Hobart Tasmania now has atheist bus ads! HT to the Friendly Atheist.
Put up by the Atheist Foundation of Australia.
At least if the devil-drivin bus hits a tree now, the bus will win!
Hobart Tasmania now has atheist bus ads! HT to the Friendly Atheist.
Put up by the Atheist Foundation of Australia.
At least if the devil-drivin bus hits a tree now, the bus will win!
I have no idea why the Carnival of the Godless fizzled. The last one at the start of November was very short, and then there has been nothing. Alas.
So here are some of my favourite godless and less-gods-the better-posts from folks on my blogroll over the last little while!

moar funny pictures
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One Minion’s Opinion reminisces about a favourite childhood show, a bit of sentimentality brought about by ChristWire’s very rational, serious and not at all satirical essay on the fact that God hates the homo-Smurfs (and so should you), and there was only one lady Smurf.
Oh, but Christwire isn’t actually freaking out about homosexual smurfs. They’re getting their freak on about how the sultry Smurfette is the only chick in a land of men. (Sic throughout – FYI: homonyms only sound homosexual, dear deer reed readers…)
My dear White Christian American friends, I am hear [sic - here] today to alert the God-fearing American public of yet another subversive attempt of the homo-infested Hollywood to further promote the homo-gay agenda. Homowood is resurrecting this 1980`s television series that was riddled with homogay undertones and, just as horrible, was targeted at none other than CHILDREN!
Methinks Minion became a Poe*-Smurf, but she did discover that there has been talk of a Smurf movie out in 2011.
I never could stand those little blue buggers (and buggerette).
* Poe’s Law: “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.”
~~~~~~~~~
Michael Fridman is A Nadder, a great godless site, and he is a very good Bible Blogger too. He has blogged his way right through Job, and more recently has turned his attention to 1 Samuel with a little post called A Real Biblical Marriage (1 Samuel 1).
Now that I’ve finished blogging through the entire book of Job, time to start another book of the Bible. Samuel is the next logical choice — it’s my favourite book because it is most like a novel. There’s a definite, coherent plot, it’s structured quite well and rather than copious amounts of law or poetic rambling we are treated to a true masterpiece of narrative fiction.
However YHWH is a petty tribal god and can be bought with gifts. In her pain, Hannah makes a vow that if she gets pregnant with a male child (otherwise what’s the point?!) she’ll dedicate the son to YHWH and make sure he never cuts his hair (ie. she’ll make him a Nazirite according to the laws in Numbers 6). This sounds good to the good God, since he will now get to keep the boy for life.
I don’t know how many other bibliobloggers have him on their blogrolls, but he is very perceptive and entertaining. Here is the link to his Blogging the Bible series.
~~~~~~~~~
Bay of Fundie has a great continuing series describing his madcap adventure is stupid-land attending a “Darwin was wrong” seminar.
Here is Part Five!
If you’re going to lie, lie big! “[S]cience is debunking every aspect of Darwin’s hypothesis[!]”
That’s what’s great about living in a fantasy world. You can wave your hands and all of your problems go away. Evolution: *Poof!* It’s gone. Atheists: *Poof!* They’re gone. The Establishment Clause: *Poof!* It’s gone.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, evolution is stronger than ever, there are more atheists than ever, and the Separation Clause… Umm… It’s actually looking a little faint. Damn!! Their magic really does work! Quick! Somebody nominate some Supreme Court justices!
The Sensuous Curmudeon turns the heat up on the Discoveroids of the Discovery Institution for their pissant take on “Climategate”.
It began here: Thrilled About ClimateGate, but the Discoveroids couldn’t control themselves. Matters swiftly escalated to this: The Mask Falls Away. (Hey, that one post got almost 9,000 hits so far.) That’s where we identified the “vindication of all kooks” doctrine — which holds that if the legitimate views of global warming skeptics had been wrongly suppressed, then all science dissent has been similarly mistreated, and therefore the science-denial of creationism is now respectable.
~~~~~~~~~
The Godless Girl goes all Mark Twainian in Lies, Damn Lies and Lunatics Part 2, not talking healing claims on faith.
Click here to watch both clips side-by-side.
