Avatar: Story of the Satanic Blue Cat People

This article was on the top banner of the Seattle PI website at lunch time today. Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll says Avatar is the most demonic movie he has ever seen. Regardless of what you think of the movie, I love this story getting exposure. I think it make him look ridiculous. Not that this tactic of using pop culture icons as a rallying point is new. As was pointed out I in the comments, it used to be the smurfs that were evil.

Evolution Fallacy Seminar

I wasn't able to attend the Seminar that mentioned earlier in the week, but they were kind enough to post the audio on the church website very expeditiously. I haven't heard it yet, but I may give it a little listen if I get time.

Fear of the Beast

Despite their claims to have the 'truth', confidence of salvation and hope in the soon return of Jesus, Adventists are still terrified of the Catholic Church and end time events. This is of course a puzzling contradiction. Are you looking forward to the end of the earth or not? I don't really expect it to make sense, nor do I feel like dwelling on it. I was forwarded an email with the latest chapter that is fueling the conspiracy fears. Of course President Obama is involved.

Apparently when President Obama met with the Pope at the time of the G-8 summit he mentioned his latest encyclical which is was summarized by Hope TV as follows:

1. A Global Government. The pope is calling for a "true world political authority" to fix the problems that plague the world. (page 67)

2. Church and State. The pope says this new political authority will make its decisions based on spiritual values. (Chapter 5)

3. The Papacy at the Head. These spiritual values cannot be derived from just any religion, since not "all religions are equal." (p 55)

4. Religion, Politics and the Economy. The church must influence all areas of society since God must have "a place in the public realm, specifically in regard to its cultural, social, economic, and particularly its political dimensions." (56)

5. Power to Enforce Law. This "political authority" must have real teeth" and "be vested with the effective power" to enforce its laws around the world. (67)

6. Control Buying and Selling. The new world governing power will institute socialistic policies for government to redistribute wealth. (chapter 3)

7. Resurgence of Labor Unions. Labor Unions are to be empowered to "play a decisive role" in the new world order. (23)

8. The Church's Goal. Pope Benedict says that this encyclical is to help achieve "The goal of the history of the human family" - to build "the universal city of God ." (7)

9. Redefining Religious Liberty. While claiming not "to interfere in any way in the politics of States," the pope redefined "liberty" as happening when the world obeys laws shaped by the Roman Church's spiritual values. According to the pope, as the church influences states to enforce its view of "truth" on others, people are set "free." "This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce." (9)

10. Immortal Souls. The non-biblical belief that man has an immortal soul helps to insure the pope's global agenda. "Man is ... God's creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul." (29)

Better start stockpiling your food and guns now. This is clearly a more dire warning of the end times than all the previous 'sure' signs /end snark/.

SDA Creationism: The Origin of Young Earth Creationism in the USA.

Last weekend there was a big Evolutionary Biology conference at the University of Chicago. Among the speakers was Ron Numbers a former Seventh-Day Adventist. (Summary of his talk on Pharyngula) He mentioned something I had not known before. According to the talk the old earth creationism ideas of day/age and gap theory were the standard positions in the United States outside of Adventism until the 1960's. At the time there was a book written called The Genesis Flood which borrowed the SDA idea developed by Ellen White follower George MacReady Price - the Noah's flood was responsible for the entire geologic column. Since most of Christianity regarded Adventism as a cult, the SDA notion of a young earth wasn't widely accepted until introduced to mainstream Christianity by the non-Adventist who wrote The Genesis Flood.

Maybe this is common knowledge and I wasn't aware due to the fact that I was on the inside of the Adventist system. I just had know idea that the SDA church was the lone reservoir of special pseudo-science for so long.
_______________________________________________

On a related note there was a special Creation Sabbath sermon here on October, 24. I didn't get to stay and listen, but I was hoping the audio would get posted. Looks like maybe I'll never get to see what I missed.

