A pleasant, smiling apologist is still lying to you

John urges all to read a “lovely, lyrical and wistful piece” on religion. So I did.

Sorry, John, it’s the same old noise.

The essay by Peter Bebergal has some good points: it’s premise is to deplore biblical literalism because it’s bad theology that is trying to ape science, and it cripples the imagination. That part I can agree with entirely. Biblical literalism is a slavishly stupid way to enshrine an absolutist authority — a false authority — as a source of information beyond question. So I am sympathetic to about half of its message.

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Big squid caught in Australia

The Aussies love to brag about their exotic fauna, so I probably shouldn’t inflate their egos further, but they’ve done it again: they’ve netted another ginormous squid. This one is about 6 meters long, and 230 kg.

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They always look so flabby and pathetic when they’re shown flopped down dead on a boat’s deck, don’t they? It’s like having human funeral viewings where they soak the body in a lake somewhere for a week — it’s neither pretty nor representative.

What if they wouldn’t sell cars to uppity blacks, Jews, and women?

A Ford dealership is taking a novel approach to advertising: by telling a small subset of their potential customer base to shut up.

But did you know that 86% of Americans say they believe in God? Since we all know that 86 out of every 100 of us are Christians, who believe in God, we at Keiffe & Sons Ford wonder why we don’t tell the other 14% to sit down and shut up. I guess maybe I just offended 14% of the people who are listening to this message. Well, if that is the case then I say that’s tough, this is America folks, it’s called free speech. None of us at Keiffe & Sons Ford are afraid to speak out. Keiffe & Sons Ford on Sierra Highway in Mojave and Rosamond, if we don’t see you today, by the grace of God, we’ll be here tomorrow.

One sad thing about that is that it is probably effective, and I would be unsurprised if the ad is doing well for them. The dealership is in a conservative part of California (Mojave), and I suspect the area has fewer than 14% in the group they’ve just kicked to the curb. In addition, the ad probably simply reinforces in-group loyalty for the dominant Christian audience.

Oh, well. There’s not much we can do, except boycott Kieffe and Sons Ford, and heck, boycott Ford altogether — Ford seems unconcerned about the fact that one of their dealerships is using bigotry to sell cars. You could also write to Kieffe and Sons, although they’ve already announced that they don’t give a damn about your opinion. If you do write, though, be polite.

I know we’re going to be in the market for a new car in the next few years. It won’t be a Ford. There was no risk that I’d be going to Mojave, California to pick it up, though.

An upcoming Tangled Bank, and a revamp

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First and most importantly, there will be a new edition of the Tangled Bank on Wednesday, at Ars Technica — send pzmyers@gmail.com entries soon!

The other issue is that my lab server which hosts the old Tangled Bank page is experiencing some technical difficulties, which I’m not going to have an opportunity to patch up in the near future … but what I have done is put together a brand new, cleaner, simpler Tangled Bank page here on Scienceblogs, with all the past links in a tidy list, along with all the upcoming editions (we’ve got hosts lined up through the end of August: email me if you want to get on the roster).

Gerobatrachus hottoni

Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research

It’s another transitional form, this time an amphibian from the Permian that shares characteristics of both frogs and salamanders — in life, it would have looked like a short-tailed, wide-headed salamander with frog-like ears, which is why it’s being called a “frogamander”.

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Complete specimen in ventral view, photograph (left) and interpretive outline drawing (right). Abbreviations: bc, basale commune; cl, cleithrum; cv, clavicle; dm, digital elements of the manus; dt3, distal tarsal 3; fe, femur; h, humerus; ic, intercentrum; il, ilium; is, ischium; op, olecranon process of ulna; pc, pleurocentrum; r, radius; sr, sacral rib.

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A busy few weeks

Hey, classes are over … aren’t I supposed to be lazing in a hammock, slacking off until September? Instead, it looks like I’m going to be prepping and giving lectures for the next couple of weeks. Here’s the schedule:

  • On 28-30 May, I’ll be attending IEDG 2008: Integrating Evolution, Development, and Genomics at Berkeley. Look at the schedule on this thing: there are some phenomenal speakers at this meeting, and I’m really looking forward to several days of solid science. I’m giving the last talk of the last day at this event.

  • On 2 June, at 7:00 pm, I’ll be doing a public lecture/discussion at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle for the Northwest Science Writers Association. Science writers are wonderful people, so I’ll be looking forward to meeting this bunch.

  • On 6 June, at 6:30 pm, I’l be speaking to the Seattle Society for Sensible Explanations. Seating is limited, so you’ll need to RSVP soon. A skeptics group in Seattle? Where were these people when I lived there?

I hope to see some of you there at this little tour. Later this summer I’ll be in Las Vegas, Denver, and Atlanta, too — I’m not exactly vacationing this year.