Governor of Kentucky is anti-science

I just wrote the following to Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, via this contact page. The message explains why:

I just read that you will appear at a press conference with Cary Summers, consultant to Ark Encounter LLC, Mike Zovath, senior vice president of Answers in Genesis and head of the Creation Museum project, and Grant County Judge/Executive Darrell Link. You will be there to support the expansion of Mr. Zovath's anti-science endeavors in Kentucky.

I am beyond saddened by and ashamed of your support of this anti-education project, and your contribution to the stereotype of Kentuckians as ignorant religious fundamentalists who are decades behind the rest of the USA. Your support of such movements further diminishes the public's -- and, particularly, children's -- understanding of science and, indeed, the virtues of systematic logical investigation as the best way to gain knowledge. It demonizes scientists and their findings -- meaning that people will feel that empirical findings are mere belief systems.

Shame on you, Governor Beshear!

Read more about it in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

What's next? Taliban Land?

Supporting the JRE Foundation

The James Randi Educational Foundation is in the midst of its annual fundraising campaign, running from November 15, 2010 through January 15, 2011.

Last year’s Season of Reason campaign raised thousands of dollars, which was used to help establish the JREF’s new Education Department and get a number of new programs off the ground. This year, JREF is hoping to raise $100,000 to support the further development of the educational programs that will be the backbone of the JREF’s work in 2011. Such support helps the JREF to continue to extend the important work of James Randi, influential skeptic and social critic who has for decades stood against the prevailing cults of nonsense and supernatural charlatans of every stripe.

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The war on science

Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, talks with Chris Mooney on how more and more Americans are rejecting science. Scary, but true:

Greetings

The word holiday came from a mispronunciation of the word holy day (or, as it was spelled in Old English, hāligdæg).

So it confuses me when Christians get upset at being wished Happy Holidays (or Happy Holy Days) instead of Merry Christmas. How in the world is saying Happy Holidays secularizing Christmas?!? What part of holy don't they get?

I'm an Atheist, yet I'm not offended when someone wishes me Happy Holidays, even though the days aren't at all holy to me. I'm not offended when someone wishes me Merry Christmas either. Or salam walaikum, for that matter (it means peace be with you or peace be upon you, in case you didn't know). Heck, I don't even get upset when someone says, Bless you. I take any of these greetings as good will gestures - people wishing me happiness. And the world needs more good will, no question.

What do I say? I'll say just about anything to wish someone a happy day:

• Happy Eid
• Happy Hanukkah
• Happy New Year (Lunar, Persian or Gregorian calendar)
• Merry Christmas
  
• Joyous Yule
• Happy Festivus

I just want you to have a happy day, with or without a belief in an invisible friend. I hope you will wish the same for me.

And in case you are wondering: yes, we'll be having turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and cream of tomato soup on Thursday. Turns out it all tastes just as good without God. We'll be thankful to the farmers, supermarket workers, truckers and other food producers and shippers that made our meal possible. We'll be counting up the good things that have happened, through our own hard work, through the help of others, and through chance. And drinking heavily. We might even take some time to think about scientists, inventors, engineers, researchers, activists and others who have helped our world and our lives. And, yes, we'll still call it Thanksgiving - we'll just be thankful to humans rather than an invisible friend.

oh-so-fantastic documentary How the Earth Was Made

Whether its the pilot from 2007 or an individual episode of the 2009 series, I love love love the History Channel's How the Earth Was Made. These documentaries take the 4.5 billion year history of the Earth and turn it into a glorious tribute to the natural forces of the universe, giving the viewer a sense of wonder and awe. It's impossible to multi-task while watching the show -- put your laptop or smart phone away and drink in those visuals while the wonders of science get explained in an easy-to-understand way. Earth science has often been beyond my grasp because of boring presentation; How the Earth Was Made takes that information and presents it in a way that is absolutely accessible and wondrous.

In addition to the feast of visuals and information these documentaries provide, the information sticks with you, making hiking/walking through natural landscapes an even more awe-inspiring experience.

The show also presents the stories of the various scientists, professional and amateur, who have helped us understand historical geology, including plate tectonics, through the scientific method.

Great stuff! These are frequently shown on the History Channel - check your listings!

Fear of a Bible-Based Nation

Christians are terrified of Sharia (Islamic) law. You can hear the wail and hysterics about the evils of Sharia law frequently on Fox News and in Christian pulpits across the USA. In Oklahoma, voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure that orders judges not to consider Islamic or international law when deciding cases.

