In the aftermath of Boobquake…

Jen has put up the numbers — this was clearly an effective PR move, doing a good job of bringing an absurdity to the public’s attention. I think it’s important that we use more humor and make more noise to wake people up, because this problem of religious ‘prophets’ using natural events to bolster their superstition has been around for a long time. I was sent this little essay which seems appropriate. Note the date: it’s 9 years old.

NATURAL DISASTERS – UNNATURAL ACTS
Are Natural Disasters Caused by Unnatural Acts?
June 27, 2001
Janis Walworth

Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, once warned Orlando, Florida, that it was courting natural disaster by allowing gay pride flags to be flown along its streets. “A condition like this will bring about … earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor,” Robertson said.

Apparently he was referring to his belief that the presence of openly gay people incurs divine wrath and that God acts through geological and meteorological events to destroy municipalities that permit gay people the same civil liberties as others.

Before Pat and his Christian cronies get too carried away promulgating the idea that natural disasters are prompted by people who displease God, they should take a hard look at the data.

Tornadoes

Take tornadoes. Every state (except Alaska) has them — some only one or two a year, dozens in others.

Gay people are in every state (even Alaska). According to Pat’s hypothesis, there should be more gay people in states that have more tornadoes. But are there?

Nope. In fact, there’s no correlation at all between the number of gay folks (as estimated by the number of gay political organizations, support groups, bookstores, radio programs, and circuit parties) and the annual tornado count (r = .04, p = .78 for you statisticians).

So much for the “God hates gays” theory.

God seems almost neutral on the subject of sexual orientation. I say “almost” because if we look at the density of gay groups relative to the population as a whole, there is a small but statistically significant (p = .05) correlation with the occurrence of tornadoes. And it’s a negative correlation (r= -.28).

For those of you who haven’t used statistics since 1973, that means that a high concentration of gay organizations actually protects against tornadoes. A state with the population of, say, Alabama could avert two tornadoes a year, merely by doubling the number of gay organizations in the state.

Although God may not care about sexual orientation, the same cannot be said for religious affiliation. If the underlying tenet of Pat’s postulate is true — that God wipes out offensive folks via natural disasters — then perhaps we can find some evidence of who’s on God’s hit list.

Jews are off the hook here: there’s no correlation between numbers of Jews and frequency of tornadoes. Ditto for Catholics. But when it comes to Protestants, there’s a highly significant correlation of .71.

This means that fully half the state-to-state variation in tornado frequency can be accounted for by the presence of Protestants. And the chance that this association is merely coincidental is only one in 10,000.

Tornados Drawn to Baptists

Protestants, of course, come in many flavors — we were able to find statistics for Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and others. Lutherans don’t seem to be a problem — no correlation with tornadoes. There’s a modest correlation (r = .52, p= .0001) between Methodists and tornadoes.

But Baptists and others share the prize: both groups show a definite correlation with tornado frequency (r = .68, p = .0001). This means that Texas could cut its average of 139 tornadoes per year in half by sending a few hundred thousand Baptists elsewhere (Alaska maybe?). What, you are probably asking yourself, about gay Protestants? An examination of the numbers of gay religious groups (mostly Protestant) reveals no significant relationship with tornadoes.

Perhaps even Protestants are less repugnant to God if they’re gay.

And that brings up another point — the futility of trying to save the world by getting gay people to accept Jesus. It looks from our numbers as if the frequency of natural disasters might be more effectively reduced by encouraging Protestants to be gay.

Gay people have been falsely blamed for disasters ever since Sodom was destroyed by fire and brimstone. (We have been unable to find any statistics on disasters involving brimstone).

According to a reliable source, the destruction of Sodom was indeed an act of God (see Genesis 19:13). Its destruction was perpetrated because the citizens thereof were, according to the same source (see Ezekiel 16:49-50) “arrogant, overfed and unconcerned [and] did not help the poor and needy” — not because they were gay.

Now Pat would have us believe that gays are the cause of tornadoes (as well as earthquakes, meteors, and even terrorist bombs) in utter disregard for evidence showing that Baptists are much more likely to cause them.

As any statistician will tell you, of course, correlation doesn’t prove causation. Protestants causing tornadoes by angering God isn’t the only explanation for these data. It could be that Baptists and other Protestants purposely flock to states that have lots of tornadoes (no, we haven’t checked for a correlation between IQ and religious affiliation).