In clip 1 Bentley speaks of a woman whose legs get beaten like a baseball bat on the stage. In clip 2 he’s telling the same story (you can hear the similar lead-in about “crippled people” and “not one”) but this time it’s a small boy whose legs God says to beat on the stage. So which is it, a male or female? I believe these tall tales are fabricated for theatrics and to give the audience a sense of awe and to gain trust before they step up to be healed. Hardly a trustworthy man of God!
~~~~~~~~~
The Tangled Up in Blue Guy has finally seen the light and is now telling atheists to “Stop it” and just go back to being retend believers so we don’t cause offence (or get sarcastic).
It is time for atheists to leave well enough alone. We’ve had our say, we’ve had our moment in the sun and now it is time to go back to being nice and quiet and let the Christians guard over us, so that we can all live and let live and no one will ever talk about the ways that religion rules our lives unfairly again.
To all Christians I apologize for being so uppity. I promise to be good. My hat is in my hand, and excuse me while I go to the back of the bus and get off at my stop and hope that none of you are dishonored again by having to look at me.
~~~~~~~~~
Good Grief! The Unrepentant Old Hippy is unconvinced that the timing of Obama’s last T.V. special, which pre-empted the airing of Charlie Brown’s Christmas special was a Muslim plot. Silly girl.
Russell Wiseman, mayor(!) of Arlington, Tennessee, claimed that Obama’s speech on Afghanistan this week was deliberately timed to block the airing of “A Charlie Brown Christmas”…. because he’s a Muslim. No, I’m not kidding:
The mayor of a suburban Memphis city accused President Barack Obama of deliberately timing his speech about the war in Afghanistan this week to block the airing of the “Peanuts” Christmas television special.
According to The Commercial Appeal, Arlington Mayor Russell Wiseman posted the statements on his Facebook page and said the president is Muslim.
Blag Hag tackles Tim Tebow’s Well versed and video’s face. She writes:
This isn’t about censoring Christians so that they can never talk about their faith. There is a time and place for such discussions, and representing a public university in college football is not it. This is about illustrating that you’re rewarded for expressing your Christianity, but everyone who disagrees better keep it to themselves. Christians are a privileged group, and crying “Oppression!” as loudly as they can doesn’t change the facts.
~~~~~~~
Greta Christina is one of the best godless bloggers around. She wonders what a truly metaphorical religion would be like
I was debating the other day with a believer who was getting bent out of shape about how religion was just a story people found comforting. People didn’t have to believe religion was literally true for it to make a difference in their lives, he insisted. So why was I being so intolerant and mean and trying to take it away? And it suddenly struck me:
The version of religion he’s talking about?
It’s Trekkies.
Anyway, that’s my little Carnival of Godlessness. Hope you liked it. So, lets have some music!
Got a comment a couple days ago from a certain Mr/Mrs/Ms. “Anonymous” to a post I made on April 19 telling me I’m a windbag. Good to see Anon. is a regular reader!
It was actually a damn good little post. Too bad it took 8 months for anyone to actually read it! Basically the post was about a lengthy exchange I was having with some Christians in the local newspaper. At one point I was called a “militant” atheist. So my post was reporting on my just-published reply. Here is that with one of theattention grabbing, crusading pictures I found so I can wallow in my militant glory.
Andrew Joosse calls me “militant” for criticizing religion. Militant people carry guns and throw bombs. I wrote to my local newspaper. Luckily, I didn’t use upper-case letters for emphasis or Lethbridge might get a reputation as a terrorist haven.

A gun shop, perhaps the one from where the noted militant, Dr. Jim,
bought his deadly lap-top that has been striking common sense into the
sleepy town of Lethbridge .
My views are said to confirm Augustine’s claim that Christians do not base belief on reason but rather believe in order to understand. OK, so Augustine was happy with a circular argument and a bit of special pleading that seemingly protects his views from criticism and self-doubt. I’m glad Mr. Joosse and I had the opportunity to clear that up.
I do not question many Christians’ charitable nature or work for world peace but the same can be said of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Wiccans, agnostics, and atheists. My real point is that religions get undeserved preferential treatment. For example, organized religions enjoy special laws allowing them to issue tax receipts for donations, regardless of whether the money is put to any real humanitarian end. This is unfairly denied to other groups.
