever fundies pull that “We just want *tolerance*” nonsense and very little tolerance, personally, the odd times I encounter atheists or liberals or leftists or whoever else I might agree with, doing the same thing.
Just not cool, whether you’re a pro-lifer doing it to abortion rights folks, or vice versa.
The muslins must be dyed!
Only in Alberta…
(and perhaps Saskatchewan)
It’s rude to call Barack Obama a “muslin.” They should have said “fabrican-American.”
This could all be remedied with some addenda to the messages.
“Jesus is coming!” (“Look busy!”)
“God loves you!” (“but everyone else thinks you’re a putz”)
Anyone else in Edmonton going to the lecture tonight? It’s posted on the groups UofA web page.
Careful, KristinMH. We’re a plucky little town that tends to be the only liberal bastion in a conservatron provice, when we aren’t busy stabbing each other all over the place, that is. Besides, Calgary’s motto isn’t much better: “Calgary: We ain’t no liberal pinkos like them Edmontonians.”
Thanks for the heads up, Desiree. If I can get myself to a radio on Friday, I’ll be tuning in for sure.
BobC,
That Agnostics may not be as anti religious as Atheists is a figment of your very limited imagination…
Oh well… I feel bad about the Atheist sign, but the Obama sign cheered me up.
I suppose we know who they’ll be voting for:
McCain-PaliM ’08!
There was a crime on Long Island (a long time ago–I think there was a murder involved) and near by a playground was vandalized with the words “Satin Lives”, the work, obviously of satin worshipers. They never did determine if it was the silk sect or the polyesther sect however. Honestly, you’d think Anna Wintour really WAS god!
(erm, for those of you who don’t know–Anna Wintour is the editor of Vogue magazine).
Quiet, #33: Don’t be feeling too khaki about yourself.
This is getting woolly. I’d better bolt. It’s curtains for this thread.
Why do Christians have the social skills of toddlers?
I mean, seriously. Do these brainwashed gomers even stop to think about how stupid they look when they do what they do?
The “muslin” sign reminds me of a photo I once saw. It had been taken in the late 60’s when the Omaha public schools were being integrated. The picture shows a man holding a sign that said “NIGER GO HOME.”
Me @ 28
That’s right. No Woody Guthrie, no Molly Ivins, no Jim Hightower, no Willie Nelson, no 500 elementery schools named Travis, no Davey Crockett Alamode, no ZZ Top, no fire ants, no carpetbaggers, no Shiner Bock flat piss beer, no hurricanes…
face it, yall are just BORING
quiet deperation @ 72 wins the pun density contest for sure
———————————–
Scooter’s Ike Pix and vids
I guess
1. Muslin is bred
2. God and Jesus love you but Christians don’t
Ah, I see.
In addition to Lying for Jesus, Threatening for Jesus, Fraudulently Subscribing PZ to Magazines for Jesus, we now have an example of Vandalism for Jesus.
Wherefore, by their works you will know them.
What did they hope to achieve with the Obama is a muslin sign?
When it comes to rabid atheists lke ourselves, that stuff just won’t wash.
I’ve seen “There is no God” or “Dawkins is right” scrawled on stuff ranging from bathroom stalls to the stuff put out by Christian student groups on my campus.
There’s a guy who gouges his name “Dave” into every screen or display he can get his hands on, now he annoys the fuck out of me. Still, a cat will spray a tree, it’s not insidious, just basic animal shit.
People vandalize. Shit happens. No exceptions.
That does it. Next time I see one of those christian fish symbols, I’m drawing legs on it.
Quiet_Desperation@35,
Oops. Apologies!
Hey, now, don’t go dissin’ the Shiner Bock!
Tulse, have you ever had a Shiner Bock? A few of my tastebuds just died from the memory of it. [shudder]
@24/Brownian:
RATT, Deweys, and the Powerplant all still exist. Deweys and the Powerplant are now basically the same thing and there are no lives though. The only “pub” that is gone is the Ship in Lister Center which is now dry.
