KBSU peddling nonsense

KBSU is the campus television station for Bemidji State University, and apparently they’ve been broadcasting crap lately — several hours a day have been dedicated to episodes of this feeble series of videos called “Does God Exist?”. It’s awful. It’s basically some self-proclaimed Christian standing in front of a camera and preaching.

For an example of the quality of the thinking going into this video series, take a look at his proof for the existence of god. He literally says that there are only two possibilities: 1) the universe is eternal and uncreated, the atheist position (which is incorrect), and 2) the book of Genesis is correct. Because science has demonstrated the event called the Big Bang, it has proven that the Christian creation story is correct.

Really.

You know, I don’t think a public television has to be constrained to avoid showing inanity like this; in fact, this guy’s video series is so awesomely stupid that they are doing the cause of atheism a small favor by openly discrediting religious “logic”. However, as the television station for a university, I should think they would also be obligated to show something educational, with a little more intellectual heft than the ravings of a self-pithed delusional kook. How about also showing A brief history of disbelief? Bronowski’s Ascent of Man? Sagan’s Cosmos? There’s lots of good stuff out there, and that KBSU is rummaging about in the garbage bin for dreck to fill their broadcasting hours isn’t a good sign.

Leo: The stars predict there is a harem in your future. Unfortunately, it’s not as glamorous as it sounds; it’s more like a knacking yard cooperative, with benefits.

Morbid freaks

Christianity is a creepy death cult. Worshipping a rotting corpse is revolting.

The exhumed body of Padre Pio, a saint considered a miracle worker by his devotees, attracted thousands of pilgrims on Thursday when it went on display 40 years after his death.

…

His face was reconstructed with a lifelike silicone mask of the type used in wax museums because it was apparently too decomposed to show when the body was exhumed.

…

The body of the bearded Capuchin monk was exhumed from a crypt on March 3 and found to be in “fair condition” after 40 years. Since then a team of medical examiners and biochemists has worked to preserve and reconstruct the corpse.

Yeesh. They dug up the decayed body of an old fraud, dressed it up in a mask and fancy clothes, and parade it around and worship it…and use it to bilk desperate, sick people out of money? That’s just vile.

Capricorn: You are going to experience a miserable…wait. Those eyes. Those weird pupils…I…I…All Glory to the Hypno-Capricorn. You will be appointed Ruler of the Universe. Hail! All hail the Capricorn!

Confirmed: Texans can be smart!

The recommendation I noted before has been officially and finally followed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: the Institute for Creation Research’s application to offer an online master’s degree program in creationist bullshit has been rejected. Bravo!

The ICR has said they will probably appeal. Don’t slack off, Texas, and keep the pressure on.

Taurus: Great news! Soft drink executives are planning to market a new energy drink made from your urine, on the basis of vague, unfounded rumors of your vitality. This is not such happy news for the rest of us, however.

For B

B asked me the other day to mention his dad’s blog sometime, so of course I will do so. Observe the Banana. It’s part of the tapestry here in little ol’ Morris.

Aries: Look. The reason for your headaches is all the head-butting you do. Switch it up a little, and next time life throws one of those little annoyances your way, trying biting or kicking instead.

Mark your calendars

Monday, 12 May, 2:30pm. This is your chance.

The Residence Hall Association on my campus is having a fundraiser to send some members to a national conference, so they’ll be selling pies … to throw at faculty. I’ll be standing there for that half-hour, so students and anyone else who wants revenge can join in.

I expect a long, long line now. I’ll be very disappointed if I don’t have a horde prepared to be mean to me. And do note that this will be especially messy: the beard, you know. You won’t be getting your money’s worth with those clean-shaven professors.

Gemini: Avoid reading anything about Cyril Burt. There’s a strong possibility you might vanish.

No, don’t google that name.

I’m warning you.

Dang, too late, you’ve just become a statistical anomaly.

Mark Mathis doesn’t like me

Mark Mathis does not come off as a nice man in interviews. You may have listened to the SciAm interview, a truly painful experience in which he made claims about evolution and then backtracked when confronted with his mistakes…and admitted that he knew nothing about the subject. He’s done it again in an interview with a Detroit weekly (scroll down to the “Unevolved” article on that page).

I confront Mathis with this point, and he counters that evolutionary theory is also untestable. This is patently untrue—to give just one example, scientists have witnessed speciation, the arisal of a new species from an old one.

When I point this out, he interrupts me immediately: “Whoa! Wait a minute! Please send me whatever material you have that demonstrates that we can observe speciation because I have not seen anything. I’ve never heard anyone even claim that!”

Is he serious? He’s just produced a film about evolution, and he’s never heard of the fact that speciation has been observed and thoroughly documented in the scientific literature? I’m stunned. I send him peer-reviewed research confirming this fact via e-mail, and he later responds, “This isn’t an important argument for me.”

So I ask him about falsifiability. Clearly, evolution could potentially be disproved, but how could one ever disprove the existence of a deity? He laughs. “You can’t apply falsifiability to Darwinian evolution. How is it falsifiable?”

