pharyngula

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/GHlMyqN6-Vw/poor_uneducated_obese_and_reli.php

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/poor_uneducated_obese_and_reli.php

What a horrible, sad waste of a life: Tillmon Webb injured his knee, couldn't afford to get it treated, and sat in a recliner for 8 months, praying for healing. His saintly (and I don't mean that in a complimentary sense) wife tended to him as he rotted to death in the chair.

"He read his Bible daily, he spent his full focus on God," said Webb. "And he was literally waiting and praying for a Job miracle. If anybody knows the Bible and knows Job, he really and fully believed that God was going to heal him just like he did Job, because he said he couldn't think of a better testimony to go out and to tell people."

I think two lives were wasted here. His wife took care of this suffering lump for 8 months — he didn't even get up to use the bathroom, and the neighbors didn't know she even had a husband — and this is her response after his death:

"If I feel anything right now, it's envy for him because I wish he had taken me with him," said Webb.

"Popular religious belief is caused by dysfunctional social conditions." Their piety didn't save them and didn't alleviate their pain or their desperate conditions — it made them worse.

after_ellen

http://www.afterellen.com/blog/alidavis/rachel-watch-rachel-puts-the-cuddler-in-a-headlock

Today: Breaking news on health care reform and Rachel interviews “ex-gay” “therapist” Richard Cohen. Yes, the cuddle guy. You want to see this.

Last week, Dr. Maddow gave us the heady rush of seeing two very smart people engaged in a thoughtful intellectual dispute.

Tuesday night, Rachel offered the somewhat more visceral pleasure of watching her tear an idiot apart.

Turns out Rachel does not suffer fools gladly when they are doing this much damage in the world. Get ready for a pile of awesome.

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after_ellen

http://www.afterellen.com/people/2009/12/michelle-boyaner-barbara-green

undented

http://undented.com/news/2146/two-more-solo-video-surface-on-culture-jam

Culture Jam is offering videos of Tori performing four songs from Midwinter Graces — “Jeanette, Isabella,” “Star of Wonder,” “A Silent Night With You” and “Pink and Glitter” — as well as an electronic press kit about the album in exchange for a little social networking. By connecting your Facebook account to Tori’s facebook or letting them post a tweet to your Twitter account, you’ll be able to view these clips.

“A Silent Night With You” and “Pink and Glitter” have already surfaced on Yahoo and AOL Music and the EPK is cribbed from the video interview included in the deluxe edition of the album so the other two songs are the new additions.

pharyngula

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/3Au4nSjGV28/last_night_of_freedom.php

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/last_night_of_freedom.php

I hate to tell you this, but tomorrow I'll be switching required registration back on. There are far too many spammers and trolls hitting the place right now.

undented

http://undented.com/news/2143/bizarre-magazine-interview-december-2009

This time of year if you’re in our hemisphere is about the re-birth of light. But light means knowledge, light means consciousness. Everybody can attain that and have that in their life. Consider the idea that it’s inner God. It’s in every child that’s born; every child carries this ability within them. And I like that sentiment.

In the lull between the European and Australian legs of the Sinful Attraction tour, Eleanor Goodman interviewed Tori for Bizarre Magazine and the article was published in their December issue and also made available on their website today. While somewhat outside the Bizarre’s usual fare, the piece is still a good one with some new tidbits about Midwinter Graces. Additionally, Tori also discussed her continuing friendship with Neil Gaiman, her thoughts on Amanda Palmer, the possibility of working with Kate Bush and the latest on The Light Princess.

undented

http://undented.com/news/2142/keyboard-interview-december-2009

This is not a shocking album. In fact, the shocking thing about this record is that there’s nothing shocking on it. I don’t have that hidden track called, “She’s A Hussy, Merry Christmas.” At the start, Doug said to me, “Tori, you’ve proven yourself. You’ve shocked us enough for many lifetimes, so can you just do something beautiful and ephemeral?” And I said, “Yeah, I can do that.”

Tori is the cover story for the December issue of Keyboard and the feature interview is up on their website. In the long article, Tori and Michael Gallant discuss the usual topics regarding Midwinter Graces but in the greater depth that a longer piece allows for. Additionally, they get into some of the technical aspects of producing and recording the album which hasn’t really been discussed in other interviews.

Thanks to Devin for pointing us to this excellent piece!

undented

http://undented.com/news/2141/recapping-the-etown-holiday-show

We covered the setlist of last night’s eTown Holiday Show taping on Twitter and while things got a little mixed up at times it’s all sorted out eventually.

Tori’s set included “Lady in Blue,” “Star of Wonder,” “Silent All These Years,” “A Silent Night With You,” “Gold Dust,” “Pink and Glitter” and “Winter.” There was an interview segment as well during which Tori chatted with the show’s host, Nick Forster, about the background of Midwinter Graces and told an amusing anecdote about Tash. At the end, Tori joined Loudon Wainwright III and The eTones, the eTown house band, for a performance of “Children, Go Where I Send Thee.”

