By “we”, I mean me and Richard Dawkins. I can’t even imagine the volume of tripe that has to be flowing into his mailbox, but sometimes people send their important missives to both Dawkins and me (of course, I’m just an afterthought; the body of the letter is usually addressed to you-know-who). I’ve put the latest example below the fold—it is mildly amusing and definitely weird.
The formatting of the text is exactly as received.
I have no idea what that crazy left-wing nutcase Tom Tomorrow is talking about in this week’s comic—it’s got these unrealistic aliens babbling unbelievable nonsense that just doesn’t belong in the real world. Someone explain it to me.
Did you know that nature is a nice place, a kind of untamed Cute Overload where nobody ever gets an owie, there are no diseases or parasites, and everyone eats tofu? That seems to be what one school administrator in Florida believes, anyway.
A class was studying reptiles and a student brought in his pet boa. Somehow it was suggested that anyone who was interested could watch the boa being fed its usual meal: a live rabbit. The teacher arranged for the feeding to be held after school hours and attendance was voluntary. No one had to be there who didn’t want to be there. According to the story, the teacher even warned the squeamish to stay away.
I’m not bashing the school admistrator’s religious beliefs, but rather his silly inanity in the statement: “The school uses lessons and curricula that teach respect for God’s creative handiwork, and this event does not support that.” Snakes eat rabbits. Welcome to nature. Snakes don’t shop at the market for cans of rabbit stew.
Leave it to me to bash the administrator’s religious beliefs! If your idea of “god’s creative handiwork” involves an absence of death and predation, then you’re an ignorant nitwit, and I blame your religious miseducation — especially since this occurred at a place called Trinity Christian Academy. And I certainly hope this administrator doesn’t ever eat meat, and doesn’t have any pet dogs or cats, unless he wants to be guilty of hypocrisy.
Just to push the absurdity to an even greater level, this administrator has issued a proclamation.
We have taken steps to ensure this type of event doesn’t happen again.
Somehow, I don’t think the hungry carnivores that live all over the place are planning to pay much attention to that order. It’s probably enough, though, that he’ll close his eyes to reality and pretend nothing is eating anything else—willful blindness is the Christian thing to do.
DefCon Blog has their own “Creation Museum” page, and amusingly, they hired a pilot to buzz the opening ceremonies with a banner that read “DefCon says thou shalt not lie”. You can also download a short 4-page pdf by Lawrence Krauss that debunks the whole young earth nonsense — very handy!
No, don’t hate me…but it’s more carnivals. I’m catching up on all this stuff that was sent to me.
Besides, it’s a holiday weekend, right? You’re going to be out there on the deck, tending the BBQ, with your laptop at hand for wireless browsing between the burger flipping, anyway, just like me. So sure, here’s lots more reading.
Well, I’m exhausted, how about you? Time for a cold one and a picnic.
This is an open thread, so go ahead, tell us how your Memorial Day Weekend is going. And no complaining that I’ve given you too much homework today!
If the Creation Museum carnival hasn’t got you completely carnivaled out yet, it’s also time for the Carnival of the Godless #67. Maybe if we started serving Hurricanes in a 44 oz. cup and tossing bead necklaces around, we could get through it all. And where’s the marching atheist jazz band when you need ’em?
The WaPo has roused some ire with its defense of fundamentalist agnostics/humanists against us bold, militant freethinkers. Revere addresses the distinction between militant and non-militant atheists and Ophelia covers the same beat. Can’t we all just get along and agree that the weak-kneed apatheist accommodationists need a good kick in the pants? And I also agree that the Vichy Humanist Chaplain at Harvard, whatever his name is (I’ve forgotten already), should be ignored.
Trust the internet to lower the bar again.
Not mine—the weirder and more peculiar the food, the more likely I am to snarf it down—but those of certain other members of the Myers clan whose identities I will abstain from mentioning, lest they decide to add some really interesting ingredients to my next meal. Anyway, it’s an interesting study that explains why some people get queasy at the thought of food “touching”—it’s a common response to fear of contamination. It’s basically documenting the psychological reality of cooties.
Now if only he had provided an explanation for how to overcome it — the prohibition on mixing too many flavors in our meals is constraining the menu too much around here.
This is an ugly story, and it’s ugly on both sides. First, rude students make a nasty, mocking video of one of their teachers and post it to YouTube, which is bad enough; these are kids who definitely need some discipline. But then the school district suspends the students for 40 days in punishment. Forty days is almost a quarter of the school year. They deserved a harsh response, but kicking them out of school just deprives them of the education they need, and they’re probably going to regard it as a vacation.
I must confess, though, that what first caught my eye about the story is that it’s from Kent, Washington — where I grew up. I read it wondering if it was my alma mater, Kent-Meridian High School, that was going to be the scene of the crime…and no, it wasn’t. It was Kentridge, our hated cross-town rivals, the school that was even more despised than Auburn. I felt relief.
It’s funny how those silly scholastic enmities can come back to you after 30 years…
This week, the creationist Ken Ham and his organization, Answers in Genesis, are practicing the Big Lie. They have spent tens of millions of dollars to create a glossy simulacrum of a museum, a slick imitation of a scientific enterprise veneered over long disproved religious fables, and they are gathering crowds and world-wide attention to the grand opening of their edifice of deceit. You can now take a photographic tour of the exhibits and see for yourself—it’s not science at all, but merely a series of Bible stories dolled up in dioramas.
The blogosphere is also giving them some attention — almost none of it favorable. What I’ve done here is collect recent reactions from all over to the Creation Museum, and compile them down into a link and a short and (I hope) representative extract. Browse through this long, long list, and when you find some quote that tickles your interest, follow the link to find the complete article. The National Center for Science Education has also compiled reactions from journalists, educators, scientists, and scientific organizations for yet more reading on the subject.
