The View from Number 80

Voice of Unreason - Pat Robertson is well-known for his outrageous statements, (you can get a bellyful of them here) so it was only a matter of time before this deeply unpleasant person had something to say about the evolution/Intelligent Design case in Dover, Penn. It seems he is less than pleased about the ousting of 8 of the 9 IDiots on the school board which has effectively put a stop to ID in the classroom. He gave this warning "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city." Any conflict between this threat and the idea of a loving and caring God was explained by the great theologian in blunt terms, "God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever. If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them." Robertson reveals here exactly what Dover was really about - not teaching alternative theories of evolution (there are none) but forcing religion into the science class. By his crass remarks he has shown how, in a tiny mind such as his, the theory of evolution is perceived as some kind of atheist religion and Darwin is its prophet. He is incapable of understanding anything other than a position based on faith. Logic, rational inquiry and evidence play no part in his myopic vision of the world. While the smarter Intelligent Design proponents have attempted to portray their "theory" as something that belongs in the school curriculum on scientific merit, Robertson confirms that the whole ID thing is merely an inadequate fig leaf for creationism. (also see Rev. Ridiculous doesn't speak well for intelligent design and this piece from Alfred P Doblin, who says "If there is such a thing as intelligent design, Pat Robertson is an example of a model needing a recall.)

On the subject of ID, one wonders why none of the proponents of this nonsense have been nominated for the Templeton Prize (see Of God and Mammon). This is offered by Sir John Templeton who speculates "If even one-tenth of world research were focused on spiritual realities, could benefits be even more vast than the benefits in the latest two centuries from research in food, travel, medicine or electronics, and cosmology?" The answer to this has to be no - so-called spiritual realities have been researched throughout humankind's history with remarkably little benefit whatsoever. In instances where the light of science can be shined upon spiritual realities they have a habit of disappearing in a puff of (holy) smoke. All this aside, by Templeton's own standards Intelligent Design would seem to be just what he is looking for, a melding of science and faith. Perhaps we can expect to see Michael Behe or William Dembski as nominees - but then maybe even the  Templeton judges are not dumb enough to fall for their Argument from Ignorance. Dahlia Lithwick illustrates what a stupid position this is in Mind the Gaps where she applies some good old reductio ad absurdum with inevitable results. Also take a look at Talkdesign.org, "a response to the "Intelligent Design" movement of creationism." Recommended.

Olga Z is Allison Dubois - perhaps one of the scriptwriters of TV show Medium, supposedly based on the exploits of "media whore and self-proclaimed psychic Allison DuBois", has it in for the woman. Read this piece from the Two Percent Company and see how a fake psychic (is there any other kind?) in the show matches Dubois herself with spooky accuracy.

One Step Forward - then two steps back. Imagine if you will an animal that by its speed has become the dominant member of a fiercely competitive pack. What do you think would become of the animal's dominance if instead of leading the pack it developed an irrational desire to gnaw off its own feet, leaving it crippled and unable to compete, eventually to be left behind in the dust. This somewhat crumby metaphor represents the outcome for the US if it turns its back on science, replacing it with theology. The creationist/intelligent design camp want to do exactly this with school biology classes, but it won't stop there as the faith-based thinking embraced by the these clods is an attack on all science and reveals a widespread ignorance of the scientific method. Today came the welcome news that the IDiots on the Pennsylvania local school board in the Dover district were given the push, 8 out of 9 of them being replaced. Bryan Rehm, one of the winning board members said that regardless of the outcome of the ongoing court case ID will not be part of the school science curriculum. But this good news was tempered by the bad news that Kansas seems set to retain its dunce status as the State Board for Education no less, decided by a 6-4 vote to open the science curriculum to ID. Not content with revealing to the world their idiocy in this matter they then went on to redefine the meaning of science itself "so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena." In the language of the opening metaphor, the Kansas board have started gnawing.

