1. They had already been banned from schools as teachers said they were “too distracting” for other pupils - so they have never learnt to read or write, one of their biggest regrets in life.

Holy shit.

Thank god nothing like that happens now. Thank you, ADA/IDEA.

2. I'm not the most sedentary person in the nation!

3. This study involves some categorization/conception of religious belief that I found pretty interesting. Including this definition and analysis:

Fundamentalism (the belief that there is one set of religious teachings that clearly contain the essential, inerrant truth) was linked both to greater homophobia and racism. So fundamentalist religion generates group cohesion that's sufficiently powerful to overcome the non-racist message of conventional Christianity.

4. Sweet.

This especially kind of blows my mind:

So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists.

Not that I think non-believers should take over and/or start converting. But I can't help but think this will mean increased visibility and therefore increased societal acceptance.

5. So yeah. Old news:

The controversy erupted when media reported that a nine-year-old girl from the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco had had an abortion to remove twin fetuses. The girl and her family learned she was 15 weeks pregnant when she went to hospital complaining of pains.

The girl, who has not been identified, told authorities her step-father had sexually abused her since age six. The 23-year-old step-father is currently in police custody.

Here's the kicker:

Upon learning of the abortion, the regional archbishop excommunicated the doctors, as well as the girl's mother. He did not excommunicate the step-father, saying the crime he is alleged to have committed, although deplorable, was not as bad as ending a fetus's life.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

Sometimes I truly hate this world.

1. I'm so excited to move back!

2. Oy.

3. Somewhat related to the above.

4. Vote for Xenu! Make (more) fun of Scientologists!

5. So you're saying I'll be less anxious if I convince myself to believe in God? Hmm....

Nope. Still not worth it.

1. parents with higher incomes and more education gestured more broadly to their children

The hell? Does being poor make your arms weak? Do they teach nonverbal communication in college and I'm just not aware of it?

Interesting observation, but I'm wondering about the why.

2. I could totally do this.

3. Pretty.

4. Brain scans revealed that when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up.

Perfect. Women take their clothes off and suddenly men possess no theory of mind.

5. Spewing hatred and accusing Obama of being the antichrist is all okay if you end it with a cheery salutation!

Thanks for asking!

Shirley Phelps-Roper

1. I wonder how many 'costumed actors' have been strangled by irritable women having contractions?

2. I knew it.

3. I knew there was a reason I didn't eventually settle on archaeology as my major....

4. This is the real Robinson Crusoe?

Hunting goats became a sport for Selkirk. He learned to outrun them and throw them to the ground while running.

So you're saying he was a hillbilly?

5. It's about time.

1. Here we go again.

"This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things. No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be considered a theory," the proposal continues.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, should any statement about it be considered a theory?

2. Sad:

“If (homosexuals) can marry, what is the reason that public policy says one person can’t marry more than one person?” said Suffredine, a former provincial lawmaker.

And what do you want to bet the polygamists are religious enough to think homosexuality is an abomination against god? Yet they take their side when it suits their purposes, of course....

3. My first and only cubicle, hopefully.

4. My full name has some seriously Not-Safe-For-Work acronyms.

5. Ha. Lesbian couple denied family membership at a community recreation center, but the YMCA welcomes them with open arms. I love seeing religious organizations do the right thing.

1. Hey jackass, it's free, so eat the fucking waffles.

2. So this guy apparently got bitch-slapped by Helen Keller:

"I had heard that Helen could speak and I wanted to feel her speak, so I reached out to put my hands on her face, hoping that she would speak to me that way," Smithdas recalls. "But to my surprise she slapped my hand away. I wasn't amused. I thought it was a crude gesture."

And then this....

Journalist Barbara Walters, who spoke at Smithdas' retirement luncheon Friday, said Smithdas was remarkable.

"Truly, the most memorable person I had ever met was Robert Smithdas," she said. "I remember going to Bob's house, and he cooked me a meal. I was amazed he was able to do this and didn't burn his hands."

Okay people. If you're gonna call someone remarkable, do it because of their personality or talents, etc., not simply due to skills they learn to cope with life. People with disabilities don't want to be admired for their adaptations -- they want to be admired for themselves. Focusing on how 'remarkable' someone is for overcoming their disability is basically equating their entire identity with their disability. Get over it and try to find out who the person really is....

