Creationism & ClimateGate: Embrace the Madness!

THE “vindication of all kooks” meme continues to spread. It’s the idea that the global warming email imbroglio — ClimateGate — is somehow “proof” that brave dissenters from science orthodoxy (such as creationists) have been suppressed by ideological conspirators. We’ve been tracking appearances of the meme in various organs of the kook-o-sphere. Our last post on this peculiar phenomenon was here: Global Warming, Creationism & Brain Death.

The meme has now reached the stage where your basic man-in-the-street, the chap who writes uninformed letters to the editor, has now picked it up and made it a part of his mental inventory. That’s right — it’s gone mainstream.

As evidence, we present to you, dear reader, a letter-to-the-editor titled The global warming hoax, which appears in the Longview News-Journal, the major newspaper of Longview, Texas. We’ll copy most of today’s letter, omitting the writer’s name and city, adding some bold for emphasis and our Curmudgeonly commentary between the paragraphs. Here we go:

The uncovering of the global warming hoax should be a wake-up call to all of us and cause us to question everything. The massive scope of this lie should tell us that just because there is the perception of universal acceptance of something does not mean it is true.

The concept is unobjectionable. Indeed, the attitude of questioning what “everyone knows” — plus reason — are the foundation of the Age of Enlightenment. But today’s letter-writer applies employs skepticism as his only intellectual tool:

When I became a young adult, I needed to test and confirm what I had been taught all my life about God. It did not take long to declare the existence of God as true after considering all the many complex systems in the universe that could only be explained by intelligent design.

Aaaargh!! Let’s read on:

Daring to explore the unquestionable can give you new perspectives.

Yes, provided one is properly equipped for the task. We continue:

Those involved with this global warming hoax who have used it to personally benefit, either monetarily or politically, should be brought to justice.

If global warming is a hoax — a matter about which we express no opinion — professional disgrace is the ultimate penalty in the world of science. We suspect the letter-writer has something more drastic in mind. Here’s more:

In spite of the overwhelming evidence of this hoax, these people will continue to hang on to it. They have too much invested in this lie and will not turn loose of it voluntarily in much the same way as those who have invested their lives in the myth of evolution.

But there’s a slight difference. Man-caused global warming is a relatively new theory, while evolution has withstood 150 years of continuous testing. Also, the global warming advocates are quite literally attempting to control the world’s economy — a goal we strongly oppose. Those whose careers depend on evolution, on the other hand, have an entirely different motivation. And they may not even control their own labs — much less dream of controlling the world.

Here’s the end of this brilliant letter:

They should be celebrating that our way of life and our health is not in danger as they thought. However, they press on with their scheme, anyway.

[Writer's name and city can be seen in the original.]

That’s all there is to the letter. It’s not much, but it indicates that we can now expect to encounter this line of argument in our everyday lives. Learn to embrace the madness, dear reader, because if people with ideas like this achieve political power, madness may be all we’ll have.

Copyright © 2010. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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Creationist Wisdom #118: Eureka!

YOUR Curmudgeon has experienced a rare moment of enlightenment. It came upon us at the website of Jack Chick. Specifically, we were examining old issues of his newsletter, Battle Cry.

While so engaged we had a flash of insight that brought to mind The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. You know the poem. It begins:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore

Yes, dear reader, it was in the dusty archives of the Jack Chick website where we found this fantastic article: Evolution: Faith — Not Science! Here are some excerpts, with bold added by us:

The famous atheist Richard Dawkins, wrote: “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” (Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, 1996, p. 1)

Even having admitted the evidence, that living things look like they were designed, he is still an atheist. He claims that natural selection makes things look like they were designed.

Did you get that? Dawkins actually sees the evidence of design, yet he denies it. Let’s read on:

Most of us reject this and say these things look like they were designed because they were designed!

It was at that point, dear reader, that your Curmudgeon has his Eureka! moment. It was only yesterday that we posted The Flat Earth Society: It’s Back!, in which we gave the views of Daniel Shenton. the Society’s president:

The Earth is flat, he argues, because it appears flat. The sun and moon are spherical, but much smaller than mainstream science says, and they rotate around a plane of the Earth, because they appear to do so.