But if Pat and his Christian crew insist that natural disasters are brought on by people who offend God, let the data show who those people are.

Sources: Tornado Occurrence by State, 1962-1991 1990 Churches and Church Membership; Population by State, 1990 US Census; Gay & Lesbian Political Organizations, Support Groups, and Religious Groups from Gayellow Pages, National Edition, 1987.

Bye-bye McLeroy, Hello Dunbar

Arch-creationist dentist Don McLeroy is limping and quacking his way off the Texas Board of Education, but there’s still plenty of crazy left behind. Cynthia Dunbar recently appeared on a far right-wing radio show to preach her revisionist history, her dislike of atheists and Christians who aren’t part of her sect, and plead for more god in the schools. Texas Freedom Network provides a synopsis; listen to the actual show at the peril of your sanity.

Speaking last week on a far-right talk show, The American View, (read more about the show here) Dunbar — a Richmond Republican representing a state board district that stretches from west of Houston to Austin — attacked public education and even the religious faith of people who don’t agree with her. She also repeated her infamous attack on President Obama as a terrorist sympathizer. And as the state board prepares to take a final vote next month on social studies curriculum standards for public schools, Dunbar suggested that supporters of separation of church and state don’t understand the Constitution and that the drafters of the First Amendment had no concerns “whatsoever” for the nonreligious.

I caught a bit of the beginning, when the announcer/interview is shouting out his vision of THE American View — there is only one — and was amused at one thing. He’s harping on the usual quasi-religious veneration of the Founding Fathers, when he makes it clear that he’s not talking about those Founding Fathers, the ones tainted by that Enlightenment nonsense, but the original founders, the ones who settled on this continent in the 17th century, and who put God, God, God, God, and God in everything. Merely being 230 years behind the times is insufficient for these guys — they want to roll the calendar back at least 400 years.

Another HuffPo pontification on science as it is not understood

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.

Liberty University: setting the bar high

Last year, Liberty University picked an appropriate commencement speaker: Ben Stein. And the laughter did peal across the nation.

What could they do to top that this year? Who could they possibly get as a commencement speaker for the class of 2010 to signify exactly how deeply into Wingnuttia they are? Who could possibly stand up and show them their future?

It’s Glenn Beck. Perfection!

They may have peaked. I don’t know who they could possibly get to be as representative in 2011.

Enter this sweepstakes!

It’s a trivial little contest from JetBlue — it does require that you give them your contact information, which may be more than you want to surrender…but you can win fabulous prizes! Look at what you can get:

  • A vacation in the Dominican Republic!

  • A vacation in Costa Rica!

  • A vacation in the Sonoran Desert!

  • A Vespa scooter (they’re giving away 10 each week)!

  • The Grand Prize: A complete kitchen makeover with a set of appliances from Amana, and a $5000 gift card!

And that’s not all! There’s an ULTIMATE PRIZE. Looking at that list of pricey luxury items, you know this has got to be good. It’s got to be the kind of stunning I-can’t-believe-they’re-giving-that-away kind of prize that make the rest look paltry. Brace yourself for it, this has got to blow you away…

The ULTIMATE PRIZE is…

The prize that has to be better than 10 grand worth of appliances is…

The one thing that will send you running to that page to enter is…

…a meeting with Deepak Chopra?!?? Seriously?

Win a one-on-one meeting with the renowned author and mind-body expert, Deepak Chopra, M.D. and rejuvenate your spirit with his Seduction of Spirit Retreat at the Chopra Center. Dr. Chopra is a global force in the field of human empowerment and the prolific author of fourteen bestsellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality and peace. Time Magazine heralds Dr. Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century and credits him as “the poet-prophet of alternative medicine.”

Holy crap.

They have got to be kidding. The very worst prize in their whole list is what they’re calling the “ultimate” prize? It’s a good thing they didn’t push it any further and offer a mega-super-duper-colossal prize, which at this rate would involve a hot date with a starving, rabid wolverine.

I entered anyway for the tiny shot at howling at Chopra face-to-face for a little while. Maybe that’s the logic behind this “ultimate” prize — it’s more like getting to confront Chopra with a rabid wolverine. One thing that would be almost as satisfying as winning that myself would be if some other skeptic won — so spread the word, get lots of woo-critics to enter the sweepstakes. Let’s make Chopra sweat a bit over this one, by worrying that he’ll get someone who won’t bend over and take his quantum nonsense compliantly.

