Posted on January 24, 2011 by Michael
Google Scholar is a useful tool for finding high quality resources. Often those resources are peer-reviewed or otherwise scholarly. It’s great. Unfortunately, there is this one little problem.
Unfortunately, somebody or some algorithm is getting a bit sloppy, and it also returns articles for Answers in Genesis, the Institute for Creation Research, and Creation Ministries International. It’s somewhat understandable — all of those institutions know deep down in their sweet stupid little hearts that rank theology has no credibility, so they do their very best to ape real science in style, if not in content.
As a result, there is an online petition to sign, for what it’s worth, to get Google to clean things up a bit. Sign it.
via PZ
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Creation Ministries International, Creation Research, Google Scholar, Petition, pz myers | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 24, 2011 by Michael
We all knew the Jets weren’t good enough to be this far anyway.
Good riddance.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Jets, Thought of the day | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 20, 2011 by Michael
Deuteronomy 18:20
But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
This wasn’t hard to find. Of course, I could have just used a search engine for nasty biblical passages, but I figured going to Biblegateway.com and searching Deuteronomy or Leviticus at random would yield the desired result. I was right.
Anyway. Remember all these nasty things God told people to do? And recall how people today excuse their particular, cultural sky fairy by saying that certain parts of the Old Testament only reflect the culture at the time? Yeah. God still told people to do awful things. So unless believers want to start arguing for moral relativism – and that’s exactly what they’re doing, whether they admit it/like it or not – then I would suggest they stop with the implicit claims that immoral acts of the past are excusable because they were carried out in a different cultural.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: God's immorality, Thought of the day | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 18, 2011 by Michael
I’ve always found myself bothered by the saying “A driver’s license is a privilege, not a right”. It’s a way for those with authority to warn drivers that they could lose their licenses at any point, so sure, it is rhetorically powerful. And, to an extent, it holds some truth. People can lose their licenses. But so what? People can lose their unfettered ability to walk around freely when they go to prison. But I doubt anyone is about to claim that we therefore don’t have the right to walk into our backyards whenever we damn well please.
So again, yes, the saying holds quite a bit of strength. But it is purely rhetorical strength. As for actual logic, it fails for the simple reason that we tend to define a right as something that is available to everyone on an equal basis (which is why marriage is a privilege where as the federal government and most state governments are concerned). Yes, there are requirements – people must pass tests. But people must also register in order to exercise their right to vote. And yes, there are ways to lose one’s license – drunk drivers do it all the time. But people also must not commit certain crimes if they want to continue walking around freely. So no, you rhetoric machines of authority, a driver’s license is not a privilege. I can get it, a Mexican can get, a woman can get it, and anyone else can get it. It is a right.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Driver's license, Thought of the day | 6 Comments »
Posted on January 16, 2011 by Michael
Atheism as a movement faces a number of issues. There is, of course, the fact that it is a purely descriptive position; it isn’t easy to gather together people with varying worldviews and philosophies. Then there’s the public vilification. If we’re to believe the attacks, atheists are arrogant and closed-minded and intolerant and bigoted and all sorts of other nasty things that are really just code for “I don’t like that atheists disagree with me”. And there are a whole host of other impediments to letting people know we exist. (Hell, even saying that we’re a part society is often received with foaming vitriol.) But one of the biggest issues I see is that of moving goal posts.
When atheists look at a specific belief to point out its flaws, why, that isn’t what most Christians believe! Or when atheists point to a widely believed idea in America’s dominant religion, why, that isn’t what True Christians believe! Or when atheists criticize so-called sophisticated theology, why, that’s just what one Christian believes!
It’s a depressingly effective strategy.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Goal posts, Thought of the day | 35 Comments »
Posted on January 13, 2011 by Michael
We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us.
~President Obama
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: President Barack Obama, Thought of the day | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 12, 2011 by Michael
I’m sitting here giving quite a bit of thought to something. But I just can’t seem to find the answer. Perhaps FTSOS readers can help:
When has the right-wing ever been right about anything?
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: The right wing is always wrong, Thought of the day | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 9, 2011 by Michael
The Bible says the meek shall inherit the Earth. My money is on bacteria.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Bacteria, Thought of the day | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 8, 2011 by Michael
Tobacco is a deadly Class A carcinogen that has no place in a pragmatic, rational society. Unfortunately, a lot this country is rather ideological. For that reason I offer a new national motto, borrowed and modified from the fine state of New Hampshire:
Live free and die.
I’m still waiting for the ideologues to explain how they’re able to spread the liberty they love so much to people who are dead.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Thought of the day, Tobacco | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 7, 2011 by Michael
Where are all the jobs?! This is a Republican economy now! They’ve been in power for over two days! Come on!
Or does the ridiculous impatience of pundits and even Americans at large not apply to this Congress?
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Republicans, Thought of the day | 1 Comment »
For the Sake of Science 