3. Sad. (More bus-ad shenanigans.)

In fact, speaking as one myself, I think it shows quite a cheek for Christians to make a fuss about this. We’ve spent decades covering public places with verses from the Bible, and posters promising that if you let Jesus into your life everything will be all right for ever.

Then as soon as the opposition get the money together to do the same thing we’re outraged, and think that God is as cross as we are.

4. Apparently, the Italian atheists violated The Code of Advertising Practice (roughly translated below).

Article 10 — moral, civil, religious and human dignity

Advertising must not offend the moral, civic and religious citizens. It must respect human dignity in all its forms and expressions.

Convenient how non-believers aren't included in this....

And again. Questioning or critiquing beliefs is not the same as offending the people who hold those beliefs.

5. Fuck yeah.

(Anyone who gets PBS have a DVR I could commandeer?)

1. A New York hunter may be feeling a bit sheepish after mistaking a feral llama in Paradise Valley for a Rocky Mountain elk, but he apparently did not violate any laws.

I'd like you to focus on the words 'feral' and 'llama'. They're next to each other. This amuses me greatly.

2. A flow chart of sorts, showing which languages are considered most difficult by other language speakers. Based mostly on the equivalent of the phrase "it's all Greek to me" in various languages. I wonder where Icelandic would fall on there....

3. There's plenty of ridiculous fundamentalist bullshit here, but the funniest part is that they assume that only homosexuals get up to these kinds of shenanigans.

Though I agree it's kind of sketchy to book this kind of event at a venue that isn't fully informed of the planned activities. While I'm fine with consenting adults -- of any sexual orientation -- participating, somehow I don't think it'd be cool for some poor kid staying at the hotel to stumble across some of the spillover....

4. I find this paper and its subject pretty boring, honestly, but the title is pretty awesome.

5. Ha. I'm so looking forward to re-entering academia.

1. It got kinda cold while I was in KC for the holiday.

Now try and complain about the 'cold', Pacific Northwestern-ers. You don't know the meaning of cold.

2. And now a trip down memory lane. Also known as 'Sarah Humiliates Herself for Fun and Profit.' But without the 'profit' part.

I appear to be milking a plane in this one.

And then there's the phase where I decided I really wanted to find out how much sunburn my scalp could tolerate.

Good times.

3. Scary as hell, of course.

Makes me a little more worried about Obama using him as a strategy to appease the fundagelicals. Surely he could've found someone a little less odious?

4. It's time for Fun With Ted Haggard!

Haggard said a co-worker of his father molested him when he was 7, an experience that "started to produce fruit" later. Clarifying that Friday, Haggard said: "I'm certainly not saying that because of that, I did this. I did what I did by my choice, and I'm responsible for it."

Yeah right. You don't mention an experience like that in this context without meaning to imply a causal relationship.

Asked to expand on his attitude toward homosexuality, Haggard said, "I believe all human beings fall short of the standards they believe in."

Oy. Still not good enough, my friend.

Since my experience, I know more about the power of love and forgiveness. I know a lot more about the necessity of people not judging one another.

Yeah. Just like saying that homosexuality = 'falling short of one's standards' is non-judgmental....

I have learned enough to know a lot can happen to anybody. And when Jesus is our Lord, we can't plan our path.

So he's saying that bad shit happens to good people because of Jesus??

[T]he church chose not to forgive me

Well duh. That's what you taught them to do.

Haggard has said his childhood experiences, including same-sex "sex play" with friends when he was in the seventh grade, started to manifest themselves when he turned 50

Yeah right. He didn't 'turn gay' until some repressed memories bubbled up when he was 50? Uh huh.

Don't get me wrong. It looks like the guy's attitude has improved from his previous stance. But he still has a loooong way to go.

5. I really really wanna go here. What a perfect excuse to finally go to San Francisco.

Especially if I could take this. Holy crap that'd be awesome.

