Sinners on a Plane

To all those who lost friends and family on Flight 3407 in Buffalo on Thursday, my heart goes out to you.  It truly is a senseless tragedy.

My comments:

I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I am, because it happened again. Unfortunately, there was another jet liner crash in the US. This time there were no survivors of the 49 on board and one on the ground.

Sorry, that’s not completely true. There are the two people who were supposed to have been on that flight that didn’t make their connection to Continental Flight 3407.

I’m not surprised those folks didn’t make their flight.  But, for some reason I am surprised at how utterly stupid, thoughtless and insensitive one of the two were when it came to their avoidance of this tragedy.

I’m referring to 49 year old David Becony one of the two who missed Flight 3407, in his case due to weather that delayed his connecting flight.

On CNN.com he is quoted saying:

“It could have been me,” David Becony said in an interview from his home in Springville, New York, as he watched television reports on the crash and its fiery aftermath. “My wife would have been with all those families” who had loved ones on the plane.

“I’m still in shock, really,” said the 49-year-old Becony, a Catholic. “God was looking over me.”

Geezus…are you kidding me? “God was looking over me?”

What about the other 49 people – half of which were probably believers? What was God’s problem with them? Was it a chance for Him to conveniently wipe-out an entire plane full of sinners?

I doubt it, Mr. Becony.

How about the 9/11 widow who was also on that plane? Why wasn’t God watching over her? If anyone deserved a bit of relief from God it was her for what she has had to endure.

Think about it Mr. Becony.  God specifically singles YOU out, letting you conveniently miss your connection, only to let the rest of those passengers get on the plane and die in a fiery crash, while at the same time, nearly taking out an entire neighborhood. (This accident could have been MUCH worse – so I guess God went easy on all of us today).

I have absolutely no respect for people like this who somehow feel they are among the “chosen ones”, especially considering that they are usually the most intolerant, selfish and childish people you could ever meet.

By the way, I wonder how many other “true believers” were on that plane? Why weren’t they blessed like you, Mr. Becony? By all rights, they should have been.

Sometimes believers will say “It was God’s plan for them.” What that means, I have no idea. It’s just another meaningless believer cop-out for what is truly going on here.

No one is looking out for you Mr. Becony. No one. Not God, not Jesus, not anyone. Just like every other mere mortal, you are exposed to the same risks of life and death as I am, whether you believe in God or not.

You were just damn lucky is all.

Mr David Becony, Catholic, without question you are today’s Worst Person in the World.

One of the World’s Best Is 200 Years Old Today!

Last year I had my first debate with a creationist.  Creationists are those that believe that God created life on the planet, oh, say 10,000 years or so ago. 

They are also called ID’ers.  They believe that an Intelligent Designer (ie. God) is the origin of all the species.  Sarah Palin is a creationist/ID’er.  Mike Huckabee is a creationist/ID’er.  And while I don’t know this for sure, I’m pretty confident that George W. Bush was also a creationist.  I infer that because I’m pretty sure he believed that it was God’s plan for him to be President.  Scary because these people are in positions with great power and responsibility.

In any case, I’m a country bumpkin when it comes to understanding and/or communicating about science so I admit that I walked carefully, and I carried a big stick (in this case, science) during this debate about evolution versus intelligent design.

Why did I even bother getting into it with this guy?  I have learned a lot about this topic over the past year and what I discovered was that creationist/ID’ers are working very hard to have the concept of ID taught in science class in the public schools right alongside evolution.  They’ve had their day in court a number of times only to have had their heads handed to them by the various judges who have heard those cases.  However, they continue their battle, particularly with the help of the Discovery Institute and a guy named Michael Egnor.

The bottom line is that Intelligent Design, or Creation (or Creation Science) is not science and should not be taught in science classes in the public schools.  My opponent in this debate didn’t agree with that because he believes that evolution is a failed theory and that creation is a valid alternative to it.

So, onto the debate.  Under the circumstances, I believe I handled myself fairly well by relying on some excellent resources to make the case for evolution.  One example of this is Talk Origins.

Did I change his mind?  Hardly.  And really, I didn’t expect it to.  It did force me to look at the topic more closely and learn more about what I didn’t know (which is/was a lot) and it also showed me how creationists typically argue their “position”.  In this case, it was a textbook example of the arguments use to defend their anti-evolution belief system.  Or more simply, God did it because the Bible says so.

At first he argued that evolution is “just a theory” and not fact.  People often confuse the reference to “theory” in evolution with the idea of a “hypothesis” and believe that a “theory” cannot be fact.  Evolution is both a theory and a fact, and it is supported by MOUNTAINS of evidence.

Having said that, evolution is not a perfect theory as most scientists would admit – but it is scientific, evidence based and testable.  You can’t say the same about Creationism or Intelligent Design. 

Scientists continue to ferret out the finer points of evolution with their on going research.  They don’t have all the answers, but science (not theology) allows them to continue to accumulate evidence in its support.  Creationists can’t because their “theories” are not testable or subject to the scientific method.

