This is why I’m an atheist.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I’ve been writing at Coyote Crossing/Creek Running North for nearly a decade, and in the decade’s worth of archives there are a handful of posts that really seem like they ought to live here. So every month or two I’ll dust one of them off, if it’s not too horribly outdated, and put it here for your delectation or dissection.
This one is a 2006 review of the abysmal “biology” “textbook” Biology: God’s Living Creation, published by the creationists at A Beka Books.
Answers in Genesis gets email, and they recently published a critical message which they then thoroughly rebutted. Not.
Their critic pointed out the absurdity of believing the earth is only 6000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans lived together, and also made the point that an indifferent nature is not influenced by biblical beliefs. AiG answered, and it’s actually rather interesting as a condensed summary of their fallacies.
I was a “moderate” Christian (Lutheran, then Anglican) on and off for many years, but the more I learned about the history of religion and the nature of the universe, the more mental gymnastics I found myself going through, much to my cost. Okay, I can believe X if by X I mean Y. It was one of those moments at a Good Friday service a few years ago–Okay, I can accept that I’m a hopeless sinner if by hopeless sinner I mean… what?– that forced me mid-service to pick up my vestments and exit the choir, to which I haven’t returned.
The other issue I just could not reconcile, gymnastics and all, was theodicy: explaining how a good, wise, and powerful god could allow needless and vast pain and suffering. I’ve never heard an explanation that made sense! The misery of billions, human and otherwise, testifies to the absence of any god like that.
And so, rather painlessly and much to my gain in mental health, I’ve renounced god, the church, and all their empty promises.
Nick Chackowsky
Canada
Because I believe in a natural world not a supernatural world.
Chip Colle
United States
PS. Every time I go to an aquarium and a cuttlefish sees me it turns red…should I take it personally?
[Yes. How you’re going to interpret it is a different problem. –pzm]
I’ve mentioned before the dishonest distortions of evolutionary biology that the slimy scumbags at AVoiceForMen promote, but I didn’t know how deep the lies go, because I really can’t stomach reading or viewing their garbage. Cristina Rad exposes that phony, GirlWritesWhat, and unearths a few surprises. I knew she had made some baseless accusations against FtB and Skepchick, but if I’d taken my anti-nausea medication and listened to her further, I would have heard some astonishingly bad evolutionary rationalizations for men to own, abuse, and control women. Fortunately, Cristina got mad enough to listen to the whole thing, and has extracted and debunked the idiocy.
These people are just like creationists, making up bullshit about the science to promote toxic nonsense. How can anyone with any knowledge of evolution bear to be associated with them?
Richard Dawkins provides some clarity on religion and creationism.
South Korea is strongly infected with the Evangelical Christian plague, and for a while there, there was real concern that the creationist lobby in that country was gaining some clout, and like Texas, was going to censor evolution from their biology textbooks by removing mention of fossil evidence. Good news, everybody! The scientists and educators got their act together and fought back.
On 5 September, the panel concluded that Archaeopteryx must be included in Korean science textbooks, and it reaffirmed that the theory of evolution is an essential part of modern science that all students must learn in school.
The battle is not over, of course. The polls aren’t promising.
Duckhwan Lee, president of the Basic Science Council and the panel leader, says he hopes that the panel’s guidance will eventually improve the public’s understanding of evolution. In July, a survey by Gallup Korea, a research firm based in Seoul, found that of 613 respondents, 45% believed in evolution and 32% believed in creationism.
32% creationist? That’s bad news.
Perspective: the US is 40-50% creationist.
I attended that most English of institutions, a Church of England Boarding School. My mother was a lapsed Catholic and my father was inscrutable on such issues but he did pick the school.
The school advertised its “pastoral” approach to the care of the young men who attended. Girls were only admitted in the 6th Form (for any US readers – that is the last 2 years of study before a pupil leaves at 18 years old). Chapel attendance was compulsory. There was a school service every week on a Sunday, a week day service for your class and a weekly event called a House Meeting that was for members of your house (think fraternity without the beer, or porn, or TV other than the news or sport) that was partly a meeting about upcoming events and partly an excuse to get a pupil to write a short morality based story that always ended with the “Christian Family Prayer” (The Lords Prayer). There was also Religious Education classes that never mentioned any other faith at all, despite the demands of the National Curriculum.
I can understand how the strain gets to people. I’m a white guy; I’ve got it easy. I do get a steady stream of hate-mail and vituperative noise in my in-box, but I’ve been getting that for 20 years (usenet gave me a leg up on most of you) and my skin is pretty damned thick by now. But what gets me most right now is shame. Embarrassment at being associated with some of these ‘skeptics’ and atheists — a painful shame at being male. Even the polite ones who think they’re making a rational point make me cringe. Look at this little note from JoeNietzsche:
PZ, you’ve clearly misrepresented the function of his “forms in triplicate” argument. What he is doing there is called exaggeration for effect. No one, not him, his readers or anyone else actually believes this is what anyone at FTB would demand of him. He is simply making the point that obtaining consent would ruin the moment. Social interaction is messy, even the deeply conscientious sort. Now, I had no dog in this fight but this, along with your stream of ad homs, have made up my mind. :(
My nonexistent freakin’ deity. “Obtaining consent would ruin the moment.” For whom? How oblivious can you get?
I can understand why Jen is taking a break. These assholes are exhausting. It’s not just the vileness, it’s the godawful stupidity of people who otherwise claim to be on my side. They aren’t. I’m on the side of humanism, of men and women, for science and the environment, for equality and justice, and I’m against the troglodytes who make excuses for treating women as ambulatory receptacles for their “moment”. Screw ’em.
So one thing we can do is let people cycle back away from the front and take a little R&R, and then those of us still on the line can follow Rebecca Watson’s suggestion: double-down, everyone.
I suspect that if everyone steps up and speaks just as loudly as Jen did, there’s no way the assholes would have enough time in their day to bully all of us. But I get that not everyone can do that. I can do it, though, so until everybody steps up, I’ll just try to be twice as loud in the hopes of acting as some kind of asshole lightning rod.
Battle on, horde!
Holy crap. Via Ophelia, Marty Robbins brings up an interesting point: some of these assholes show a greater level of obsession than Dennis Markuze. Look at the pile of stuff one jerk, “Elevatorgate”, compiled in one day. Get help, Chris. You’re sick.