Several folks have already added their thoughts about the evening to the page for this show in the Tour section. If you were in attendance and would like to share your opinion of the performance, please do so!

If you care to, you can also read these reviews of the evening’s proceedings from The Bowery Presents and NY Press.

The show was recorded for the episode of eTown slated to be broadcast between December 23rd to 29th. eTown is carried by many radio stations in North America, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and, of course, the Internet. Additionally, the show is podcast so any and all should be able to listen to this performance once it is available.

undented

http://undented.com/news/2140/pitchfork-disgraces-midwinter-graces

Every year around this time, Pitchfork skewers the worst album covers from the past twelve months on their trident and, as you might have guessed from this article’s title, Midwinter Graces has landed on their 2009 list. It’s all the way down at the bottom — not sure if that makes it #1 or #20 — with the quip, “Just take that Final Fantasy cutscene and run with it, girl!” Perhaps not the jab we’d make but, well, let’s just say the cover wouldn’t make our Best Covers of 2009 list.

Thanks to Astred and the others who brought this to our attention.

pharyngula

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/GZZRUMC6zck/we_macho_atheists_need_a_littl.php

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/we_macho_atheists_need_a_littl.php

I was reading this condescending article by Stephen Prothero that, as usual, chastises the New Atheists for being so danged rude, and I thought I'd have to take time to slap him around a bit. His point is that the reason we're so rude is that we're all arrogant white men, and if only we had more women around, we'd be more sensitive and sweet and nice and gentle, and although he doesn't say it directly, we'd probably also have more lace doilies and wouldn't cuss so much.

I'm spared the effort, since Amanda Marcotte, godless firebrand and possessor of two X chromosomes in every cell, has rudely pointed out that a) it's insulting to insinuate that women are going to be more tolerant of nonsense, and b) niceness isn't a factor in resolving truth claims, anyway.

There are a fair number of outspoken women active in atheism, and none of them are the kind of genteel belles Prothero seems to be imagining he can push around. Ophelia Benson? Greta Christina? Maybe I should introduce him to my daughter for a good disemboweling.

pharyngula

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/dB5tggXA60g/science_cookies.php

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/science_cookies.php

I don't know about this. It's a page of science-themed cookies, and although I like the sentiment, and they certainly are pretty, little alarm bells go off in my head when I see cookies decorated up like gels. I've had to tell students not to eat the acrylamide, it's toxic. And the cookies that look like streaked petri dishes…oh, horrors! Don't eat the random colonies of bacteria, either!

after_ellen

http://www.afterellen.com/blog/thelinster/shonda-rhimes-explains-why-arizona-got-the-girl

Love it or hate it, Grey’s Anatomy changed television.

That may seem an overstatement, since Grey’s isn’t in the category of the dramas usually referred to as transformational — The Sopranos, Mad Men or Six Feet Under, for example. But in terms of pop culture, the influence of the show is obvious every time someone says, “Seriously?” or refers to an essential part of the body as the “va-jay-jay.”

Sure, Grey’s often is infuriating, but that’s just proof that we have an emotional investment in the characters and their stories. And for that, we have to thank Shonda Rhimes, who was chosen as one of TV Guide’s “Players” — the people who made the decade’s best TV.

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pharyngula

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/MQ7KNgollU8/kings_and_queens_of_the_ther.php

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/kings_and_queens_of_the_ther.php

We are the New Atheists. We do not, however, like the name — ask any of us, and we'll tell you that there's nothing new about our atheism — all we're doing is speaking out about godlessness. I've talked to a lot of the so-called New Atheists, including some of the biggest big shots in this movement, and what do they do when they hear the term? Roll their eyes and shrug. We only grudgingly accept the term, not because we find it agreeable, but because it is imposed on us by a clueless media and an even more ignorant body of theists.

Weirdly, I'm now hearing more and more about something called Atheism 3.0, and unbelievably, they are using the term unironically, as if they really think they have something new to offer, some advance over the "Old Atheism," whatever that was, and the "New Atheism," misnomer that it is, and deserve a moniker that implies a new bump in the version number. I would like to remind the proponents of Atheism 3.0 of two things: they're offering nothing new, either, and a version increment isn't always a good thing. I remember Mac Word 5.0, which was a clean and simple thing of beauty, and Mac Word 6.0, which was an abomination, a hideous slug of a program that should have been aborted and the mewling, squirming undead fetus incinerated. I kind of feel the same way about this New New Atheism.