Way more than I care to admit — Rice University was Shiner’s biggest customer (literally).
Fresh Shiner Bock is a definite step up from the usual American lager beer, and I’ve had very many of them (both Shiners and comparators); I’d put it in a similar class with Yuengling or Leinenkugel.
“Half-breed”–that’s all I ever heard
“Half-breed”–how I learned to hate the word
Half-breed, she’s no good they warned
Both sides were against me since the day I was born
-Cher (from The Complete Wit and Wisdom of Sonny and/or Cher)
The Lord hemps those who hemp themselves.
The whole muslin rumor was deliberately spun by rightwing PR flax.
Agnostic, Atheist, you can be both really. I consider myself to be both.
-Brad
(a chemist, but not “The Chemist”)
[quote]What’s a “half-breed muslin”?[/quote]
another rightwing piece of BS
Jarvik, but can you get a pint at either Dewey’s or the Plant during the day or night? (BTW, the REAL Dewey’s was in HUB mall. It’s limped along since it took over what was then the Grad Student’s Lounge in that little room in the Plant back in ’97, but only as a shallow imitation of itself.)
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the awful list of puns, and thought of ticking people off, but then I thought that would net me nothing: ‘twill be better after a nap.
It’s a sad sign that racism is still prevalent in society. why are the intolerant tolerated?!?
Not visible is the fact that the UAAA’s website and email were cut off the bottom of the poster, meaning that even if we were able to remove the Jesus crap, we’d still have to squeeze that info back in somewhere.
This reminds me of a photo I saw years ago. Some stupid woman was holding up a sign during a civil rights demonstration that said “Go home niger.” That summed it up for me–she was so stupid, she didn’t even know how to correctly spell her vile, racist epithet!
Religious vandals REALLY piss me off. Who the fsck do they think they are to deface and destroy someone else’s artistic work? Some years ago here in Argentina three Catholic whackaloons bursted into an art exhibition by the artist León Ferrari and vandalized some of the sculptures with the excuse that those offended their faith. When a judge imposed to them a fine of $10.000 (about 3.100 U.S. dollars) León was able to exact his vengeance on the kooks: he donated that sum to the C.H.A., a gay activist organization. I’d have loved to see the faces of the morons when they learned that their money was going to help a cause they despise. :-D
I’m going to save the Obama sign for posterity.
The vaunted superiority of this Eurocentric religiosity should properly be reflected in the bigots’ racist diatribes meeting certain minimum quality standards.
These should properly include recognizing the subtle distinctions between a world religion and a style of cotton weave.
“Jesus is coming”… I’m sorry, but for some reason, I’m not swallowing that.
So Obama is a man of the cloth?
Psi Wavefunction #7
For you, and you will be the last we come for*, there is a special hutch. It is quite large, because you will need room to make our boots -which you will then polish with your tongue- etc etc …on a human face…forever..
* because we love the smell of crispin’ lamb in the morning
this really ticked me off . I live in edmonton where the u of a is located. not surprised though alberta is the land of conservatives and that jesus guy.
I’m from Edmonton and am really embarrassed that the first big mention I’ve seen of my hometown on here is this story. Alberta has a reputation for being a bible-thumping province, but in my experience, even though we’re definitely not the most liberal or forward province, the reputation isn’t completely deserved, and I think southern Alberta is a little worse for being ultra-conservative and religious (but maybe that’s my hockey bias – sorry, Flamers). Really, in spite of the foregoing, we’re not the Texas of Canada, and not all of us are that ignorant. Really. :(
Does that make me half Catholic, since my mother was Catholic?
@bobC
They need to remove the word Agnostics. Agnostics have not completely ruled out the idea there’s a magic fairy hiding in the clouds, and that’s sucking up to religious stupidity.
I will never understand why some atheists come down on agnostics when in the political scheme of things, they are probably the closest allies and most likely to have beliefs in regard to society in common, at the very least they share the view of a secular world.