Yes on R-71

Awhile back there was a law passed in Washington State (SB 5688) that would give same-sex partners the same basic civil rights as other married people just not the name 'marriage'. There was really scandalous and disturbing stuff in this law. Things like inheritance rights and visitation rights {eyes rolling}. Obviously it was met with heated opposition by bigots terrified by the fading power of their patriarchy. The law was supposed to have gone into effect in July 2009, but the haters managed to get enough signature - due in part to dubious tactics - to put it back on the ballot for the November election.

My voters guide came in the mail last week. I read the arguments for and against R-71. I found it interesting tough not surprising that the only organizations listed as being in opposition are religious.

I'm mailing my ballot today marked Yes on R-71.

Even More SDA Creationism

I was poking around the internet to see if I could find some info on the new pastor here when I came an interesting group working hard to destroy good biology instruction in Adventist Schools. I always thought I got pretty good education in the SDA system, in every area but biology. Hopefully their little petition (which the new pastor here signed) doesn't get much attention.

Not that the general conference needs any help focusing on creationism. Two articles in the latest Adventist World are devoted to focusing on literal biblical creationism. In addition to the links I posted earlier. This one is especially disturbing. It encourages parents to confront teachers and report them to the administration if they disagree with the things they teach. This could be ugly.

Expelled Rant

It feels a little self indulgent to whine and complain in public, but I don't think I'm the first person with a blog to vent. So here I am crying, "OMG someone wasn't nice to me on the internet."

I'm facebook friends with some people I went to school with, but who I don't know that well. For some reason this last week I got several status updates and associated comments appreciating the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The timing is kind of strange since the theatrical release was over a year ago and the DVD was released last October. In the interest of full disclosure I admit I haven't seen the movie and I'm not sure I will. I do feel like I have a pretty good idea of the content from reading many blogs and reviews, including opinions from several of the people interviewed for the movie and from reputable mainstream sources like Scientific American, Roger Ebert and the New York Times. I'm also aware of some of the entertaining events that occurred at a screening. Anyway, back to the story . . . As I normally do when encounter some Expelled love, I posted a link to Expelled Exposed. Nothing more. A person that I don't know but somehow connected in the facebook universe replies with:

Seriously. Every thinking person should watch this film. Here is a pretty good collection of rebuttals to Expelled Exposed:
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/02/expelled_exposed_exposed_your.html

While it really wasn't anything to get excited about, I resent the baseless assertion that I am not a thinking person. I may not be a thinking person, but that is not evidence by the fact that I don't agree with this stranger's appreciation for dishonest and inflammatory film making. I did not reply, but I did go to the link provided to see the 'refutation' of Expelled Exposed. What do I find? Casey Luskin. Oh well, at least now I know which of the two of us debaters has bothered
to learn a little something about science.

End of rant. Hopefully both my readers will help my fragile ego and tell me I'm really not an unthinking Darwin worshiping Nazi so I can regain my confidence and carry on the good fight for good science.

Some SDA Anti-Science

2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species". The occasion is being marked by a year long celebration of science and reason around the world. It is also being used as an opportunity for promoting creationism.

Apparently the SDA church is planning a Sabbath for special emphasis on creation in October. Not much detail at this point, but it looks like they will be consciously avoiding uncomfortable details like facts and evidence.

"This isn't to enter into a debate on evolution versus creation, but to emphasize God as our creator"

I'll have to see if the local church gets involved with this. It might be worth checking out. I'm probably to timid to actually say anything though, but somebody should. In promoting their anti-scientific agenda they distort reality to an astonishing degree. "

The major influence of Darwin's work was to separate God from the world"

Spoken like someone who has little concept of evolution. I think that Darwin's work has had a major influence on modern medicine and agriculture, but it seems that those things are not significant.

In another example (scroll down) we see Adventist again misunderstanding or misrepresenting evolution.

"Evolutionism is not a physical science where you ... observe data and you come up with a hypothesis to explain what you have observed."