1. Chomsky...says, “language evolved, and is designed, primarily as an instrument of thought” [italics mine; p. 22]. Communication, for Chomsky, is secondary.... [source]

Whoa. For some reason I thought Chomsky wouldn't want to touch Sapir-Whorf with a ten foot pole. Granted, Sapir-Whorf didn't propose a theory of language evolution (that I know of), but that's still a whole lot of language-influencing-thought there.

The speech that emerged was not a pidgin or protolanguage, but true language.

Huh? So humans went from 0 to 60 in one generation? I can't quite wrap my mind around that.

Chomsky’s point is that without true language you cannot think deeply enough to gain a survival advantage....

I hope he's not proposing that without language you can't have intelligent thought. I've discussed this before, but Temple Grandin makes a pretty convincing argument for visual thinking and its effectiveness in higher-order cognition (I know I linked to her article on visual thinking in a much-earlier posting here, but I'm too lazy at the moment to dig it up). Granted, there may be/may have been some selective advantage to linguistic thought over visual thought.

Pure thought, which Chomsky says came before any “secondary” linking to a “sensory modality,” is not contaminated by the sound or words, the image of objects, or some other kind of perceptual sensation.

Is this based on any science? Or is it just armchair philosophy? It's interesting either way, but I hope he's not claiming that the idea has more validity than it does.

First, Chomsky's basic position is just a restatement of the old "what good is half an eye?" argument.

Oh no! Chomsky's a closet creationist?!1!

(I have no idea if he is, actually, and I'm not sure I care.)

2. From The Stranger's yearly list of apologies/regrets:

Moreover, Mr. Schmader regrets the inability of countless self-victimizing religious conservatives to understand that being deprived of the ability to oppress another is not the same as being oppressed.

Awesome.

On June 4, Brendan Kiley posted this ad on The Stranger's classifieds page: "Wanted: Intern for The Stranger's Theater Section—the old one has lost consciousness. Must be reliable (seriously, no flakes), available on Monday and/or Tuesday afternoons, and believe mindless data entry is a means to getting head." That should have read: "a means to getting ahead." We regret the error, which confirmed everyone's suspicions about us.

Ha.

There might've been more quotes I wanted, but I'm too lazy to find the rest. I'm noticing a theme tonight....

3. Ha. Someone thought Prop 8 The Musical was a blatant example of Christian-bashing. See quote above.


From here:

INSTANCE #5: Chaplains Fired for Praying in Jesus' Name

Chaplains for the State of Virginia are being denied their right to pray in Jesus' name. Six chaplains were fired for continuing to pray in Jesus' name. Earlier this year in Virginia, Rev. Hashmel Turner, a city councilman in Fredericksburg, was told by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that his prayers during city council meetings that ended in Jesus' name will continue to be banned.

Uh. They're not being denied their right to pray, etc. They're being denied the (unconstitutional) privilege of praying in a government building at a government function.

And finally, the #1 Christian Bashing Instance in America for 2008...

INSTANCE #1: Radical Homosexuals Assault Prop 8 Marriage Supporters in California

During and after the November campaign stories flooded in of pro-Prop 8 signs being taken, people verbally and physically assaulted, church property and private automobiles vandalized, and person's jobs and pastor's lives threatened simply for exercising their right to campaign and vote in support of traditional marriage.

I agree that vandalism and threatening lives is uncalled for. But come on -- the Christians can't deny that they started it by gay-bashing in the first place. And they weren't threatened for 'exercising their right...to support...traditional marriage." They were threatened for taking away someone else's civil rights. It's almost like the KKK complaining about getting flak for exercising their right to support 'traditional' ethno-cultural values.

4. The things I do for my father's dog.... And does she show one ounce of gratitude?

5. It's hard to believe that this cat used to look like this. Poor guy. Brain parasites that kill your sense of balance and fuck up your metabolism are a bitch.

1. The celebrated and unmentionable Nutrinomicon.

(No reason for that except pure weirdness.)

2. Whoa. Someone's making a movie about Temple Grandin.

I hope to god they do her and the issues justice.

3. An interesting -- if at times infuriating -- article about Australian Aboriginals. Mostly interesting to me due to the parallels with the US government's treatment of Native Americans. Though you don't see that issue getting as much publicity as the Australian counterpart....