To illustrate the Christian sense of “true religion”, Mr. Joosse employs a verse from the biblical prophet Micah that advocates doing justice and humbly walking with one’s god. We get a different perspective on it if we flip ahead several pages in the Bible to the prophet Malachi, who accuses poverty stricken Judeans of stealing from God by skimping on their tithes, offerings and sacrifices to the temple. Some biblical passages are simply timeless.
After this, I tore into another letter (by Brock Schuler) to the same editor that cried a few crocodile tears for the atheists who don’t know what they are missing and declaring that religion is inherently valuable. Oh yeah, he added that atheists are just bitter.
I find it unfortunate when people refer to faith in derogatory ways when it has so much to offer. Faith provides foundations for morals and gives hope.
…I feel sorry for the naturalist / secularlist / scientist that has nothing to believe in. I find belief in God essential for my personal and spiritual development, even my intellectual development.
So I challenged him on a few points. Anyway, here is what Mr/Mrs/Ms. “Anonymous” has to say 8 months later in the comments:
You are a windbag. You’re an arrogant fool who likes attention and the idea that he is somehow a crusader for truth and liberty. I’m not a christian and to me you look ridiculous. Stop embarassing yourself.
Well, I suppose one way to not embarrass myself is to post insults anonymously, but what would that achieve? Of course, Anon is keeping his/her name out of circulation simply out of modesty. We must not assume that this is just a surf-by insult. No, Anon is too dignified to stoop to that.
OK, so some uber-modest self-professed non-Christian jackass (I’ll bet he is a Christian, though, and is lying through his freakin’ teeth) thinks I’m embarrassing myself by stating my opinion. Well la-de-da. Why the fuck is it any concern or hers? At least in my original post I was attacking ideas, not just hurling insults. If our nameless dipwit can’t see the point of satire on the internet perhaps there is a rock he can find that needs crawling under.
And now, back to regular programming, militant crusading.
I got an email the other day from Paul Sparrow-Clarke who works in the mysterious reaches of the “7th floor” at the U. of L. (where the president’s offices are), letting me know that they have booked the speaker for the fall 2010 Owen G. Holmes lecture.
Mark Sept. 23 on your calendar!

Shermer is the e Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for Scientific American.
Here is a cut and paste blurb about his books from his blog,
Dr. Shermer’s latest book is The Mind of the Market, on evolutionary economics. His last book was Why Darwin Matters: Evolution and the Case Against Intelligent Design, and he is the author of Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, about how the mind works and how thinking goes wrong. His book The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Share Care, and Follow the Golden Rule, is on the evolutionary origins of morality and how to be good without God. He wrote a biography, In Darwin’s Shadow, about the life and science of the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. He also wrote The Borderlands of Science, about the fuzzy land between science and pseudoscience, and Denying History, on Holocaust denial and other forms of pseudohistory. His book How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God, presents his theory on the origins of religion and why people believe in God. He is also the author of Why People Believe Weird Things on pseudoscience, superstitions, and other confusions of our time.
Whoot! When’s it gonna be September?
Here he is at a TED lecture. Its about 14 minutes long, but then, we’ve got time, haven’t we?
Anyway, in the video, Shermer mentions Katie Melua, so here is the video of the tune he mentions.
Technorati Tags: Michael+Shermer, Univerisity+of+Lethbridge, science, pseudoscience, skeptic, Katie+Melua
I saw this at Pharyngula today. I have to write on it.
The creationist cretins at Answers in Genesis have posted a note on their site by Bodie Hodge, actually a response to an email for advice, in which Hodge actually condones telling the truth. Don’t get your hopes up.
I often wonder if a Nazi soldier asked if someone was there hiding and they told the truth before God, could the Lord have in mind a greater purpose? Could God have used that person to free a great many people who ultimately died in the Holocaust? Or have done something to stop the war earlier? Or cause a great number of Jews and Nazi’s to come to know Christ? It is possible, but we simply cannot know. And one should not dwell too long on “what ifs” anyway.
