If you’ve got a reasonably robust gut, you might be able to handle following this link to a movie showing the intimate relationship between a man and his botfly larvae.
If you can’t appreciate the beauty of large maggots, well, no, you might not want to click. Really. I am not to blame if you disregard my recommendation.
I am so pleased to learn that Focus on the Family is freaking out a little bit.
The trend is known as the “Great Evacuation,” and the statistics are startling to youth ministers.
Studies have shown at least 50 percent — and possibly as much as 85 percent — of kids involved in church groups will abandon their faith during their first year in college.
The best part of this statistic is that college professors and administrators don’t even try to divorce students from religion — despite my evil reputation, I don’t say a word about religion in any of my classes. All we do is open students’ eyes and expose them to a world of the mind where they are free to question and doubt … and presto, many of them suddenly realize that they can disagree with those obnoxious religious authorities back home.
Well, and to be perfectly fair, they also discover friends and parties and beer and sex. Those are pretty persuasive, too. It’s not an entirely intellectual voyage of discovery.
In an attempt to reverse those numbers, Focus on the Family on Saturday hosted “The Big Dig,” a conference aimed at teens and youth leaders. The goal was not just to celebrate participants’ Christian faith but also to give them the tools to defend their beliefs against questions they will face.
Such apologetics conferences fly in the face of a long-held belief that the way to minister to teens is to wow them with hipness, said Alex McFarland, organizer of the event. But, as 1,600 kids and leaders from as far as Jamaica learned historical evidence of Jesus and defense of the Bible, he said this more academic method seemed to be working.
This is absolutely wonderful. Teach them to value academic methods, and I suspect they’ll be even more vulnerable to academic criticism when they get into college. FoF isn’t inoculating these students against argument, they’re punching little holes in their close-mindedness.
Richard Dawkins has stirred up a new nest of critics, and they’re actually getting space in the media. This time, it’s an astrologer complaining about those damned skeptics.
Evidently hoping to prove astrologers are know-nothings, Dawkins’ interview started with a lengthy grilling about astronomy – the precession of the equinoxes, sidereal and tropical zodiacs, Kuiper Belt objects. There was the usual objection to astrology dividing people into 12 Sun signs, and my usual reply: that’s eight more than the Myers-Briggs personality test used by commerce. Actually, astrology’s basic personality types number 1,728.
Ooooh, 1,728. That certainly sounds precise and scientific and all that … of course, the real question is whether these carefully enumerated types correspond to actual personality types, and whether date and hour and place of birth impose that kind of disposition on people. And the answer is no. I could add another arbitrary signifier to his list — say, “were you born at or below sea level, or above sea level?” — and double the number of types assigned by astrology to 3,456 (or more if I start subdividing the altitude!), but it’s all utterly meaningless without a mechanism or without replicable evidence.
Like many woo-woo crackpots, there’s no brand of nonsense this fellow won’t try to defend. Obviously, hard-nosed skeptics must criticize the unknown because it doesn’t conform to their paradigms.
Homeopathy and acupuncture are particularly repellent since they work through mechanisms unknown to the laws of physics.
Actually, I think homeopathy and acupuncture are repellent because they don’t work.
Oh, well. Critiqued by theologians, now by astrologers … there really isn’t much difference in the collection of clowns that gather to throw marshmallows, is there?
I’m in St Paul, about to give a talk on evolution, and in these few minutes before I get behind the lectern I thought I’d throw together a few links to entertain you all. Have fun, I have to babble!
Share your stories of abandoning faith at Coming Out Godless.
Revere’s Sunday Sermonette is on Fred Phelps and our local ex-bridge.
Casual violence isn’t a surprising event in the fundagelical community, as in this story of pastor dragging a girl behind a van for the sin of insufficient stamina. The amusing part? The name of the church group is “Love Demonstrated”.
How about a few fine examples of theistic hypocrisy? Mitt Romney, who thinks atheists shouldn’t run for office, doesn’t like the idea of someone saying Mormons shouldn’t be in office.
Dr Carlin thinks the proper order of things is that Christians get to criticize atheism, while well-mannered atheists will sit back and take it. Turnabout is definitely not fair play.
Not all Christians are such mindless bigots. Thomas Robey thinks it is just fine for non-Christians to express themselves. That’s refreshing, and that’s the way it should be — I also think theists should be speaking out openly (if only to make their arguments clearer targets.)
Ken MacLeod (yes, that Ken MacLeod) summarizes 21st Century Atheism. You knew he wouldn’t bat an eye at a gang of revolutionaries.
Christian charity and love has clear limits.
A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.
Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.
Yeah, a 5,000 member megachurch spurned a dead man because they didn’t care for who he chose to love. The pastor’s excuse is terrific:
“We did decline to host the service — not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press. “Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it — yes, we would have declined then. It’s not that we didn’t love the family.”
Part of that is wrong: it’s based on hatred of gays and on discrimination against gay people. Part is right: that is clearly the basic operating principle of this church.
People of Arlington, Texas, Rejoice! This church has exposed its hateful foundations, and you can now boycott it in good conscience … on principle.
Hey, Carl Zimmer and I share one thing in common: it’s the hair. You can even see him on video if you’ve been wondering what he’s like.
I may be meeting Carl next weekend in New York. What do you think — after a few beers, do you think he and I should head out to the Village and get tattoos?
Bleh…it’s been a too-busy day, and I’ve got very early morning travel to do, so here’s something easy and mindless before I go to bed: make a lego version of yourself!
Man, I really gotta get a haircut soon.
The next edition of the Tangled Bank will be at Fish Feet on Wednesday, 15 August. Send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.
Until Wednesday, you’ll need to make do with these other carnivals, or engage in undirected and unspecified web-based social intercourse in the comment thread below.
Richard Dawkins has a new television series, The Enemies of Reason, that will be broadcast in the UK. I have not heard if it will make it to the US; if it’s anything like our experience with his last program, Root of all evil?, it will be buried in post-midnight showings on scattered PBS stations, with little information on when or where in any of the channel listings. The premise of discussing this new show is how Gordon Lynch begins a recent column, but then, somehow, it turns into a wild-eyed accusation in mannered language that this modern atheism stuff is a cult-like phenomenon, just like those crazy evangelical Christians.
