This is not a Defense

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/you_are_a_religious_man_and_yo.php

“In an appalling act of bias, Judge Cherie Blair suspended the sentence of a man convicted of assaulting another and breaking his jaw because the assailant was a "religious man". Apparently just being a member of a particular cult is sufficient to get your criminal penalties reduced by a few years in her court; the scales of justice aren't quite fairly balanced for the godless.”

The idea that someone can have a case against them suspended on the ground that they are a religious man is an insult to those who stand for the separation of Church and State. If I ever end up on trail I’ll tell the judge I worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Let’s see how well that goes over.

Sainthood

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/02/19/montreal-saint-andre.html

Sainthood is a strange concept. It boils down to two things 1) You performed actions in your life that were favourable towards the Church and religion 2) You performed miracles in life and death. I suppose they realized that if the first option was the only criteria for becoming a Saint then any devout follower of the Church could be considered a Saint and we all know that in the world of the Catholic Church we can’t allow everyone to be considered equal now can we.

“He was beatified in 1982 after a case of healing in 1956 was recognized officially by the Vatican as a miracle. Over the years, millions of people have signed petitions asking for his sainthood.

Last December, Pope Benedict XVI attributed to him a second miracle healing described as scientifically inexplicable, a requirement of sainthood. Details of the miracle have not been disclosed to the public.”

Miracles have never been proven by scientific examination, likely because they aren’t given the opportunity to be examined scientifically. If any event occurs, no matter how unlikely it seems, it should be studied instead of simply being described as scientifically inexplicable. Translated: I can’t conceive of this happening without the power of god therefore, it must be a miracle. The appropriate method would have been to subject the healing case to a scientific analysis. If there was even a fraction of a percent of a chance that the healing was due to natural causes, then god and a miracle must be ruled out. Miracles exist within the realms of the supernatural meaning a natural cause of healing cannot be considered miraculous. I’m also amused with the fact that details of the second miracle have not been disclosed to the public. Is it too much to ask for the public to be allowed to determine for themselves whether or not they believe a miracle occurred? Maybe the Church is just uncomfortable with giving people a chance to think for themselves.

PZ Myers is My New Hero

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/dont_pay_for_crazy_uncle_ratzi.php

PZ Myers is my new hero. I’ve known about him for a while but it was only today that I started reading through his blog. How did I become convinced that I’ll be following Myers blog for some time? It was this rather lovely statement,

“However, this is being treated as a state visit and the British government is plunking down £20 million for the dubious privilege of having a weird geezer in a dress pretend to be speaking for an imaginary man in the sky to a gullible public. The guy has plenty of money of his own — he should pay for his own damn junket. Or the Catholic churches in England that want his attention should be the ones to cough up.”

He’s talking about the Pope of course. As I’ve said before the Catholic Church is a useless out-dated institution. The spread and support of religious ideas should not be funded on the tax payer dollar, unless the country is a theocracy in which case the government would need to be overthrown. If the Pope really stood for fighting world poverty he would demand that the money be donated to charities to help those who actually need it. As Myers said, spread your message by all means, just do it on your own dime.

Fundies they are Good for a Laugh

I love Fundies Say The Darndest Things. If you haven’t heard about it go check it out. Anyway, this site provides a mixture of shock and laughter at the things some of the more, umm, lesser intelligent members of our species have to say. They usually go beyond stupid to the point of not being worth arguing against but, I could not let this one quote go un-discussed. “All Test Tube Babies as well as anyone who in any way participates in any procedures that relate to the creation of such Abominations or laws that allow it - should be executed without trial.” Ok, I know I shouldn’t be questioning the logic of a fundie. Shame on me but, I just can’t help it. In the face of this statement, calls for abortion doctors to be executed actually starts to sound slightly rational, at least they are aware of what they are doing. It seems that this insult to humanity (that is the writer of this quote) believes that test tube babies should be executed merely for their existence. I’m sure he has a similar stance on gays and witches. What grounds does he base this on? Correct me if I’m wrong but, where does God call for the execution of test tube babies in the Bible? He says that this is an issue of playing God that has gone way too far. By deciding who lives and dies based on your own world view aren’t you playing God yourself? What is being proposed here would require significant expansion of the power of the state making them more God-like. Again, I apologize for trying to find the logic in the ranting of a fundie.

