The Wonderful World of Magical Thinking XXXIV

The week in fundie . . .

1. The Opus Dei wing of the Liberal Party is being blamed by moderates for the fall of the Howard Government. (While they're at it, they might also throw some blame at Howard himself for backing Silas in Mitchell.) (Sydney Morning Herald)
2. The Australian Christian bookstore chain Koorong (along with other Christian book retailers) has indicated that it will be unlikely to stock a new Bible study guide challenging the notion that the Bible excludes same-sex relationships. (The Age)
3. A British primary school teacher in the Sudan faces a maximum of 40 lashes, six months in jail and a fine for the dastardly crime of "allegedly insulting Islam's prophet by allowing children to call a teddy bear Mohammed." You have got to be fucking kidding me. (AFP; see also Pharyngula)
4. I'll let this grab from a Cutting Edge radio transcript speak for itself:

   The demons of Satan's army will soon physically manifest themselves as Aliens, arriving in armadas of space ships which we have heretofore called UFO's. The plan calls for them to suddenly appear at many places on Earth simultaneously. Some will appear at the White House to confer with the President; some will appear at the United Nations; other aliens will appear at key governmental buildings all over the globe. Aliens will appear in some people's homes or on their front yards. The world's peoples will literally be shocked out of their minds. This is the Plan. This may occur before the worldwide Rapture of the Church; we must be prepared to deal wisely with this planned phenomenon.

   (Via Fundies Say the Darndest Things)
5. "Nice soul you have here. Awful shame if something were to happen to it." More standover tactics by Catholic clergy (obviously from the Pell wing) in the US. (The story comes via Fundies Say the Darndest Things. The mobster reference should be credited to Denis Loubet of the Non-Prophets)
6. I just had a look at the Australian Christian Lobby's list of what it considers are the strengths and weaknesses of the Australian Greens' policies. Among the "weaknesses" the Lobby identifies are the Greens' support for a Bill of Rights, and their support for the extension of anti-discrimination legislation to (partially-taxpayer-funded) private schools as well as public schools--a reminder, if any were required, of how the ACL and the Religious Right in Australia generally are no friends of liberal democracy.
   

UPDATE: Off-topic, but Phillip Adams really sums up why Labor's victory is so sweet.



Humor via Atheist Media:



Read more!

Just when you thought the Liberal Party couldn't be any more unelectable . . .

The Opus Dei wing of the party has won a seat in Federal Parliament.

The new member for Mitchell

The electorate of Mitchell lies smack-bang in the middle of Jesusland (a.k.a. the Hills district of north-western Sydney) and is thus safe Liberal territory*. In 2006, Alex Hawke--who believes moderate Liberals should instead join the Greens--branch-stacked and bully-boyed his way into the Liberal candidacy. In what might someday come to be known as the "Hawke-Clarke hijack," Hawke and David "The Teacher" Clarke have extended the influence of the uber-Christian Right over the Liberal Party in NSW and the Young Liberals nationally.

And I say more power to them. The more lunar and extremist the Liberals appear, the further they will fade into the electoral wilderness where they belong.

(P.S. Super Simmo has returned to the blogosphere!)

(*Admittedly, there was a 9.6% swing to the ALP in Mitchell.)


More YouTube gold from Swannysback:







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Don't let the door hit you on your way out

Image source: Lance W. Clayton

And so expires the term of one of the most hostile governments to liberal democracy in recent memory. I celebrated with some damn fine Japanese malt beer: the convenience store didn't carry chardonnay. How did you celebrate?

(P.S. Good effort, Jen!)


Howard's concession speech. Highly remiss of him, don't you think, not to acknowledge the staunch support of the Murdoch press throughout his reign (despite their recommending a vote for Rudd this time around).

Rudd's victory speech. Shorter Rudd:


I heartily concur!

UPDATE: OK, I can't resist posting more Keating in top-flight . . .