Obama may not be a half breed muslin, but he’s a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.
“Muslin”?
So, Obama is a man of the cloth…
You can get a pint at Dewey’s anytime, if you don’t want to go to RATT (and I don’t blame you if you don’t).
That said, I joined the UAAA this year and signed the petition to remove the God bit (“I charge you to use [the powers, rights, and privileges of University degrees] for the glory of God”) from convocation. UAAA isn’t bothering anyone, it’s not doing anything wrong (unless you have particular objections to Carl Sagan DVDs or unobtrusive lectures to interested parties in small classrooms), and it’s the only group for people who aren’t interested in the Navigators/Alpha/CSA/LSA/two dozen other Christian groups on campus to go for some good free thought.
We didn’t deface your posters, we didn’t tell anyone else what we thought of your God, we didn’t make a public statement of our beliefs (or lack thereof) at your expense. How Christian is it, really, to anonymously destroy the belongings of another because you didn’t agree with their beliefs, to cost them money and time, and not to be willing even to admit to it?
Er… I hate to say this, but from an article about the guy who put the sign in his lawn:
“Lacasse put the sign on his lawn Saturday. A Korean War veteran, he said he was a registered Democrat until Obama won the nomination.”
And I gather he was a Hillary supporter.
A link, just because I care :-)
http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/9/10/obama_sign_in_yard_stirs_up_neighbors.html
And he’s planning a bigger sign.
Nick Gotts: Oops. Apologies!
No problemo. :-)
{{{{{{{{{{HUG}}}}}}}}}}
That was my read. College kids doing politically charged graffiti. This stuff dates back to Ancient Greece. There’s supposedly preserved graffiti in Pompeii.
The defacement of the UAAA banner reminds me of a couple of recent trolls here.
I attended the U of A (late 60′, early 70’s) and I remember it as a place of learning and debate. I found out about this yesterday from my daughter who is now a student there. She was disgusted that such intolerance has occurred at an institution that she thought was a place where ideas, discussion, and learning were valued.
Unfortunately Alberta is viewed as the “red-neck” part of Canada. I taught biology for many years in the school system and was constantly amazed that other teachers were unwilling to discuss issues related to evolution. They did not want to be the centre of a controversy by confronting the religious views of some of their students. It was my observation that their fears were unfounded – the debates in my classes were both illuminating and did not result in questions about what was being taught in my classes.
Unfortunately there are groups in Alberta who would not find the actions of some students at the U of A as offensive and would be pleased if creationism was taught in schools. Interesting that they should think that way in a part of the world where fossils and fossil fuels are so common. Sometimes fossilization happens to some well before death.
Along with Benny (#66) and Paul (#98..) I would suggest:
“Jesus is somewhat aroused” or…
“Jesus came prematurely; oh well, maybe next time.”
And I just *know* “that” is what they mean with:
“Jesus Loves Ewe”.
(Any Kiwis here??)
That’s funny, I didn’t think Jesus even had sex.
What would being a 30something unmarried Jewish virgin 2000 years ago be indicative of? Especially one who talked about kindness and tolerance…
Obama’s got a sort of diaphanous way about him.
But but if Obama’s a muslin, then John McCain is a total tulle.
Yeah, but BobC (#10), they also forgot the LAST part of the “Jesus is coming!” point: “Swallow, or it’s going in your eye!”
I think the nuts who wrote this are so “full of it” that this is just their leakage; they’re so full they can no longer swallow, and so are forced to take it in the eyes and ears, themselves, now… which explains a lot about their ignorance: they can no longer accurately sense the real world. ;)
At the Ewe of Eh tonight we had a speaker on that there are more sides to the creation/evolution debate. He argued that there are theistic evolutionists, and other different categories in between the YECs and the atheistic evolutionists, which I agree with. The lecture was rather boring, but at the end when we had questions, and the was a catholic who got up and told Dr Lamoureux that he was an agent of Satan, and all that. It was amusing, since he got laughed out of the lecture hall. It was an experience for me, since I’ve never seen one the whackjobs up close, only ever read about them.