Instead the nation was looking ruefully back into the past and apologizing for certain welfare policies between 1910 and 1970, a period when Aboriginal children were sometimes removed from their homes and parents for what was believed to be their own wellbeing, were taken elsewhere to be fostered or adopted, and were ‘brought up white’.

And almost the exact same thing happened to Native Americans....

Most provocatively, and absurdly, the report concluded that the removal policy constituted "genocide".

Well, I agree that exact word doesn't quite describe the situation. No one was killed. But equally strong language is called for here, I believe. The government was aiming to eradicate an entire culture. Possibly with benevolent intentions, but still.

On the front page of the issue for March 14, 2008, readers learnt that tribal elders at a place called Aurukun “are calling for children to be removed in the face of a comprehensive breakdown of social norms.”

Well yeah, but those horrible conditions wouldn't have occurred if the Australian government hadn't put them in that position....

How is it that at the very time when nothing remotely resembling traditional Aboriginal culture any longer exists at places like Aurukun, where the community has fallen into a cesspit of mutually reinforcing pathologies, the Australian intelligentsia adheres to a vision of indigenous culture that exists—if it exists at all—largely in the metaphysical realm?

How? Guilt. They feel justifiably guilty for eradicating indigenous culture and turning it into a 'cesspit of mutually reinforcing pathologies.' Sure, an apology alone won't create tangible change. But it's a start. And possibly a necessary step toward more practical solutions.

Oy. I can't take re-reading that article anymore. So many wrong-headed assumptions. So many misunderstandings.

4. Fucking Scientology. Someone seriously needs to shut them down. How many people have died because of their 'beliefs'?

Regardless of whether the kid legitimately had Kawasaki's or autism or whatever, he clearly had a seizure disorder. Most of those can be medicated to prevent or at least minimize the occurrence of said seizures. What do you wanna bet the Scientologists told Travolta not to give his son those meds? What do you wanna bet he wouldn't have fallen and gotten himself a fatal head wound if he hadn't had a seizure in the first place?

5. Braille's harder than it looks:

The reason why it was necessary to write from right to left was that, in those days, without the sophistication firstly of mechanical and then of electronic Braille production, the dots had to be pressed downwards and, when turned over, would provide a mirror image.

It was therefore not only necessary to write from right to left, but also to reverse the actual letters so that with the exception of letters like A and C, other parts of the alphabet had to be reversed.

Damn. Makes learning to write a tad more complicated....

Invented by Louis Braille at the age of 15, the idea came from a soldier who had served in the Napoleonic army in Poland and had attempted to devise a system that could, with night-time manoeuvres, allow messages to be sent and instructions to be passed from hand to hand.

Huh. Didn't know that.

You can't simply write Braille in large form so that as with print you can "catch your eye" on something that it is absolutely vital to deliver or to emphasise. Underlining is possible, but more out of technical form than in terms of being able to quickly highlight what needs to be referred to and at what point.

Again, never thought of that. Interesting.

1. Neanderthal genetic analysis?

Another, a variety of FOXP2, is related to speaking and the capacity to create a language and therefore suggests they could communicate orally.

Dammit. Not again.

Even Wikipedia knows that the presence of FOXP2 does not equal language ability:

Different studies of FOXP2 in songbirds suggest that FOXP2 may regulate genes involved in neuroplasticity: During song learning FOXP2 is upregulated in brain regions critical for song learning in young zebra finches.

FOXP2 has also been implicated in the development of bat echolocation.

2. This has got to be a joke.

If interpreted as such, it's pretty damn funny:

As Governor Palin and the Wasilla Assemblies of God Church will tell you, the End Times will soon be upon us. As noted in the video linked below, Governor Palin recognizes that Alaska will be a refuge for Christians in the End Times. This is why she tells us (and the Masters Commission graduates she's addressing) that the $30 billion natural gas pipeline she's promoting is God's Will.

See? This can't possibly be real:

After that, I can't muster up the legitimate fear to be seriously scared by the 'Theocracy Now' bumper stickers.

1. Perfect.

2. Win!

(After the fact, but still.)

3. Why isn't there one of these in every city? I'd join in a heartbeat.

4. Best insult ever:

You can slide down my hunchback using your tongue as a brake.

