Looking for the lizard guts story?

Another bit of distortion from Ray Comfort: he claims now that I was asked to present the very best evidence for evolution, and that all I could come up with was some “little infolding of the gut”. If you’ve come here from Comfort’s ignorance zone, here are the details of the evolution of lizards of the genus Podarcis.

What Comfort cannot comprehend is that there is no one absolute make-or-break piece of evidence for evolution — evolution is a conclusion from the totality of the evidence. There are thousands of cases that demonstrate that the principles of evolution work and are useful for understanding the natural world; there are no cases where creationism has improved our understanding.

Skip church and party

[[Oops. Forgot this on the first post. MAJeff here.]]

It appears we’ve got more than a few Ottawans here (Ottawegians? Ottawites?) It also seems they’d like to meet each other. I’ve also seen a few Massholes (what do we call ourselves?) saying they’d like to get together again. I’m not surprised. We are, after all, a social species.

It’s kind of funny to see Nisbet complaining about the loners over here when we are actually engaging in very social activity by sitting here chatting. Some of us may be sitting alone in physical space, but the intensive communicative action in which we engage is pretty much the opposite of “lonerness.” (You’d think someone who’s supposedly an expert in communication would recognize that it’s a form of social activity, but….) We’ve gotten to know things about each other; many of us have connected off-line; we sit and chat about each other’s lives in these very threads, often ignoring or forgetting what the original post was about.

It’s the social I want to talk about this morning. In 1912, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim published his classic work, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. I think that one of the most powerful conclusions to be taken from the book is that religion is simply the group worshipping itself. His analysis divided social space into two basic categories–the sacred and the profane. Now, being in profane space doesn’t mean being in space where everyone gets to “take the name of the Lord in vain” or say, “fuck-fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck,” but I won’t complain about doing either of those. The profane is simply the space of everyday life, of eating, drinking, working, fucking, playing, whatever.

Sacred space is set off from everyday practice as a special place where the group comes together to engage in ritual practice. These practices serve to reinforce the group itself. Members are reminded of the values and identity they share, and of the importance of the relationships between them. The ritual activity occurring in these sacred spaces is an enactment of the community, and in doing so, they are worshipping themselves. Why do gods always reflect the various values of different groups? Because those groups are their gods.

I know a number of atheists who attend Unitarian and Quaker services, as I’m sure many of you do as well. In TGD, Dawkins discussed atheists he knows attending Anglican services. These folks are all reinforcing relationships between themselves and the other members of the group. On a weekly basis, at a minimum for many of these folks, they get together with people they know and care about and re-establish their relationships with each other in order to reinforce their values and sense of collective self. Again, they enact community. I think we make a mistake when we fail to engage in some of these wider analyses, when we fail to see the other things going on because we focus only on the dumb ideas.

Religion is more than stupid beliefs.

As social beings, we all–at some level–desire to know and be known by the others in our communities. Religious organizations allow for that. While we can focus on the really dumb things it does, focusing on what religion–not religious belief, but religious practice–provides for people is absolutely necessary. If we are going to attack religion–or, at a minimum, its privileged position in society–we need an analysis that recognizes these social aspects. And, we need to understand how people might find them in other spaces. How do we create other “sacred” sites?

Well, the Pharyngufest is one of them, however small. I think I sort of got the first one going here in Boston this past winter. On a few of the threads recently, Boston-area folks have been sort of asking for another one. I’m going to refer folks around here to the Boston-area Skeptics-in-the-Pub, run and organized by Rebecca of Skepchick. There seems to be a pretty big overlap of readership, so the piggy-backing scheme seems to make sense. (I see on the Skepchick calendar that there’s one scheduled for the 25th of this month.)

The ability to overcome religion means providing alternatives to it, and that means providing spaces for humans to enact community. So, let’s chat about the social, about how we create spaces of community, and how we’ll meet for food and drink.