Having said that, the idea that evolution is not fact is simply wrong.

Then his argument became, “There are major gaps in evolution so it is a failed theory.”  Sure there are gaps in the theory of evolution, but science continues to fill those gaps are each and every day via the scientific method.

My creationist friend would infer that because of these so-called “gaps” that evolution couldn’t explain the ascent of the species and that there is only one alternative to evolution:  God.  Yes – God did it.  It’s the “God of the Gaps” argument.  The creationist says to himself: “Science can’t explain everything about the evolution of species– so God had to have had a hand in it.”

That’s not science – it’s not testable and therefore gets thrown out immediately as an argument.  However, it became clear that my creationist friend was 1) anti-science or 2) didn’t understand science even at a rudimentary level.  I’m guessing it was both.

Then he tried to argue the position that there is no benefit to evolution.  What?  That is plain wrong – all you have to do is look around you.  I cited many examples including the advances we have made in medicine and technology, among other things.  He chose to dismiss those points altogether saying something like, “If we didn’t know about evolution, those things would have happened anyway”.

Whether evolution benefits anybody, or whether we are even aware of it, is irrelevant to the fact that it’s happening or that it’s real.

From there, the argument devolved into my mocking and belittling him every chance I had.  Okay, so I’ve got a lot to learn about the rules of debate and the many logical fallacies we commit in our arguments (ad hominem attacks are just one) – but I got frustrated and I let the 12 year old in me loose.  At that point, the argument was pretty much over anyway.  It was like talking to a brick wall. (Although, I’m pretty sure he felt the same way about me).

So what is the point of all this?  Today is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday so I thought I’d share the experience I had in debating this particular creationist believer.  Charles Darwin wrote the book that put “evolutionary theory” on the map.  Evolutionary theory is synonymous with Darwin – which is why I thought I’d share this story.  One thing to note is that Darwin didn’t come up with evolutionary theory himself.  It was someone else whose name escapes me at the moment.  Darwin was just a little quicker on the draw I guess.

It’s also Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday.  It’s interesting that two men who had such a profound impact on the world were born on the same day.  If you want to see how their lives played out in relation to each other, get the book “Rebel Giants” by David R. Contosta.  I highly recommend it.

 

Charles Darwin and Abe Lincoln, you are today’s Best Persons in the World for your contributions to the world and for the significant impact you have had on my life.

 

“Egnoring” The Evidence

 

Michael Egnor is a representative of the Discovery Institute – a conservative “think tank” that promotes intelligent design/creationism.  I’ve referred to them before.  Mr. Egnor was quoted in a CNN article today saying the following:

 

“We don’t have a clear pathway for how things evolved. Evolution inherently is a valid theory for some aspects of biology, but it doesn’t explain everything,” said Michael Egnor, a professor of neurosurgery at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.

 Egnor is a supporter of the relatively recent theory of intelligent design, which holds that biological life was purposefully created by an intelligent being or deity and not an unguided process such as natural selection.

“There are certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection,” added Egnor, who is affiliated with the Discovery Institute, a politically conservative think tank.”

Like the creationist I debated, Egnor simply chooses to dismiss all of the scientific evidence for evolution and natural selection.  On top of that, he is not able to offer up ANY supportable evidence for his position.  Because it doesn’t exist.  He simply says, God did it, you need look further.

He has been debated time and again by people well versed in evolutionary biology.  He has debated Steven Novella many times.  Steven Novella is a practicing neurologist (Egnor is a professor of neurosurgery) and is the founder of the New England Skeptical Society, the people who produce “The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe”, one of my favorite podcasts.  (By the way Dr. Novella has a great blog post here on his response to an ID’er who has identified “Ten Major Flaws of Evolution”.)

Like he did with the person who wrote “Ten Major Flaws” Steven wipes the floor with Egnor every time.  But Egnor sets that all aside and continues to believe that God did it.  End of story.  No more work to be done here.

Michael Egnor, professor of neurosurgery at State University of New York, Stony Brook, you are today’s Worst Person in the World.

Ted Haggard: Heterosexual. Or Not.

I recently watched a documentary by Alexandra Pelosi (the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives) called, “The Trials of Ted Haggard.”  Ted Haggar is the New Life Church Pastor who was caught up in a really nasty gay sex scandal a few years back.  You might remember it.

Ted Haggard is an interesting cat.  Delusional.  But interesting nonetheless.  If you ever see tape of him preaching, it’s no wonder that the Church he founded in 1984 grew to over 10,000 members in Colorado.  He is a charismatic speaker, he’s accessible and frankly, I thought he was quite funny, based on a few of the sound bytes I saw in this documentary.  I could understand why his parishioners, and Alexandra Pelosi, liked him.

But Ted and the members of his church are hypocrites.  On wiki, I found the following Ted Haggard quote:

“I want a church I can stay in for years. I don’t want surprises, scandals, or secrets from my church leaders.