From here. I wonder how many of those phrases/words actually mean what they claim when interpreted by a native speaker.

5. Why can't we, as a species, get past the point where women are seen as possessions to be given away as rewards? I myself don't enjoy being equated with a pat on the back. (Though I'm all for supporting the shoe-thrower.)

1. Quoth Answers in Genesis:

Chimpanzees do have intelligence. They do have general learning abilities, limited though they are (by comparison to those of human infants). They can ‘learn’ words, but the don’t ‘acquire’ language naturally.

And...

The various experiments which have produced language learning in chimpanzees have been achieved by methods that are not those used by all normal babies around the world, who spontaneously and sequentially acquire speech/language.

Are they just ignoring Kanzi? Sure he didn't acquire full human language, but what abilities he possesses he definitely acquired. He was not taught. He merely observed and applied what he observed.

2. The subject, in its spiritual, religious, and even eschatological dimensions, needs to be treated and debated among us, not simply as an unfortunate social deviation or ephemeral social fad, but as a cutting-edge component of a rising, all-encompassing religious world view that is diametrically opposed to the world view of Christian theism.

What is the subject at hand, you may ask? Materialism? Communism? Liberalism? Atheism?

No. Homosexuality.

An "all-encompassing religious world view that is diametrically opposed to the world view of Christian theism"?? What about gay Christians? They're more diametrically opposed to Christian theism than straight atheists?

Thus, while sexual liberation in its popular, successful, government-financed versions strategically associates itself with "civil rights," pro-choice civic values, and politically-correct tolerance, often studiously avoiding any obvious religious dimension, its ultimate legitimization-since all human beings are religious-proceeds from the age-old dogmas of paganism, which, unlike their modern equivalent, never tried to hid behind a thin veil of temple-state separation.

They just throw that in there so casually, that all humans are -- of course -- religious. Heh.

In a time of moral confusion and politically correct intimidating "tolerance" [....]

Ha. Tolerance is intimidating. Okay then.

In 1923 Feder Mühle, a businessman who became involved in Spiritualism, founded the Gottesbund Tanatra in Görlitz, Silesia-home of Jacob Böhme. Members wore the God's Eye badge and believed that homosexuals "were vocationally mediums."66 They also, with a certain logical consistency, held that heterosexual intercourse impaired the mediumistic talent. This small detail of Germanic occultic history is significant. Since leading contemporary homosexuals make the same claims,67 without any apparent dependence on the theories of Mühle, such parallel thinking would suggest an organic connection between homosexuality and shamanistic religious activity.68

Leading contemporary homosexuals believe that heterosexual intercourse is harmful??

3. This basically re-states my feelings on the Atheist placard in the WA state capitol. Worth a read, though. Especially for the argument in the comments section....

4. Scarily accurate.

5. They are not tame, and are still convinced after four months that I'm going to eat them in the morning. This is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They are very noisy. If your neighbor has a barking dog or annoying offspring, these would be fine revenge. If you just find it amusing to see brainless alien freaks that look like old-style football helmets running around on tiny orange legs, they will fit the bill.

1. The saga continues some more.

But he was offended by the atheist message, which he felt was designed mostly to mock religion.

Well, not solely, I'm sure. And in the FFRF's defense, how many Christian displays/messages do you run across that proclaim that they're right and everyone else is wrong?

I still don't like the sign very much, though.

2. Snails have teeth??! Shit. Something else I need to be afraid of.

3. What the hell is up with this scale illustration?? Is that a woman in a long dress? A priest in a cassock? Is that a neckerchief or an ascot?

4. Jesusduck!

5. And these nimrods say that all dinosaurs died out like 65 trillion years ago? I'm a Christian, and even I know that number is insane, but leave it to science to brainwash the masses using "data" and "carbon dating". You can't tell how old a rock is without reading the Bible. We know from the Bible that the world is about 6,000 years old.

I'd like to expand the use of that phrase: "You can't know ____ without reading the Bible."

You can't know I got that exam question wrong without reading the Bible.

But Officer, you can't know I was speeding without reading the Bible.

