Another Wild and Crazy Free Fire Zone

The creationists just aren’t entertaining us. For a while they went bonkers over the Webb Space Telescope — claiming that the images it sent were some kind of proof of something, but that seems to have died down.

Other than that, they’ve all been boring. Hambo isn’t saying much lately. He’s just selling tickets to his creationist attractions, and he’s also selling books so you can raise your kids to be his disciples. The Discoveroids — well, we had hopes about the return of Casey, but he hasn’t been entertaining us.

It’s also difficult to find amusing letters-to-the-editor. Thanks to our political leaders, folks have other crazy stuff to write about these days.

So we’re declaring another Intellectual Free-Fire Zone. Wanna talk about politics? Abortion rights? Rising crime rates? Climate change? Go right ahead!

You know the rules. Feel free to use the comments for the discussion of pretty much anything — science, politics, economics, whatever — as long as it’s tasteful and interesting. Banter, babble, bicker, bluster, blubber, blather, blab, blurt, burble, boast — say what you will. But avoid flame-wars and beware of the profanity filters.

We now throw open the comments to you, dear reader. Have at it!

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

Hambo Says Don’t Worry About Climate Change

This brilliant and timely post was found at the website of Answers in Genesis (AIG), the creationist ministry of Ken Ham (ol’ Hambo) — the ayatollah of Appalachia, the world’s holiest man who knows more about religion and science than everyone else. It’s titled The End of the World Is Coming Soon! — Unless It Doesn’t!, and it was written by Hambo himself, so you know there’s nothing better. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:

How long do we have left before doomsday scenarios begin to play out? Well, that depends on who you ask. A recent article [At Fox News!] highlighted several answers from prominent politicians and activists who argue we must take “immediate action” or crisis will arise by 2030; the “Climate Clock” says we must make drastic changes by 2029; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [The AOC creature!] said in 2019 that the world would end in twelve years; and still others say “the planet is dying” and we just have a few years left.

Egad, we’re doomed! Or are we? Hambo says:

But, as the article points out,

[Hambo quotes the article:] Advocates of combating climate change are increasingly invoking doomsday scenarios to pressure President Biden to take unilateral action to lower greenhouse gas emissions, despite a history of such claims falling flat. [emphasis added]

So who do we believe? Only Hambo can clear things up for us. He explains:

The “doom and gloom” claims of the past simply haven’t come to be. (I’m old enough to remember when global cooling was the perceived threat, and then it was global warming, and now it’s just climate change!) For example, Al Gore [Hee hee!] predicted the North Pole would likely be ice free for at least part of the summer by 2013. That has yet to happen.

This is so confusing! Hambo continues:

Really, this zealous climate activism is a false religion with false prophets. [Gasp!] These activists and scientists have no idea what is really happening or what is going to happen. And they ignore much of the history concerning climate data. That’s why the predictions are constantly wrong! They have the wrong starting point (man’s word) and the wrong history (evolution and millions of years), so they come to wrong conclusions about the future.

There’s nothing worse than a false religion. Fortunately, Hambo will guide us to The Truth™. Let’s read on:

This false religion is inconsistent because, from their secular perspective, when these people die, they’re done. [Egad!] That’s it; they won’t exist anymore. Eventually everyone dies and ceases to exist, and someday even the universe dies. So, life is ultimately purposeless and meaningless — so why even care?

What a horrible religion! Hambo explains:

Well, it’s ultimately all about them being their own god and worshipping themselves and the creation, rather than the Creator (see Romans chapter 1). It’s their religion as they attempt to make some supposed “purpose” for themselves in their (self-inflicted) meaningless existence. It’s what happens when people worship the creature rather than the Creator.

Truly, that’s a horrible religion! But fear not — in his final paragraph, Hambo clarifies everything:

But we don’t need to wail and bemoan the future. The only true Creator has promised, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).

Now you know everything you need to know. All that talk about climate change is for fools! Isn’t Hambo wonderful?

