Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 25th, 2010
At this point you are probably well aware of tomorrow’s Boobquake, in which women (and any chubby men that feel like participating) will flaunt their breasts to test an Iranian cleric’s theory that immodest dress causes earthquakes. However, if you look carefully, his claim is slightly different: The prayer leader, Hojatoleslam Kazim Sadeghi, says women [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 25th, 2010
Having settled the whole Irish abuse situation to everyone’s satisfaction, Pope Benedict has shifted his focus back to the delicate interplay between science and religion: There is no opposition between faith and science, says Benedict XVI, who proposed the example of St. Albert the Great to illustrate this truth. Well, of course! What better way [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 11th, 2009
You probably think you’ve heard them all. Lifeguard at the sewage plant. Public school teacher. Dick Cheney’s hunting buddy. Bill collector for Dr. Kevorkian. Oakland Raiders assistant coach. Well, now there’s a new one to add to the list: Vatican astronomer. Sure, the hours are OK, and Rome is full of easily-charmed young women, and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 9th, 2009
It’s tough being a religion teacher these days, what with the kids and their “hard-headed empiricism” and schooling in “scientific methods.” And when you try and teach them about “the intangible,” why, they think it’s all “fortune-telling and ghosts,” just like they see on the television and the internets! That’s why you can’t just assume [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 8th, 2009
If you’ve ever cracked open the Bible, you’ve probably noticed that it’s full of things that everyone knows don’t actually happen, like firmaments and creationism and virgin births and miracle burning bushes. Fearful that people might use this as occasion to, you know, disbelieve in the Bible, creative Bible-believers have created the Message-Incident Principle: That [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Aug 18th, 2009
Rod Dreher spent two months this summer getting wined and dined by the Templeton Foundation, and is celebrating by featuring in his Dallas Morning News RELIGION Blog (shouting in the original) a sampling of a wide variety of RELIGIOUS luminaries making the case for “why science should talk to religion.” It is quite a long [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Aug 10th, 2009
Over in the USA Today, BioLogos bigwigs Giberson and Falk continue their ongoing mission to debase science. Their recipe for the “compatibility” of science and religion consists of two teeny-weeny modifications to the scientific method: 1. Observation is not a reliable way of gathering data: Putting modern scientific ideas into [the Bible] distorts the meaning [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 27th, 2009
Hey, look who’s posting on the BioLogos blog. It’s Unscientific America authors Mooney and Kirshenbaum, writing about the “supposed ‘conflict’ between science and religion” (and endorsing BioLogos founder Francis Collins, although it’s conceivable that this endorsement was merely a requirement to get the post published on the BioLogos blog). Based on the square quotes (and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 18th, 2009
Generally, I try to avoid debates on topics that contain more than 14 letters. Today I will make a rare exception. You see, there’s a new book, Unscientific America, arguing that scientific illiteracy threatens our future. I have no doubt this is true. Just last weekend I wore my Maxwell’s Equations T-shirt out to a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 9th, 2009
SF424 Application for Federal Assistance DATE: July 9, 2009 APPLICANT: Joel Grus CONTACT: your.religion.is.false -at- gmail.com NAME OF FEDERAL AGENCY: National Institutes of Health DESCRIPTIVE TITLE OF PROJECT: “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls”: Religious Implications of Hydrological Phenomena ESTIMATED PROJECT FUNDING: $30 million ARE HUMAN SUBJECTS INVOLVED? yes ARE VERTEBRATE ANIMALS USED? yes DOES THIS PROJECT [...]