…
Let’s consider again the Nazi-Holocaust situation: there seems to be a conflict in the situation to lie before God to try to save someone else’s life. The result is often called the “greater good” or “lesser of two evils.”
I’ve been told in the past that the lesser of these two evils would be to lie to save a life—hence the common phrase “a righteous lie.” This is often justified by appealing to the command to love our neighbor (Romans 13:9).
…
Consider this carefully. In the situation of a Nazi beating on the door, we have assumed a lie would save a life, but really we don’t know. So, one would be opting to lie and disobey God without the certainty of saving a life—keeping in mind that all are ultimately condemned to die physically. Besides, whether one lied or not may not have stopped the Nazi solders from searching the house anyway.

“All are ultimately condemned to die physically” Bodie Hodge, 2009.
None of the people shown being arrested here are worth the sin of a lie to save, according to Bodie Hodge.
Of course, no one has come for his kids yet.
If the Nazis come looking for Jews, Gypsies, communists, homosexuals, intellectuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, blacks, cab drivers, poets, or however, you can lie. You can cheat. If you think it is a good idea to help their quarry get away, you do violence to the nazis. Fuck ‘em.
Even the Jains understand this better (well, except for killing the nazis bit). They say it is OK to lie to a hunter to save the life of a deer. Certainly a lie to save humans is justified.
I wonder what this fuckwit would do if the nazis came to his door looking for his kid who had helped some other people excape. Would he lie to save the life of his own child? Jesus said healing and saving lives on the Sabbath was within the law (rabbinic Judaism-often villified for being legalistic, teaches the same). This jackass thinks you can’t suspend the ban on lying to save a life. Hopefully one day Hodge will be travelling in some country where the police have extraordinary powers and he needs someone to tell a little white lie to save his ass. Let’s see how he likes having others do onto him and he preaches others should do unto other innocent people.
Here is something a lot more inspiring morally than Atrocities in Genesis.
“Even now it is difficult to know how best to remember the Holocaust. It is especially difficult to know how to teach it to children in a way that will give them strength and so that the Holocaust will be appropriately remembered. One special element in that education process is teaching about the non-Jews who risked their lives and dared to try to save Jews during World War II. Yad Vashem, the Memorial Museum and Archives to the Six Million in Jerusalem, has identified 50,000 such “righteous gentiles”, many of whom it has recognized by planting trees in their honor in a Garden of the Righteous. (bold added)
EDITED TO ADD: I had originally posted a picture form wikipedia said to be SA men arresting Jews on Kristallnacht (1938). There is some doubt expressed in the comments below about the authenticity of that picture so I switched it to the two above. The image is here.
Technorati Tags: honesty,, Answers+in+Genesis, nazi, Holocaust, Righteous+Person, Golden+Rule, Ten+Commandments, Jews, atrocities, morality, Bodie+Hodge, Bible, Christianity, Christ
La Sierra University in California, a Seventh Day Adventist institution, is facing a a bit of a mutiny of the faithful because some of its science faculty are teaching evolution in biology classes without including sections on the “Truth”™, i.e., creationism. Needless to say (but I will anyway) Dr. Jim thinks La Sierra should dump the religion and teach the science.
According to the Press-Enterprise:
More than 5,600 people from around the country have signed an online petition that will be presented to the La Sierra University board of trustees at its Nov. 12 meeting. It states that creation occurred in six 24-hour days, expresses concern that evolution is presented as fact in Adventist universities and calls for the universities to explicitly inform students and parents how evolution is taught.
The ultimate goal of the petition drive is to require Adventist teaching on creation in La Sierra biology classes, said Shane Hilde, the Beaumont man and La Sierra graduate spearheading the petition drive. If that doesn’t happen, petition supporters may push La Sierra to disassociate itself from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he said.
Of course, the university administration is caught, not wanting to compromise the school’s reputation with the non-anti-intellectuals in the world, and maintaining the denominational ties. The article also reports that Hilde is “ looking into allegations of pro-evolution biases at other Adventist universities”.
(ed. note: That was an editorial)

moar funny pictures
The petition does not call for the dismissal of the three La Sierra biology professors who are at the center of the storm. But Hilde said “that ultimately is what happens in these situations.” What a fucking self righteous asshole.