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

Will Kitzmiller Be Reversed?

A day or two ago, one of our top-secret clandestine agents informed us about this article: This Supreme Court Will Blur the Line Between Church and State, which was written by John E. Jones III.

As most of you know, Jones was the judge in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, and his splendid opinion — holding that intelligent design was nothing more than creationism — was a catastrophe from which the Discoveroids have never recovered. But in his new article, Jones informs us that the US Supreme Court has just discarded the Lemon test, upon which he relied in the Kitzmiller opinion. He says:

The result will necessarily be that the line of separation between church and state will become increasingly blurred. I am quite sure that this is precisely what the majority intended, but I would submit that we are about to enter an era where, like it or not, we will see the Supreme Court allow much more religion in the public square. Not an earthquake to be sure, but at least an aftershock of major proportions.

Perhaps he’s right, but we very much doubt that public schools in the US are going to start teaching creation “science.” However, since the Jones article, we’ve seen articles from creationists declaring that they will soon triumph in the courts. We don’t think so.

When this year began we wrote Curmudgeonly Happy New Year — 2022, in which we said:

The year now ending has been a strange one. Regarding creationism, things couldn’t get much better. … There has been no crazed, tyrannical creationist activity to worry about. … Also, there’s been no creationist litigation. Creationists aren’t suing school districts or universities to get their nonsense into the curriculum. There’s an ark-load of craziness about getting other stuff into (or out of) the curriculum, but at least for now, we don’t have to worry about creationism.

We don’t think the current situation is going to change. First, regardless of Judge Jones’ alarm, we think he could have reached the decision he did in Kitzmiller without the Lemon case.

And there’s another reason. Creationists seem to have lost all their once-formidable political power. All the crazed political action we’re seeing with school boards these days is because of other issues. We don’t blog about it, but school board meetings are in chaos about teaching things like The 1619 Project, and Critical race theory, and an ark-load of stuff involving LGBTQ issues.

So although we appreciate Judge Jones’ concern, we don’t think creationism in the public schools is going to be a hot topic in the near future. There’s even crazier stuff that’s hogging all the headlines.

Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe creationism will be squeezed into the curriculum along with what the Woke people are screaming about. If so, the new Dark Age that will result could last forever.

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

Here’s Your 2022 Fourth of July Free Fire Zone

As we do every year on this date, we wish our American readers a happy Fourth of July, and we ask our non-US readers to indulge us as we celebrate America’s Independence Day. Each year we give you the same historical information. Why? Because it’s important — especially now, because politics in the US is more than a little bit crazy. But instead of copying the same links all over again, here's last year’s 4th of July post. The good stuff is all there.

Creationists usually say strange things about the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers, but they weren’t a bunch of creationist nut-jobs. The Founders were very much part of the Enlightenment, and there was nothing biblical about the American Revolution. Most of the clergy opposed it — divine right of kings, you know. The bible is all about monarchy, on Earth as it is in heaven. It’s certainly no blueprint for the American Revolution or the Constitution — see Is America a “Christian Nation”?

The Discovery Institute frequently attempts to hijack the Fourth of July by claiming that American Founders like Jefferson were — or would have been — supporters of their “theory” of intelligent design. We wrote about one of their recent efforts here: The Discoveroids and Thomas Jefferson, Again. As expected, they did it again today — see Thomas Jefferson’s Embrace of Intelligent Design. We won’t spend any time on it, but you can have fun with it if you like.

Okay, now let’s get to the Intellectual Free-Fire Zone. As with all our free-fire zones, we’re open for the discussion of pretty much anything — science, politics, economics, whatever — as long as it’s tasteful and interesting. Banter, babble, bicker, bluster, blubber, blather, blab, blurt, burble, boast — say what you will. But avoid flame-wars and beware of the profanity filters.

We now throw open the comments to you, dear reader. Have at it.

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.