I respond by quoting the biologist J.B.S. Haldane: “Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian.” One instance of fossils appearing in the wrong strata would disprove current evolutionary theory in an instant. Mathis pauses before saying, “If you want to get into the science…” He then trails off and mutters something irrelevant before finally confessing, “Look. You can get into the intricacies of the science on both sides. And I am not qualified.” On that point, we can both agree.

It’s really easy to find descriptions of speciation events on the web, there are thousands of papers on the subject, and there are even whole books discussing it (with difficult, hard-to-find titles like Speciation, which must be why Mathis couldn’t find them). It is cute how the poor man melts down when he meets anyone with even a hint of scientific knowledge. I don’t think “Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian” counts as a scientific intricacy, at least not in the circles I hang out in, where it’s more of a glib quickie. But then, even that level of science probably leaves poor Mathis floundering and lost.

You’ll have to read the rest to find out what he says about me, personally. I guess calling him the ass-prod was an insult that really stung.

Sagittarius: Uh-oh. A Republican is going to notice that you are a man-animal hybrid today. Expect vicious denunciations on the steps of the Capitol; beware of federal agents in white lab coats.

Carnivalia and an open thread

Let’s catch up with the carnivals:

The Tangled Bank

We’ve got a new Tangled Bank at Dammit Jim! next Wednesday — send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.

Libra: There’s a choice to be made. You can live fast and hard in the hands of the coke dealer, or you can have the sedate life with regular maintenance, dealing with nothing harder than the occasional phosphate salt. The difference is as simple as a chain with a lock.

Florida license plates redux

I mentioned this new religious license plate in Florida before, and now it looks like it’s closer to reality. I don’t object strongly to it — it’s optional, and people who want it have to pay an extra $25 — but some of the arguments against it are embarrassing, and the arguments for it are even worse. There are a lot of variations of the slippery slope being thrown around.

Rep. Kelly Skidmore said she is a Roman Catholic and goes to Mass on Sundays, but she believes the “I Believe” plate is inappropriate for the government to produce.

“It’s not a road I want to go down. I don’t want to see the Star of David next. I don’t want to see a Torah next. None of that stuff is appropriate to me,” said Skidmore, a Democrat who voted against the plate in committee. “I just believe that.”

What? So the objection to a blatantly Christian plate is that it might encourage those Jews in Florida to brag about their religion on their cars? Is Judaism that offensive?

There is a better example of what kinds of interest groups the state might have to accommodate: the ACLU suggests that this could open the doors to KKK plates. That’s definitely much more offensive than driving while Jewish, but still…on giving it a little thought, I don’t think I’d mind if the hateful idiots of the KKK all labeled themselves, and paid the state for the privilege.

Simon, of the ACLU, said approval of the plate could prompt many other groups to seek their own designs, and they could claim discrimination if their plans were rejected. That could even allow the Ku Klux Klan to get a plate, Simon said.

But then there is the usual Christian hypocrisy. These plates are going to be offered selectively, only to groups of which the Florida legislature approves. Guess who’s left out?

Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, isn’t sure all groups should be able to express their preference. If atheists came up with an “I Don’t Believe” plate, for example, he would probably oppose it.

That’s the way, Bullard old boy; stop the slide down a slippery slope and replace it with an official state sponsored religious preference.

Virgo: You may think you’re sitting pretty, but there’s a really ugly test cross with a triple mutant in your future.

The Pastor Ray Mummert award goes to…

…Republican Representative John Duncan of Tennessee. Confronted with a vast amount of evidence provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the US Institute of Medicine , the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Psychological Association that abstinence-only education does not work, does not reduce the incidence of either teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted disease, and that it is a waste of money, the honorable Mr Duncan declared his complete disinterest in data and expertise.

Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems “rather elitist” that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. “I don’t think it’s something we should abandon,” he said of abstinence-only funding.

Nobody is advocating an abandonment of the idea of encouraging abstinence; they’re saying that abstinence-only is a failure, and we should be encouraging dissemination of more information. I know, that’s terribly elitist — how dare we oppose some parents’ desire to keep their children ignorant and stupid.

I should also hand out an anti-Mummert to Henry Waxman, who deserves a lifetime award.

Panel chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said, “We are showering funds on abstinence-only programs that don’t appear to work, while ignoring proven comprehensive sex education programs that can delay sex, protect teens from disease, and result in fewer teen pregnancies.”

Scorpio: The black lights in your bedroom will pay off in a big way — expect a fluorescent romantic entanglement in your near future. Male Scorpios should definitely invest in life insurance.

It’s shrinkage!

Cancel your trip to Africa! There are sorcerors stealing…personal items.

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Unfortunately, it’s not very funny since deluded people are blaming their tiny, impotent penises on random people and beating and lynching them.

Cancer: This is not a good day to molt—there’s a cephalopod with an eye on you. Hunker down beneath a rock with some ripe rotting fish and wait.