The newest member of the FtB team is up and running: Jamila Bey is here!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
The newest member of the FtB team is up and running: Jamila Bey is here!
I thought it would be nice to have the superbowl playing in the background while I was working this evening — I have good memories of my father and uncles enjoying the game when I was young, even if I never got into it myself. But I turned it on 15 minutes ago, and it was actually rather intolerable: the self-importance, the hyperbole, Bob Costas (that was Costas, right?) fellating the players and telling them how important their ball-catching and people-hitting abilities are, and going on and on about trivial statistics from past games. It’s all kind of icky.
Here’s a dialog between a gamergater and Leigh Alexander. She speaks truth.
Yet again, another defender of Islam hangs the truth of his holy book on the scientific accuracy of the text. It’s amazing how defensive these fundies get over the possibility that the author was merely transmitting the guesswork of the time, and like any scientific hypothesis, stands a risk of being shown to be wrong by later work.
In this case, the apologists are confronted with a verse from the Quran, which they happily translate literally as (Man is) created from gushing water (which) comes out from between the backbone and the ribs.
I think the Arabs of the 7th century knew exactly where the spine and ribs are — you don’t need to chop a corpse open to find them — and saying that something was located between the spine and the ribs is clearly equivalent to saying the source of semen is in the chest. Which is wrong. Obviously wrong. And they know it is wrong. But watch as they spend 8 tortuous minutes explaining that it’s not really wrong, and all those old Greeks really got it wrong, anyway, unlike Mohammed.
You don’t want to watch that tedious video, I know, so I’ve pulled out a few key frames.
I normally don’t watch football, but I thought maybe I should get a little bit into the spirit of it all since I am from Seattle, and one of the teams has a corporate owner who has been gouging my relatives for a stadium and services for years. Besides, I’ve got my exams graded and my lecture prepared for Monday already, so any excuse to party, right? I’ve never been to a Superbowl party, either, so I’m not sure how one does it. But I’m sure there will be explanations and suggestions in the comments.