And now, in the all-too-often scorned and neglected Jack Chick newsletter, we discover a similar argument for design. Verily, we see a pattern here. Yes — a common thread! Something appears designed, so it is. And the earth appears flat, so it is — Eureka!

Let us continue with the Chick newsletter:

Many evolutionists prefer a different explanation of the things around us. Looking back to the beginning, their schoolbooks usually teach that, at the first, “nothing” exploded and made the universe.

Then on earth, atoms blundered into each other and made the first simple living things, bacteria probably. Then these evolved as natural selection chose the best and eliminated the rest.

When it’s put like that, we can certainly see the problem. Here’s more:

People reproduce people, and bacteria reproduce bacteria. Science and the Bible agree: Living things bring forth according to their kind.

Evolution, on the contrary, teaches that living things started with something small like bacteria (which they often call “primitive”), and by random mutations, brought forth ever higher, more complex kinds. At this point the evolutionist has abandoned scientific evidence for a leap of faith!

Egad — we’ve been such a fool! Moving along:

Evolutionists base this belief on faith alone. It is exactly contrary to the scientific principle of entropy which, among other things, says that random changes to an organized system reduce its organization. Which is right? Check it out with an experiment!

An experiment? Oh, goodie! Let’s see how it works:

Take a sledge hammer, close your eyes and hit a functioning system with it! Whether you hit a television set, a hog at the slaughter house, or a bacterium, the random changes made by the blow will reduce rather than increase the system’s ability to function.

Aaaargh!! Another excerpt from the Chick article:

Such experiments prove the rule: random changes to an organized system reduce its functionality! A scientific word for this rule is “entropy.” Mutations and other random changes don’t increase organization, they reduce it.

This is where evolutionists abandon science for faith. They believe, in spite of all scientific evidence, that random damage caused by mutations made bacteria become fish, and fish become people. They end up propagating an idea exactly contrary to both the scientific principle of entropy and to the evidence.

Powerful stuff. And now we come to the end:

After examining the evidence that proves this scientific principle, they choose to believe the opposite! Shame on them!

Shame. Shame! One final quote from Poe captures your Curmudgeon’s mood at this moment:

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting,
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor,
Shall be lifted — nevermore!

For more wisdom from this source, see Creationist Comic Books from Jack Chick.

Copyright © 2010. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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The Flat Earth Society: It’s Back!

Yes, dear reader, our title is correct. We’ve written before about Biblical Astronomy and The Fixed Earth, but we seem to have neglected the Flat Earth believers. It’s time to remedy that oversight.

In the UK newspaper, the Guardian. we read The Earth is flat? What planet is he on? Here are some excerpts, with bold added by us:

Daniel Shenton should be the most irrational man in the world. As the new president of the Flat Earth Society, you’d ­imagine he would also think that evolution is a scam and ­global warming a myth. He should ­argue that smoking does not cause ­cancer and HIV does not lead to Aids.

[...]

In fact, Shenton turns out to have resolutely mainstream views on most issues. The 33-year-old American, ­originally from Virginia but now living and working in London, is happy with the work of Charles Darwin. He thinks the evidence for man-made global warming is strong, and he dismisses suggestions that his own government was involved with the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Most unusual. We generally find that a kook on one issue is often a kook on several others. There isn’t even a creationist angle in this story. Well, let’s read on:

He is mainstream on most issues, but not all. For when Shenton rides his motorbike, he says it is not gravity that pins him to the road, but the rapid upward motion of a disc-shaped planet. Countries, according to him, spread across this flat world as they appear to do on a map, with Antarctica as a ring of mountains strung around the edge. And, yes, you can fall off.

So that’s what happened to Amelia Earhart! We continue:

The Earth is flat, he argues, because it appears flat. The sun and moon are spherical, but much smaller than mainstream science says, and they rotate around a plane of the Earth, because they appear to do so.

Perfectly logical. Here’s more:

The International Flat Earth Society was formally founded in 1956. Shenton resurrected the society and claimed its presidency last year, ­following years of inaction after the death of former ­president Charles Johnson in 2001, who had some 3,000 registered followers. He has so far recruited 60 members through the society’s website, which boasts about 9,000 visitors to its discussion forums.