Never mind that Sharia laws are almost exactly the same to those proposed in the Bible's Old Testament. And never mind that, if you vote to ban judges from not considering Sharia law when deciding a case, as they have done in Oklahoma, it pretty much nixes any chance of a judge legally considering Biblical law, including the Ten Commandments (which, BTW, are a part of Sharia law), when considering cases.

As an Atheist, I don't want any religious texts used when considering legal cases in the USA. Or government decisions. The terror Christians feel for Sharia law is the terror I feel of Christians talking about restoring or building a Bible-based nation: whenever Christians rally in front of a court house demanding a big marble monument to the Ten Commandments be re-installed. Or Kentucky passing an anti-terrorism law that requires the state's Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge it can't keep the state safe without "God"'s help. Or Representative John Shimkus (R-IL) insisting in an official congressional session that we shouldn't be concerned about global warming because his "God" promised Noah it wouldn't happen again (FYI, Shimkus wants to be Chair of House Energy and Commerce Committee).

So, Christians, you fear Sharia law. Well, I happen to fear YOUR law for all the same reasons. Bible-based government is a terrifying idea.

Christians say that mainstream and progressive Muslims don't speak out enough against militant and/or fundamentalist Muslims. So, where are the mainstream and progressive Christians speaking out against this frightening idea of making legal and government decisions based on the Bible in the USA? Surely the idea is frightening to mainstream and progressive Christians? Where is your outrage?

I remember reading The Handmaid's Tale the first time. I enjoyed it, but thought it was way, way out there. Impossible to happen now. By contrast, I re-read it 12 years later and thought it was absolutely prescient. How I wish that book, and Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby, were required reading in schools in the USA.

You think the Koran is violent? Have you read the Bible?!

I was raised in a Christian household, in a Christian community, in the Bible Belt. The faction of choice, for the most part: General Baptist, though there was a lot of Methodist meeting attendance also going on. That means there were at least weekly Bible readings going on (often more). I knew a lot of the bible by my teen years, but I decided reading excerpts at least twice a week wasn't enough to really understand it, and so I went through the whole enchilada, cover-to-cover. And as I read, I realized, more and more, that I didn't believe. Reading the Bible over several weeks, cover-to-cover, helped me come to terms with my disbelief -- which I'd always had but would never admit to. I was officially an un-believer shortly after that, per a phone call from a church youth leader asking me to come to church camp, and my saying, for the first time out loud (but not the last), that I am not a Christian.

For various reasons, about 20 years later, I decided to do it again: read the Bible cover-to-cover. I needed a refresher course to keep me sharp for comments like, "Jesus said homosexuality is a sin" (he never did, actually). I remembered that the Bible had made me uncomfortable, even angry, as a teen, for some of its assertions, but as an adult, I was absolutely flabbergasted at how incredibly violent and woman-hating the text is, over and over again. I had remembered the hate of the Bible from the first time around, here and there, but the text is permeated with it, and the violence -- wow. I hadn't remembered that from the first time around. Horrific. And nothing I wanted any part of!

(I have to admit that, on this second reading, I gave up at Revelation -- it's just too crazy to get through)

A couple of years later, I decided to read the Koran. All sorts of Christians were telling me it was oh-so-violent and women-hating, and so I wanted to see for myself. And... I was shocked at how far, far less violent it is than the Bible. It is far from woman-hating, as the Bible is. In fact, it does, quite often, lay out the rights of women -- something the Bible never does. "There are at least 30 verses in the Koran that support equality between women and men and that refer to women's rights in various aspects of life." (reference). Further research showed that Islamic cultures that are anti-women base their beliefs on Hadith, an oral tradition of quotes attributed to the Prophet Muhammad but that are in wide dispute as to which are authentic, on ideas they think are in the Koran but aren't (a lot like Christians who think Jesus commented on homosexuals -- which he never did), and on cultural practices that preceded Islam. While I'm still no fan of the religion (any religion), it's a shame that militants are taking over a religion whose basis for belief is actually far more peace-promoting than the Bible.

In short, Christians certainly have plenty of Biblical basis to beat their wives, rape women, keep their wives and daughters hidden at home, beat their children, and kill whomever they deem as a non-Believer. To have these same Christians claim the Koran is violent shows a jaw-dropping duplicity. By all means, condemn violence and justifications for such -- but condemn ALL justifications for such. Condemn the 911 hijackers -- and the men who blew up clinics and shot doctors in Christ's name. And if you want to say that And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children. (Hosea 9:16 NLT) shouldn't be taken literally, fine -- but you have to say the same for the Koran. If you want to claim that when Paul says oh-so-clearly in 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 that women should be silent in church that, really, he's just saying women only have to be silent when tongues or prophecy is happening, then you ALSO have to acknowledge that the Koran is ALSO open to interpretation.