There is an extensive list of examples to
contradict this statement. Tiktaalik is just one. There are probably better ones I'm not aware of as a non-biologist. Just another instance of people changing definitions around fit their beliefs.

Surprise, More Religious Hate

There was a plane crash over the weekend in Montana. A tragedy where 14 people died. A number of them were Seventh-Day Adventist, which brings the events somewhat close to home for me, but isn't really motivation to blog about it. What is somewhat interesting is the ridiculous about of religious hate and self-superiority that has come in the aftermath. Some smug, self-righteous, sad excuse for a human in Hanford, CA (also a location that hits close to home) is reveling is the horrible loss suffered by one family in particular. Irving M. "Bud" Feldkamp III an Adventist Dentist and businessman lost 7 children and grandchildren in the crash. The trigger for the hatred was that Dr. Feldkamp may be the owner of a chain of abortion clinics. His ownership is alleged by those rejoicing in his misfortune, but I couldn't confirm his exact involvement by what I considered to be a reputable source.

This is one flavor of Christianity raging against another somewhat different flavor. Add this episode to your file, for when someone makes claims for religion's benefit to society.

Just for Fun

If you are one of those people that is immune to detecting sarcasm, you
probably shouldn't follow this link to 50 Reason I Reject Evolution.
(yes, I stole this from pharyngula)

Everyone Should Read the Bible

For awhile now David Plotz has been writing a series for Slate called Blogging the Bible. From time to time I'd check in on it because I enjoyed his revulsion at some new atrocity that he had discovered. I also really like the honest searching that he, as a non-religious Jew, was doing into his heritage. I respected his hope for something noble to be found in the powerful cultural force that is the Bible.

Now that he has completed the project, he is releasing a book about it. Could be interesting. In the Slate article about the book, Plotz also makes a good argument for everyone reading the Bible. The Bible has had a profound and far reaching influence on western culture. It is
pervasive. We get everything form figures of speech "the writing on the wall" to a deep seated fear and loathing of homosexuality from the Bible. For those who are Biblically illiterate (this includes a huge number of nominal Christian) it could be enlightening to discover where these cultural features are derived from. If everyone was familiar with the details of the Bible it may even help to clear up the misguided notion that it is all beautiful, noble, lofty and ultimately moral.

This is one of the reasons that I don't resent my religious education. I'm no great bible reader, but I rarely come across something that I had no idea was in there. Because I spent so much time in church school I know the facts of the Bible better than lots of people who believe but have only a passing familiarity with what they say they base their beliefs on.

Seventh-Day Darwinists

I found an entertaining blog post this morning. By entertaining I mean it consists entirely of the familiar rejection of science that I was raised around. Science is great as long as it isn't evolution. There are so many things that can only be true in the religious fantasy land that I won't bother to comment on them but I did find this interesting:

We see a significant number of professed Adventists denying Bible truth so foundational that nearly all Christendom agrees upon it.

Things like a literal six-day creation (seven if you count the Sabbath) or the literal worldwide flood of Noah's day.

I don't think that the majority of Christians these days are obsessed with a literal 6 day creation and world wide flood, and that is even for those who don't consider catholics Christian. This is a good sign that some realism is penetrating religion.

I did agree with the main point of the article however. I also think that Adventism and evolution are incompatible. I also agree wholeheartedly with his admonition to

Keep seeking with a fervent and honest heart

What I reject is the condition he put up on honest seeking for truth.

As long as you stick to the Bible (and Ellen White's books and articles) you will not go wrong.

I suppose if you already know the answer you want to get it is okay to limit the data you are willing to consider, but there is absolutely no way you can call that honest seeking. I thought I'd try to be unemotional about this post, but this pisses me off.

