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Texas Congressman Cites Noah's Ark As Evidence Against Climate Change

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Suzanne Goldenberg - Apr. 12 (News Analysis) - This story first appeared on the Guardian website and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Texas Republican Joe Barton stands out even among his fellow conservative Republicans who have made it an article of faith to deny the existence of a human component to climate change. On Wednesday, Barton cemented that reputation by citing the Old Testament to refute scientific evidence of man-made global warming, drawing on the story of Noah's ark. "I would point out that if you are a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the great flood was an example of climate change," Barton told a congressional hearing on Wednesday in a video first shown on the BuzzFeed website . "That certainly wasn't because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy." Barton was speaking at a House subcommittee hearing called by the Republican leadership to promote a bill that would allow Congress to fast-track a controversial pipeline that would pump crude from the tar sands of Alberta ...

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US congressman cites biblical flood to dispute human link to climate change

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Suzanne Goldenberg - Apr. 11 (News Report) - The Texas Republican Joe Barton stands out even among his fellow conservative Republicans who have made it an article of faith to deny the existence of a human component to climate change. On Wednesday, Barton cemented that reputation by citing the Old Testament to refute scientific evidence of man-made global warming, drawing on the story of Noah's ark. "I would point out that if you are a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the great flood was an example of climate change," Barton told a congressional hearing on Wednesday in a video first shown on the Buzzfeed website . "That certainly wasn't because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy."

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Religious beliefs drive hunting decisions in Amazon

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Julie Cart - Feb. 09 (News) - "Also, those who converted to Western religions were less likely to eat lowland tapirs, which they associate with pigs—banned for consumption by the Hebrew Bible."

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Editorial: Galileo, the Starry Messenger

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Jan. 19 (Editorial) - Galileo’s achievement was the end of geocentrism, but ignorance and magical thinking continue to this day.

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Paul Broun: Evolution, Big Bang 'Lies Straight From The Pit Of Hell'

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Alana Horowitz - Oct. 06 (Special Report) - Congressman Paul Broun (R-Ga.) said last week that evolution and the big bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of Hell." "God's word is true. I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang

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Georgia Congressman calls evolution, Big Bang 'lies straight from the pit of hell'

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Post - Oct. 06 (News) -

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Einstein’s Question: Is the Universe Friendly?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - Aug. 01 (Opinion) - A preview of how we’re apt to react to such a development is provided by looking at how we have responded to prior demotions in status. Copernicus’s removing the Earth, and us along with it, from center stage caused an uproar that lasted for centuries. D

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Is Anyone Enlightened?

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - Jul. 15 (Opinion) - This is the 11th in the series "Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship" - an ongoing series by Robert W. Fuller.

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Eureka, Epiphany, and Enlightenment

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - Description demands intense observation, so intense that the veil of everyday habit falls away and what we paid no attention to, because it struck us as so ordinary, is revealed as miraculous. – Czeslaw Milosz Scientific research culminates in the “eurek

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How Texas Inflicts Bad Textbooks on Us

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The New York Review of Books - Jul. 11 (Opinion) -

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Whatever Happened To 'Peace On Earth, Goodwill Toward Men'?

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jul. 10 (Opinion) - Sometimes, when you can't get from A to B, it's for lack of a steppingstone. In that spirit, it seemed possible to me that for religion to realize its vision of peace on Earth, it may first need to make peace with science.

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The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Bruce Wilson - Jun. 19 (Special Report) - Thousands of Louisiana students will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools. What will they learn there?

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In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

gallup.com - By Frank Newport - Jun. 01 (Poll) - Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question.

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Obama: Gay couples should be able to marry

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

ABC News - By Rick Klein - May. 10 (News Report) - President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.

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Winds of change brewing

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Sydney Morning Herald - By Jo Chandler - Mar. 31 (News Report) - Beddington argues, pragmatically, that while much is uncertain about the longer-term, the challenges of the next 20 years are clear: population growth (another billion people by 2025); urbanisation; and climate change as a consequence of the greenhouse

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Medical News: HBV Rebound Common for Some Patients - in Infectious Disease, Hepatitis from MedPage Today

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

medpagetoday.com - By Michael Smith - Mar. 13 (News Analysis) - Indeed, in nearly two of every five patients who experience rebound there is no sign of genetic resistance,

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Are Emotions Prophetic?

