It’s been a long while since I participated in the science blog carnival called The Tangled Bank. So, I submitted my post on zero point energy. Hopefully, the physicists reading it won’t laugh me off the stage.
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James Willmot, a former science teacher at our sister school, lays down the law in an opinion piece that appeared in the Sunday Courier-Journal. It begins:
It gets better after that. Willmot basically slams down creationism and pins it to the floor. It’s worth reading. Willmot taught science at St. Francis School in Goshen, Kentucky, a K-8 school that sends a lot of kids to St. Francis High School. He now lives and writes in England. Needless to say, the fundies among the C-J’s readers were none too pleased. Comments ranged from suggesting Willmot was intolerant to predicting he would burn in Hell for questioning a literal interpretation of Genesis. We have a long way to go. Religious intolerance and closemindedness is alive and well in mid-America. Possibly related posts:
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As its Dec. 7 premiere approaches, be prepared to hear a growing hue-and-cry about the supposed anti-Christian messages in The Golden Compass. The Golden Compass is yet another fantasy movie epic based on literary epics, like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia series. [We might also throw in Harry Potter as another example, though HP is an entirely different kind of story.] Written by an avowed atheist, British author Phillip Pullman, the Golden Compass is like anti-Narnia. Rather than supporting the idea of defending an all-powerful authority against rival forces, Pullman’s trilogy depicts its young heroes as bringing the reign of the authority to an end. Some Christians who see the anti-Christ lurking behind every tree have already declared The Golden Compass anti-Christian and are encouraging parents to keep their kids out of the theatres, lest their tender minds be subverted by the Evil One. The Harry Potter books and movies, after all, have created an entire generation of Satanists and wiccans. The Golden Compass might now create an entire generation of doubters or agnostics. It’s the end of civilization as we now it! C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series began as a fantasy epic for young readers, but Christian allegory worked its way into the books. Many Christians adore the books, since they offer a more obviously religious alternative to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and other fantasy epics. Possibly related posts:
If you watch Fox Snooze (and I feel sorry for you), you may have heard Fox commentators/blowhards Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson pontificating about the alleged “War on Christmas.” According to O’Reilly, Gibson and other conservative demogogues, secular forces are working to eliminate Christmas from the US of A, leading to the downfall of this great Christian nation. (I use those words sarcastically, please note.) Their latest tactic is to enumerate how many retailers use the word “Christmas” in their adverts. The Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian group associated with the late Jerry Falwell, has published a “naughty and nice” list of major retailers; nice retailers preserve Christmas, naughty ones use the generic word “holiday.” Avoiding the word “Christmas” is just more evidence of a vast anti-Christian conspiracy, O’Reilly & Co. contend. This nonsense derives from Christians losing several court cases in which the American Civil Liberties Union has successfully argued that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause precludes governmental agencies from erecting overtly religious displays. No creches in city hall, in other words. Those Christians given to delusions of paranoia have taken these signs and wonders as evidence of an anti-Christian movement in the United States. O’Reilly and Gibson, in particular, have created a straw man argument with their “war on Christmas” diatribes. A straw man argument is a logical fallacy. You caricature the opposing viewpoint and focus your attacks on the “straw man,” instead of the opponent’s actual statements, hoping to score a few points in your favor. Possibly related posts:
Although her situation in Kuwait is still far from resolved, Katherine Phillips has at least been allowed to leave the country to stay with her parents. Late last month, Phillips, a US educator working in Kuwait, had been banned from leaving the emirate while an angry parent conducted a vendetta against her. In a letter to the International Schools Review, which had publicized her plight, Phillips said she had received a text message on her phone that the travel ban had been lifted. Since an earlier lifting had been rescinded, she chose to leave Kuwait immediately. (The complete letter is at the ISR site.) Meanwhile, she has been officially banned from traveling to any of the Gulf Coast countries, which are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Ministry of Education in Kuwait has also instituted a ban against non-Kuwaitis serving in administrative positions in Kuwaiti schools. You would think with such a frantic governmental response, Phillips had been charged with child molestation or murder. In fact, according to her and another person close to the situation, she was just following the school’s disciplinary handbook, which all parents presumably signed off on. In fact, Phillips had sent three fifth-grade boys to in-school suspension last year for fighting in Al Bayan Bilingual School , where she was a deputy principal. Within short order, one of the parents, an influential Kuwaiti, called her on the phone to blast her with insults and threats. She was then charged with “unlawful imprisonment” and prevented from leaving the country. Possibly related posts:
Robert Lancaster is a California computer programmer, who like me, is fed up listening to so-called psychics trying to convince the public they actually have supernatural powers. His site, which is about six months old, scrutinizes the career of Sylvia Browne, who purports to be able to find missing persons. Ms Browne’s track record is awful, yet she manages to bamboozle people into believing she is somehow gifted. A close look at her failures should convince anyone she is a fraud. Lancaster does a pretty good job of documenting her work. James “The Amazing” Randi also tracks Browne’s predictions and readings. She is so bad that it is doubtful she will ever appear again on George Noory’s radio show, Coast to Coast AM. During a live broadcast in January 2006, while the nation anxiously awaited news of West Virginia miners trapped underground, Browne said she knew they were all alive. As it turned out, all but one was dead, and that news came out while Browne was on the air. It was obvious she blew it, on a show with millions of worldwide listeners. Why criticize Browne? She is a multi-millionaire who has made her fortune off the gullible and the desperate. (John Edward of TV fame is another example.) As Lancaster and Randi put it, if she’s a real psychic, she needs to put up or shut up. Possibly related posts:
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