Things we’re apparently tired of

LisaJ here: A new survey shows that 48% of the American public is suffering from a frightening new illness, termed ‘Obama fatigue’. Apparently a lot of people’s Obama receptors have reached saturation, and we’re all hoping that a week long Hawaiian vacation will relieve this little issue. Now even I have noticed that Barack gets a lot more airtime than his opponent Johnnie, but how could you wish him away? He’s just so damn charismatic, with his little rock star style. So the question here is, even if you support Obama (or at least prefer him to your other choice), are you suffering from Obama fatigue? My two cents is that I’m at least glad for him that Oprah’s intensely public campaign on his behalf was largely axed.

Another rock star the public is apparently tired of is Bono. This AIDS fundraising group is asking our beloved Bono to retire from public life for his apparent philanthropic ineptness. Are you tired of this guy too?

I’ll tell you what I myself am really am tired of hearing about from the media. The fact that there’s lotsa smog in Beijing. I mean, come on, we’ve been hearing about this smog problem for months leading up to the Olympics, and now that the games have started – just watch out! The smog alert is on full force. I just got home from the movies, turned on the CBC to watch some mass Olympic bike race, the first bit of Olympic coverage I’ve seen so far, and I swear I’ve heard the words ‘smog’ and ‘athletes breathing’ 15 times in the first 23 seconds. OK, I understand that there really is a lot of smog in Beijing and that the many athletes assembled there right now may incur some respiratory tightness (but how much though really? I’m watching them ride their bikes right now and they all look pretty comfy and no one’s fallen off their bike gasping for air), but I get it already! I know the air looks foggy, I know the American (sorry about the Australian thing) athletes got off their airplane wearing masks, I know people are concerned… but it’s just getting ridiculous. I’m more than half expecting a colour coded smog alert warning to pop up on my TV screen, akin to the terror alerts commonly seen on US news stations. Is anyone feeling me here?

Hola from Quito!

Hey, I’ve safely arrived here in Quito, Ecuador…and of course, I beat Phil Plait here, getting through customs and to the hotel long before he did. He’s got to be getting used to second place by now.

I see the guestbloggers have come through and are doing a bang-up job, so I don’t need to say much at all. We’ll be touring the city tomorrow and won’t have much time to write then, either — so don’t expect too much from me in the near future. Not even in reply to Matt Nisbet.

Speaking of slanderous, self-serving frauds, Ray Comfort has been claiming that I “chickened out” of our debate on WDAY radio. This is not true, and it’s unfair to the radio station. They actually changed the format on their own initiative because they felt that 20-30 minutes would not let us do justice to our positions if we had to split the time. I have a formal statement from the producer that they’ve asked me to post:

For why we decided to change formats, we came to the conclusion that being we are a caller driven show, while having both Mr. Comfort and Dr. Myers on at the same time would be entertaining, neither would have been able to fully develop their respective positions, or take many questions from callers. We decided this Monday afternoon. We attempted contacting Mr. Comfort, with no success, and when I spoke to Dr. Myers he was gracious enough to move his interview to Wednesday morning. We sent several emails to Mr. Comfort (actually his assistant) with the changes to the format, and the emails were eventually responded to.

It is possible, however, that the information in the emails to Mr. Comfort’s assistant was not passed in full to Mr. Comfort. It is also possible that one of the emails we sent to Mr. Comfort’s assistant was lost due to the problems we’ve experienced with our email server this week (which has been an absolute nightmare). This could account for the misinformation that Mr. Comfort is stating on his blog. I will email his assistant this afternoon and try to straighten this out.

Feel free to reproduce this email on any blogs where this discussion is taking place (I’m guessing on Pharyngula and Comfort Food). If there are any further questions, feel free to email me at [email protected]

Thanks again,

Erik Matson
Producer, Ben and Jim in the Morning
WDAY Radio

Do you believe in evolution … and why?

Greetings, fellow minions. Sastra OM, here, belatedly logging in as guest blogger #4. My smooth entry into the blogosphere was temporarily delayed by my fierce objections to signing Seed’s contract, which to my horror appeared to involve some sort of ritualized Cthulhu chanting to the Elder Gods. Turns out it simply needed reformatting. My bad.

