(via SteveV, Death’s Haberdasher)
Botanical Wednesday: This week, we’re back in black
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
(via SteveV, Death’s Haberdasher)
The Guardian is running a series on the Heroes and Villains of 2010, and Richard Dawkins writes up Christopher Hitchens. As a hero, of course.
And an excellent title: Why do people treat us with the same contempt we show homosexuals, ask Christians.
It’s also a nice illustration of the stereotypical persecution complex, because we actually treat Christians much more nicely than the fundamentalist homophobes treat homosexuals.
We have at least a cursory account of the creationist press conference in Kentucky, in which Governor Beshear proudly announced the state’s cooperation with Answers in Genesis in promoting lies to children. It’s via Twitter, so just read it from bottom to top:
joesonka
Video of the press conference (Kentucky’s Shame) coming soon. Yaba Daba doo!
31 minutes ago
joesonka
Press conference over. Kentucky has had many humiliating days in its history, but this has to rank near the top
32 minutes ago
joesonka
I ask if Beshear supports young earth creationism being taught in public schools. He says we’re not here to talk about that
35 minutes ago
joesonka
No rollercoasters!!!
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Judge Exwcutive says he agrees with aig’s religious beliefs
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Flack journalists asking about dimensions of ark. Dude…
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
I ask if dinosaurs will be in the Ark. Beshear gives icy stare. AiG flack says YES
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Beshear says this is all about the bling bling. If they can support Nascar, they can support these nuts
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Beahear says it’s not unconstitutional
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Gushing about how supportive and enthusiastic Beshear and Gov office has been on this project
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Answers in Genesis dude says it’s “high tech and cutting edge”
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Plan is to open Spring 2014, get 1.6 million dolts to visit in first year
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Gov here and excited about bringing “Biblical stories” to the bluegrass. Surreal
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Still waiting on Steve Beshear and Ken Ham and Fred Flintstone
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Answers in Genesis people here saying it’s been great working with the Gov. Say Geoff Davis told them he wishes he could be here.
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Damon Thayer here. Says he’s excited that this is in heart of his district
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
More wow from the press release: http://yfrog.com/7331hcj
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Press release says Creationist Theme Park will be $150 million to build. Is Dudley Webb in on this?
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
Wow http://yfrog.com/em1fc01j
about 1 hour ago
joesonka
The press kit: http://yfrog.com/44caq0j
about 2 hours ago
I bet the governor didn’t actually call the AiG flacks “nuts”. Although he should have.
And of course dinosaurs will be on the Ark. You can’t imagine how fanatical AiG is about their literal interpretation of the Bible: if it says Noah gathered all of the kinds of animals on the Ark, there can be no exceptions, all, including dinosaurs, must be on the Ark.
Ah, Kentucky. We’re going to be laughing at you for many years to come.
The Fort Worth transit system is running horrible, hateful ads on their buses: they say, “Millions of Americans are Good Without God.” I know, pick yourself up off the floor, that’s terrifying…how dare atheists be so offensive?
The Star-Telegram is going to settle this by running a poll. Look who’s winning!
Should The T have rejected the ‘Good-without-God’ ad as DART did?
No. The T policy is rightly non-discriminatory
32%
No. The T could use the ad revenue
2%
Yes. The T should steer clear of such controversy
23%
Yes. And I won’t be riding The T until the ad comes off
43%
Woo hoo! Buses in Fort Worth will be 43% less crowded!
He’s in a snit. He refuses to participate in Tulsa’s Holiday Parade of Lights because it doesn’t have “christmas” in the title.
“I did not do so last year because I’m not going to ride in a Christmas parade that doesn’t recognize Christmas,” he said. “I am hopeful that the good people of Tulsa and the city’s leadership will demand a correction to this shameful attempt to take Christ, the true reason for our celebration, out of the parade’s title. Until the parade is again named the Christmas Parade of Lights, I will not participate.”
What a silly man. The parade, by the way, is on 11 December…which last I heard, is not Christmas.
It’s kind of like having my fashion sense chastised by the Insane Clown Posse…I’m not going to lose sleep over it. He’s upset that I don’t think a blastocyst deserves the same consideration we give to a child or an adult human being — that I have baldly stated that I’m pro-abortion. Unfortunately, his argument against my position doesn’t hold up at all well.
Women have a right to control their bodies — the right to self-determination. Yet the right to self-determination is contingent. One does not have a right to kill another person. The right to life supersedes the right to self-determination. When a woman is pregnant, the rights of two human beings must be weighed — that of the woman, and that of the child. While decent people agree on the rights of the woman, what about the rights of the child? What is the moral status of a child (or an embryo or a zygote) before birth? Is the unborn child a person?