And this from a time when the term "One Nation" meant something entirely different in Australian politics . . .

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Lying for Howard

In the previous post I alerted you to the existence (well, once upon a time) of the giant sea scorpion. In this post I present you with the giant Australian rightwing cockroach, which--alas--is not extinct, but alive and well in the Liberal Party. (Actually, that's a slur on giant cockroaches. Sorry, guys.)
From the ABC:

The Liberal Party has expelled two members and notified the Electoral Commission of an incident involving election campaign workers distributing material it says is false and offensive.

The party says around five people were handing out the flyers last night in the seat of Lindsay in Sydney's west, when they were caught in the act by Labor Party members.

The ABC understands one of the people involved in the distribution of the offending material is Garry Clark, the husband of the retiring member, Jackie Kelly.

The flyer purports to be from the Islamic Federation of Australia, a group which does not exist, advocating a vote for Labor.

The Liberal Party's state director Graham Jaeschke says the material was unauthorised and made without the knowledge of the Party's head office.

"This is unacceptable behaviour. We've acted very quickly to fix this issue," he said.

"We've referred it on to the Australian Electoral Commission and we'll let the Australian Electoral Commission do their job."

Mr Jaeschke says the party does not condone the behaviour.

"It was undertaken without any authorisation or knowledge of the Liberal Party," he said.

Party behind in the polls a week out from the election? Here's what you do:

1. Invent an organisation with "Islamic" in the title, knowing how likely this adjective is to set off big flashing red warning lights in too many xenophobic outer-suburban Sydney brains.


2. Print a flyer, purporting to be a publication of said phony "Islamic" organisation, advocating a vote for your opponent


3. Reap the electoral rewards.

Oh, I know what you're going to say. You're going to tell me to give the Liberal Party credit for expelling the racist arseclowns behind this stunt. Well, I'm not going to. Because if the Liberal Party can attract into its fold individuals who consider this kind of behaviour conscionable, then that speaks volumes about what the modern Liberal Party has become.

See also: The Age Read more!

I don't have a lot of time to write a blog post today . . .

. . . so here's a picture of an extinct giant sea scorpion.
From Science Daily:

The discovery of a giant fossilised claw from an ancient sea scorpion indicates that when alive it would have been about two and a half meters long, much taller than the average man.

This find, from rocks 390 million years old, suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought.

Dr Simon Braddy from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, co-author of an article about the find, said, 'This is an amazing discovery. We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realised, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were.'

The claw was discovered by one of Dr Braddy's co-authors*, Markus Poschmann, in a quarry near Prüm in Germany.

Apparently gigantism in ancient insects and other creatures that tend to the bite-sized nowadays has something to do with a richer oxygen supply in those times.

Here's Meganura monyi, the largest insect that ever lived:

Courtesy of Staab Studios

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I see now What's So Great About Christianity

Rightwing pundits keep trying to tell me What's So Great About Christianity. Well, I think I understand where they're coming from, now.

In the remote Penza region of Russia, a group of Orthodox Christians has barricaded itself inside an underground bunker to await the Apocalypse, which it believes will come to pass in May next year. Better still, the group contains in its number four children, including an eighteen-month-old baby, who are obliged to await the Apocalypse in temperatures dropping to minus 10 degrees Celsius.

The group has nothing in the way of sound empirical evidence to support the claim that the world will end in May 2008. But that's OK, because "While reason helps us to discover things about experience, faith helps us discover things that transcend experience."

And yes, the leader of the cult--under whose orders the Penza group are sitting out the end of the world in an icy cave--may be currently undergoing evaluation in a psychiatric facility, but surely all this means is that he now sees "in color what we previously saw in black and white." And isn't this whole episode a demonstration of the fact that "Christianity makes of life a moral drama in which we play a starring role and in which the most ordinary events take on a grand significance?"