This is the website of Shenton’s organization: Flat Earth Society. You’ll want to bookmark it. They’ve got a lively discussion forum.

The Wikipedia article on the Flat Earth Society indicates that it’s inactive. That needs to be updated. We are delighted to see this venerable movement being reborn. Moving along:

The modern Flat Earth movement dates back to Victorian England, and biblical literalist Samuel Rowbotham and his followers, who promoted their cause by engaging top scientists of the day in public debate.

A familiar tactic. Here’s another excerpt:

Shenton himself used to accept that the Earth was round, but began ­asking questions after hearing musician Thomas Dolby’s 1984 album The Flat Earth. (When Shenton reconvened the society last year, Dolby accepted membership number 00001.) “It was the late 1990s and I started doing research into what the Flat Earth Society was. I had heard of it and, when I did some more research, I eventually ended up believing its ideas were true.”

That takes intellectual courage. Or something. And now we come to the end:

“I haven’t taken this position just to be difficult. To look around, the world does appear to be flat, so I think it is ­incumbent on others to prove ­decisively that it isn’t. And I don’t think that burden of proof has been met yet.”

Yet another controversy that needs to be taught. We wish them well.

Copyright © 2010. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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Creationism in Israel: Expel the Ignoramus!

THIS is a follow-up to what we posted two days ago: Creationism in Israel — Oy!, and then yesterday: Reactions to Creationism in Israel.

In Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, there’s an editorial titled Sa’ar and the monkey trial. Here are some excerpts, with bold added by us:

Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that fostering scientific excellence among Israeli students is at the top of his priorities. When he took office, he undertook to improve the performance of Israeli schools in international comparative examinations in math and science, after years of declining achievements. He appointed professionals to key posts in his ministry, for which he won high praise.

That’s what Gideon promised. Now what has he done? Let’s read on:

But despite his solemn commitment to excellence and professionalism, Sa’ar made the mistake of naming Dr. Gavriel Avital the ministry’s chief scientist. Instead of appointing, as his predecessor did, a prominent scholar in the field of education, he chose a Likud activist who ran on the party’s slate in the last Knesset election.

Avital is not an expert in education or in teaching the main subjects in the school curriculum, but an engineer who taught aeronautics at the Technion. But the main reason he is unsuitable for the post is not his lack of experience, but his opinions.

We’ve discussed Avital’s opinions before, but the editorial reminds us:

… Avital was exposed as an obscurantist Orthodox zealot who casts doubt on the validity of scientific research and rejects both evolution and global warming. He dismisses Darwin’s theory because it leaves God out, and he has called environmental organizations “a fanatical religion with a great deal of evil.” Avital promised to “scrutinize textbooks” to make sure that students are not exposed exclusively to “the opinion that man evolved from the ape.”

Avital would be right at home on the Texas Board of Education. The editorial continues:

Avital wants to push the education system hundreds of years into the past and undermine science’s achievements in order to impart religious ideologies to Israeli students. His opinions flagrantly contradict the requirements of the chief scientist post and the state school system’s striving for scientific excellence.

This next excerpt is where the editorial’s title comes from:

His proposals that curricula undergo religious censorship to cast doubt on evolution are reminiscent of the notorious “monkey trial” that saw a teacher in Tennessee put on trial in the 1920s for teaching evolution.

We don’t read the Israeli press, so maybe this isn’t a particularly harsh editorial. But we suspect that it is. According to the Wikipedia article on Haaretz, it’s “considered Israel’s most influential daily newspaper. Its readership includes Israel’s intelligentsia and its political and economic elites.” This newspaper isn’t a supermarket throwaway. Here’s the editorial’s final paragraph:

The position of the Education Ministry’s chief scientist should be filled by a top-notch scholar in the field, and not serve the minister as a way to pay off cronies and party hacks. Sa’ar should immediately get rid of Avital, whose appointment has made a mockery of the minister’s lofty promises, and replace him with a true scientist.

Jeepers — they’re calling for Avital to be Expelled! Where’s Ben Stein when he’s so desperately needed?

Copyright © 2010. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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