There is No Reason

“Everything happens for a reason”, what to people mean when they say this? Do they believe there is a reason behind say for example, leaving work early because their child is sick to find out later that a fire broke out after they left and one worker was killed. Proponents of the “everything happens for a reason” mindset would say that some force, not necessarily a god though, acted to protect them from the fire.

The statement was once brought to my attention when I asked, “How is it that in America they believe they have god given rights, yet many people around the world do not have rights? Doesn’t exactly make a strong case for a god that cares for its’ creation” the response I received was “everything happens for a reason.” Unsurprisingly, that response wasn’t followed up with the answer to, what is the reason? This scenario I experienced shows the flaw in this argument, that the believer is often ignorant of the reason. Sure you could say getting called out of work because of the sick child clearly had a reason but, most of the time the statement is a more mystical way of saying “I don’t know”. I may just be a cold-hearted cynic but many things that happen have no reason, in fact they are closer to being the products of madness than reason. A young girl is raped her perception of the world shattered. What is the reason? A woman who has faced constant abuse from her husband commits suicide leaving the child alone either in the hands of a cruel father to a childhood of orphanages. What is the reason? Why can we not accept that things, good or bad, just happen?

It's not Science Stupid

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/west_bend_wisconsin_aspiring_t.php

It’s nice to take a break from the torture that is reading up on Rush Limbaugh. I’ve now found myself going through PZ Myers’ blog. Here he is discussing David Weigand, a candidate for the board of education the West Bend School district. One of the two statements made by Weigand that Myers stands out as displaying a strong ignorance towards how science works.

“If evolution is taught in school, students should be taught the truth about it and the scientific data surrounding it. Ideas that were once championed by evolutionists are no longer valid, much like the false science behind man-made global warming. Students deserve the truth.”

Now I’m not exactly sure what these supposedly invalid ideas are and Myers doesn’t make mention of them either. I’m going to assume that it means that previous claims regarding evolution have been refuted to be replaced by more solid evidence showing evolution to be a fact, that’s how science works. It’s all about constantly testing the theory to get rid of the old ideas that don’t get it right and bring in the ones that do. It’s a common tactic for intelligent designers to say that Darwin was wrong on such and such. Ignoring the fact that those ideas may have already been proven wrong by scientists only to bring in evidence that does a better job of pointing in favour towards evolution. I suppose I should address the other statement made by Weigand, Myers does address it to though he doesn’t point out the entertaining irony of the statement,

“Origin studies, (whether Creation or evolution) and the idea of "millions of years" does not belong in the science classroom because these are not testable, repeatable or observable; they are philosophical and accepted by faith.”

The irony here is rich. “Not testable, repeatable or observable” that’s exactly what scientists say about god. The creationists, sorry, intelligent designers, are demanding that god is worked into the scientific theory of evolution. They miss the point that god cannot be tested scientifically because it is not “testable, repeatable or observable.” Evolution and the development of the planet works fine without including god, Myers points out the massive amounts of evidence that already exists. If the creationists, sorry I just can’t refer to them as intelligent designers anymore, want to teach their alternative theory in the class room then it first needs to be approved by peer reviewed academic processes and become widely accepted by the scientific community. By all means, teach creationism, in a class on religious studies, but keep it out of the science class.

Exposing Hacks

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/christopher_maloney_is_a_quack.php

From PZ Myers’ blog:

“Maloney is a naturopath in the state of Maine, where quacks like him get to call themselves "doctors". These so-called "doctors" get to make recommendations like this, in which he disparages standard flu vaccines and suggests these useless prescriptions:

Parents waiting for vaccinations can provide their children with black elderberry, which blocks the H1N1 virus. A single garlic capsule daily cuts in half the incidence and the severity of a flu episode for children.”

Myers has encouraged readers to spread the word that Maloney is a hack. The best way for rational thinkers to expose hacks like Maloney is to expose them to the wider world. Say it with me, “Maloney is a hack.”