1. This is really scary. And dangerous. People actually want the world to become worse and back it up with religion.

2. Ow ow ow ow ow. That poor woman with the paperclips....

3. Cephalopod!

If reincarnation exists, I want to be some sort of cephalopod. Preferrably not a calamari squid. Or one of those giant squids that ends up dissected by scientists live on the internet.

4. A really good idea. Now all they need to do is schedule more of these. Maybe divide them up like they do concerts -- one all-ages, one over-21?

5. Ha. I didn't know Twilight was written by a Mormon.

NCSE-sponsored review of the Creation Museum

Some interesting excerpts from a review of the Creation Museum that I ran across the other day:

A December 15, 2003 posting on the AIG website went into considerable detail about what the museum would have to counter traditional natural history museums and eventually christened the "Creation Museum" with the far more appropriate name of "The Anti-Museum." Hence the title of this review.

This reminds me of that "What's Your Anti-Drug?" campaign. The Bible is my Anti-Museum.

In front of the ticket booth is a very nice composite wooly Rhino fossil from Siberia on loan to AIG from two of its supporters. I thought this was merely a cast when I first saw the skeleton, because only a thin strip of cloth blocked it off. This cavalier attitude towards a valuable specimen is rather remarkable for a museum, even this one. The mannequins of various biblical characters that appear much later in the museum tour were much more protected by railings and other security.

That's really scary. I suppose they either don't realize the value of the fossil, or they assume that their guests will all behave like good Christians and look but not touch.

About the planetarium show:

The closing credits listed Dr. Jason Lisle as the writer of the program. Dr. Lisle has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He moved to Kentucky after his graduation to work for Answers in Genesis. He has yet to publish his claims about Blue Supergiants and time dilation of light in peer reviewed journals.

Man, what a loophole. If you want to get your claims 'legitimized' the easy way -- without submitting to peer review -- just give them a Creationist spin and send 'em on over to the Hamster.

If fish could scream, the ocean would be loud as shit. (Thanks Mitch.)

Some actual text from the Museum:

Views about fossils have come and gone. But fossils do not tell us where these creatures came from or how they died.

Um. Sometimes they do. Go check out a children's paleontology or archaeology book from the library. You'll find plenty of examples there.

Genesis also gives an eyewitness account of a catastrophic, worldwide Flood, about 4,350 years ago

This got me thinking. What was happening worldwide at around that time, according to "secular" scientists? Has anybody ever made parallel timelines? I'm just wondering what that flood is supposed to have been interrupting. Not that the AIGers would agree -- they already know what was going on at the time because they've read the bible.

Most fossils are a silent testimony to God's worldwide judgement.

So fossils are God's way of saying, "If you don't listen to me, this is what'll happen." How...merciful. I've thought it for many years, but this emphasizes the fact that the Christian god (as a literary character, of course) is a complete asshole.

POV switch! Back to the reviewer:

The display also included a really poorly reconstructed Iguanadon eating a cycad tree model. The artist must have read that Iguanadon had pebbly skin texture and gave him giant platy pebbles unlike what skin impressions really reveal about this dinosaur. The cycad plant is so bad that it looks like a giant pineapple.

People, do your research. You knew you were gonna be scrutinized by unsympathetic viewers. It's not rocket science. Give the job to a Bible college intern or something. Make sure they've got an internet connection and a library card, throw a few bucks their way for some journal subscriptions, and you're done.

Re: the Ark display:

I really loved the animated figure with the Yiddish accent.

Oh no. Where's Mel Gibson and his historical linguistics team when you need him?

Paleozoic sedimentary rocks are depicted as forming catastrophically in underwater environments, although many terrestrial environments, including tidal flats, soils, and desert dunes are well represented in the Paleozoic. Another biggie in Flood geology is having Pennsylvanian coals form from floating forests that are catastrophically buried. There is a really nice mural of a "floating forest" on one wall. Most Mesozoic terrestrial and marine environments are also depicted as forming under water. One plaque reads "as the sea level rose, flood waves reached farther and farther inland. Ecosystem after ecosystem of plants and animals were carried out to sea and buried." An accompanying cartoonish diagram depicts a dinosaur walking underwater with its mouth open and leaving footprints.

I just don't think I get this. Terrestrial ecosystems form underwater? I have to be missing something. Please let it make more sense than this.