Some SDA Anti-Science

While I was flipping through the Gleaner (Feb. 2009) yesterday, looking to see if I knew anyone in the pictures or articles, I noticed an article about a Moscow, ID creationism series. The series was hosted by Stan Hudson, whose sole qualification is that he was briefly a geology major before switching to theology. He has hosted a program on LifeTalk Radio called Sink the Beagle. I wasn't able to find the program on the schedule currently, but it seems to be the typical creationist fare. Due to the utter lack of any positive evidence they are forced to flail futilely against legitimate threats to their emotionally help opinions. The creationist is left with nothing more than wishing that Charles Darwin had been lost at sea. However reliance on wishing rather than thinking frees them from having to understand any science. This is evidenced by the title of the first lecture in the series In the Beginning, God or Hydrogen which is purported to have "addressed the theory of evolution via natural selection." I'm uncertain what hydrogen has to do with natural selection specifically.

On a positive note, they gave out free dinosaur teeth at the second meeting, which has the potential to spur honest interest in science.

Happy Monkey

Since it is Christmas, I'll post a link to a nice godless Christmas article I read.

SDAs in the news again (a follow up)

I guess the New York Times article that I referenced in an earlier post had a few facts wrong. Maybe the crashing economy isn't driving attendance at churches.

SDAs in the news again

I noticed another SDA reference in the news this morning. A preacher is finding joy in the suffering of others. A Texas State University study shows that evangelical churches grow when the economy is poor.

“I found it very exciting, and I called up that fellow to tell him so,” said the Rev. Don MacKintosh, a Seventh Day Adventist televangelist in California who contacted Dr. Beckworth a few weeks ago after hearing word of his paper from another preacher. “We need to leverage this moment, because every Christian revival in this country’s history has come off a period of rampant greed and fear. That’s what we’re in today — the time of fear and greed.”

Organized religion is ready and waiting to use the misfortune of others to their own ends. I guess I'd have to agree with Rev. MacKintosh. Greed and fear are religion's most effective tools.

Wow

First praying over the golden calf in Manhattan and now this? Christians are really confused about their beliefs regarding idol worship. The whole power of prayer thing is getting bizarre as well. Oil streaked foreheads and SUVs on the platform at church. Again I say 'wow' and chuckle to myself.

Blog Roll Love

I've added a few links to my blog roll recently. I'm really enjoying the Evil God series at Unreasonable Faith. And Debunking Christianity has some serious Bible scholars posting there.

The Clock of the Heavens [book report]

I finally made it through my second Steven E. Behrmann Book masochist that I am. So, I thought I'd recap just a little . The Clock of the Heavens is about using the stars and planets to find dates for some major biblical events. I will give him credit for admitting to the tenuous nature of the dates he proposes.

Again, we want to give a word of caution. Such data connot be considered unassailable or proof worthy. But at worst, such a fortuitous configuration in the sky at the assumed time of Christ's death cannot be considered less than incredibly amazing!

In the end it boils down to more post hoc rationalization. He ignores heavenly bodies that were unknown before modern times, but is careful to point out the inaccuracy of modern secular astrology due to precession of the earth's poles which makes the dates of the horoscopes not align with their constellations.

In fact, his debunking of astrology begins by applying arguments that are well know to skeptics.
1. Thousands of people are born every day and have very different destinies.
2. Twins can be very different in personality.
3. Predictions made are very vague and deal with common occurrences.
However, he refuses to employ his true 'science' of biblical astro-chronology make predictions.

It will naturally be a temptation for the inordinately curious to consider if the future can be unveiled by a study of the heavens. For instance, should we search for confirmation of the time of Christ's return? I strongly recommend that no such theories be suggested or promoted. . . . God has never given us permission to rely on such methods.

This is not science if it can't be used to make predictions.

The first half of the book deals with dating events of Jesus' ministry, his birth and his death. The second half deals with the more distant topics of dating the flood of Noah, the fall of man, creation, and then tries to justify the dating techniques with a known significant date - 22 Oct. 1844.