Did anyone else go? I recognized a couple people from the club.
@ Tyler:
“It was an experience for me, since I’ve never seen one the whackjobs up close, only ever read about them. Did anyone else go? I recognized a couple people from the club.”
My daughter tells me that there is a “InterFaith” group on campus. Maybe your group might considering attempting to join it. A negative response would tell you something about the tolerance within the group. A positive response would give you the chance to participate in activities (in a positive way of course) related to science (especially evolution and origins) and sceptisism.
I must admit that I’ve defaced Christian propaganda. After the Gideons visited the campus, I found several little green New Testaments lying around, abandoned by the people they’d been given to. I collected them, and carefully wrote ‘www.evilbible.com’ in red ink on the title page, and left them all around. It seemed like the least I could do.
I wanted to go to the talk but couldn’t. TAing.
However, three years ago Lawrence Krauss was on campus with a delightfully-well-titled talk: ‘Science, Non-Science and Nonsense’ (an American equivalent would be “Sound Science or Sounds Like Science?”). He spoke of government interference in science (notably Bush) and industry spin on science (notably in climate), but ID factored in as a great case study of “not science” by bypassing the scientific method. At the end, he was (unsuccessfully) flamed by a diehard Catholic who hadn’t heard a word he said. Sadly, she was not laughed out of the room, since, naturally, the atheists were too polite.
I don’t like being militant about atheism, but I can certainly see the appeal.
During my undergraduate days some of the radical groups on campus would put up ten flyers for one of their meetings on a single bulletin board. I tended to cull the herd when I saw that, but never removed them all. After all, they had a right to show when they were holding their meetings. They just didn’t have the right to prevent others from doing the same by hogging the bulletin board.
#47 – Rev. BigDumbChimp – Weeelll, just look at that! The king doin’ some excellent bible quotin’. Didn’t know you had it in you, Rev.
How do you crossbreed flax?
I’m not an Obama supporter, but I do agree that was really flax humor.
Really quite lacking it seams to me.
Danio @ 38:
epic faille! hahahaha! lol has been made:
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff90/sfbooklady/epicfaillemuslin.jpg
and submitted to (where else?) failblog.
We had something similar happen here in San Antonio a few years ago; some fundaloon broke into San Fernando Cathedral and smashed some very old statues because he was pissed at the Catholics for “worshipping idols.” What made this worse was 1) San Fernando is the oldest continuously operating parish in America (look it up), so it’s not just another church to the people of this city, culturally (I’ve been to Mass there, just to check the place out), and 2) the cathedral had just completed a restoration of the entire facility. It had been open less than a month when this jack-off went into the church during a Mass and started tearing things up.
I remember when the story first broke, a bunch of Christians were all ready to lay it at the feet of an atheist, Pagan or satan-worshipper. I told them at the time, wait and see: It’ll be a Protestant. Probably some obsessive religious nut.
And then I was shitty enough to demand apologies from all of the people who’d wanted it to be an atheist.
It’s an admission of an inability to communicate — the words are insufficient, so crude labels are required.
I feel the same way with people writing posts peppered with four letter words (Crude words though instead of crude labels). I see such language as the writer’s inability to get their point across without having to fall back upon crude slang to express themselves.
Ugh,that above was met for another post, I got my tags in Firefox mixed up, please disregard.
Is it Punday already?
Holy shit people.
It was taken on a weekend at a university campus. It was obviously just a drunken joke. Get a grip, get off your high horse, and laugh it off. If anything the UAAA group got MORE publicity after this incident.
“When Jesus is coming, does he say “Oh me oh me oh me OH MEEEE!”, or “Oh Dad oh Dad oh Dad OH DAAAAAD!?”
There’s a “got wood” joke in there somewhere.
Get a grip, get off your high horse, and laugh it off.
