My readers hate me, and like to make me suffer. That’s the only way to explain why they would send me links to the ghastly Huffington Post. I swear, it’s becoming as insane as World Net Daily.
The latest screed is from some bozo named Dr Larry Dossey. The awfulness begins right away, as he quotes Jeremy Rifkin, the professional Luddite, on the scientific method.
[T]he scientific method [is] an approach to learning that has been nearly deified in the centuries following the European Enlightenment. Children are introduced to the scientific method in middle school and informed that it is the only accurate process by which to gather knowledge and learn about the real world around us … The scientific observer is never a participant in the reality he or she observes, but only a voyeur. As for the world he or she observes, it is a cold, uncaring place, devoid of awe, compassion or sense of purpose. Even life itself is made lifeless to better dissect its component parts. We are left with a purely material world, which is quantifiable but without quality … The scientific method is at odds with virtually everything we know about our own nature and the nature of the world. It denies the relational aspect of reality, prohibits participation and makes no room for empathic imagination. Students in effect are asked to become aliens in the world.
There is absolutely nothing in that description that fits my conception of the scientific method. It’s utter nonsense written by someone who doesn’t understand science in the slightest, but is familiar with cartoon stereotypes of the scientist as heartless robot. Seriously, has this guy never heard of Richard Feynman? Neil deGrasse Tyson? Roy Chapman Andrews? Any of the biologists I know? We become part of the world by understanding that world as it actually is, unwarped by the superstitious illusions people like Dossey want to impose on it.
As usual, the complaint is an indignant claim that scientists will tell you that science is the only “accurate process by which to gather knowledge and learn about the real world”, which is true. Instead of saying what it is not, though, just once I’d like to see one of these clowns tell me plainly and clearly what his alternative is. Dossey does not.
It’s probably just as well. His latest book is on the “Power of Premonitions”, and he’s also written books on the power of prayer. He’s a credulous magic man, in other words.
Over on the TONMO forums, an aquarist has been documenting the life of his octopus, “Legs”. Legs was wild caught when only the size of a fingernail, and raised to healthy, thriving adulthood — with lots and lots of photos.
Legs just recently died, unfortunately, which is the sad reality of getting to know most cephalopods — they tend to be very short-lived creatures, many living for only a year. “The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly, Legs.”
I thought the whole Affair of the Mocking Memo was grossly overblown and absurd, but I had no idea how pretentious the Vatican could be. Now, because of an internal memo that made some mild jests about confronting the Pope on his British visit with the consequences of his policies, the silly men in dresses are threatening to stick their noses in the air, sniff, and refuse to come.
One highly-placed source in the Vatican said: “This could have very severe repercussions and is embarrassing for the British government – one has to question whether the action taken is enough.
“It is disgusting. Britain’s ambassador to the Holy See has been in to see the Secretary of State and explain what happened and this will all be relayed to the Pope.
“It’s even possible the trip could be cancelled as this matter is hugely offensive.”
Cardinal Renato Martino, the former head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said: “The British government has invited the Pope as its guest and he should be treated with respect.
“To make a mockery of his beliefs and the beliefs of millions of Catholics not just in Britain but across the world is very offensive indeed.”
Oh, “very offensive indeed.” Merely joking about asking the Pope to defend himself outrages the Vatican…but we’re supposed to overlook the effects his lies about birth control, disease, and the treatment of children have had on the world.
Stay home, Ratzi, stay home. Hide in your palace surrounded by your sleazy sycophants, and stuff up your ears when others dare to point out that you are an evil old man running a corrupt establishment.
Tonight, broadcast at 6:30pm ET on WBAI 99.5FM in the New York tri-state area or streamed live, Matthew LaClair will take on the awful Don McLeroy in a discussion of the Texas textbook revisionism. If you miss it, it will also be available later at Equal Time for Freethought.
It could be interesting: young, smart, and open-minded against a ferociously ignorant crank.
I don’t know why the creationists haven’t been pushing this one.
(Moved below the fold because apparently a cartoon of a naked man and woman will freak some people out. Isn’t it enough to just say it’s a Bible story? That excuses everything!)
This is odd. In Australia, school kids can opt-in to take scripture classes, and the kids who opt out get to sit in the school during those hours doing nothing, which seems a bit of a waste. So the schools have a new plan: while the religious kids are off memorizing bible verses, the secular kids will get classes in ethics which will “cover topics including respect, bullying, animal rights and questions about life and death.”
That sounds reasonable to me, and a good use of time. Guess who doesn’t like the idea, though? Church leaders! There is actually a rule that prohibits secular students from any formal learning during that special scripture time. The Catholics are whining that giving non-Christians an introduction to ethics could “jeopardise the future of religious education”. Ministers are complaining that it’s unfair to give an introduction to ethics without input from their religious point of view. Apparently, if you’re not a Christian, you’re expected to spend your time working on coloring books or perfecting your thumb-twiddling, rather than actually learning something.
So now there’s a poll on this subject. It looks like a lot of people in NSW are in favor of enforced idleness for secular kids.
Should ethics classes be introduced into NSW primary schools?
Yes
(32.6%)
No
(67.4%)
Archy is speculating about Gould’s idea that if you rewound the tape of life and replayed it, you might get some very different results…and he suggests that in a different world, molluscs could have replaced vertebrates as the dominant large metazoan. This is perfectly reasonable, but he chose to illustrate the concept, and my SIWOTI syndrome kicked in.
Noooo! He’s got an arrow for a “large brain” pointing to an enlarged fleshy flap above the eyes. That’s not where the cephalopod brain is located! They have a ventral nerve cord — the central brain would be deep, between the eyes and behind the beak, wrapped around the esophagus.
In this alternate universe, the intelligent cephalopods would be speculating about how those primitive, stupid vertebrates could have evolved into something as clever as they are, and they’d draw something frog-like and point to a puffy throat-sac and say, “look at its big brain!”
But OK, the ray gun is cool.
Another interesting tidbit in this video is the teabagger split between Palinites (government should promote Christian values) and Paulites (government should go away). Either way, they’re a party of loons.
(via One Good Move)
