Good stuff from the tubes

First, a tribute to Christopher Hitchens… speaks for itself. Go Hitch!

And the full PBS documentary on the Dover trial. Just watched it, it is pretty thorough, with lots of evolutiony goodness.

A grain of Sault

While I’m always disappointed to hear people taking creationism/intelligent design seriously, it does represent an opportunity to challenge ignorance masquerading as open-mindedness.

A biophysicist and controversial proponent of intelligent design will speak at Algoma University next week.
Kirk Durston, a Canadian academic who heads a Christian group called the New Scholars Society, will present a pair of lectures Tuesday.

So if you’re in the Sault next week, and you have the time, there will be a question period… hopefully someone will ask some good questions.

Trudeau is “bad Catholic”, Del Mastro is just bad

It’s rare that a conversation about religion enters the halls of federal Parliament, at least insofar as the beliefs of our MPs are concerned. We don’t, for example, see members of Parliament standing up and demanding re-affirmations that we keep “God keep our land glorious and free” as part of the national anthem. We’ve got more important things to do – like rush through crappy and ineffective legislation. But my sniping at Darth Harper aside, we don’t really spend a lot of time and energy discussing religious matters at that level. It’s that fact that made this story particularly interesting:

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau says he is upset and offended by a Tory MP who publicly questioned his adherence to the Catholic faith and his suitability to speak to students at a Catholic school. Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, said on Facebook last month that it was “outrageous” the Catholic school board in Peterborough, Ont. had invited Trudeau to speak for a second time in three years.

“If they are looking for a truly great speaker, who also happens to be Catholic, perhaps they might invite [Immigration] Minister Jason Kenney,” Mr. Del Mastro wrote on Oct. 12. “Are there any tenets of the Catholic faith that Justin supports?”

Let’s hope there are very few. Maybe only the generic ones that are common to all religions (or is to too much to ask that Trudeau also thinks that faith is a bad idea too?).

Trudeau’s response was telling as well: More >

Coyne v. Haught

Debates are always such fun, but sometimes people get their noses out of joint and it ends badly. This is what seems to have occurred between Jerry Coyne and John Haught

First there was the debate. Then after the debate, Haught refused to let the video of the debate be released. Coyne made a stink about this, and this led to public outrage. Now the video has been released. Haught says he agreed to the filming, but not to releasing it on the internet, and he accuses Coyne of ad hominem attacks.

While I don’t agree with Coyne’s position (I’m a happy accommodater and I think Coyne oversimplifies not only theology but also science’s reliance on falsification) I’m also somewhat at a loss to explain what set Haught off.

It may be that he views Coyne’s directness and bluntness as improper somehow, but after viewing the debate my only assessment is that both seem to be by numbers, with their arguments.

Ho hum, tempest in a teacup… what do you think?

A Shorter Education…

It still bothers me that modern areas of the world can be so culturally behind the times. Shorter University in Georgia is forcing over 200 employees to sign a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” that rejects drug use, premarital sex, and homosexuality. This is apparently within the confines of the legal system (for now) because the university is not publicly funded. Employees who chose not to sign the statement could risk losing their job. More >