Atheism 3.0 is, as I said, nothing new. It's been around as long as atheism has, and there's a much better and far more descriptive term for it: "Atheism But." As in, "I'm an atheist, but I think religion is a wonderful institution (usually for someone else, just not me.)" It's atheism for people who don't like atheism, or who want to neuter atheism so it doesn't challenge a pious status quo, or have this condescending idea that the rest of society is dumber than they are, and needs the palliative of unreasoning faith. The New Atheists, as much as we detest the title, at least offer an honest, open integrity about their ideas; these guys seem to be more interested in hiding the significance of the nonexistence of gods so they can hide behind a façade of superficial religiosity, and appeal to a waffly, wishy-washy middle ground.

Greg Epstein, one of the most conciliatory members of the Atheist But brigade, even goes so far as to praise Rick Warren's awful little book.

Epstein argues in his forthcoming book, "Good without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe," that morality does not depend on a judgmental deity and that nonbelievers can lead meaningful, even purpose-driven, lives. But they can also learn from people of faith, such as California megachurch pastor and "Purpose Driven Life" author Rick Warren, Epstein says.

Warren's best-selling book basically says that "you have to have a purpose in life bigger than yourself, and that not everything is all about you," said Epstein. "And he's absolutely right about that. But he's wrong in saying that you have to believe in Jesus Christ and if you don't you're going to hell for eternity."

Have you ever read The Purpose Driven Life? (You can read the first seven chapters for free, not that I recommend this drivel). It's ghastly. It is Rick Warren stating with absolute certainty the intent and needs of an omnipotent being, which just happens to be that the most important mission you have in life is to be his personal slave. Oh, and the unwritten subtext is that since Rick Warren has such clarity of understanding of this ineffable and inconsistent being, you'd best listen carefully to Rick Warren. It is a wretchedly evil little book that represents all the misbegotten inanity of religion: the claims of divine knowledge, the demands that followers be subservient to the deity, and the charlatanry of making promises of strength, prosperity, happiness, and immortality to everyone who obeys the words of the prophet.

Atheists should not respect this book, and they should not encourage others to appreciate its message…except in the sense of acknowledging the effectiveness of propaganda and the adept sleight of hand of the professional con artist. An Atheist But can babble about learning from Rick Warren, but an atheist will simply tell you that all you can learn is what not to do.

What the Atheist Buts are trying to do is occupy a middle ground, compromising with religion to find an illusory magic mean. They're all but indistinguishable from another group, the God Buts. These are people who don't use the word atheism at all, but instead preach a nebulous version of religion that has no relationship to any established religion — instead, they want you to accept the virtues of simply believing in…something. Anything. If you told them you worshipped the transcendant god personified by the earthly presence of Mickey Mouse, they wouldn't question you in the slightest. Deny god, though, and suddenly you're treated as shrill, militant, and strident.

One of the eminent God Buts is Karen Armstrong, who I've laughed at before. Another is Robert Wright, who is becoming increasingly shrill, militant, and strident himself in his criticisms of New Atheists. This is a telling point, too: these defenders of religion never seem to get as riled up about the ranting fundamentalists as they do a few outspoken atheists. Wright's latest is full of fury and claims that the atheists are doomed, also citing a familiar complain: atheists are hurting the cause!

And this year doubts about that mission have taken root among the New Atheists' key demographic: intellectuals who aren't religious and aren't conservative. Even on the secular left, the alarming implications of the "crusade against religion" are becoming apparent: Though the New Atheists claim to be a progressive force, they often abet fundamentalists and reactionaries, from the heartland of America to the Middle East.

If you're a Midwestern American, fighting to keep Darwin in the public schools and intelligent design out, the case you make to conservative Christians is that teaching evolution won't turn their children into atheists. So the last thing you need is for the world's most famous teacher of evolution, Richard Dawkins, to be among the world's most zealously proselytizing atheists. These atmospherics only empower your enemies.

So, we have a rising tide of liberal secularists who dislike atheists…wait, no we don't. These are the same old conciliatory apologists who have been around for ages, the Atheist Buts. A chorus of whining from the nags and scolds who are ashamed of atheism isn't going to dissuade anyone, although Wright may find comfort in it.

That last paragraph, though, is the crux of the problem. Children might leave the faith of their fathers, and this is a horrible, evil, scary possibility, since, after all, atheists are monsters. What we should do is ask all those scary atheists to go hide their scary faces so the God Buts and the God Firsts and even the Atheist Buts can continue to freely demonize them. Only Good Christians should be promoting evolution. That Dawkins can be both an atheist and a scientist, and even worse, explains that science led to his atheism, is going to empower creationists.

Bullshit.