“I would blame the administration for hiring people like this,” he said.
Lee Greer, one of the three targeted professors, declined to comment publicly. In an e-mail, Professor L. Lee Grismer called the matter a “minor controversy” and declined to discuss it further. Professor Gary Bradley did not return phone calls. In September, Bradley told the Web site Inside Higher Ed that he will not denounce or contradict evolutionary theory in his class.
University spokesman Larry Becker declined to reveal the professors’ religious affiliations. About 90 percent of La Sierra’s professors are Adventist, he said. Only Adventists are granted tenure.
“People like this”. My shattered nerves. I really do feel sorry for the profs involved. If they were hired on the agreement that they could teach according to accepted science, then it is a damn cruel thing to change rules after the fact. Hopefully they will be able to find employment at a real university soon, and they won’t have to play with these clowns anymore.

moar funny pictures
According to the newspaper, in view of the protests, La Sierra now forces all biology majors to take a seminar on Seventh Day creationist doctrine that includes creation in six 24 hour days. The story doesn’t say if they subscribe to a young earth. Now, apparently there is no move to stop the teaching of evolution per se, but to merely acknowledge in class that it doesn’t fit with church doctrines. Well, whoopdie doo. Scientific facts qualified are facts denied. There is no controversy to teach and the conclusions of scientific experimentation do not constitute a “world-view” as Hilde would have it. La Sierra’s president, Randal Wisbey, didn’t want to interviewed.
In a written statement, he said, “We expect that students will be introduced to the prevailing scientific views within a supportive classroom environment that values the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s contribution to the understanding of biblical creation.”
What a load of diplomatic hooey. Where is the value on the academics that lie behind the “prevailing scientific views”? Does this guy want to run La Sierra as a university or a church?
Worldwide Adventist Church President Jan Paulsen addressed the evolution controversy in June by calling on all Adventist university professors to advocate church teaching that creation occurred during six 24-hour days.
“Faith is certainly not subject to the findings of science,” he wrote.
Paulsen’s got it freaking backwards.
The finding of science–or history, anthropology, religious studies or biblical studies, for that matter-are not subject to faith.

moar funny pictures
This kind of thing really pisses me off, and only reinforces my belief that universities that answer to religious belief first and not to the conclusions of advanced research that is subject to open scrutiny are not true universities and should be shunned, blacklisted and mocked by academics around the world. If a school wants to teach science, then teach it, don’t water it down with religion or make excuses for it. If they want to teach religion, then fine, but don’t pretend to be giving your students a good education in something else.
I feel the same way about the study of the Bible, too. Regardless of what seminaries, churches, Bible schools and Sunday Schools teach about it, it is also a subject for secular research into the history of human thought and behaviour. This secular approach to learning ABOUT religion is diametrically opposed to the teaching that any one body of religious teachings represent “truth”.
Hopefully, the board of governors will put academics ahead of appeasing the anti-intellectuals in the Church, and if that means breaking its ties with the Church, so be it. The students will be the ones to benefit.
Technorati Tags: academic+freedom, science, religion, Seventh+Day+Adventist, Darwin,, evolution,, creationist,, lolcats, La+Sierra+University
How about Carrie Prejean, eh? You shoot your mouth off about good old ungay family values and get pitched from a nice, family oriented body-rating contest, sue the jerks and next thing you know your home videos of you skronking yourself show up and you have to abandon the suit. And then you are off the bill of some Religiously Right function in New Jersey.
Carrie. At least mostly clothed. No telling where her hands are, though.
Now, I wonder what Bill and George’s excellent adventure was. Did it involve Ms. Prejean? Was there any Whippanying going on? Wait a while, the tapes are likely to surface soon enough!
Anyhoo, it seems that Prejean was suing the Miss California USA Pageant that dumped her for mor than a million bucks after he ant-gay marriage remarks, but then a tape magically appeared of Prejean enjoying her own company. TMZ reports that the movie is pretty racy, but the buggers haven’t posted it so you will have to use your imagination (presumably she was, too).
The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly. We know that, because TMZ obtained the video months ago but decided not to post it because it was so racy. Let’s just say, Carrie has a promising solo career.
