There is such a thing as righteous anger

I heard good things about Dawkins’ talk at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, so I let my computer crank away at downloading the video overnight—it’s 113 megabytes! Then this morning Norm of onegoodmove lets me know that there are some shorter clips available from the Q&A: a reaction to the abuse of Quantum Theory,
a disparagment of blind faith, and best of all, his reaction to hearing that
Liberty University labels their dinosaur fossils as being a few thousand years old. The discussion with the audience is always the best thing about these talks, and this was a case where the audience had a number of mind abuse cases from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in attendance.

One thing not in the shorter clips that I thought was interesting was the young woman who asked Dawkins if he thought it was normal that deconversion was accompanied by anger, and he didn’t know…so he asked the audience. And they roar back that yes, it is.

I think Dawkins was being slightly disingenuous. I can believe his own loss of faith was easy and unaccompanied by stress, because my own was, as well. In my own case, my childhood belief was fairly shallow, so when I realized that I didn’t believe any of that baloney in adolescence, it wasn’t at all traumatic. But Dawkins knows as do I that that anger can come later, and you can sense it in Dawkins in the question about dinosaur fossils. I feel that, too. We’re both people whose lives are heavily invested in a university and in teaching and in science, and when you see the kinds of vile fraud institutions of bunkum like Liberty University commit against those three values, I can’t help but feel disgust and anger.

Many people, I suspect, are hit harder with those sensations. If you start with a deeper commitment to a religion, if you’ve been compelled by family to invest heavily in that belief (another horror I was spared), if your deconversion is prompted by learning that you’ve been betrayed and lied to—then I can understand how anger is an early and strong part of the process.

All I can say is that yes, you should be damned angry. I am glad that many people are beginning to feel that fury.

What’s so unusual about this?

You have to applaud the courage of this history teacher in Kearny, New Jersey:

Among his remarks in open class were statements that a being must have created the universe, that the Christian Bible is the word of God, and that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark. If you do not accept Jesus, he flatly proclaimed to his class, “you belong in hell.” Referring to a Muslim student who had been mentioned by name, he lamented what he saw as her inevitable fate should she not convert. In an attempt to promote biblical creationism, he also dismissed evolution and the Big Bang as non-scientific, arguing by contrast that the Bible is supported by what he calls confirmed biblical prophecies.

He’s just reciting standard fundagelical Christian doctrine, the same things a hundred million people believe, but usually keep quiet about, and now he’s going to be hounded and harassed for it. This teacher, David Paszkiewicz, is simply standing up for and representing good Christian values!

After taking the matter to the school administration, one of Paszkiewicz’s students, junior Matthew LaClair, requested a meeting with the teacher and the school principal. LaClair, a non-Christian, was requesting an apology and correction of false and anti-scientific statements. After two weeks, a meeting took place in the principal’s office, wherein Paszkiewicz denied making many of these comments, claiming that LaClair had taken his remarks out of context. Paszkiewicz specifically denied using the phrase, “you belong in hell.” He also asserted that he did nothing different in this class than he has been doing in fifteen years of teaching.

At the end of the meeting, LaClair revealed that he had recorded the remarks, and presented the principal with two compact discs. The teacher then declined to comment further without his union representative. However, he fired one last shot at the student, saying, “You got the big fish … you got the big Christian guy who is a teacher…!”

This is why good Christians must oppose science. If it hadn’t been for science, the devil-spawned technology of audio recording and CDs wouldn’t exist to entrap the devout. Although, actually…maybe Paszkiewicz should have confined his perfectly ordinary remarks to the four walls of his Baptist church, where they would have earned him applause rather than censure.

At least Mr Paszkiewicz can take comfort in the fact that he’s about to become a martyr. One of those living martyrs who will get to make the right-wing church circuit.

Larry Moran has a blog

Check out the Sandwalk: Strolling with a skeptical biochemist. I’m dismayed that it’s been up for a whole week before I noticed.

I’ve already learned something important: Tim Horton is the god-equivalent in Canada. If coffee and donuts inspire similar levels of sexual obsession and freaky legislation in Canada as does religion in the USA, I don’t think I want to hear about it. Too, too kinky.

No way!

Pam Spaulding suggests that this unbelievable speculation is a trial balloon:

Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.

The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford.

Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, “Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager.”

If that’s a trial balloon, let’s all hop into our Sopwith Camels and shoot it down. The Democrats succeeded beyond expectations last Tuesday; Dean’s strategy is working. Harold Ford is a conservative loser, one of those Republican Lite candidates so beloved of the disastrous old-school beltway management. This unlikely proposal would represent a retreat from a path that is working to the old strategies that were obviously not working. They’d have to be insane to do that.

Also, somebody needs to stage an intervention for Carville.

Godless post-election analysis

I like this summary by Brian Flemming:

The Democrats won a mandate without excessive God-talk and without actually winning over evangelicals in significant numbers. The election results weaken the argument for religious pandering; they don’t strengthen it.

This is not to say that we can tell the religious to just go away, but that what we should do in politics and government is continue to push purely secular values, and trust the sensible evangelicals to find common cause with what is right…just as I will vote for evangelicals who can promote progressive values in spite of their silly supernatural beliefs.

A summary of the MnCSE Science Education Saturday

My day was spent in the Twin Cities attending the inaugural public meeting of the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MnCSE), and I can safely say now that Science Education Saturday was a phenomenal success: a good turnout, two top-notch talks, a stimulating panel discussion, and an involved audience that asked lots of good questions. You should have been there! I expect that, with the good response we got today, that there will be future opportunities to attend MnCSE events.

I’ll just give a brief summary of the main points from the two talks today. I understand that outlines or perhaps even the powerpoint files will be available on the MnCSE page at some future date, but give the organizers a little time to recover from all the effort they put into this meeting.

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