The presence of a marsupial-dominated vertebrate fauna in Australia must really worry the creationists. A most remarkable explanation is given: "marsupials, which have pouches, can nurse their young while moving. That may explain why on each continent [marsupials] were the first mammals buried and preserved after the Flood."

Uh. Is that true? Are marsupials the earliest mammals found on every continent? And when they say "first mammals buried and preserved," do they mean those that are farthest down in the strata? That are dated as being the oldest? Do they buy into "secular" dating methods for fossils/artifacts at all? Is that statement based on anything factual or was it pulled out of their asses (and/or their bibles)?

Races apparently begin with Noah's sons and are dispersed after the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel. After Babel, Ham's descendants go to Africa, Shem's to Arabia and Asia, and Japheth's go to Europe. This is basically insane, outdated 19th Century quack anthropology, but no one else seemed to notice. Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and Cro-Magnon are claimed to originate from these refugees from Babel and became cave dwellers.

Erectus originated from Noah's sons? Were they Homo sapiens? So they evolved backwards?

It was most fascinating and disturbing to see religion sold in the same way as diet pills, male enlargement creme, baldness cures, and the Bass-O-Matic ™.

Heh.

The walls had a number of fossil displays, but most were not yet labeled.

I wonder if they use any of the fossils for specific, fact-based displays? I hope the "yet" above is correct and they will label them as time permits. Otherwise, it's sounding to me like they just threw in a few fossils here and there to make the place look credible. Which is a huge waste.

According to artwork in the film, children in ancient Japan even had pet Stegosaurs.

Man. Japanese kids get all the cool toys.

The special effects consisted of the chairs vibrating every time the angels flew by and water being squirted from a hole in the back of the seat in front of you every time there was a water scene (like the Ark floating in the violent Flood).

You've got to be kidding me.

From a distance it was apparent there were several outdoors dinosaur models there including an outdated tail-dragging Tyrannosaurus.

Again. Research. Please.

Okay. I looked up a bit of AIG's thoughts on fossils, and here's what I found:

Of course, species is a man made term used to describe many variations of the same kind. There are several species of dog, but really they are all part of the same kind.

There aren't many species of dog, if they mean domesticated dogs. And I hope they do, because that's how the lay reader will interpret it. If they don't mean what the average reader will get out of their text, it's dishonest of them to publish it without clarification.

Anyways, all domesticated dogs fall under a subspecies (Canis lupus familiaris), not a species. Poodles, German Shepherds, and Labradors are not species. They're breeds, further subdivisions under the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris.

If you're gonna attack the concept of species and/or naming, at least be clear (and correct) about what you're attacking.

Of course, there is evidence of variation within the kind in the fossil layers. But they obviously didn’t change into each other, since the vast majority of the fossils in the fossil record died together.

They did?? Evidence? Who did the dating/stratigraphy?

Imagine this illustration of bad science:

In 300 years, people began digging in a human graveyard that was from a battle in WWII and find human bodies. They began lining them up by arm length and say that over long periods of time, the arms of people began to get longer!

But this is what evolutionists are doing

*headdesk*

I can't even summon a response to that. If they're that ignorant/deceitful, it's not even worth my admittedly worthless time and effort to refute them.

There is a predetermined age for certain fossils (once again based on assumption), and when they are found in a certain rock layer, that rock layer is given that age. Interestingly enough, the fossils are dated by the rock layers they are in, an example of circular reasoning.

How about some absolute dating methods? I know the good folks at AIG aren't ignorant of the existence of them:

Before we get into the details of how radiometric dating methods are used, we need to review some preliminary concepts from chemistry. Recall that atoms are the basic building blocks of matter.

But that's Just A Theory!

Anyways, this accusation of circular reasoning is dishonest -- they know it's not circular logic if it's correlated with absolute dating. Even if they don't agree with the 'Darwinist's' interpretation of said dates, they can't call the logic circular.

Interesting that Lucy is used as a evidence, considering the fossils reveal that it was a male, as anatomist Dr. David Menton points out.

Wow. Just...wow. Has he tried to publish this information? Is Johanson aware of it? Do any paleoanthropologists agree with him (you'll notice that his degree is in cell biology, not paleoanthropology or even anatomy, though he did teach the latter)?

