Tangled Bank #104

Better to be in league with a man who fears for the better nature of his soul, than a women who promises to nuke annihilate an entire civilization hoping to score a few boners with the neocons over at Faux News.

Clearly someone who thinks "godless" and "atheist" are insults, or somehow degrading. But for a great many educated people, these terms are most intuitively associated with "sane", "realistic", and "intelligent." Perhaps it would be better to evaluate the candidates based on the most likely effects of their policies. Then at least we can discuss whether fighting prohibitively expensive wars in the Middle East without any definition of success or victory, is a desirable policy, and why.

Good news:

"The fastest-growing faith in the country is no faith at all. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the results of its “Religious Landscape” survey in February and found that 16 percent of Americans have no religious affiliation. The number is even greater among young people: 25 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds now identify with no religion, up from 11 percent in a similar survey in 1986."

Read more at http://nymag.com/news/features/46214/

Hi all,

What a hypocrite! My "pal" Bill Dembski has the unmitigated gall - dare I say chutzpah - to whine and moan about "evil, rich Darwinists" doing well financially speaking (That's in addition to his ample lies, omissions of published scientific data, and threats against his critics.):

http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/whos-in-it-for-the-money/

Bill claims that he isn't as wealthy as any of the people he cites in his recent rant, but I am well aware that he does get excellent speaking fees (As of 2004 $5,000 per appearance) and he has admitted that he'd rather devote his time to writing books - instead of trying to answer his critics by doing peer-reviewed scientific research - since his books sell and he receives royalties (Incidentally, the last time I counted, I realized that Bill has written more books between 2000 and the present than Niles Eldredge, Ken Miller, Stephen Jay Gould or Frank McCourt combined; his overall productivity resembles Isaac Asimov's, who thankfully, recognized how "idiotic" all flavors of creationism are.). Furthermore, back in 2000, his Baylor University salary was paid for by a $75,000 grant to the Discovery Institute from the John Templeton Foundation.

Instead of being a brilliant "intellect", Bill Dembski is truly some latter day Visigoth, Vandal, or Hun, determined to destroy all that is noble and just in Western Civilization, hoping for its replacement by a Christian theocratic Fascist dictatorship of the kind chillingly described by Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood in her book "The Handmaid's Tale".

Regards,

John