Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
It’s yet another creationist conference in which the imminent demise of evolutionary theory will be declared this weekend, and it’s being held on a university campus, which is always jarring. The university is said to be “uneasy” about it all.
The 1 November event, called the Origin Summit, is sponsored by Creation Summit, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit Christian group that believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible and was founded to “challenge evolution and all such theories predicated on chance.” The 1-day conference will include eight workshops, according the event’s website, including discussion of how evolutionary theory influenced Adolf Hitler’s worldview, why “the big bang is fake,” and why “natural selection is NOT evolution.” Another talk targets the work of MSU biologist Richard Lenski, who has conducted an influential, decades-long study of evolution in bacterial populations.
News of the event caught MSU’s scientific community largely by surprise. Creation Summit secured a room at the university’s business school through a student religious group, but the student group did not learn about the details of the program—or the sometimes provocative talk titles—until later, says MSU zoologist Fred Dyer. The talk titles led Dyer to suspect that the student group was not involved in planning the conference, he says, prompting him to look into its origins.
Of blood, that is. The colors are nice, but also very nice are those gorgeous resonant organic molecules.
(click for larger image)
They bring me presents. Mr Geiger, of Morris North Star infamy, visited a Famous Author and brought me a signed copy of her book.
It’s almost Halloween, and people are decorating their houses and yards. One person in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, put a display up that elicited this mild reaction.
Fort Campbell Public Affairs officer Brendalyn Carpenter said that it was "her understanding that the display was not intended to be offensive, but authorities deemed it could be interpreted as such. She said the occupant did extend an apology about the decorations."
Oh, not intended to be offensive, but could be interpreted, possibly uncharitably and unfairly, as such. Where have I heard that kind of notpology before? It seems to be a fairly common sentence construction in English.
Of course, then you see a photo of the display and wonder how anyone could possibly see it as inoffensive.
Gosh, I guess Eric Hovind issued a challenge to all atheists. I didn’t even notice! The only reason I know about it now is that Rebecca Watson answered it:
It’s a great place for walking; I’ve strolled from the World Trade Center site to the Village to the Empire State Building to the AMNH and through Central Park. But somehow, I never experienced this:
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, explains that good ol’ polytheistic Hinduism is fully compatible with science, just like the Pope finds Catholicism compatible with evolution.
We can feel proud of what our country achieved in medical science at one point of time,the prime minister told a gathering of doctors and other professionals at a hospital in Mumbai on Saturday.We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mother’s womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s womb.
He’s the Pope; you know he’s not going to defy his dogma to be honest with you. He doesn’t support gay marriage, either, but is good at giving the impression of tolerance, which will then be ‘clarified’ by Vatican spokesmen. Same here. Lots of people are telling me that the Pope says Christians should believe in evolution and Big Bang, but no, he actually isn’t. He’s telling you to believe in the Catholic Church’s weird-ass wink-wink-nudge-nudge version of evolution.
Y’all remember the Freedom from Atheism Foundation, right? Hokey copycat organization that parrots the Freedom from Religion Foundation badly, trying to shut down atheism in the public sphere? I wrote a post with a tepid endorsement of their right to exist, while also pointing out that they were stupid and silly.
Well, now they’re selectively citing that post to claim that atheists support their group. I don’t “support” them — I think they’re a gang of idiots. The True Pooka has been digging into their organization and has found a lot of examples of their fudging the amount of support they get.