Evolution has implications about how the world works. If you deny them, if you pretend evolution is cheerily compatible with the god-is-a-loving-creator nonsense religions peddle, you aren't teaching evolution. You are pouring more mush into the brains of young people. If you are a conservative Christian, it's entirely understandable that you would fight evolution, because the truth does not favor your position. If you are a moderate Christian, you are not helping science education by enabling fear of atheism by continuing to lie to people, assuring them that science isn't going to challenge their religious beliefs. It will, or the teachers are doing it wrong.

Unfortunately, Wright's message is that we can't challenge religion.

All the great religions have shown time and again that they're capable of tolerance and civility when their adherents don't feel threatened or disrespected. At the same time, as some New Atheists have now shown, you don't have to believe in God to exhibit intolerance and incivility.

Flip it around; that's an admission that the religions feel intolerance is justified when they're not coddled and respected. That's part of the problem, too. I don't respond well to extortion from god-bothering zealots, sorry. What the New Atheists (who are the same as the old atheists) have shown, though, is that they can be subjected to generations of intolerance and to continued denigration by people like Wright, who think their call for atheists to be silent and modest is a liberal attitude, and yet we manage to cope without resorting to violence or threats to shut up our critics. That's something the apologists for faith need to learn, too: religion should be strong enough to stand against academic rudeness and mockery without this pathetic bleating for shelter from skepticism. It's easy to be tolerant and civil when you've compelled everyone to be agreeable with you; the challenge is to do the same when you're being denounced.

All the Atheist Buts and God Buts are missing the key point, too. We don't care if you think religion is good for you, or if you love your faith, or if you think rituals are lovely, or if believers have done good in history, or if a lack of praise for Jesus irritates the Baptists. That's not the issue. The central, fundamental question is whether anyone has any reasonable evidence for the existence of any gods, especially the gods that everyone is so busy propitiating. You haven't got any? Then we'll continue pointing out that you're chasing leprechauns, no matter how annoying you find it. It's the truth. Argue against that with evidence — anything else is fluff and noise.

They can't do that, though. They've decided that they can't compete on that ground, and instead have rushed to occupy a meaningless middle…an intellectually empty wasteland with no approximation to the truth, only a comforting distance from the real crazies of the devout. They're nothing but the lords of vapor, the kings and queens of the æther, too frightened by the retreating ghosts of old myths to join us in reality.

after_ellen

http://www.afterellen.com/blog/stuntdouble/gossip-girl-facebook-recap-how-serena-stole-thanksgiving-and-the-bass-stole-christmas

You guys, we have so much to talk about! I'm sorry I missed the recap last week, but I sustained a knock on the noggin, and everyone was nattering around me, but all I could think of was how I was there and you were here and no one was talking about how Blair and Serena are so in love! I mean, they almost flew to Paris to rekindle their passion!

But then: A pack of wolves! A car accident! Trip leaves Serena for dead! Chuck's parents return from the dead! (Am I over-punctuating? I don't care! I love this show so much!)

Fasten your seatbelts; here's two weeks worth of Facebook recaps!

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fatpie42
atheism

The Catholic Information further reveals that Christian Organizations are alarmed over the Bill. For example, among others, the Executive Council of the Anglican Church in Canada voted unanimously to oppose the Bill, that it is a “fundamental violation of human rights”. That 17th November was dedicated as international day for prayer on the issue. They are challenging their sympathizer, Archbishop (of Canterbury) Rowan to give his comment and stop it.

It is indeed appalling to read of all these and the agitation there in. It is indeed deplorable that humanity has or is nearing extinction just like the time of Noah and the flood in the Book of Genesis chapters 6 and 7. Yes the Lord Jesus prophesied of the last days that people will be lovers of self. Truly, humans have natural evil bent. They are bent to evil by nature. Laws, rules, commandments are in place geared towards saving man from own direction and destruction.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has elected a lesbian as assistant bishop, the second openly gay bishop in the global Anglican fellowship, which is already deeply fractured over the first.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, said Sunday that the choice raised "very serious questions" for the divided church and urged restraint.

The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.

after_ellen

http://www.afterellen.com/blog/dorothysnarker/tv-alert-better-off-ted-returns-with-boss-lady-portia-de-rossi

Fans of weaponized pumpkins, rejoice. Better Off Ted returns tonight to start its second season. The ABC comedy about the wacky world of mega corporation showcases the lovely, hilarious and perfectly power-suited Portia de Rossi.

The comedy explores the fictitious Veridian Dynamics, an enormous company which strives to make everything from meatless beef to a cure for male pattern baldness and, yes, weaponized pumpkins. The promo for the premiere gives you a taste of the show’s fast-paced, zany brand of satire.

The Ted from the title is head of research and development (played by Jay Harrington) and Portia plays his ice queen boss Veronica. What she lacks in social graces she makes up for in ridiculous bluntness and that perfect coif. Seriously, I haven’t seen a bun that tight since I finally threw away that old VHS of Buns of Steel.

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