And sure, you could always make the argument that these cultists have an ethical duty to look after the welfare of the children in their care--and that this duty involves not indoctrinating them and holding them hostage in below-freezing conditions. But Christians, you see, live sub specie aeternitatis. And isn't it "better [for those kids] to suffer wrong than to do wrong?" And if the kids die of exposure out there, why should we worry? "The secular person thinks there are two stages for humans: life and death. For the Christian, there are three: life, death, and the life to come. This is why, for the Christian, death is not so terrifying."

Face it, heathens. The people in that cave in Russia are "pursuing [their] higher destiny as human beings. [They] are becoming what [they] were meant to be," because Christianity "not only makes us aspire to be better, but it also shows us how to be better." By barricading oneself in a remote cave to await an event one has no reliable evidence will come to pass, stockpiling weapons, holding children against their will in below-freezing conditions, and threatening to blow oneself and one's fellows up if anyone tries to intervene. Read more!

Tinfoil site of the week

Family Security Matters is a US conservative front group for a neo-con think-tank. The following headline pretty much sums up the level of sanity on which this outfit operates:

How the Leftist/Marxist/Islamist Alliance Will Accomplish a One Religion/One-world Government


(Part One of Five)

David J. Jonsson

One might ask why it is important to understand the relation between the Leftist/Marxist/Islamist Alliance and the Emerging Movement among Churches and Mosques. It is because it indicates the movement of a historically conservative church and other organizations into the fold. These Emerging Church and Mosque Movements are the elephants in the pew. The Radical Islamist Movement has realized that the tactical weapons of terrorism and suicide bombing may not be achieving their goal for world domination, and that seduction, economics and political action are more effective in winning the war. In this essay, I address how the Leftist/Marxist/Islamist Alliance is approaching the goal of achieving a one religion/one-world government.

The public failure of the Soviet Union in 1991 interred Lenin’s theory of social causation in his Red Square casket, although, like Dracula, the monster occasionally climbs out of its casket and wanders through American college campuses and churches, seeking whom it may devour.

There you have it, folks. A "CABAL (sic)" of radical Islamists, Marxists and liberal Christians all plotting to achieve a one religion SLASH one world government. Reds under the bed and elephants in the pew. Does this guy ghost-write the editorials in The Australian?

Jonsson claims that
the Emerging Church movement is like a gateway drug to Islam, and only US fundies like him stand between Islam and global domination. No evidence is presented in support of this, of course, unless you count Revelations as "evidence".

Elsewhere on the site, we learn how teachers are "Teaching Terror in American Schools" and that America is "facing a liberal-Islamist alliance." The site also accuses American college students of "empty patriotism." Read more!

The Wonderful World of Magical Thnking XXXIII

The week in fundie . . .

1. God hearts Howard's policies: Howard. (Sydney Morning Herald)
2. Nothing restores my faith in the intersection of faith and politics than another heartwarming story from Saudi Arabia. Last week an appeals court increased the punishment meted out to a gang-rape victim (perfectly understandable, of course: she was in a car with males who were not her relatives) to 200 lashes and six months in prison. (via Bartholomew's Notes on Religion)
3. And nothing restores my faith in the willingness of certain Christians to follow the example of the central figure of their religion than the openness and tolerance displayed by the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, which last week expelled a congregation for welcoming gays and lesbians. Fundies. If they're not lying for Jesus, they're hating for him. (via Morons.org)
4. Meanwhile in Britain, women are queuing up for a kind of cosmetic surgery known as "virginity repair" to appease their future spouses and in-laws. All in the name of Islamic fundamentalism. All taxpayer-funded. (Daily India)
5. The response to PBS' Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial is worth the price of admission (so to speak). (via Pharyngula)
   

Secular Believers:

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O Brother, Where Art Thou?

How many of you are old enough to remember this?