My answers:
Biology 101: Human life — the existence of a discreet individual human being — begins at conception and ends at natural death.
Morality 101: All human beings are persons, and all human beings (from conception to natural death) are entitled to the fundamental right of personhood: the right to life.
Denial of personhood to some human beings — to Jews, to blacks, to women, to unborn children — is profound evil, and is the same evil.
So, according to Egnor, this is a “discreet [sic, I presume] individual human being”:
So is this:
And they have exactly the same right to live as these:
Huh. I don’t know about you, but to me, that doesn’t exalt human life at all — it seems to do the opposite, and devalue the life of women.
Maybe when Egnor graduates to something beyond the 101 level, he’ll learn that human cells are not equivalent to a full human life. An “unborn child” (what a silly euphemism!) is not suddenly a person at conception: development is a gradual process of epigenesis, in which information and complexity expand over time, and the person does not form in an instant. There is no black-and-white boundary between non-personhood and personhood — it’s an arbitrary line drawn in a continuum.
Now the Catholic League — you know it’s going to get ugly when Bill Donohue joins the fray — has bought a billboard near the American Atheists’ billboard. The pro-superstition sign says, “You Know It’s Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus“. Isn’t that sweet? It’s just like the religious side to proclaim a falsehood. Anyway, they’re welcome to buy the ad space. The real winners here are the commercial enterprises marketing billboards and selling, selling, selling…and when you get right down to it, isn’t that what Christmas is really all about?
Meanwhile, the British have their own weird version of an indignant Christian majority standing up against oppression: a group has launched the Not Ashamed campaign, in which Christians are urged to be shameless, as if they’ve ever had a problem with that.
Paul Sims calls them out on the silliness. They’re seeing the same ridiculous whining over there that we are here, where outraged empurpled Christians claim that “Merry Christmas” is an endangered phrase and somehow they’re being repressed by the fact that sometimes people say “Season’s Greetings!” or “Happy Holidays!”, which I have to say as an atheist are about the two least ferocious battle cries I could imagine. In response to the Christian persecution complex over Christmas, he says:
But it isn’t happening. When are campaigners like Carey – and members of the government like Eric Pickles – going to take a look around them and finally admit that there is no widespread movement to ban Christmas. Lots of non-religious people (I’d wager the majority) even quite like it. I know I do. Some might even (whisper it…) confess that they quite enjoy hearing the odd carol, and find the local nativity scene (yes they still exist) quite endearing. Sure, there are Season’s Greetings cards and the like, but I guarantee that your local card shop will have plenty of religious ones too. It’s called catering to a diverse market – Christmas is a Christian festival, yes, but it’s also a mid-winter celebration (whose history stretches back to pagan times) that means lots of different things to lots of different people. But one thing we can all agree on is that it’s an enjoyable time of year, whether you include the baby Jesus or not. Banning it would be a really bad (and quite frankly bizarre) thing to do.
He also has a poll question. Would you believe that so far, it looks like people will still be able to celebrate Christmas even when the atheist dictators take over the universe?
Would you like to ban the Christian version of Christmas?
Yes 11.39%
No 88.61%
Of course, the evil truth is that I don’t want to ban Christmas either — I plan to coopt it as an atheist holiday. Bwahahahahahaha!
But, as we all know, complexity and the lack of intelligent design is no barrier to the evolution of the manifold thread.
(Current totals: 11,431 entries with 1,199,051 comments.)
Answers in Genesis is planning to build an idiotic creationist theme park in Kentucky — we’ve known that for a little while now. The latest news, though, is that they’ve brought Steve Beshears, governor of Kentucky, on board to participate in a press conference announcing the latest accomplishment of creationism. That’s right, the Democratic governor of Kentucky is going to endorse this latest monument to ignorance and miseducation.
Early tomorrow morning. That is, Wednesday. At 9:30. It’s a smart move, giving us little time to respond.
So, belatedly, I’ll ask you all to register your displeasure with the governor’s office. Especially if you are a resident of Kentucky, someone whose vote matters to this clown, let him know that you’re outraged…but outsiders expressing their polite disrespect for a pol pandering to anti-scientific wackaloons is also useful.
You can call him at:
Main Line: (502) 564-2611
Fax: (502) 564-2517
TDD: (502) 564-9551
Or use the contact form.
It’s almost certainly too late to convince him to back out of this deal with the goofball, especially since this notice is going up in the middle of the night and only a few hours before the meeting, but getting public disapproval piling up on his desk even after the fact will help him think twice before doing this kind of thing again.
