Bad Astronomer Takes on "Christian Nation"Follow

Technically, that would preclude the US from being a "Jewish nation", not a Christian one.

This is a very interesting blog. Even just the links he has that mostly speak about Intelligent Design/creationism under 9) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour have kept me interested and laughing. The more I read, the more I realize that ID is one of the most ridiculous notions ever.

I like Phil Plait, but don't read his blogs for his "skeptic" related posts.

While I mostly agree with his views, like Dawkins, he often comes across as a douchebag when espousing those views.

You almost never see the Beatitudes chiseled into a courthouse wall, though.

Because while there is a subset of people who are just too fUcking scared to think or too dim to understand, there's also a sizable subset of people who believe the superstition - or who believe that religion and science are incompatible - because it's what they've been taught. Most of that subset can be educated.

Usually, Plait only bothers going on the attack when its religion that confronts science first, and that in the process, distorts the science or falsifies it. His usual targets are secular in nature though - antivaxers, climate change deniers, anti-sex-ed, etc. He only mocks the people who see images of the Virgin Mary on the side of their rotting bananas.

Edited, Jun 9th 2010 10:54am by catwho

My argument is that the sciences are better supported with facts & evidence as opposed to talking down to people and/or mocking them. Plait certainly isn't as bad as Dawkins, but again, I've never read Bad Astronomy because I care about Plait's thoughts on antivaxers or sex ed. As an astronomer, he's more qualified to talk about climate change, but certainly not an expert.



I was raised Catholic & had the same priest, Father Joe, right through from my Baptism through Confirmation. In my psychology class my senior year, various members of the local churches (Protestant, Baptist, & Catholic priests or ministers) all came to my class to speak about Theology. My question, of course, was how do you reconcile the teachings of the bible with the overwhelming evidence against creationism?

The Protestant Minister said that the bible isn't always meant to be taken literally.

The Baptist Minister answered that his faith in god provided him all the answers he needed.

Father Joe said he that if you go back to before the Big Bang, something beyond our understanding is what caused it (Which is still true today). Since he believed that "God" had a hand in it, science didn't disproved his faith at all but enhanced it with each new discovery.

There was an audible gasp from most of the Baptist kids & their minister, a couple of the Protestants (The Minister merely nodded), & a few of the Catholic kids. A few of the others, however, got to thinking.

Everyone should be educated with facts & evidence as opposed to dismissing their beliefs outright. Remember, most of your subset believes things are a certain way not because of true physical evidence, but because of faith. What you've got to do is SHOW them the facts & evidence then hope they'll either believe it outright, or be able to reconcile the new information they've received with their spiritual beliefs.

Edited, Jun 9th 2010 12:38pm by Omegavegeta

BLASPHEMY!

Blasphemy, blas for you, blas for everybody...

meh

Edited, Jun 9th 2010 7:10pm by NephthysWanderer

I removed my comments because he was obviously addressing specific comments that he didn't cite in this article, but he did in others that I hadn't bothered clicking on.

It's more like saying that since Apocalypse Now shares next to no underlying themes with, say, Die Hard, and has only superficial similarities, that one isn't based on the other.