When I’m looking for sophisticated, literate ideas about cosmology, I always turn to Kirk Cameron

Oh, wait, no — I meant Stephen Hawking. I understand that physics is actually a fairly rigorous discipline, almost as daunting as molecular biology, so I suspect that a childhood spent on a hackneyed sitcom and an adulthood spent peddling dumb-ass theology is probably not adequate preparation for grasping it. But at least Kirk Cameron tries.

Professor Hawking is heralded as ‘the genius of Britain,’ yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything and that life sprang from non-life.

Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking’s writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?

[Hawking] says he knows there is no Heaven. John Lennon wasn’t sure. He said to pretend there’s no Heaven. That’s easy if you try. Then he said he hoped that someday we would join him. Such wishful thinking reveals John and Stephen’s religious beliefs, not good science.

So Cameron thinks Hawking’s work on theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity is nothing more than a bunch of collected song lyrics? I am amused that the younger half of the comedy duo known as Way of the Master has chosen to lecture Stephen Hawking on science.

Texas, again

That place is just a magnet for nuts. There is going to be a review of the science curriculum next month, and the creationists on the state board of education are gearing up by appointing more creationists to staff the panels. Furthermore, they’re gathering specific curriculum materials, and skewing them towards lunacy.

One submission has come from a company called International Databases, LLC. It’s a one-man operation run by Stephen Sample, who says he has a degree in evolutionary biology and taught at the high school and junior college levels for 15 years.

The material he submitted consists of eight modules dealing with current issues in biology and ecology. Most are well within the mainstream scientific consensus. But there are two that deal with the origin of life. Those sections say the “null hypothesis” is that there had to be some intelligent agency behind the appearance of living things. It is up to the scientists proposing a naturalistic explanation to prove their case.

International Databases, LLC is a grand name for a shell — all it is is those eight modules. There are collections of pdf files there that you can download, but don’t bother — they’re all password protected, so you won’t be able to read them. So all I have to go on is the summaries.

But that’s quite enough. The null hypothesis is that there is a super-intelligent, all powerful being manipulating the universe? Madness. How does one test against a hypothesis that is ill-defined, shifts constantly, and makes no specific predictions? “My null hypothesis is that god will or won’t affect the results of my experiment, depending on his mood, which I can’t measure.”

It’s just more stealth creationism, gussied up to look sciencey with a few abused science terms.

Never trust a Christian

Bastrop High School promised to obey the law against school-led prayer at official events, although they were also petty and mean about it, and have been making life hellish for the young man who complained. Now here’s the surprise (not): in an official function called Senior Night, they announced a moment of silence…and then said a Christian prayer anyway, to the cheers of the Christian majority. Never mind that it was illegal, never mind that they broke their agreement; religious sanctimony trumps all.

And we have video.

I suspect that at the official graduation ceremony tomorrow, they’ll also manage to get someone up there to lead the school in sectarian proselytization and social pressure, and they won’t even care that it’s discriminatory.

I do hope they get sued.

I suppose I should start including general explanations for the terminally obtuse.

There is no proscription against individual prayer. If 99.9% of the students had taken advantage of the moment of silence to bow their heads and beg Jesus to help them get laid after the kegger that night, NO PROBLEM.

There is a proscription against compelling EVERYONE to participate in sectarian prayer. When someone stands up and announces that we’re all going to ask Jesus Christ for a blessing, PROBLEM.

I know you Christians out there have very limited brains and can’t quite comprehend this basic concept, but try. Imagine if that woman had gotten up there and announced that she was going to ignore the rules, and asked everyone to turn and face Mecca, get down on their knees, and join in the salah. Would you be cheering then?

Keep it in church. Don’t muck up secular, public events that are supposed to be inclusive of everybody, including non-Christians, unless your goal really is to send a message that non-Christians are not part of the community.

Kentucky pays off Ken Ham

Today was the day: Kentucky officially approved giving Ken Ham $43 million in tax breaks plus $11 million in road improvements. That’s a nice number; it’s about twice what Answers in Genesis sunk into their Creation “Museum” in total. Now they get double that back from the state, and they can use it to build their grandiose Ark Park.

There was only one surprise. Answers in Genesis brought up an alternative scenario, where they would build a slightly less flamingly insane version of the park. It doesn’t seem to have mattered, because the state seems to have stumbled all over themselves rushing to give the Hamites a big bucket of money, with no reservations.

Hunden divided his study under two scenarios for Ark Encounter. Under “Scenario A”, Ark Encounter would take a “mainstream approach”, where it “does not promote a creationist view of Biblical events that may turn off a portion of the potential market”. Under “Scenario B”, Ark Encounter would be full on Flintstone Truth, where kids are taught that a 600-year old herded T-Rexes onto a giant boat a few thousand years ago.

Now I know what you must be saying: “there’s no way that Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis would agree to Scenario A, as they make their living off of vilifying Christians who don’t take a 100% literal interpretation of the Bible and Young Earth Creationism”. First of all, you’re right. But when I questioned Hunden after the meeting about this, he said that AiG/AE assured them that they would consider doing this. In other words, Ken Ham has (as the title of his latest book is called and is about) Already Compromised. Yes, he agreed to abandon the core beliefs of everything he’s done throughout his entire career in order to not potential damage his ability to milk $43 million in tax breaks, plus the $11 million in state money for infrastructure at his park. Truly amazing that he would (1) agree to this, doubting the inerrant Word of God, and (2) that people would actually believe that they really considered this.

But back to the study. In the completely unrealistic fantasy of Scenario A, Hunden claimed that Ark Encounter would create 3,000 new full-time jobs over the next 10 years, 600-700 expected to be onsite. It would have a total fiscal impact of $103.4 million over 10 years and a yearly attendance of 1.24 million a year, in this fantasy world. But the numbers for Scenario B seem to be just as much a fantasy. Under Scenario B it would have a $53 million impact, and create 400-500 fewer jobs, and have a yearly attendance of 871,000.

Well, wait…it’s not just the unlikeliness of Ham actually compromising on his fanatically rigid views, but how do you take a park with a gigantic centerpiece of a life-size version of Noah’s Ark and make it any less of a Flintstone Truth? Its fundamental premises are all based on biblical literalism!