Comments

  3. clinteas says

    The Sunday radio reminder is really only there for my weekly secret date with SC…:-)

    Always waiting for ya to do your timezone thing,when PZ is too lazy to post the GMT again LOL

  4. SC says

    Hi clinteas! *smile, wink*

    With so many people being laid off these days, I’m thankful I still have a job here.

    Will try not to miss the beginning this time.

  5. Trevor says

    Weird. When I turned it on, there was this awful “commercial” (more like infomercial), yapping about this dietary supplement to prevent aging, help your joints, save your dog (no, really. they said that).

    What is this?!

    This is my first time trying to tune in, but I definitely didn’t expect to hear a fake-science-infomercial.

  8. Richard Harris says

    …biblical inerrancy…

    This is more of a problem for Xianity than for Judaism & Submissionism. If the scriptures are literally true, that creates many problems. But if it’s only meant to be taken metaphorically, that creates other problems, such as which are the coreect interpretations & who gets to decide. The Catholics solved that by ruthlessly rooting out heresies, & making the pope infallible. The Protestants still have the problem.

    I suppose that the reason that the other Abrahamic religions don’t have such a big problem with it is that they haven’t got that stupid trinity idea, where one god is three gods is one god.

    But why the heck can’t the religious clowns realize that the bible texts were written by primitives who accepted magic because there weren’t other available interpretations of their world? Arghhhhhhh! The stupidity!

  9. speedwell says

    He can’t rant and rave against the institution of religion, he says, because it has been so important, so crucial, to the human race for such a long time… even though he speaks as an outsider, a member of the “loyal opposition.”

    Piffle. Does he also support war? Theft? Powerful people ripping off poor people and forming abusive governments? Anything else crucial to the history and development of the human race?

  10. speedwell says

    Oh, crap, they used my question on the air. Can’t a girl rant rhetorically anymore these days of technology? :D They seem to be taking it in the right direction, anyway.

    (Thanks, Dr. Price.)

  15. Laen says

    Here’s an OT question. I have limited internet access here in Iraq and I was just told a “wonderful” story about how Thanksgiving wasn’t a harvest celebration with the pilgrims and native americans…no no no, it started a couple years later and was religious. The timing was changed supposedly to not interfere with xmas.

    1. What the hell? Please tell me this is more revisionist history.
    2. Weren’t the Puritans against celebrating xmas?
    3. If this isn’t true, and I don’t think it is, does anyone have any idea who and where it started?

  16. says

    Speaking of the uniquely American penchant for commercialism, I decided to avoid Black friday all together and become a willing participant in Cyber Monday. It seems to decrease my carbon footprint as I point and click my way to a cornucopia of scientific snarkisms for all my geeky friends.
    So in reference to your earlier post about the American Thanksgiving – “Consumption” if you’re a pessimist, or “Gift-Giving” if you’re an optimist. In any case, someone has to start buying again so we can all retire with our 401K’s only down 40%.

  19. says

    Hmm. A good find my friend. I think, PZ, that you have some interesting posts, no matter how much we have disagreed in the past.

    Inerrancy doctrines are interesting in that they seem to be a substantially American phenomenon. And: with dubious connections to hardcore Creationism. Ronald Numbers is good on these issues.

    NS
    http://sciencedefeated.wordpress.com/

  20. costanza says

    EXPLAIN where all this “biblical inerrancy” comes from? That’s just stupid – all you need to do is pick up a history book. Ooops, I forgot…reading is a lost skill, nowadays.

  21. Bill Dauphin says

    Laen (@15):

    2. Weren’t the Puritans against celebrating xmas?

    Funny you should ask: I was just about an hour ago reading this review of a book that bears on the question. Apparently the Puritans did suppress the celebration of Christmas, and (according to this author, at least) we have Charles Dickens to thank for reversing that. Methinks I need to read this tome.

  25. says

    Biblical inerrancy is no barrier to intelligent conversation. All you have to say is, “Presuming Biblical inerrancy for the purposes of this discussion, it doesn’t follow that your personal Biblical interpretation is presumed to be inerrant.”

  26. RickrOll says

    shame it was cut short of an hour. i wanted to hear more. Yep, the “justification by faith alone” was, for all intents and purposes, the death of christianity. Everyone becomes the authority on scripture, everyone goes their own way into the fog, and no one can actually Have an original thought on the subject anymore. It’s the blind mand leading those that willingly put on blinfolds.

    The breakup of the power of the RCC was, however, the biggest contribution to the Enlightenment, and thus, science. YAY Martin Luther, you rascist, biblically incorrect, intellectually slutty monk! Without you, none of this denegration of Christ would be possible. The U.S.A. would all be a bunch of Catholics. What’s more, there would be a severe wanting for technology.