Creation “Science” Fair this weekend

Rats, I have to miss it again. The Twin Cities Creation Science wackos are buggering up science and children’s education again this weekend with a Creation Pseudo-Science Fair at the Har-Mar Mall, which will be temporarily renamed the Har-Har-Hardy-Har Mall in their honor. I’ll be back in Minneapolis on Saturday, but I’ve already booked the shuttle home to Morris and really don’t feel like it’s worth rescheduling just so I can see a deadly dull string of poor exhibits assembled by sad kids who will be slapping on bible verses because the rules say they have to and who will “Pray [their] exhibit will witness to non-Christian visitors”.

It’s just too depressing. Besides, I hear The Black Swan will be playing in Morris this weekend, and I’d rather go be cheered and uplifted by that uplifting and warm tale of human endeavor. Relatively speaking, that is.

Naughty museum, bad, bad!

I previously mentioned that the Science Museum in London is peddling quackery — they have exhibits that purportedly present nonsense like homeopathy and acupuncture as reasonable potential alternative treatments for some people. Since then, the Science Museum strove pitifully to cover their butts with some excuses, excuses that fall flat. I’ve seen photographs of the exhibits, and they go beyond objective anthropological reportage to uncritical acceptance of woo and the presentation of anecdotes as validating evidence. They should be deeply, horribly embarrassed, and should be looking into the biases of the people who designed the exhibit.

It’s one thing to discuss cultural practices as part of the story of that culture; it’s yet another to use the excuse of myth or sociology to uncritically present bad methods as if they are scientifically valid. The reason we should go to a legitimate science museum is to see the evidence and learn about the scientific reasoning behind it. Discarding critical thinking and whitewashing quackery is the antithesis of a real museum; it does draw in crowds, I’m sure (see the Creation “Museum” for a beautiful example), but at the cost of your integrity and the respect of the scientific community.

Marianne Baker and Alex Davenport have a reply to the Science Museum. I hope they pay attention instead of scrabbling to make more excuses. I’ve been to the Science Museum, lovely place, lots of fine exhibits…I wouldn’t want to have to start referring to it with “museum” always in quotes, if you know what I mean.

Blanket octopus sighting!

I’d almost consider retiring to Florida, just for the marine life, except that by the time I retire the state will probably be underwater, and all the marine life exterminated by careless tourists in expensive boats. At least now you can occasionally spot the splendid blanket octopus out for a swim.

Trust me, watch the video, ignore the babbling newscaster: these really are spectacular beasties.

Guinea pigs, please line up here

I have received a request for volunteers to assist as subjects in a research project. I was disappointed; there are no exotic drugs, no catheters, no insane experimental surgeries that will turn you into a super-being with surprising powers beyond all mortal ken, but the fellow did manage to spell my name correctly, so it must be on the up-and-up. Contact Ben Myers (hey! That’s how he got the spelling correct — he cheated!) if you’re interested.

Dr. Myers,

I am an assistant professor of communication studies at USC Upstate. I am in the process of starting a research project and I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor. My research project is centered around atheist/agnostic coming out experiences. For my data, I am planning on collecting stories from those who have “come out” to religious family and friends. I am an ally (and a big fan of your blog). I am interested in this project because of my own very difficult “coming out” experience with my family.
I am planning on doing a rhetorical analysis of common themes across coming out stories. I have included my research plan if you would like more details. Also, I have already received IRB approval for the study.
I will conduct and record interviews over skype. The interviews are open-ended, so I have a few basic questions but I am primarily interested in just letting people tell their stories.
To start the project, I need to find atheists/agnostics who would be willing to share their “coming out” stories. This is where I would like to ask you a favor. I am looking not just for atheist/agnostics, but for atheists/agnostics who have specific “coming out” stories. I am sure there are lots of readers of Pharyngula who would fit the criteria. Would you be willing to dedicate a post to helping me find participants? Perhaps you could post my email and a short blurb about what the research project is about. Participants could then contact me directly.
Also, no need to worry about the project. Any work that results from these interviews will be presented with the ethos of helping readers understand the “coming out” process and how difficult it is. I am an ally, and a proud “out” atheist myself.
Thank you very much for your consideration. And please do not hesitate to ask for additional information if you feel it necessary. And keep on fighting the good fight.

Sincerely,

Ben

—
W. Benjamin Myers, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Speech
Department of Fine Arts and Communication Studies
USC Upstate
864.503.5870

Here’s the short research plan.

Episode CLXVIII: I can guess your name

I’m doing some morning travel today, and won’t be able to access the interwebberies until this afternoon, so I’m closing the perpetual thread instance a little bit prematurely — this never happens, he said.

To compensate for the horrible awful stinky video in the previous thread, here’s something better and more inspiring.

(Current totals: 11,839 entries with 1,272,058 comments.)

