Science vs Religion

Physics Rap

This is from an article over at MSNBC:

EAST LANSING, Michigan - Who says science doesn't turn people on? Kate McAlpine is a rising star on YouTube for her rap performance — about high-energy particle physics.

Her performance has drawn a half-million views so far on YouTube.

The 23-year-old Michigan State University graduate and science writer raps about the Large Hadron Collider, the groundbreaking particle accelerator that has been built in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.

Follow the link to read more but the best part is the video itself:

Rocket Man

The Jetsons are here in the 21st century at last. Or maybe it's a super hero. The music that was put on it is absolutely perfect.

When the new century broke my complaint was "Where are the flying cars? They promised me flying cars!" Apparently I wasn't the only one because someone did a commercial that said just that with the commander of Deep Space 9. But in thinking about it there are inherent problems with flying, whether in a car or a jet pack. What if the power gives out? Of course you will plummet to your death, but imagine that there are as many flying cars as there are cars right now? We would have a dozen cars falling every day, causing all kinds of damage when they hit.

So there will be no flying cars or jet packs in everyday usage until they solve that little problem.

Science Kills People

Ben Stein, a truly evil little man. Thanks to Pharyngula for bringing this video to my attention.

Expelled

There is a new film out called Expelled, a terrible propaganda piece that is complete lies from beginning to end. It's a film by Ben Stein, a very intelligent and well educated person who believes the absurdity that evolution is not true and is willing to blatantly lie in a movie to make his point.

PZ Myers implores everyone to put a link on their site to another site called Expelled Exposed.

Vjack on Atheist Revolution also asks all atheists to oppose this film. At first he thought we should all ignore it and not give it any publicity:

With Expelled, creationists are deliberately trying to mislead the public by making the foundation of modern biology seem controversial when it is not. By dressing creationism up in scientific clothing, they seek to present it as a valid hypothesis which mainstream science is neglecting. Rather than openly complaining that science is destroying their religiously-derived worldview, they find it necessary to pretend that mainstream science is somehow biased against their "scientific" alternative.

Make no mistake, ID (Intelligent Design) is not a scientific theory, it is not science at all and has no place in a science classroom in any way and never did. It is purely creationist propaganda that they hope to sneak in by fooling people into thinking that presenting both sides is only fair. It is only fair to present both sides in a science classroom - if it's science! If it is religion it does not belong in a science class. Vjack goes on to explain an even more alarming reason to oppose this movie:

I am also worried that Expelled both reflects and may help fuel bigotry toward atheists. By attempting to link Darwin, atheism, fascism, and even the Holocaust, we end up with an anti-atheist hate film as well as a pro-creationist propaganda film. This is truly a Christian extremist's wet dream!

So that is the worst of it, Stein equates Social Darwinism such as what the Nazis believed, with actual evolutionary science and equates Darwinism with atheism. I find this incredibly ironic in that the only people today who still believe in Social Darwinism are the rich, right wingers like Stein, who feel the poor deserve to die from illness if they can't afford health insurance. In other words, the rich are rich because they earned it, and the poor are poor because they deserve to be. Social survival of the fittest.

Kansas Classroom

Here is a great cartoon on the state of our education these days thanks to the fundie, science and knowledge haters. Click once on the image to get a larger view that is more readable:

One Great Blog

The name probably looks intimidating but don't let it bother you. This is what it means: "Ballard (1981) coined the term "pharyngula" to refer to the embryo that has developed to the phyolotypic stage, when it posesses the classic vertebrate bauplan." The tag line under the log, in case it's too small to see is: "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal."

See? Very simple. This is a science blog run by a biology professor but is really much more of a social commentary about the state of America today.

Take this interesting article which is about why you have to register with the government to buy a chemistry beaker in some states but any idiot can buy a gun without registering it at all.

Or this one: An almost biblical curse about a very tragic case of inbreeding in a small Mormon community that believes in polygamy.

This one is about Paul Hill, who murdered an abortion doctor outside his clinic:

" Behold, Paul Hill Days.

A couple of deranged Christian organizations are planning to send their members to Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the end of July to thump about like a gang of gumbies, bellowing about what a good man Paul Hill was. God's man. A hero. A martyr.

And to crown this exercise in lunacy and poor taste, they're planning a reenactment of the murders."

It's truly amazing that there are people who think it's a good idea to celebrate a murderer, and that reenacting the murders is a fun day.

The whole blog is filled with these gems and is really worth a look. Back in the day the hippies used to say that our society was sick, they were right but we were downright sane back then compared to America in the 21st century.

I'm sure glad the iPhone will be out soon to cheer me up, though I probably won't be getting one for a couple of years, since I just signed up for 2 more years at Verizon with 2 new free phones. Hopefully in 2 years the iPhone will be even better, more affordable, and - wishful thinking - Cingular will have become a provider worth having. Or maybe a competitor will come up with a phone almost as good that sells only for Verizon. Sounds like a great idea for Palm or LG, because right now Cingular would have to pay me to use their service, and if it wasn't a whole lot of money I'd still turn them down. Which means I can be bought but I'm not cheap.

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON?

The whole article can be found here. This is outrageous and disgusting that science and knowledge should be usurped by an administration with a religious agenda. I'm surprised they aren't required to say the Earth is flat, after all, the bible says it has four corners.

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY — Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology

Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”