How about waterproof, buoyant pizza?

Having read Mooney’s Storm World last week, I can’t be too disturbed by this bit of news: the pizza man who is fanatically devoted to the pope, Tom Monaghan, is opening his new planned town dedicated to Catholic values next Saturday. There will be no porn or contraceptives available in town, but I hear there will be a whole clinic dedicated to pediatric proctology on Main Street.

Anyway, the town is Ave Maria, Florida. Mooney’s book points out that one of the looming problems from catastrophic storms and global warming is man-made, the growing investment in valuable infrastructure and population in precisely those areas at risk from natural disaster. This gives me an idea: I think the southern coastal states ought to give incentives to religious organizations to build along the shores. Pull back all those merely material and economic developed resources farther inland, and construct wall-to-wall religious enclaves everywhere that we worry about hurricanes instead, as a bulwark against acts of god.

We can’t lose. If they’re right, their prayers and purity will stave off disaster. If they’re wrong, well, no loss to the country if ten thousand churches get inundated.

It also puts a nefarious twist on the closing quote in the story.

Monaghan has said his goal is to help as many people as possible get to Heaven. And he hopes these homeowners will have a head start.

Filling the gaps in my argument

Perhaps I was a little too surprised at the utterly bizarre criticisms Michael Egnor made of my talk at the Minnesota Atheists this weekend — he wasn’t there, he didn’t know what I said, but he went ahead and tried to rebut what he thought I would have said anyway — that I was more interested in spelling out what I did say than in wrestling with his absurd arguments for a magic invisible ghost that lives inside his cranium. Fortunately, a few other people found Egnor’s flailings sufficiently entertaining that they took a few shots at addressing them: you’ll find more discussion on dualism at Harvard College Democrats, Synapostasy, and Notes from Evil Bender. Poor Dr Egnor. Most people seem to be aghast at the thought that someone so foolish is a trusted and respected neurosurgeon.

I’m actually not too surprised. The fact that he’s shilling for the Discovery Institute, that magnet for kooks, cranks, sloppy philosophers and dishonest scientists, says it all.

Free at last! The Tripoli Six are on their way home

Fabulous news: the Palestinian and Bulgarian health care workers who were falsely accused by the Libyan government of infecting children with AIDS, who were sentenced to death, and who had their sentence then commuted to life in prison, have been given a pardon and released. They are currently in Bulgaria, out of prison, and safe. The various governments involved say no money changed hands, but that a deal was worked out for release in return for closer ties to the EU, whatever that means.

What a fine ripe welcome back home

I just got home a short while ago, and it’s 90°, my shirt is soaked through with sweat, and the feeble breeze here isn’t strong enough to provide any relief at all, but it is from precisely the right direction to stir the thick olfactory stew from the nearby swine farms to sluggishly settle on bucolic Morris. Then, to add to the clammy stink, I just had to read Norwegianity’s flensing of the rotting carcass of Michael Totten. I needed something light and airy and sweet, Mark — is this your revenge for being trapped in a library listening to me drone on yesterday?

Hide the guillotines, they’re on to us!

We should be quaking in our jackboots: a media counterattack is being launched against us wicked atheists. They have a website!

American Vision is launching a relentless and systematic response to militant atheism. We’ve produced a brilliant 2-minute commercial that we plan to broadcast globally via the Internet and Television. Atheists present themselves as enlightened and civil. But this new commercial will reveal the shocking truth to viewers. The French Revolution, Communism, Nazism, etc. have taught us that the atheistic worldview will inevitably lead to the persecution of Christians and the killing of anyone who gets in the way. What’s worse is that atheism is paving a wide road for Islam to advance in our nation and around the world.

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Wow!

I’m busily tied up for the most of the day at the Twin Cities branch of the University of Minnesota — Skatje is taking the new student tour because she plans to transfer here in a year — but I also took advantage of this visit to get my own copy of Haryun Yahya’s Atlas of Creation. My thanks to Aaron Barnes, who rescued a copy from a recycling bin here, It’s a behemoth!

As everyone has said, it’s full of pretty pictures, but the content … well, it leaves much to be desired. It’s mostly a collection of pictures of fossils and animals that asserts a non-existent contradiction between them and what evolution predicts, followed by text that claims most of the fossils we have are fakes.

I haven’t had a chance to look closely, though. Skatje won’t let me have it — she’s leafing through it and giggling.

A general predilection for delusion

The first review of my talk yesterday is in! Too bad it is from somebody who wasn’t there and who is a world-class fool. Yes, it’s Michael Egnor again, and he’s got a lengthy post up with the pretext of giving me advice on future talks, but is really an attempt to preempt my arguments and chide me for my crazy materialist position. He doesn’t even come close to any of my arguments, and he makes false assumptions all over the place about what I and the audience think. I’m used to straw men from creationists, but this is ridiculous.

Here’s what I actually said at the talk.

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Links to satisfy the ravening heathen

So I’m hanging out at a coffeeshop prior to lecturing people with a primer on basic neuroscience and the limits of the adaptationist paradigm (in addition to telling a group of atheists that there are rational reasons for people to be religious—that’ll be fun*), so you’ll have to get your godless harangues from someone else for a while. I’ll recommend:

*Don’t worry, my concession is mitigated by the fact that it is a rational conclusion derived from incomplete and faulty information, and that their conclusion is wrong. Wouldn’t want you to think I’ve lost my edge!

My eyes are dry and clear

It’s a personal tragedy that Tammy Faye has died, but someone else will have to let their mascara run. She and her husband bilked thousands of people, lied lied lied, perpetuated superstitious myths, lived lives of gag-inducing hypocrisy, and wallowed in outrageous self-pity when their empire of corruption crumbled. I’m sorry she lived a wasted and deluded life, but beyond that … good riddance.

It’s a good thing I’m traveling today and will have to miss the sanctimonious, dishonest media accolades.