[Dr. Menton's bio reveals that he's a Brown alum. Nooooooo!!! *Platoon-esque-fists-raised-heavenward*]

Damn. I've built up quite a backlog of stuff to post. [Just be glad I didn't go for the obvious pun with 'backlog.']

1. Mmm...self-referential.

2. Kentucky, you make me sad.

3. Only the stories of dead religions can be appreciated for their beauty. Living religions require much more of you.
--Salman Rushdie

Some good stuff. Some neutral stuff. Some stuff I disagree with. But good overall.

4. Paint sandwich!

5. This is starting to look like an advertisement for a career in jazz anthropology.

1. I find this vaguely...disturbing.

Maybe it's the tiny green cowboy hats. I didn't even know those existed.

Maybe it's the fact that the ducks look like they're being choked by their own collars.

Maybe it's the manic, hungry glint in that dog's eye.

2. If Michael Crichton were still alive, I'd suggest he re-write Sphere with one of these things included.

3. Heh. I doubt I'll get an opportunity to use this, but it sounds like fun.

4. Oh shit. Here we go again. I can't really say it any better than this.

Though I do disagree that all segregation is automatically bad. We segregate school children by age. We segregate high school sports players by skill level. The segregation only teaches kids the wrong lesson if they misunderstand its purpose. That's why you explain it to them.

I haven't thought this through as thoroughly as I could, so I might be wrong. But that's where I stand at the moment.

5. Hey. I feel threatened. I think I'll pick up a smaller animal and wave it around to scare away the bad guys.

Or I could try wearing a velcro bodysuit.

1. College is the perfect time to expand your mind and challenge your own views. You can’t do that if you’re constantly surrounded by people who agree with you.

I have to agree. That's the main reason I didn't go to a smaller liberal arts college. I might have fit in too well.

2. Sad. Sad sad sad sad sad. And more sad.

Also, Eureka Springs! Yay.

3. A decent article on atheists. Nothing earth-shattering or new, but one of the better pieces I've read in awhile.

Kansas City FreeThinkers hold monthly walks in a dog park and weekly coffee-house meet-ups, advertised online.

Sweet. I'll have to remember that for when I move back.

Some Christians find the billboards deeply offensive, especially at this time of year. In recent weeks, press releases from the religious right have accused atheists of "mocking" and "insulting" Christmas.

Okay. I'm personally not offended by Christmas stuff, even the fairly religious stuff, simply because I realize that a majority of the population celebrates it. But all you have to do is reverse the above position and it's identical to how atheists/non-believers could feel about any religious expression. And do we complain? Occasionally, and only recently. I think such complaints are justified when concrete issues of church-state separation are at stake. Otherwise, both sides can just suck it up and learn to live with disagreeing viewpoints.

Remember, children: expression of disagreement does not equal oppression.

4. First, this url amuses me. www.pbs.org/pastafarians? www.pbs.org/nihilists?

Second, it's a pretty good documentary about a fascinating cultural phenomenon. I thought it struck a decent balance between proponents and critics of the religion itself.

5. Missouri finally made up its mind, and I'm sad. Amazed at how close the vote was, but sad.

1. And now we have an American version of the bus ad. I like it better than the British version, but it could still be (mis?)interpreted as being a bit combative/condescending. I like that it addresses the morality-without-religion issue, though.

I have no objection to this, however.

Seriously. Well done. There's no way critics can call that offensive without looking like defensive idiots.

2. Everybody raise their hand who's surprised that Haggard is blaming someone else for his behavior.

Anyone?

Bueller?

3. In a brilliant and tactful move, a government official has unwittingly compared all non-Christian beliefs to despotism. Discussing a (non-Christian) religious group's request to place a monument beside the Ten Commandments:

"You have a Statute of Liberty, do we have to have a statue of despotism?" said Chief Justice John Roberts.

4. How do conservative talking heads do it? Just like you'd think they do it -- by playing on people's fears and their desire to be thought of as oppressed underdogs.

5. Kick-ass Aztec costume/make-up. I'm confused by the Aryan-blue eyes, though.