Here is a sample of the positions of various heavenly bodies on the evening of the great disappointment:

First of all we find the sun between the constellations, Libra, the Scales, and Virgo, the Virgin. Because of the timing of this configuration, the sun already resides it he area of the heavens known for centuries as being associated with the Day of Atonement and biblical seventh month.

There are several mansions and decans in the constellations of Libra and Virgo. However, the sun on this particular date is positioned at the foot of the woman. What is interesting is that the sun is at the very place indicated in the lunar mansions as 'Caphir, the atonement.'

My overall opinion is that is sounds a little forced.

The Torah of the Heavens [A Book Report]

This week I've been reading The Torah of the Heavens by Steven E. Behrmann, or as I've always known him - Uncle Steve. Despite the family connection and common religious background, this book has exposed me to something I'd never been aware of before. Apparently the constellations in the night sky tell the story of God's plan of redemption and Jesus' death on the cross to save us from our sins. Also, this is scientifically proven fact. The starting point for this line of thought is Psalms 19.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

From here the reader is told that each constellation of the zodiac together with its individual stars and sub-constellations is a visual summary of the great controversy. This is not to be confused with astrology which is " evil …" Maybe that is why this was all new information to me. Adventism shies away from divination in any form. This 'gospel in the stars' is probably not mainstream because of the apparent similarity to astrology.

I did a little outside reading and this is what I came up with on Biblical Astronomy

"The mission of Biblical Astronomy is to study and research signs in the heavens that are relevant to Biblical prophecy and make the research available for others to study and consider. In the next few years, there are many rare celestial events which clearly portray the "Great Tribulation" written of in the Holy Scriptures. If the events written of in the prophecies concerning the end times from the Holy Scriptures, particularly "Jacob's Trouble", unfold at this time, remains to be seen. Though earthly events seem to be heading rapidly in that direction."

It seems to me to be a bizarre mixture of Judeo-Christian prophecy myths and astrology. The names of the starts and the constellations are considered to have actual meaning in and of themselves. For example Virgo is literally the virgin that will bring forth a child. Or if a star has a name that can be translated as 'branch' that is actually a astral representation of Jesus himself, by reference to biblical imagery. I'm not real sharp on astrology but this seems like a simple remapping of symbols to have an apocalyptic Christian meaning rather than the standard astrological meanings.

Then there are all of the post hoc explanations rationalizations. Remember, biblical astronomy asserts that a star's or constellation's name has important meaning. If that stars modern name fits the preconceived notion (such as branch = Jesus) the ancient truth has been preserved. However, if the modern name makes an analogy difficult, that means that "they have been blurred and greatly adulterated by the heathen of every culture over the centuries." There is conveniently no way to lose if people agree to play that game. Never mind that the constellations are completely arbitrary patterns and differ from culture to culture. There is no truth about the future of humanity that can be discerned by all this flailing to interpret the archaic pictures in the stars.

One closing point from a paragraph of the book:

In many cases the formations of the stars do not in any way look like the person, animal or object they represent. But the symbol was intended to relay a message, and this message should not be lost or compromised. Unfortunately, these pictures are usually very poorly expressed, and it greatly damages the glorious figuratism intended. The artwork available is either crude, or even immoral, and is drawn largely fro the fanciful realm of astrology. This, unfortunately, is all we have. Therefore we are doing the best we can in what is included in this book, but recognize that the illustartions are significantly inaccurate to the task. The best illustrations should be formed in one's own mind, and this is exactly how God probably intended it in the first place.

That's right. The arrangement stars themselves don't actually look like the symbols historically assigned to them. You have to use the traditional drawings to know what they are supposed to look like. And some of those might have boobies (oh noes !!11!!!1) in them so they won't be shown in this good Christian book. (remember Christians are scared of boobies, vaginae, and women in general) It is much better if you just imagine you can see what you are supposed to see.

From what I've learned about this 'Biblical Astronomy' I'm wishing I had Christopher Hitchens' gift of blistering insult. The whole affair is completely blind and brain-dead.