More ABC nostalgia:









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A blogger's "maiden speech"

I have a feeling that Subversive Muse will become a favoured double-click of mine. There are many--obviously including myself--who can learn something from what he has to say here:

It's noble to start a blog with intentions of changing people's opinions. That kind of idealism is something beautiful but unfortunately, rather deluded. It is in the nature of the reader to seek out information that reaffirms their beliefs, not challenges them. Aldous Huxley said that we live in a sea of island universes, perpetually separated from the experiences of others. We can share something with another person but we cannot truly place ourselves in their shoes. Still, despite our isolation, most of us are comfortable enough within ourselves and particularly, with our own personalised view of reality.

Within this view of reality, we are inherently informed about right and wrong, good and evil and beauty and ugliness. Each event in our lives moulds us into who we are and shapes what we believe. Our attitudes and values towards the world, other people and other beings all struggle to maintain their integrity. Although our lives are in a constant state of transition, we resist it. Apathy becomes the easiest option. We lose any sense of self determination, yielding to the whims of sloth, losing that childlike ability to accept things as they are, yet working to change them.

Accepting this notion, as a writer especially, is difficult. A writer, or anyone who expresses themselves through a craft, would like to believe that they act not only out of love for that craft, but out of the ability to inspire others to behave or think in a way that is out of the norm. Art is an egocentric process only in the sense that artistic work should have an impact on the world and not remain locked in a vacuum, only to be looked upon by the person who created it. So to accept that people are conservative by nature, that they will always resist your images and words, is rather depressing. It makes the author question their sense of identity, and moreover, their sense of purpose.

Merely reaffirming a reader's views is a hollow practice, in spite of the sense of camaraderie that it may foster. It's like reading books with the same plot structure over and over again. We begin to accept that a certain structure is more valid than others and then begin to get comfortable with it, forsaking everything new. Authors want to illuminate, to click with something in the reader's mind that was previously inactive and neglected. The human mind needs constant stimulus, as nothing quite compares to that little jolt of euphoria you experience when you've learned something completely and utterly new.

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My earliest clear and distinct memory meme

Bruce has sent me a toughie. I have to:

1. Describe my earliest memory where the memory is clear, and where "clear" means I can depict at least three details.
2. Give an estimate of my age at the time.
3. Tag five other bloggers with this meme.
   

When I was very young I used to share a bedroom with my younger sister. It was an upstairs bedroom in a two-storey house, and where we join the action I was lying on the upper bunk or our bunk bed. I can remember the curtains in the room, which I liked, even if--for reasons unknown--I found them a little scary. (They depicted schooners and ships.) I remember looking beyond the curtains and across the road to where a vacant lot stood. It was just bushland surrounded by houses, and there was a large rock in the middle of the lot which, if you were looking at it from my angle and vantage point, resembled a human face.

I guess that was the first time I noticed it--my sister and I would often remark upon it for years afterwards, until the lot was eventually bought and developed. I think we even tried to locate it once.

Oh great. My earliest memory turns out to be a case of pareidolia.

(By the way--I think I was about three at the time.)

I, in turn, tag Sean, Lucy, Madd McColl, Backyard Missionary and Ninglun.

Dan Dennett on the meme:
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Blatant Darwin Award

Man discovered dead in girlfriend's cat door
Wednesday Nov 14 10:00 AEDT

By ninemsn staff

A US man has been discovered dead in his girlfriend's cat door, leaving authorities confused about his exact manner of death.

The man, Charles Tucker Junior, was using the animal entry to gain access to his girlfriend's home on Sunday morning when he became stuck, News4Jax reported.

Officials said his girlfriend made the bizarre discovery only hours after she ordered him out of her house.

Speaking of Darwin, the PBS Nova special about the Kitzmiller vs. Dover case, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," will be available for viewing online from November 16.

Worth listening to is a collection of audio clips from a range of scientists and philosophers explaining what does and does not count as science. Read more!

The Reality-Based Community online

Via Pharyngula Read more!

This is probably not a good thing . . .

According to The Blog Readability Test:

Via Ozatheist. Read more!