I am a firm believer in living as if there were no such thing as a secret. If we hide our sins and live in darkness, we will never get the healing we so desperately need; in fact, if it is hidden so well that we don’t even recognize it, we may never even find forgiveness.”

How telling is that.

As a result of the scandal he and his family were excommunicated from the church he founded and told in no uncertain terms to stay out of the state of Colorado, essentially in exile.

I can understand why they would be angry with him, but it seems they’ve forgotten about “forgiveness”.  What’s worse is that the powers that be refused to accept that Ted is gay.  (Actually even Ted refuses to accept he’s gay).  Instead he was treated as a depraved sinner for acting in a “sexually immoral” way.

On top of that, one of his pastors claimed as a result of Ted’s post-scandal “Spiritual Restoration” (required by his church) that he was fixed.

He was, once again, a “complete heterosexual.”  Whew!!  Just about blew that one!  (No pun intended.)

The nice thing about this movie was that it did not cut Ted Haggard any slack, but it also didn’t kick him unnecessarily while he was down.

Alexandra Pelosi asked the tough questions while showing Ted Haggard as a flawed human being just like the rest of us mere mortals.

In the movie, Ted decides he is going to go back to school at the University of Phoenix to study psychology.  Alexandra asks him why.  He said he was helped immensely by his therapists.  His therapists!  Not his spiritual counsellors:  his therapists!

I got the impression he felt they had answers or ideas he couldn’t get anywhere else.  Not even the bible.  Interesting.  So much for all those years of preaching the gospel, hey Ted?

There’s also a segment where he’s trying to make money selling insurance.  The whole time I’m thinking, “So Ted, where is God or Jesus when you need him/them now?”  Not surprisingly, they were nowhere to be found.  Ted was on his own (with the exception of his family), whether he chose to accept that or not.

As to the sexual issues, all I can say is that evangelicals like Ted and his bretheren do themselves, their communities and the people around them absolutely no good by suggesting that his “gayness” is an act of sexual immorality.  Its the never ending story of the ultraconservative gay hate mongers.

Instead of accepting the issue like a true to the heart gay man, he continues to live the lie that somehow he is sexually flawed.  He may have been sexually flawed.  But I would suggest his attempt at hiding his true self for fear of reprisals from his church, resulted in many bad choices.  His being gay, in and of itself, was not the problem.  His own intolerance, and that of his church were the problem.

Meanwhile, the Christian right continue to preach the idea that being gay is immoral.   To people like Rick Warren, another famous hate mongering evangelical preacher, being gay is akin to being a child molester, or a rapist.  And he is on record as having said so in no uncertain terms.

People like Ted Haggard, Rick Warren, James Dobson and others like them make me completely skeptical of God, religion and in particular, of “good Christian values”.

There is more I could say on this but I think I’ve said enough.

To close out, I want to say that Alexandra Pelosi, you are the World’s Best Person in the World – for producing a simple, straightforward but very enlightening documentary that was probably as fair and balanced as any I have ever seen.

To Ted Haggard – I know you’ve been kicked around…but you have to admit, you had it coming.  Having said that, you’re not the World’s Worst Person today.

God is for failing to enlighten you on how you can be true to yourself.  For continuing to allow you to perpetuate the seriously flawed idea that being gay is somehow sexually immoral.  For that, God, you are today’s Worst Person in the World.  (For the second time this year – is there a hat trick in the works?)

Athiest Ads Controversy

In an article in Metronews on February 5, 2009, Robert C. Fennell, a professor of Christian Theology and History in Halifax talked about ads the Freethought Foundation of Canada wanted to place on Canadian transit systems with the message, “There’s probably no God.”

As it turns out, the Halifax and Victoria transit systems have already rejected the campaign.  Why?  Because of Christian objections to the ads.

Fennell, a believer, asks the question, “Should this be allowed?” (see metronews.ca – February 5, 2009)

Fennell says, “I can’t see how they can be denied the right to advertise.  Such beliefs are already part of the cultural landscape – a landscape in which free speech and freedom of religion are highly prized.  So long as these ads do not incite hatred, no enduring harm will result.”

Exactly.

Fennell goes on to say, “If I forbid others to share their faith, or lack of it, I must be prepared to have the public expression of my faith forbidden.”

Robert Fennell is obviously a guy who gets it.  You cannot discriminate against non-believers any  more than you can discriminate against a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew or otherwise.  Yet, if you ask a fundamentalist Christian what they think of the ads, they’ll be screaming bloody murder about how offensive they are.  My question is:  Would these same transit authorities reject advertising funds from a well funded church trying to spread their message of faith?  I highly doubt it.

Robert Fennell you are today’s Best Person in the World.

The Halifax and Victoria transit systems are today’s Worst Persons in the World for rejecting these campaigns and placating the believers and their delicate belief systems.  For turning down advertising funds from an organization that may represent over 50% of their paying customers (I have no proof of this, but I bet it’s not far off).  And for attempting to be politically correct without any apparent rational thought.

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