Sean Carroll at the Bell Museum

This should be good, but I may have to miss it: Sean Carroll will be speaking at the University of Minnesota on 15 May — he’ll also be speaking at the biology commencement the day after. He’ll be talking about his new book, Remarkable Creatures, which is very good.

I’ll be flying back from California the day before, and have my own university’s commencement ceremony to attend the day after, so he’s right there in a tantalizing hole in my own schedule…I could do it with a little bit of shuttling back and forth. I’ll have to think about how to manage it…

Obama’s speech to the National Academies of Science

The president spoke to the NAS today, and he made some great promises: increases in funding for science and science education, an investment in training new teachers in science and math, a political commitment to get better advising in science untainted by ideology. He specifically promised 3% of the GDP to go to research in science and technology.

Listen to it in an NAS podcast, or read the transcript. It’s a good speech, except for the very last line, which was incredibly stupid…but I’ll overlook it as a mindless platitude.

Republican party platforms are always amusingly insane

ERV has just posted the Oklahoma GOP platform, and she’s right — any random amble through any piece of it will have you laughing at the audacity of wingnuttia. ERV singled out a piece endorsing the teaching of creationism in the classroom, but this is my favorite, just because they are two goals sitting right next to each other, and the Rethuglicans didn’t even notice the contradiction.

4. While the objective study of
philosophy and religion can be
beneficial, public schools should not
be endorsing any specific religion or
philosophy. We believe that students
and teachers should enjoy the right of
free exercise of religion.

5. We support posting the Ten
Commandments and our Nation’s
motto, “In God We Trust,” in all
public schools in recognition of our
religious heritage. U.S. citizens. We support teaching the
intent of our founding fathers, the
original founding documents, and the
difference between a democracy and a
republic.

So the public schools shouldn’t endorse any specific religion or philosophy, but they should be be posting the ten commandments? What, do they imagine that everyone, even atheists, recognizes the authority of Moses’ wacky religious proscriptions?

Cafe Scientifique — tomorrow, in Morris

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The Making of Hitler: A Tale of Social Darwinism or Christian Idealism?
Michael Lackey, UMM

Tuesday, 28 April – Common Cup Coffeehouse – 6:30pm

You’re all planning to come on out, right? It should be a good one: Michael Lackey will be directly addressing the fallacious claim that Hitler’s crimes were built on a foundation of godless Darwinism.

The NY Times saying positive things about atheists?

See, this is the problem with the godless liberal media: they can sometimes treat the rise of atheism as something newsworthy, and in a good way, instead of simply slapping us down. The NYT actually has a reassuring story, More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops, that talks about the sudden surge of assertive atheism all over the country, from rural and traditionally conservative regions of the country to college campuses.

This is the kind of article that should cause the religious to worry. It’s not their common hysteria about the vicious atheists coming to eat their puppies…it’s about the reality of atheism, which is that it is made up of mostly good people who want to live their lives well.

News from the other side of the world

Or from your side of the world, if you’re down there in the southern hemisphere and in a very different time zone from us Americans.

From Australia, we have news of a powerful program on vaccination. It juxtaposes the story of young Dana McCaffrey, a 4-week-old girl who died of whooping cough, with the anti-vaccination crusader Meryl Dorey, who at one point claims that no one “is going to die from [whooping cough] today”, and who says that she treated her own unvaccinated children with homeopathic medicines. Guess which one looks like an uncaring idiot?

The news is less cheering from New Zealand: Jim Salinger, a climate scientist, was fired for speaking to the media. Salinger is a member of the IPCC, and was an early contributor to our understanding of climate change. Apparently, the New Zealand government does not want scientists speaking uncomfortable truths about the weather.

How to distort atheist goals

The Telegraph has a lovely article on how The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies is going to brainwash children. Here’s the kind of mud they’re slinging:

Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: “Atheists are becoming increasingly militant in their desperate attempts to stamp out faith. It is deeply worrying that they now want to use children to attack the Christian ethos of their schools.

“Many parents will also be anxious at the thought of militant atheists targeting their children.”

Oh, lordy, lordy. “Attack the Christian ethos”? He says that like it would be a bad thing.

But don’t trust the Telegraph, which is openly lying about the program planned. Go straight to the source to find out what they’re actually up to.

What the AHS actually wants to do is encourage interfaith discussion through a variety of events, focusing on both scientific and religious education, as well as supporting charity work. The aims of the current initiative are outlined in brief here:

  • To teach students how to debate and create dialogue between school faith groups.
  • Provide the school with fun and educational events and activities, including two student-led courses: ‘Perspectives’ in which a speaker from a faith group gives a talk followed by Q&A, and our ‘One Life’ course, which considers moral and ethical issues without god. Many events will also support the scientific curriculum.
  • Encourage charity volunteering.
  • Give students the experience of running a group and managing events.
  • Show students that it’s ok not to believe in god and encourage critical thinking.
  • Bring out issues concerning religious privilege in schools such as collective worship and incomplete or biased religious education.

All of those things, of course, are horribly objectionable to certain Christians.