You haven’t actually read the comments, have you?
He might be anti-muslin, or even anti-twill, but at least he’s not an anti-samite.
Jesus is coming! Nah, he’s just faking it.
Unless it was deliberate and part of some subtle satire (cf Ebert). Eg a reference to “Blessed are the cheesemakers” with the inclusion of both “bree” (brie) and muslin.
Half-breed Muslin? That would be Calicobama.
@ Tyler
I went, and I found it interesting. I found the Catholic fundy embarrassing, but otherwise I thought it was a good lecture. Out of the 100+ people there, one idiot. Not a bad ratio in my opinion. It would speak against the typical stereotypes/strawman that most atheists/theists put forward about each other. No one is static and I enjoyed the whole mix n match on the beliefs chart.
oh, if anyone is interested about the premise of the lecture, it’s all on-line.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dlamoure/beyond.html
If you’ve read Ken Miller, it’s similar. I found it interesting that theologians don’t agree with young earthers, not because of science, which is not their area, but because it’s a bad theology. Anyways, you can’t every really talk seriously about these issues on the internet. It’s too easy for trolls and flamers to be silly.
I heard PZ is coming to Edmonton??!! Is this true?
“I see such language as the writer’s inability to get their point across without having to fall back upon crude slang to express themselves.”
This is not always true.
I have a Ph.D. in the arts and am ready, willing and able to discuss the work of Shakespeare, Robert Wilson or the Bread and Puppet Theatre Company. I write engaging prose when I try, and can construct a convincing argument (I think, anyway).
But the truth of the matter is I find crude slang really fuckin’ funny sometimes.
I mean, the reason I liked MST3K so much is that they would make Milton Babbitt jokes and do the cruder stuff at the same time.
Awesome. I go away for a few weeks and I come back to read about my alma mater.
While I haven’t ever defaced a poster from a religious group, I have taken down posters when they’ve stuck a dozen or so up on a single bulletin board much like Nerd of Redhead outlined. Once, I was stopped by this young hysterical dude who was so so so upset with me for removing posters. I explained the notion of common courtesy, how billboards are equal opportunity, yadda yadda, and he proclaimed that TRUTH and JESUS deserve more space. It was an excrutiating conversation that resulted in him splaying his body across the bulletin board and denying me access to it. I just went later on in the day and took the rest off. I left one.
Half-breed muslin? Is that what the graffitist makes his KKK uniform from?
LOL well first off, let me say that that poem was very funny, good work on that one. Second, there is still one thing that seems to be overlooked more then not, some people have made comments about it, but in the over all view it seems to be accepted. Christians have been blamed for this. However, there is no proof that it was Christians. I completely agree that if you look at the situation it is more likely then not a bunch of drunk 1st year students with a marker that had an opportunity to make an ironical joke. Which, actually is pretty funny when you think about it, the comment that “God loves you” on an atheist poster, you can’t get much better then that!!
Hey Brachychiton,
I read every post. All of them. And even if i didn’t the very high possibility that this was just a drunken joke by university kids still stands. So stop wasting your time and get over it.
-E
What was one or two persons idea of a joke was distasteful to me, and not only made me feel angry and hurt, but less likely to discuss being an agnostic openly. A plea for tolerance shouldn’t be made into a joke.
Hey “K”,
If and incident like this makes you less likely to discuss your beliefs openly then I question how strong your beliefs are. If everyone in this world ran away when their beliefs were challenged then social progress would stop. If you really want to make a strong point you should put up a new poster and pretend nothing happened. That would show real strength in your beliefs.
-E
bluescat
Is that Blue Scat or Blues Cat?
Just curious. My mate had a wrist watch (fairly good one) called Scat, but threw it in the bin after he was made aware of what ‘scat’ is as noun (And not this meaning: Jazz singing in which improvised, meaningless syllables are sung to a melody…)
Trying to explain that scatology is a well-respected science didn’t help much :^)