Unlike some of the other guest bloggers this week, I do NOT have a strong background in biology and impressive credentials from prestigious universities and research labs. Instead, I have a BA in English Lit from Western Illinois University (everybody go OOooo) and a passing familiarity with various skeptic and atheist organizations and issues.

So I am starting out my guestblogging by passing on a link to a survey on the public understanding of evolution from Michael Shermer’s Skeptic Society at Cal Tech. It’s part of a study they’re doing “on general knowledge of and beliefs about evolution,” and it only takes a few minutes. So, by the powers of Pharyngula invested in me, I command you go forth. Only if you feel like it, of course.

http://www.evolutionsurvey.com/

One thing I found particularly interesting (and challenging) about this survey was that it
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Oh, the Drama.

Matt Nisbet is railing against PZ and the image of the Angry Atheist again. In fairness, PZ would probably choose to comment on this on Matt’s turf, rather than linking to it from Pharyngula. But PZ’s on vacation, and I’m not inclined to be so noble, especially given the exceedingly smarmy tone of Nisbet’s post:

For sure, atheists for a long time have been unfairly stereotyped in the mainstream media and in popular culture. But we also have a lot of lousy self-proclaimed spokespeople who do damage to our public image. They’re usually angry, grumpy, uncharismatic male loners with a passion for attacking and ridiculing religious believers. Any fellow atheist who disagrees with their Don Imus rhetoric, they label as appeasers.

Wow. Just…wow. The victim-blaming never gets old, does it?

posted by Danio

Honey, where’s my Super-Suit?

The new Speedo LZR Racer suit, that is. Designed with all the power of science and technology behind it, the LZR Racer is being credited with imparting enhanced, record-breaking athletic performances to its wearers.

.

It was designed using the same technology applied to reducing drag on the Space Shuttle, with the goal of diminishing the friction and skin movement that normally occur during swimming, thus improving overall hydrodynamics. It’s a cool story from the scientific perspective, to be sure, but the public reaction since its unveiling in February 08, and now with the Olympic Swimming competitions coming up, has been just a teensy bit hysterical.

I have to hand it to the Speedo marketing team. Dropping ‘NASA’ into any conversation about your product is sure to get people’s attention, and beyond that, the look and promise of the suit is truly reminiscent of something Edna Mode might have whipped up.

So you get a bunch of top tier athletes, adorn them in the best suit technology can buy, extoll its performance-enhancing properties, and have them all feeling like superheroes going into a race. Is there a psychologist in the house who can predict the probable effect here? And is it any surprise that the competitors who don’t have LZR rocket super-suits are pretty much shitting bricks about this?

Oh yes, the competition is crying foul heading into the Olympic games. Entreaties have been made to FINA, the international governing body of organized aquatic sports, to ban the suit from competition, to no avail. In a stellar display of hyperbole, Italian swim coach Alberto Castagnetti has declared the suit tantamount to “technological doping.”, but his complaints have garnered little sympathy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fairness in competitive sports. I hate doping, not only because of the unfair advantage it can confer but because of the short-sighted greed it denotes–greed for both the victory and the spoils. Spending hours and hours on conditioning to improve performance is one thing; intrusive meddling with one’s body chemistry through injecting hormones or proteins targeted to increasing red blood cell density, etc. is a different proposition entirely, and reveals an ugly, desperate side of professional athletics. The line blurs a little bit in situations where medically necessary reconstructive surgery (of, say, a baseball pitcher’s shoulder) ends up enhancing performance by imparting increased joint mobility. It would be a shame to ban athletes who were able to return to peak performance after such a procedure, but it would be deeply disturbing if athletes were compelled to undergo this surgery without need with the express purpose of gaining a competitive edge.

