Fake rape?

Isn’t it fascinating how many men are absolutely certain that most rape accusations are completely false, that it’s just wicked women conspiring to bring men down? Yet when you look at the numbers, you know that data that skeptics are supposed to care about, the frequency of false rape accusations is low, about 6-8%.

And then you hear the stories about how rape is handled by the police and by society at large, and you realize that even those numbers are grossly inflated (warning about that link: detailed description of how police treat a rape victim. Very unsettling).

Now I feel…filthy

Earlier this week, I argued that some people didn’t understand creation-speak — they were interpreting a Ken Ham statement as an admission that he had no evidence. This was not correct, because Ken Ham is so dishonest or deluded that he’d never admit that, ever.

Now Ham has acknowledged my ‘assistance’.

Interestingly, even one of our most vocal opponents—who is an atheist—pointed out the misrepresentations made about this radio program. Dr. PZ Myers of Minnesota, who does not like me at all and hates God, has recognized that many of his fellow secularists have misquoted me and have taken my comments out of context. He wrote on his blog a few days ago that secular bloggers have completely misread my radio statements: “What he [i.e., me] actually said is familiar creationist dogma, and comes nowhere near their interpretation. . . . It doesn’t say what they think it says. Notice the ‘solely’; creationists will claim that they are using their reason, even when they aren’t.” Later in his blog, Myers takes a shot at me, but in this rare instance, PZ’s blog has come to my defense! (I am reluctant to link to PZ’s blog because of some vile content and profanity, but some people will want to check out the “defense” for themselves at freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula.)

Yuck. I need a shower. That’s also the most he’s ever acknowledged my existence.

By the way, I don’t hate gods — they don’t exist. I really despise the buffoons who lie about gods to fleece their flocks, though.

It’s good to be annoying the Christians again

So I wrote this short essay for the Washington Post, and it’s been interesting reaching a whole different audience. It’s not an audience that is increasing my esteem for the human race, unfortunately, but it’s been…different. My twitter stream has been flooded by irate Christians, which is fun, but most of their responses are rather familiar.

Here’s one common flavor: patronizing Christian sympathy.

Berth2020 @berth2020
@washingtonpost @pzmyers you need to work on being kind to others. . I’m sorry you’ve been hurt.

I haven’t been hurt, and I don’t consider wallowing in lies as you do to be “kind”.

Then there’s the usual stereotyping of atheists as amoral monsters.

romesh sharma1949 @romesh1949
@washingtonpost @pzmyers Atheist,a man who is answerable to None, free from all bonds , will behave like an animal 99.99% or saint 00.01%

Right, Mr Made-Up-Statistics. So the prisons must be like 99.99% atheist?

Then, of course, there are the excuses.

Christopher Dull @PaEvengelist
@jeremydavidpare @DavisRBr @washingtonpost @pzmyers One reason for unanswered prayer is God does not here the prayers of unrepentant sinners

Interesting. So if you pray, and you don’t get what you want, you must be one of those unrepentant sinners? What are the other reasons?

But the most common complaint, the one that seems to be winning the votes right now, surprises me a bit.

Jeremy @jeremydavidpare
@pzmyers almost nothing you said in that article even remotely resembles anything Christian’s believe or practice… #misinformedatheist

This particular guy sent out a dozen tweets calling for his buddies to refute me; another fellow repeatedly demanded that the Washington Post allow him equal time to rebut my inaccuracies. I haven’t told the truth about Christianity!

What? Let me remind you of what my essay was about: I talked about the baggage we atheists have freed ourselves from, and I gave very general examples, stuff that is widely true of most of the diverse Christian sects in this country. Here’s a shorter version of what I mentioned.

1. No church and no sermons.

The practice of Christianity in this country certainly does involve church attendance, and it’s customary in most faiths (with exceptions, like the Quakers) to have a priest lecture you on proper behavior and beliefs at these events.

2. No heaven or hell, no bribes or threats.

Again, most Christian sects have notions of reward and punishment in an afterlife.

3. No prayers.

Every version of Christianity I’ve experienced is prayer-soaked — a combination of entreaties and worship of an invisible deity. How can anyone deny this?

4. No guilt about defying a deity.

A common Christian command is to OBEY god, one and only one god. You will be punished if you disobey. Of course there’s a burden of guilt for failure to do as the priest tells you to do!

5. No power from above, no hierarchies.

With rare exceptions (again, Quakers), most Christian sects lay out a very specific hierarchy of power and responsibilities — with Catholicism the most obvious, with power from God to Pope to Cardinals to Bishops to Priests to the laity.

6. No false consolation at death.

Another really common feature of Christianity: just go to a funeral. Look at the political cartoons after a famous person dies. “They’re in a better place,” everyone says. Wrong, say I, they’re dead and lost to us forever, and mourning is the right and proper response.

Nothing I said was in the slightest bit inaccurate; these are general properties of the practice of religion in this country. So what could they possibly argue that I was wrong about?

I have a guess. They’re going to deliver some pious hokum about the True Meaning of Faith™, which will be some pablum about redemption by the torture/execution of a fanatical Jewish preacher in the first century CE, and how the important part of Christianity is love and fellowship and spreading the gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the story of our immortal, eternal god who died and bounced back a day and a half later, since he was able to perform a Resurrection spell (but unfortunately, was unable to Cure Light Wounds so he had to walk around with holes in his hands).

Which means I forgot to include an important piece of baggage we atheists don’t have to haul around.

7. We don’t have to pretend to believe in obvious bullshit.

Melissa speaks out

I presume you’ve all been following the Doonesbury story line this past week? If not, you can start here, with Sgt. Melissa giving a career day presentation to her former school:

Yeah, she’s tearing heads off now. With facts.



The two old guys at the end look familiar…or at least their behavior is. Quick, let’s silence the unpleasant truth!

Don’t be those guys.

Is this the last gasp of summer?

Classes start next week. I should be working away at prepping for them, but tomorrow I join our Bridge to Biology Program and accompany a mob of incoming students to the Itasca Field Station. It’s not just for the students that I’m going; I’ve lived in Minnesota for 13 years and this is the first time I’ll have visited the headwaters of the Mississippi (yeah, it’s our river, downstreamers: we get to pee in it first).

All summer long I’ve been indoors, in this nice shiny air-conditioned building, so it’s going to be a shock. I hear there is deadly radiation sleeting out of the sky that can incinerate my skin, and swarms of flesh-eating, blood-sucking arthropods that will try to devour me, and that when it gets hot out you just have to carry out filthy biological functions like sweating to cool off. I’ll try to survive and get back by Sunday.

Wait…there’s wifi at the field station, right? It couldn’t possibly be so barbarous that I’ll be offline for a weekend? Whew, just checked — they’ve got wireless and a T1 connection to the main campus. Crisis averted. I guess I can go after all.

I’ll post pictures.