On Tuesdays, I have back-to-back labs from noon until six…in genetics. I’ve been juggling flies since early December, prepping stocks for our crosses, so when I saw this cartoon I was surprised. Does Darby Conley have a background in fly genetics? It’s perfect!
It’s getting to be about that time: science fair season. I’ll remind you all that we have an infamous local event, the Twin Cities Creation Science Fair, in which real live homeschooled creationist kids will present their experiments at the Har Mar Mall, on 16-17 February. I’m hoping to make it this year, but I’ve got a lot of other traveling to do that week, so I’m not sure that I’ll be able to make it…if I do, though, I’ll let you know.
Because I have to deal with this all the time, I’ll also remind everyone that the Objective: Ministries Creation Sciende Fair page is a satire, OK?
This, however, is real: Possummomma finds a lovely example of Christian “science”. A sixth-grader in her area decided to test the hypothesis that “unchristians” are less moral than Christians with a questionnaire — a badly done questionnaire. Some amusing bits: the student had his subjects report on their amoral behaviors, and didn’t keep their answers anonymous. Cool. That could add some fun to a community event.
The other amusing thing is the conclusion: everyone failed the morality test. The answer, then is that we are all sinners, so we’d better become Christians.
The kid ought to come on up to Minnesota — he’d fit right in.
This is a painting Our President loves; it’s called “A Charge to Keep,” and GW Bush even used that as the title for his autobiography.
Here’s what Bush himself says about the picture.
I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves.
Bush got it wrong. The painting has been traced back to its source, and it turns out it doesn’t portray a Methodist missionary spreading the word on the Texas frontier…it’s something far more appropriate.
Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”
I laughed and laughed. It epitomizes their mission, alright.
It’s a lot cheaper than making a movie and trying to persuade all those scientists to shut up.
Let’s be fair — somebody used a little photoshop on me, too. But really, my head isn’t that small, I’m not quite that chunky, and I’d never use a gun.
Both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are making a reduction in the legal blood alcohol driving limit from 0.08 to 0.05%. This is facing opposition from an unexpected quarter: Catholic priests are concerned about driving home after Mass. Well, now, how terrible for them.
“Perhaps it could be enough for you to fail a drink-driving test,” the Rev. Brian D’Arcy, a priest from Enniskillen, told the Irish Times. “I don’t like to use the word wine, as it is Christ’s blood in the Eucharist — but it still has all the characteristics of wine when in the blood stream.”
So it’s OK to drive if it’s Jesus who has lowered your response time, diminished your coordination, and addled your perceptions, but not if it’s alcohol? And do these guys seriously believe that that’s Jesus’s blood in your circulatory system afterwards? Weird.
I did learn something new…
Priests say the new limit would put them over the legal limit after fulfilling their duties during the Mass, which include drinking all consecrated wine not distributed during communion.
What a racket — here I thought godless evilutionists had it easy, what with their porn and moneybags, but the Catholics have made gurgling down any leftover wine an official duty. At the next EAC meeting, I’m going to have to move that we make it Official Policy that atheists are allowed to eat the last office donut, they are required to bogart that joint, and even if they are the last man or woman on earth, you must have sex with them.
Simple, clean, direct, forceful:
It’s a good source for comedy. It’s surreally hilarious, if you think about it.
I understand that we’re currently running some ads on scienceblogs for an organization that promises to harness the power of religious institutions to solve environmental problems (I use an adblocker, so I’m afraid I haven’t seen it). It’s a nice sentiment, but you can imagine what I think of the utility of religion, and of people of faith imagining that their delusions have something to contribute to finding real solutions. If you can’t imagine that, here…a comic to help you out.