This, however, is a merely a swimsuit. An externally applied and fully removable garment that anyone in the world, at least in principle, can purchase and use. A product with such dramatic hype attached that it will be virtually impossible to determine how much of the resulting performance enhancement is due to the power of suggestion, rather than the superior crafting. Get over yourself, Italian coach. Let the Games begin!
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I neglected to note that this post was authored by Danio. I apologize for the omission.

That crazy Canadian news story

OK guys, LisaJ here again. This is going to be a quick one from me because I’m in the middle of hosting a BBQ, and I’m leaving all of the other helpers alone and feeling bad about it! From reading some of the replies to my earlier post I thought I should put up a quick post about the craziest and most horrific news story to hit Canada in quite some time.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of what happened to 22 year old Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus last week in Manitoba. If not, here’s a quick overview. Tim was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and chest and then beheaded by a crazy fellow passenger. Many awful things were reportedly then doen to his body. It’s an awful story, and just leaves me sickened every time I think about it. Well, to make matters worse, this poor young man’s funeral is being held this weekend and a couple of disgusting and despicable groups are threatening to picket his funeral.

First, PETA has attempted to place an ad in a major Canadian newspaper comparing Tim’s tragic beheading to the treatment of slaughtered animals. They are actually trying to use this horrific event to make us feel just as awful about the slaughter of animals. Sorry guys, it just doesn’t equate and it’s disgusting for you to try to use this story for your benefit. Especially on the eve of this poor boy’s funeral.

The second story that was brought to my attention is that a group of American fundamentalists from Westboro Baptist church are intending to picket Tim’s funeral based on the premise that this is god’s response for Canada’s policies that enable abortion, homosexuality, and adultery. What’s even more disgusting is that on their website they refer to Tim as the ‘headless Canadian’. This is just beyond disgusting, and I don’t think I have to say too much myself about how pathetic these individuals are… I know you’ll all paint the right picture. What a terrible world this is when the family and friends of someone who was murdered in such a brutal and public fashion have to worry about assholes like these interrupting their funeral.

I just have to say, I feel terrible for this man’s family and I hope that they can grieve in the peace that they deserve. I find it disgusting when groups such as PETA and these religious wackos have total disregard for what was done to this poor guy and try to use his death to their benefit. They should be very ashamed.

Friday Cephalopod

MAJeff bringing you some ‘pod porn, culinary style.
i-3cee61568c751a0d704504928bc5cbfc-DailyCatchCalamari.jpg
That’s the fried calamari at one of my favorite restaurants, The Daily Catch in Boston’s North End.

A few weeks ago, the New York Times, had an article on the return of the Jersey Tomato. Now, I’ve never had a “Jersey Tomato” so I’ll have to take the word of folks from there that it’s really tasty. I wouldn’t mind being one of the tasters they’ve got in the article, though. Coming from the rural Midwest, I’m pretty familiar with good produce.

I love the summer, and desperately miss my parents’ garden during this season. A few weeks ago, I bought some corn-on-the-cob from a local grocery store…I nearly cried, it tasted like field corn. Grocery store corn is worthless, and people here in New England have no idea what good corn is like (and it’s also impossible to get a good bratwurst here). Then again, anything that spends several days going from the field to a store isn’t going to be as good as something picked that day.

Living in an urban setting, the “picked that day” option is rarely available to me. This year, though, I planted a small window box garden on my landing–basil, mint, grape tomatoes, and a few other herbs (that window box got flooded during a couple of our early July evening thunderstorms–we’ve had a rainy summer in Boston). I’ve been eating at least one meal of fresh basil pesto per week, but now my tomatoes are starting to come in, which means basil-tomato salad for the rest of the month. It’s a good thing.

So, here’s to summer. To great tomatoes and corn and beans and peas and apples and peaches… To celebrate, share your favorite recipes. Let’s get seasonal. If you’ve got access to food coming right out of the garden, you’ll know why I’m stressing the seasonal aspect. There’s nothing quite like picking something and eating it right away.

I’ll get things started on the recipe front below the fold.
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