We’re told it took about 15 seconds for Carrie to jettison her demand and essentially walk away with nothing.
Oh well. Shit happens.
But really, how the hell did the pageant’s lawyers get the darn tape? And why can’t I have a copy? How many did Prejean distribute? Was it an ex-boyfriend out for revenge, and decided to give the tape to the lawyers? If so, will he be selling it to the highest bidders? Inquiring perverts want to know!
Another report has it that Prejean denied that it was her on the tape until the lawyer zoomed in on her face (no report on what was zooming in on before).

Now, Prejean was supposed to appear (in clothes, presumably) at an anti-Gay Defenders of the Family function in Whippany N. J. She is no longer appearing, clothed or otherwise. No word on who dumped who.
Well, there is a biblical way of understanding Prejean’s undoing and her various doings…
“Why do you strain at the gay in your neighbour’s bed and ignore the unreimbursed boobjob, dildo, and camera, in your own!”
Carrie, reading the operating manual.
~~~~~~~
In related news: It would seem that it’s a tough world, that of the beauty queen. This according to the Huffington Post via Jim West, who has probably been beat up by many women. H.P. reports how Miss England, Rachel Christie, recently got into a brawl in a bar with another pageant winner, Miss Manchester, Sara Beverley Jones. Christie lost her crown and has withdrawn from another pageant. No word on who won the fight, or if Jones is now Miss England.
In related news: Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina are undertaking a study on sex toys. Again, I found out about this from Jim West, the purient little weirdo that he is… The main story comes from the paper, the News Observer.
For much of October, researchers recruited female Duke students to take part in a “sexually explicit” study on Tupperware-style parties in which sex toys, not kitchenware, are the draw.
The ads, which were posted around campus and on a research study Web site, sought female students at least 18 years old to “view sex toys and engage in sexually explicit conversation with other female Duke students.”
Needless to say, this has got some folks a little hot under the clerical collar. Father Joe Vetter is particularly steamy.
“I’m concerned about promiscuity also,” Vetter said. “And to be honest, I don’t have the solution. … My concern is these students are in this developmental phase, and I don’t think it’s a good developmental practice to just tell somebody to just sit around and masturbate. I don’t think that promotes relationships.”
Vetter hopes to take up the topic on Sunday with students. He wrote for the Sunday bulletin: “Can We Talk About Sex in Church?”

Well, if people starting having sex in church they would probably be asked to leave. You can’t please some people!
Well, talking about sex in church sounds like fun, doesn’t it? And given the number of Catholic clergy that do more than talk about sex, in church or other places, one wonders what the hell Vetter hopes to accomplish other than the get the thrill of talking about forbidden fruit in church. The Catholic church is chockfull of clerical prejeaners, some with cameras and some not. Given their enforced celibacy, the coverups of sex scandals, anti-safe sex policies and their obsessiveness with other people’s bedroom, the virginity of Mary, Jesus and who knows who else, why the hell should anyone listen to what Vetter has to say about anything. Let him stew in his own “Covenant Spice” juices.
Technorati Tags: Prejean, Defenders+of+the+Family, family+values, homophobia, masturbation, religious+right, TMZ, beauty+pageant, ceiling+cat, Jesus, Rachel+Christie, Sara+Beverley+Jones, Duke+University, sex+toys, Joe+Vetter, sex, catholic+chruch
The book is intended to provide evidence for evolution, but I doubt any true believer in the opposite positions will be convinced. No matter, it gives people with confidence in people’s ability to educate themselves a lot to think about, and a fairly easy to understand overview of the many different kinds of evidence for a very old and ever-changing life on this planet.I’m not much of a science guy, but I really like fossils and so forth, and it was interesting to read Dawkins explaining how evolution can be demonstrated without relying on fossils at all. There are all kinds of other proofs, from comparison of living species to DNA analysis.
I appreciated the bits on protein folding and Origami. It was pretty fascinating stuff.
What I really liked was the descriptions of some of the different kinds of experiments that show evolution happening, e.g., balancing sexual selections with predation levels in guppies. Guppettes like their men brightly coloured but such dedicated followers of fashion tend to get eaten a lot. With high levels of predation, the gentle-fish that survived to pass on their genes were well camouflaged and this influenced the whole male population in several generations. Where there was no predation, the males were eventually became more flamboyantly coloured.