PBS Nova special: "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial"

I can't promise anything, but docos like these "accidentally" happen to find their way onto Google Video from time to time, and you can often find out about them at onegoodmove.

The Discovery Institute has already produced a video response, labelling PBS the "Propaganda Broadcasting System" and claiming that the documentary will not be "fair and balanced." The DI's video-whine also juxtaposes black-and-white images of "anti-ID propagandist Barbara Forrest" and "Darwinian Activist Eugenie Scott" with what I can only assume is supposed to be Third Reich-era German folk music. (Because supporters of science and reason are Nazis who just want to persecute Christian Fundamentalists ID advocates.)

Ah, the Discovery Institute. Long on ad hominems and plaintive whiny rhetoric. Short on research and evidence.

BTW: I found this 2003 transcript of a Science Show interview with Eugenie Scott discussing ID/creationism and "Project Steve." Read more!

The Wonderful World of Magical Thinking XXXII

The week in fundie . . .

David Attenborough on God

A US Federal judge has ordered an anti-abortionist to remove Web site postings that "exhorted readers to kill an abortion provider by shooting her in the head" and featured the provider's name, photo and address. (via Fundies Say the Darndest Things)

Who would Jesus child-traffick?: A UK-based Christian evangelical preacher, who promised infertile Kenyan couples "miracle babies," convinced them that they were pregnant when they were not, and led them to believe that they had given birth in backstreet clinics, will be extradited back to Kenya to face five counts of child stealing. (via Fundies Say the Darndest Things)

The AP has a report on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Maldives, which in late September culminated in a nailbomb attack in a park in the capital of Male popular with tourists.

A school board in California has approved a plan to put posters declaring "In God We Trust" in every classroom. Why? Because "we need to promote patriotism and promote it in our schools. We can't just assume that the younger generations are going to have that strong love for God and their country the way the older generations do." The $12,000 that it will cost to purchase the posters will come out of that portion of the school's budget reserved for the purchase of instructional materials. Why? Because Christian proselytism and flag-waving patriotism are far more important than education. (Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Professional whiners The Catholic League have issued a warning that the film The Golden Compass could "cause unsuspecting parents to get the [His Dark Materials] books for their children. OH NOES!!! (via Pharyngula)

A schoolgirl in Illinois was given detention for hugging two of her friends. Hugging is verboten in her school because, according to school policy, it "is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved." (via Morons.org )

I wonder if this is the kind of collaboration that is being urged by some members of the Right blogosphere. Anti-gay activist Paul Cameron, whose "research" is often cited by fundamentalist groups, recently addressed a front organisation of the British Nationalist Party. (Bartholomew's Notes on Religion)

BBC Profile: Richard Dawkins
Read more!

My cricket drought

(No "Thunder Down Under" for me this year . . .)

It was always going to be difficult to follow the cricket from a country in which it is only a very minor sport (most people you ask have never heard of it), but upon attempting to access the ABC Grandstand live stream today I was informed that the stream is unavailable to listeners outside Australia.

So I will unfortunately be unable to enjoy Jim Maxwell and gang call what should be yet another easy Australian victory, as the Aussies prepare to penetrate the Sri Lankan tail (that just sounds wrong) in their second innings. (Sri Lanka are currently 5 wickets down and 122 runs behind Australia's first innings total of 4/551.)

In any case, it is good to hear that Michael Hussey (133) is coming back into form.

Seeing as you've taken enough interest in this post to click the "Read more" link, here are some more cricket-related YouTubes:

CNNNN: Australian Cricket Sledging Academy


The Underarm Incident
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Christian marriage advice

Wherein the fundie troll from this thread at Matt's Notepad deliberates upon the True Christian (TM) idea of how to build a stronger relationship between husband and wife. Basically it involves bitches getting back into kitchens.