Simple questions

I like this. Larry Moran has the summary of a talk by Francis Collins, who asserts that science and religion are entirely compatible. Here are Collins’ last few slides:

[First Slide] Almighty God, who is not limited in space and time, created a universe 13.7 billion years ago with its parameters precisely tuned to allow the development of complexity over long periods of time.

[Second Slide] God’s plan included the mechanism of evolution to create the marvelous diversity of living things on our planet. Most especially, that plan included human beings.

[Third Slide] After evolution, in the fullness of time, had prepared a sufficiently advanced neurological “house” (the brain), God gifted humanity with free will and with a soul. Thus humans received a special status, “made in God’s image.”

[Fourth Slide] We humans used our free will to disobey God, leading to our realization of being in violation of the Moral Law. Thus we were estranged from God. For Christians, Jesus is the solution to that estrangement.

That’s it. A very simple but, I think, entirely compatible view that does no violence either to faith or to science. And puts them in a harmonious position …

Then Larry asks six simple questions that are basically, “where is the evidence for that claim,” or “how do you know that?”. I could break those slides down into more than six questions; if you listen to Collins’ whole talk, you know that every one of those claims for what his god did are simply phwooomfed into existence magically, with no supporting reason at all, other than the fact that he is a Christian who needs to believe in these miracles in order to continue being a Christian.

As for his final sentence … he’s wrong. He has done great violence to science. He might as well have dragged science into a dark alley and hacked it to bits with an axe.

I get email

Somebody was a little peevish that I slammed a woo-wooish poll. It’s not much of a note, but for some reason Mr Spagnuolo’s complete obliviousness tickled me.

I read your article about the lost girl and the man that gave credit to God for helping him to find her. You Sir, are a dick. Your arrogance has made you blind to the point where you take pot-shots at things your ‘scientific’ mind can’t even begin to comprehend. Quit being a dick.
-Chris Spagnuolo

I can’t. It’s who I am.

I think, though, that I am able to comprehend some guy finding a lost girl in a swamp by chance. Mr Spagnuolo can’t even do that! Maybe it’s his dicklessness that is the problem.

Creepy ol’ Kent Hovind imagines that God loves him again

You all recall Ardipithecus ramidus, the very cool 4.4 million year old fossil that showed that bipedalism was very old. It’s a great fossil, a revealing story, and worth the attention it was given.

Amazingly, someone has now had an actual conversation with Ardipithecus. You may be wondering how; so am I. Well, not actually — I have a pretty good idea how this fellow could be chatting with a 4 million year old fossil. He’s nuts.

Kent Hovind, who many of us are enjoying the sensation of seeing him slip from our memories as he cools his heels in prison for tax fraud, occasionally writes these disturbing little letters that then get published on his blog. Usually, he writes these bizarre dialogs with God, who, you will be surprised to hear, always tells Kent how good and wonderful and special he is. This time, though, Kent Hovind is chatting with Ardi. Again, it’s wish-fulfillment; Ardi reassures him that she really is only 4,000 years old, that she died in the Flood, and even witnessed the Ark setting off. Isn’t that sweet?

Oh, God does make another appearance in the closing lines of the story.

KH: Hey, Lord? You said that if I would delight myself in You that You would give me the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4). My desire is that my case be overturned and that I be sent home!

GOD: I’ve got everything under control, Son. Go walk a few laps. I’ve got your back.

I don’t think there are grounds to overturn his conviction, so that’s not going to happen. God is about as ineffectual to Kent Hovind as he is to me.

It isn’t exactly “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” is it?

Did the earth move for you, too?

So it really does cause earthquakes!

“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader.

Suddenly, I feel exposed and embarrassed — not much action going on in Minnesota, I guess, while California and Japan are getting jiggy all the time. And oh boy, Iceland — was everyone getting wild there, or what?

Insane clowns is exactly right

A lot of people sent me links to that really dope Insane Clown Posse video where they expressed wonder at how magnets work and cussed out the scientists for lying to them, but I ignored you all, because when I said “dope”, I meant it literally. It was a pair of poseurs exposing their ignorance.

Don’t go looking for it. It’s just too awful. Instead, appreciate this lovely parody from Saturday Night Live.