An atheist also blesses the Catholic iPhone app

I am very excited about this new technological development. The pope has blessed an iPhone app to help you figure out what to say in confession. I’m not at all interested in throwing away a whole $1.99 on it, but what’s interesting is the potential. Next: an app for priests to guide them in the appropriate penance to deliver. Then we add a little bluetooth/wireless capability to the apps, and confession becomes a matter of walking up to a priest and bumping your cell phones together — instant exchange! Next step: an app that reads your penance — say you’re supposed to say 25 Hail Marys — which then does it all for you, and maybe even broadcasts the recitations to a central repository (Can we call this app iRosary?). Automated contrition, perfect redemption, and all while demanding minimal effort on the part of the over-taxed, ever-dwindling population of Catholic priests.

You may be wondering why I, an atheist, would think this would be a fabulous development. I’m dreaming of the day when I buy a network ready Confession app, fill out its list of sins honestly and accurately, and walk up to a priest running iFather and do a confessional bump…and watch his cell phone detonate in his hand. It’ll be awesome.

Will Scientology be defeated?

Once upon a time, everyone trembled in fear at the thought of antagonizing the Church of $cientology. Everyone knew their response to any criticism would be heavy-handed and unconscionable, and that they’d harrass you persistently if you ended up on their enemies list. That’s changing, though, and the stupidity and viciousness of the cult is seeing more and more exposure. The latest is Lawrence Wright’s big exposé in the New Yorker and upcoming book on the subject. The article is well worth reading, all 28 online pages of it.

I hope the book casts a wider net, though. The New Yorker article focuses almost entirely on Paul Haggis, the recent apostate from the cult, and the impression I got from the article was that he is a flighty flibbertigibbet, a gullible enthusiast who’s been insulated from the consequences of bad decisions by an overpaid career as a Hollywood fantasist. I came away from it really disliking Haggis, and almost feeling like he deserved to be sucked into an all-devouring celebrity religion.

Which is really unfair…$cientology is being investigated for brain-washing and human trafficking, and these techniques do destroy human lives.

Bring it on, Al

Albert Mohler, that deluded Baptist zealot, has written an analysis of the New Atheism that puts evolution front and center. I actually sort of agree with him — these New/Gnu Atheists are predominantly scientific atheists who consider scientific explanations to be far better and more satisfying and most importantly, more true than religious explanations. Mohler lards his summary with gloppy accusations of “worldview” and “dogma” and other such buzzwords that religious apologists use as insults when applied to atheists but virtues when applied to theologians, but otherwise, it’s a fair cop.

The Dogma of Darwinism is among the first principles of the worldview offered by the New Atheists. Darwin replaces the Bible as the great explainer of the existence of life in all of its forms. The New Atheists are not merely dependent upon science for their worldview; their worldview amounts to scientism — the belief that modern naturalistic science is the great unifying answer to the most basic questions of human life.

As Richard Dawkins has recently argued, they believe that disbelief in evolution should be considered as intellectually disrespectable and reprehensible as denial of the Holocaust. Thus, their strategy is to use the theory of evolution as a central weapon in today’s context of intellectual combat.

The New Atheists would have no coherent worldview without the Dogma of Darwinism. With it, they intend to malign belief in God and to marginalize Christians and Christian arguments. Thus, we can draw a straight line from the emergence of evolutionary theory to the resurgence of atheism in our times. Never underestimate the power of a bad idea.

Mohler just lets it lie there — isn’t it enough to just point at the Other and shriek, “DARWINIST!”? — but I can see where he’s going with it, and it’s the same place creationists go. All they have to do to prove atheism wrong and Christianity true, they think, is to prove that evolution is false. I welcome this tactic. I love watching creationists butt heads against the evidence. They’re so cute when they’re reeling about, blood streaming down their faces, brains getting increasingly addled, as they try to deny reality. I guess it’s a kind of historical tradition in Christianity, this business of tying a blindfold on and throwing themselves to the lions. It used to be you needed a legionnaire or two poking them with a spear to get them to enter the arena, but nowadays they just do it voluntarily.

And I guarantee you, we atheists do not underestimate the power of bad ideas. We witness them in action every Sunday, and every time a public official whines that they need to say a magic chant to their sky-fairy before they get to work.

Randi is putting a million dollars on the line

Homeopaths have another opportunity to get rich quick: all they have to do is show that it works, and Randi will give them a million dollars.

This is what Randi demands:

Randi issued a one-million-dollar challenge to the manufacturers of homeopathic products to prove their claims, and challenged major drug retailers like CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens to stop tricking consumers into paying real money for fake medicine.

I noticed that my local grocery store is selling generic chain-labeled homeopathic “remedies” for colds and flu and other common ailments. Somebody is making a lot of money selling sugar pills.

There’s more in the LA Times.