And for a family to live harmoniously, the wife must learn to submit herself to her husband. If you want to buy a refrigerator, consult your husband first. In the first place, he is the breadwinner. If he gives his consent, then, go ahead. You may buy one. If that is the case, do you think they will still quarrel? Not anymore, because he has given her his consent. The husband is the head in the household; he is the president. If the president has approved something, the vice president also approves it. Who is the president? Ephesians 5:23—

“For the husband is the head of the wife.”

The husband is the head of his wife. Therefore, if you are the husband, but you are just the vice president in the house, that means, you do not believe in God. In a marital relationship, the husband is the head, and his wife must be under his subjection. And if a wife submits herself under the subjection of her husband, there will never be any quarrel between the two of them. If you want to visit your parents, you seek for the permission of your husband. If he consents, even if you go home late, he will not be angry with you. Who knows, he might even fetch you there. Because he loves you and because you understand each other, he might even fetch you from your parents’ house.

Just get her a burka and be done with it, FFS!

I'm reminded of this scary group, truly a testament to Christianity's sexual egalitarian bent if ever there was one. (To give you some idea of how batshit insane this outfit is, they describe secularism, humanism, liberalism and anti-Christian ideology as "the extreme left.")
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The Blanket of Faith?

(With sincere apologies to Chris)

Chris from A Churchless Faith has a great post wherein he reflects upon the debate between atheism and theism (and his own fatigue with it).

Most people don't have a problem with people who believe that aliens landed in area 51 or that the moon landing was staged because it doesn't actually impact on the way they treat other people. The big problems with religious people, as I see it, is when religious people do evil things because they believe it is what God wants. That evil stretches the spectrum from genocide to indoctrinating children in their own faith with out giving them a choice about it or denying the rights of scientists to do science.

Quite. The atheism vs. theism debate can be enlightening philosophically, but I think the struggle between critical and magical thinking is more pressing, and the struggle between theocracy and democracy more urgent still.

I did wonder about this passage, however:

I also think it is worth Xns conceding that science has more to say to faith than faith has to say to science. Faith is about a general whole of life perspective, science is about specific measurable things. Faith is like a big blanket and Science is like a knife, hitting only specific areas of the blanket. It may cut a hole in the creationism part of the blanket, but the blanket is still there, it may cut so many holes that many people consider the blanket is no longer a blanket.

This seems to me to be a rather unfortunate metaphor. If faith is like a big blanket, what purpose is the blanket supposed to serve? Is it a security blanket?

Speaking of theocracy versus democracy, Wednesday's Religion Report ran a show (which I haven't listened to yet) on "Australia's Christian Vote," featuring Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby, Fred Nile of the Christian Democrats, and Christine Milne of the Australian Greens. And this Sunday, The Spirit of Things will feature Ian Bryce, Senate candidate for the Secular Party, who will join a discussion on the societal benefits of secularism. Read more!

Could this be creationism's latest gambit?

The Discovery Institute has issued a press release challenging the constitutionality of the "Educator's Briefing Packet" for the PBS NOVA doco Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial.

"The NOVA/PBS teaching guide encourages the injection of religion into classroom teaching about evolution in a way that likely would violate current Supreme Court precedents about the First Amendment's Establishment Clause," says Dr. John West, vice president for public policy and legal affairs with Discovery Institute.

"The teaching guide is riddled with factual errors that misrepresent both the standard definition of intelligent design and the beliefs of those scientists and scholars who support the theory," adds West.

The Institute has sent the PBS teaching guide out to 16 attorneys and legal scholars for review and analysis of its constitutionality.

I don't like their chances. Have a look at the packet in question: it talks about
what science is, why biological evolution counts as science and why creationism/ID does not. It also discusses why teaching creationism/ID in the science classroom has been ruled unconstitutional time and time again. And--I suspect this is the real sticking point for the fundies who are the most vocal supporters of ID--it discusses how one can accept evolution without jettisoning one's religious beliefs.

None of this constitutes an injection of religion into the science classroom. Sorry.

BTW: How long will it be until this is blamed on us evilutionist atheists? Read more!