Archive for the 'Religion' Category

News Items

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

VA AG tells universities to be more bigoted
The WaPo reports that the attorney general has urged colleges and universities in Virginia to rescind their policies against discrimination against gays.
You might think the Post got it wrong. That he’s saying that Virginia has no laws against discrimination against gays; that universities who do have such policies [...]

The DC Dick Move Compromise

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

For those who hadn’t heard, last year DC passed a measure legalizing gay marriage. It’s scheduled to take effect tomorrow. This was a bit of a nail-biter, since Congress had threatened to repeal the law. But thankfully, the federal legislature is so dysfunctional that two and a half months weren’t enough to follow through on [...]

Shooting the Message, Not the Messenger

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Today, White House staff met with a group from the Secular Coalition for America, an association of disparate atheist and secular groups, to discuss policy (USA Today, by way of RichardDawkins.net. McClatchy article).
Apparently the meeting went pretty much as I expected: brief meeting with White House staff (but not the president), polite airing of views, [...]

We’ll Have Ample Warning of the Apocalypse

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

People have been arguing for ages now that the end of the world, as foretold in John’s shroom trip the book of Revelation, will be upon us any minute now.
But I think the Bible makes it clear that we’ll have ample warning — thousands if not millions of years — before that happens.
Revelation 6:12-13 says:
12I [...]

Science, Theology, and Information

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Creationists like to ask where the information for evolution comes from. I thought I’d turn that question around a bit.
Back when I studied information science in college, the instructor said that the information content of a message is a measure of surprise. That is, if you’re trying to communicate as tersely as possible (because you’re [...]

Ken Ham Is Not Ashamed, for Some Reason

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Not too long ago, in a post entitled
“I Am Not Ashamed,
Ken Ham, director of that epicenter of idiocy, Answers in Genesis,
criticizes Christians too wimpy to admit that they still believe in
fairy tales. He urges all True Christians™ to embrace their
inner crazy and proudly proclaim their gullibility to the world.
AIG will lead this charge by erecting [...]

Basics: I Didn’t Decide to Be an Atheist

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I occasionally hear people say things like “If you choose to be an atheist, that’s fine. It’s your decision and I respect that” (or, from less-tolerant people, “if you choose to be an atheist, don’t be surprised when you suffer the consequences”).
This bugs me because, in fact, I did not choose to be an atheist. [...]

Why Gay Marriage Should Be Illegal

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Passing on a meme from Le Café Witteveen and Rabid Atheist, by way of Attempts at Rational Behavior:
12 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Should Be Illegal

Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.
Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people can’t legally get married because the world needs [...]

A Scientific* Experiment

Friday, February 5th, 2010

* Not scientific.

I normally don’t read Denyse O’Leary, because I like Canada too much to taint my mental image of it with her ignorant hackery. But for the past few days, she’s had a series of posts at Happy Dembski’s House of ID Circle-Jerk called about “Access Research Network’s top ten media-related intelligent design stories [...]

I Fail to See BillDo’s Problem

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

In a characteristically spittle-flecked post, BillDo rails against the people suing to repeal Proposition 8. For those who’ve forgotten, that’s when a group of Californians turned to another group of Californians and said, “The right to get married is so precious and fundamental that we’re going to take it away from you.”
BillDo writes:
Their goal is [...]