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - By Jonah Lehrer - Mar. 04 (Special Report) - For thousands of years, human beings have looked down on their emotions. We’ve seen them as primitive passions, the unfortunate legacy of our animal past. When we do stupid things – say, eating too much cake, or sleeping with the wrong person, or taking out a subprime mortgage – we usually blame our short-sighted feelings. People commit crimes of passion. There are no crimes of rationality. This bias against feeling has led people to assume that reason is always best. When faced with a difficult dilemma, most of us believe that it’s best to carefully assess our options and spend a few moments consciously deliberating the information. Then, we should choose the alternative that best fits our preferences. This is how we maximize utility; rationality is our Promethean gift. But what if this is all backwards? What if our emotions know more than we know? What if our feelings are smarter than us?

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Muslim students walking out of lectures on Darwinism because it 'clashes with the Koran'

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Mail - Nov. 28 (News) - Professors at University College London have expressed concern over the increasing number of biology students boycotting lectures on Darwinist theory citing their religious beliefs.

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A Confraternity of the Fatherless

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thehumanist.org - By Rebecca Goldstein - Nov. 01 (Speech) - When I think about religion at all, I feel as if I would like to found an order for those who cannot believe: the Confraternity of the Fatherless one might call it, where on an altar, on which no taper burned, a priest, in whose heart peace had no dwelling, might celebrate with unblessed bread and a chalice empty of wine. And as I look around, I feel like we are a realization of poor Oscar Wilde’s wistful fantasy—this order of those who can’t believe, the Confraternity of the Fatherless. And I wonder about the ambiguity of this phrase, “can’t believe.” Is this inability to believe an incapacity or is it an endowment? Is it a sign of failure or is it a sign of strength?

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When politicians distort science...and outright reject it.

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Robert Socolow - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - We must not underestimate the threat now looming. Another age of darkness could lie ahead. In what may someday be called the Science Wars, our opponents present science as dogma and construct a symmetric conflict: their dogma vs. our dogma.

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The Republican war on science is un-American

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - Oct. 16 (Opinion) - In his new book, “The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America,” (Bellevue Literary Press), Jonathan D. Moreno delivers an impassioned defense of scientific study. “The alternative to experimental confirmation is, in a word, dogma,” he writes. “Dogmatic statements may have many fine qualities. They may be beautiful, inspirational, and convey a kind of wisdom, or at least the impression of wisdom. But they can never be verifiable and self-correcting in the manner of science.”

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How Conservative Politicians Wait for God to Fix the Economy, With Frightening Results

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Sep. 30 (News Analysis) - A study released last fall suggests that the theology embraced by American religious conservatives may render them immune to evidence and reason when it comes to economic management. The study found that a sizable minority share a uniquely faith-based view of how the economy functions, believing that both good and bad outcomes are an expression of God's will, and are therefore beyond the reach of mere mortals.

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Wedges reaffirmed

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Robert Socolow - Sep. 27 (Special Report) - Robert Socolow reaffirms his Stabilization Wedges Theory regarding climate change, contrary to reports a few months ago that he now feels the wedges theory is a mistake. This lays the science out quite well, and also how to proceed forward in a way everyone can agree on. Here's a quote: "Confronted with unwelcome news, human beings often shoot the messenger. Consider two earlier occasions. Galileo argued that the Earth wasn't at the center of the universe. For this, he was excommunicated. Darwin argued that human beings were part of the animal kingdom, and he was cruelly mocked. The idea that humans can't change our planet is as out-of-date and wrong as the Earth-centered universe and the separate creation of Man, but all three ideas have such appeal that they will fade away only very slowly."

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Richard Dawkins, an Original Thinker Who Bashes Orthodoxy

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Powell - Sep. 19 (News) - The Oxford don, a liberal atheist who is arguably the world’s most influential evolutionary biologist, continues to turn the prevailing view of evolution and natural selection on its head.

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The Republicans are now the anti-science party

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - Jon Huntsman Jr, a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, isn't a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. And that's too bad, because Mr Hunstman has been willing to say the unsayable about the Republican party in the United States, namely, that it is becoming the "anti-science party". This is an enormously important development. And it should terrify us. To see what Mr Huntsman means, consider recent statements by the two men who actually are serious contenders for the Republican nomination: Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.

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