Roy Zimmerman keeps writing those songs

As a fan of Roy Zimmerman — I’ve mentioned his Creation Science 101 before, among other lovely songs about the modern world — I have two revelations for you. If you’re a guitar player, he has released a short clip that is a tutorial on how to play Creation Science 101. There are fingerings and keys and chords and things that lost me. If you aren’t a guitar player (like me!) you can still enjoy the wisecracks.

Secondly, he has a new YouTube video titled “Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual”. Watch out, it’s a little bit risque — he rhymes “schism” with … well, it’s obvious from the subject matter, isn’t it?

Comfort/Cameron performed as you might have predicted

The Rational Response Squad has released an amateur video of their debate with Cameron and Comfort.

I didn’t care for the argument that the universe might be infinite, but otherwise, not bad. Not great, either, but then they were just presenting the sensible position. Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron were terrible. They quickly abandoned the pretense of providing scientific evidence, and instead reached for the bible and simply asserted its truth.

I just have to expand on something in the face of a lot of criticism of the Rational Response Squad in the comments. I agree that they weren’t as polished as we might have wanted, some of their arguments weren’t very sharp, and there were missed opportunities…but the important thing is that they stepped up to the challenge and confronted those creationist kooks. Maybe deGrasse Tyson would have done a much better job, but so what? He’s one guy.

We aren’t going to win this conflict when a few of our very best speakers give an eloquent speech. We are going to win when every average Jane and Joe in the country realizes that they are smarter and better informed than clowns like Comfort and Cameron, and when half the audience at these kinds of events rises out of their seat to confidently argue with them…and the other half are sitting there laughing at the creationists.

So sure, we can and should quibble with their presentation—that’s how it will get better—but keep in mind the last time you got up to confront a creationist in public.

There are no marching morons

I was sent a link to this editorial by the science-fiction writer, Ben Bova. I like part of the sentiment, where he’s arguing that it’s worth the effort to try and change the world, but a substantial part of it bugs me.

The most prescient — and chilling — of all the science fiction stories ever written, though, is “The Marching Morons,” by Cyril M. Kornbluth, first published in 1951. It should be required reading in every school on Earth.

The point that Kornbluth makes is simple, and scary: dumbbells have more children than geniuses. In “The Marching Morons” he carries that idea to its extreme, but logical, conclusion.

Kornbluth tells of a future world that is overrun with dummies: men and women who don’t know anything beyond their own shallow personal interests. They don’t know how their society works, or who is running it. All they care about is their personal — and immediate — gratification.

I detest “The Marching Morons.”

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Flex your muscles a little, infidels

I’m seeing some mixed signals on the series “A Brief History of Disbelief” — it’s appearing in very few station’s schedules right now, and it’s tempting to suspect that it’s being buried by the media, especially since right wing groups detest it:

That "A Brief History of Disbelief" might be controversial is unsurprising. Right-wing groups, such as the Concerned Women of America, are already ramping up opposition to Miller’s program, which originally aired on the BBC in 2005. Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council deemed the work of the actor-director-author Miller to be "an evangelistic piece for atheism."

On the other hand, I’ve heard from the author of the article above that stations are also reporting that it’s a problem with the source — it’s being handled by an independent distributor, and the stations haven’t had an opportunity to review it — so the problems may be less nefarious than procedural. Either way, this is probably a good time to contact your local public broadcasting station and tell them you’d like to see them pick up this program, and pretty please, don’t show it at 3am. Let’s let the godless demographic make itself known, politely but firmly.

It’s not like we’re lobbying Fox News. Don’t you all suspect that public broadcasting’s viewership is skewed our way? All it takes is a phone call, so let’s make our existence known in this simple and unthreatening matter.