Ali Hussain Sibat seems to be a bit of a kook. He was on a silly television show in the Middle East in which he’d make paranormal predictions, and he also was making a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The latter was considered just fine; the former has got him in big trouble. The Saudi government convicted him of sorcery and is planning to decapitate him.
Now that is barbarism. Here in America we let fortune-telling frauds get rich, instead.
The NCSE has put out a press release congratulating Ayala for his Templeton Prize, and thanking him for his support of NCSE. It also parrots his defense of the compatibility of science and religion.
You know, I’ve been a long-time supporter of the NCSE, a vocal crusader for better science education and against creationism, and last year I was awarded Humanist of the Year…but no, I didn’t get the tiniest bit of press from NCSE. Was it because I’m not as scientifically reputable as Ayala? Because I didn’t get a £1,000,000? Because putting a paragraph acknowledgment on the web was more than I’m worth? Or was it because if they’d cited my position on the science/religion collision it would have been insufficiently appeasing?
Excuse me, I have to retire to my fainting couch and weep hot, bitter tears for a while. There are friends of the NCSE’s goals, and then there are special friends of the NCSE, and we can clearly see who’s in the popular clique…and it overlaps more with Templeton cronies than it does the humanist and atheist community. <sniffle>
(Actually, I did not expect a notice from the NCSE, and that’s OK. I’m just disgusted that they find a prize for pandering to religion to be at all newsworthy.)
I have been corrected: the NCSE published a brief note about the Humanist of the Year award in RNCSE 29:4, p. 10. Yay! I feel positively affirmated!
Tebow is an obnoxious hyper-religious football player. He recently had to take some kind of test with a group of other players, and this is what happened:
At the Scouting Combine, the Wonderlic exam is administered to players in groups. The 12-minute test is preceded by some brief instructions and comments from the person administering the test.
Per a league source, after the person administering the test to Tebow’s group had finished, Tebow made a request that the players bow their heads in prayer before taking the 50-question exam.
Said one of the other players in response: “Shut the f–k up.” Others players in the room then laughed.
I think a lot of people are getting fed up with the excessive piety, and I’m glad some are speaking out. Tebow wants to pray, fine; Tebow wants to drag others into his delusion, fire back.
By the way, Tebow got a 22 out of 50 on the test. I had to look up this Wonderlic test — it seems to be a remarkably trivial ‘intelligence’ test of the sort you might see in a grade school, I would think. “When rope is selling at $.10 a foot, how many feet can you buy for sixty cents?” and “A boy is 16 years old and his sister is twice as old. When the boy is 22 years old, what will be the age of his sister?”, that sort of thing, nothing that requires any reasoning beyond elementary algebra.
I’m shocked that a grown man could get below 50% on this thing.
Not as nasty as I feared, but the consecrated hunk o’ Jesus I put it on was ghastly.
It’s tough to tread that line between contempt and admiration: Jerry Coyne writes about the Templeton journalism awards. It really is a smart move on the part of the Templetonites to coopt journalists to sell their bankrupt line by tossing a good-sized chunk of money at them.
One interesting revelation is that the journalism awards aren’t simply handed out by cunning Templetonistas who spot a promising compromiser in the ranks of reporters — you have to apply for the fellowship. Hey, should I? They’re closed for now, but I imagine there will be a bunch of 2011 fellowships awarded, and I wouldn’t mind spending time in Cambridge.
All I have to do is write an essay “outlining [my] interest in science and religion and detailing a specific topic [i] hope to cover”. Here’s my start:
Religion is the antithesis of science, an anesthetic for the mind that disables critical thought and encourages the acceptance of inanity as fact, and wishful thinking as evidence.
Do you think it will appeal to their review panel?
Oh, probably not. Here’s John Horgan’s experience.
One Templeton official made what I felt were inappropriate remarks about the foundation’s expectations of us fellows. She told us that the meeting cost more than $1-million, and in return the foundation wanted us to publish articles touching on science and religion. But when I told her one evening at dinner that — given all the problems caused by religion throughout human history — I didn’t want science and religion to be reconciled, and that I hoped humanity would eventually outgrow religion, she replied that she didn’t think someone with those opinions should have accepted a fellowship. So much for an open exchange of views.
Oops. And John is so much more polite than I am.
Now I really wish those application essays were available for public reading. I’m sure they’re exceptionally entertaining.
Mooney ‘fesses up. I’d love it if he’d post his application essay!
I just need a machine, I guess.
Earlier, I linked to that ghastly “Negotiation is Over” anti-research site. Let me balance that with a link to the pro-science site, Speaking of Research. Compare the two, it’s enlightening. Guess which one relies on shrieking all-caps accusations and threats of dire harm to the people on the other side?
There’s this contest, see, where a fabulous free wedding is given away. And one of the contestants wrote to me with their plans for a godless affair at the Boston Museum of Science, and from their description both are geeky nerds, and they’re trying to get this wedding arranged fast since the bride’s grandfather is dying of cancer, so how could I resist? I voted for them. That’s all you have to do to give them a shot at winning.
Dammit. I keep trying to overcome this teddy bear image, and everyone knows I’m a soft touch.
I have to say that my opinion of Iowa has gone up in my short visit here. Not only have Iowa Democrats beaten back an attempt by Republicans to outlaw gay marriage, but the University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquirers has organized a whole Darwin week of talks — lots of talks, and all that I saw were remarkably well attended. I’m sad to say I have to drive back today, because I’d really like to hear Hector Avalos’s talk tonight. If you’re in the area, you should check it out.
Also, if you’re near Cedar Rapids tomorrow night, you should go to the Flying Spaghetti Monster fundraiser for the A-Team, which I’m supposed to tell you is the most bad-ass atheist organization in all of Iowa. It’ll have endless quantities of spaghetti, cheap beer, and pirates, so you can’t go wrong there.
It must be. I’m reading the results of a poll of Republicans, and the answers don’t make sense. For example, look at this one result:
Do you believe Barack Obama wants the terrorists to win?
Yes 24
No 43
Not Sure 33
A quarter of Republicans think our president is rooting for the terrorists? That’s simply nuts.
Read the rest. The percentages for absurd questions like whether Obama is a socialist are unbelievable enough, but when it gets to the issues it simply gets worse. 77% want the Bible taught in the schools, for instance.
Maybe I should just stay in Ireland.