Here is a cool website I found this morning: 12 Elegant Examples of Evolution And there are some more guppies.

Not a guppy. Tiktaalik Image: Ted Daeschler / Nature
I should say that I was originally a bit put out by Dawkins likening creationists to holocaust deniers. I don’t think the vast majority of evolution-deniers are evil, wicked or hateful. They are just wrong. Yet, I do see his point, and my initial resistance has faded.
Why should historians of the twentieth century have to keep defending the fact that the Holocaust happened against a minority that refuses to accept what has happened? There probably are more creationists trying to get science degrees than there are holocaust deniers trying to get history degrees.
Similarly, why should Religious Studies profs have to keep going over the need for a secular approach to religion? Religions cover the tracks of their own origins sometimes rather blatantly, denying that events happened, etc. to push the traditional myths of revelation and so forth (e.g., the origins of the Book of Mormon). Oh well, that is a topic for a different rant.
Anyway, if you want a good read on evolution, give Dawkins’ new one a read. Unless you know the field already, you will learn lots and it is rather well written.
Now, what is my next non-work related read?
It’s this: The First Fossil Hunters: Palaeontology in greek and Roman Times by Adrienne Mayor, who collects a lot of evidence of Greco-Roman fascination with fossils. Just started it, and it looks like a fun read.
Now, all of this evolution stuff reminds me. I need a new Know Yer Nuts article! And I know just the right bunch to feature! Stay tuned!
Technorati Tags: Dawkins, Greatest+Show+on+Earth, evolution,, DNA, creationism, Darwin, guppies,, palaeontology,, Adrienne+Mayor
The Annual Tagg Yoshida Lecture in Liberal Education this year will be by
7:00 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12
Viewing Gallery, Sir Alexander Galt Museum
What Darwinism is really about is not always clearly understood. When transferred to the social sphere, Darwinism gave rise to important distortions, such as discourses about class, race, and, since the 1970s, gender. Yet, Darwinism prizes difference and individuality, so that the real lesson of Darwinism is to precisely eliminate the thinking about “essences” or collective categories such as race, class, and gender.
Dr. Depew is a professor of Communication Studies and Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa. Recent articles and book chapters include The Rhetoric of the Origin of Species andConsequence Etiology and Biological Teleology in Aristotle and Darwinism.
A public reception will follow.
The Tagg-Yoshida lecture underscores the importance of liberal education to Canadian Society. Each year a speaker is invited who has not only made significant contributions in his or her area of academic study, but as well, significant contributions to our shared public interest. Dr. Depew’s lecture is in conjunction with the Darwin Symposium (information can be found at https://www.uleth.ca/conreg/darwin/) being held at the University of Lethbridge on November 12-14, 2009, and is co-sponsored by the following University of Lethbridge departments: The President’s Office, Dean’s Office (Arts and Science), Faculty of Education, Faculty of Fine Arts, The School of Health Sciences, and the Department of Philosophy.
~~~~~
This lecture is in conjunction with the “Defining Darwinism: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Debate” symposium being held at the University of Lethbridge on November 12-14, 2009 (symposium information can be located at https://www.uleth.ca/conreg/darwin/).
Ever since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 scholars have been unceasingly involved in exploring the various implications of the theory of natural selection. In addition to the several distinct possible conceptions of this idea in the biological sphere, the notion of a changing world influenced by natural selection has also found applications in the social sciences (e.g., social Darwinism, sociobiology) as well as in the physicochemical sciences (e.g., thermodynamics, self-organization). Much more than a mere biological theory, Darwinism has rapidly become a dynamic, multi-dimensional, and evolving research entity with near-universal implications for science, a context which has in turn subjected it to various ideological, epistemological, and metaphysical influences. One hundred and fifty years after Darwin’s original publication, it is still now not entirely clear what Darwinism is all about. The aim of this meeting is to reflect upon the nature of the complex and changing research entity known as Darwinism.
The symposium is FREE AND OPEN TO SCHOLARS, STUDENTS, AND THE PUBLIC
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