blacksundae

As if Louisiana didn’t have enough to worry about.

As we noted last month, a number of states have been considering laws that, under the guise of “academic freedom,” single out evolution for special criticism. Most of them haven’t made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed. But the last of these bills under consideration, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday. The bill would allow local school boards to approve supplemental classroom materials specifically for the critique of scientific theories, allowing poorly-informed board members to stick their communities with Dover-sized legal fees.

Read on.

It’s nice that there’s room these days for a public figure who’s overtly anti-religion. Here’s the trailer for Maher’s new movie, Religulous.

“The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.”

Well, I suppose that puts one of his most famous quotes in its proper context. Link! [via Digg]

The children and teachers of Louisiana are being used as pawns by the Louisiana Family Forum and, most likely, the Discovery Institute, about which I have written so extensively. These people will assuredly not be around to clean up the wreckage they will leave in their wake if we don’t stop them. We have to stop them.

Link!

Man… to think I used to enjoy “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” Now Mr. Stein says things like this:

When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. [PZ] Myers, talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed.

And this:

Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

The upshot of this cartoonishly anti-intellectual bullshit is that it makes it even harder for Intelligent Design proponents to pretend that their snake oil is genuine science, seeing as how the Discovery Institute has hitched itself to Stein’s Expelled bandwagon. Link!

Holy shit! Filmmaker/madman, Paul Verhoeven, director of RoboCop and Starship Troopers (and, yes, Showgirls), wants to make a movie about Jesus!

Here are a couple details about Verhoeven’s take, which sounds like the Anti- to Mel Gibson’s Christ. One of his conclusions deals with the fact that Jesus was probably the son of Mary and a Roman soldier who raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee. Verhoeven also claims that Christ was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot.

Link!

Atheists are moving up in the world! Unlike a few years ago, we aren’t the worst people in the world! Those would be the Scientologists!

The great pious Catholic Pope stands before this man, and what does he say? Does he mention that Jesus asked that we do to others as we would have them do to us? Does he remind him that they call their religious figurehead the “Prince of Peace”, and that he asked us to turn the other cheek when we were struck, or that he asked that we protect the poor and weak? Does he point out that the central event in their shared faith was the torture and execution of their prophet and god, and that the New Testament isn’t about emulating the heroic Romans?

No, of course not. An obscenely wealthy old man heading an organization that protects child abusers and advocates horrendous and ignorant social practices that harm the poor all around the world would look utterly hypocritical even trying to rebuke a war-monger and apologist for torture. So instead he stands there and tells him that they share common principles founded in fear of a nebulous god. Those are ‘principles’ I reject — they seem to be nothing but labile excuses for doing as you will to anyone who falls under your thumb.

There’s an evil tableau for you: the callous torturer stands up with blood on his hands and a lie in his teeth, while the priest draped in gilt reassures him of his righteousness. How often has that scene played out in history, I wonder?

Read on.

Laelaps has an interesting interview with paleontologist Robert Bakker. I literally wore out my copy of The Dinosaur Heresies as a kid (I patched it back together with packing tape), and got to meet him at an orientation meeting when I was a volunteer for Dinamation.* Cool guy. Interesting interview. I don’t agree with his last answer, but he’s a religious fellow. Whatcha gonna do?

*According to Wikipedia, it no longer exists! Well, that sucks!

Wired:

The two remaining Democratic presidential candidates recently agreed to participate in the Compassion Forum, scheduled for April 13 at Messiah College in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Billed as a conversation on faith and values, the event will be broadcast by the Church Communication Network. It also comes five days before a proposed science debate that was canceled after the candidates refused to participate.

Emphasis mine. Why would they want to talk about, you know, issues that actually affect the future of life on this planet, when they could be yammering away about the same ancient lies that have been killing people for millennia.

Fuck. And this is the comparatively rational party. It’s enough to make you want to take the Lord’s name in vain. Read on.

UPDATE: Just came across this. Seemed appropriate.