Darwin, religion and choice

[matgb]

Today is one of those birthday things. I knew it was coming up, because the BHA invited me to their annual event but a) I'd have had to pay and b) it was in London, so have fun all that do go, I'm sure it'll be good. Fortunately, bagrec reminded me this morning, so I half inched this image from him . Evolution was, I used to think, something that we generally all just accepted, sure, there were a few minority extremists that thought otherwise, but anyone with a decent education, including the entire Catholic Church, just know it to be real, right? Unfortunately the internet reveals this to be untrue, and that someone who is an avowed Creationist has a good chance at the Republican nomination (although no chance at the actual Presidency) is something that really does bother me. Fortunately, there are voices of reason out there, including my better half, and we all know what Theory means, etc, right? Ah well, if you need a bit more explanation, ask a skientist, I recommend Debi the evolutionary morphologist if you don't have another one handy. I'm sure her hangover will allow her to answer questions in her comments ;-)

In other news, Anonymous vs Scientology had a good weekend of protests it seems, deathboy went to the London protest and has a good report, and the Phoenix protest got /.ed. There's a little bit of me that dislikes the thing as a whole bunch of people, including people that have their own personal different brand of sky fairy, are ganging up on the Scientologists—I'm all for mocking all religions, but a dog pile seems a bit off when your allies are also batshit. Then I remember that they're Scientologists and that it's therefore OK anyway, right?

Last up, I've been promising various people for ages a post on markets, economics, and why I like them despite being a lot of a lefty, but while that's still on the planned list with a bunch of other stuff, Tim Harford continues his climb up my "top people" list by writing a post about why markets can at times fail, and how analysis of these "externalities" can help them get back on track and do a lot of good; "Green taxes" and similar are a method of dealing with externalities, and are generally much better than simply banning stuff.

Right, that's it for now, I have a fiancée to go snuggle for a bit before shrublette gets home...

Comments

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

I disagree with the scientology thing- this is a whole other brand of batshit altogether. Of course i'm not excluding fundies from other religions in that equation, but regular old followers of some faith? Nah...not the same thing.

Scientologists will cut you off from your family unless they also convert, sap your bank account dry, have been responsible for a number of deaths of the members of their church, and attempt to censor anyone by means of a powerful legal team. Of course, I'm not saying other religions don't do this: but again I'm not excluding fundies from this equation. You can't pile regular people into the same box as scientologists.


Of course, there's the whole other sentence I can throw out at you: It's not a religion, it's a cult.

[matgb]

The difference between a cult and a religion being?

As far as I can tell, size and societal acceptance. All religions are some variant of sky-fairy cult, and their followers are deluding themselves. They retain their right to say and think what they like, and I retain my right to mock them.

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

A religion can be a personal belief. It doesn't necessarily have to be a mass indoctrination which manipulates and brainwashes it's followers. My friend worshipping her god in the privacy of her own home is not the same thing as Jim Jones breaking out the Kool-Aid.

[thapunkprincess.livejournal.com]

Love these references to 'your friend'. The dumb-fuck cultist, I mean!

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

You're so edgy!