Stamping Out Offense - it seems that Hindus are the latest religionists to jump on the "we are offended" bandwagon. The Hindu Forum of Britain (who they?) has got its collective knickers in a twist over a Royal Mail Xmas stamp that shows "a Hindu couple worshipping baby Jesus". Hold on, you cry, they may have a point there, but the Royal Mail claims the offending image is taken from a 17th century painting that currently hangs in a Mumbai gallery. If, as it seems, no one has taken exception to it in India itself, home to 98% of the world's Hindus, why should the British Hindus deem it offensive? 80 detects more than a little me-tooism here. We have had violent Sikhs, protesting Christians and any number of swinophobic Muslims so why shouldn't the Hindus have their 15 minutes of fame? Secretary general of the Hindu Forum, Ramesh Kallidai, told the BBC "Even if we accept that an artist in 1620 AD took the artistic license to portray practising Hindus worshipping the baby Christ, we should be asking if this is politically and sensitively correct in the 21st century." So Kallidai thinks that the 21st century should be more repressive of artistic expression than the 17th century? Grow up - it is only a stamp, surely there must be far more important matters with which the Forum can concern itself?

Santa's World, Not Yours - the name of this blog and its subtitle should be enough to get your attention - Unscrewing The Inscrutable, "I'm not angry, I just don't agree with you". One article in particular caught 80's eye here, entitled What It Feels Like to be an Atheist. The author, DarkSyde (DS), by using an analogy of belief in Santa Claus to represent religious faith makes some very telling points. These will resonate particularly with those of you living in the US, where rampant religiosity pervades every walk of life, from politicians declaring their faith in order to score votes to pharmacists refusing to supply medication that conflicts with their idea of morality. DarkSyde encapsulates the paranoia engendered when all around you are in thrall to irrational beliefs and, even worse, expect you to comply with their world view even to the point of legislating for compliance. That DS does this with a large dollop of humor is quite an achievement, although the laughter engendered may well end in a shudder when you realize the situation described plots one to one with real life for many thousands of people. If 80 featured an essay of the month this would be it.

Reasons To Be Sceptical - Part 1 in which Tony Youens visits the god of the gaps and finds he isn't there, and introduces an infinitesimally small unit of time, no doubt soon to be adopted by cosmologists, in describing the (god free) beginning of it all "...... from nought point bugger all after the big bang right up until now is the whole thing was an entirely natural process. I mean ‘natural’ as opposed to supernatural." In Part 2 he has some pointed advice for mediums and for those who are convinced against all reason by their "trivial babblings". Tony also includes a link to Bad Psychics, a site 80 has found to be full of interesting things, including interviews with the likes of Derren Brown, Paul Daniels and Richard Wiseman plus a great deal more. If you have been alarmed/disgusted/amused by the rise of cheap psychic "reality" shows such as the execrable Most Haunted Live, then Bad Psychics is definitely the place to go. (Also find out what was said when Tony spoke to The Supernatural World.)

What's In a Name? - in this instance not a great deal, unless you are a biblical literalist or one who follows that bastard child of religion, science and wishful thinking called biblical archaeology. It seems that "Archaeologists digging at the purported biblical home of Goliath have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription of the Philistine’s name, a find they claimed lends historical credence to the Bible’s tale of David’s battle with the giant." according to MSNBC. The "scientist" in charge of the dig, Dr. Aren Maeir, a professor at Bar-Ilan University is quoted as saying "What this means is that at the time (circa 950 BCE) there were people there named Goliath. It shows us that David and Goliath’s story reflects the cultural reality of the time." Hold on to that first sentence as it is the only thing that Maeir says that makes any sense.

Replying to the assertion that the tale is likely a myth written down hundreds of years after the time it is set Maeir said that finding the scraps lends historical credence to the biblical story. Maeir is obviously of the school where the default position is that bible stories are true and can be confirmed by archaeology. In fact the bible contains two versions of the Goliath story, one where he is killed by David (Samuel 17:49, 50) using either a slingshot or a sword (the bible says both) and another where he is killed by Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim (Samuel 21:19). Helpfully the editors of the King James version of the bible, when confronted by this paradox, changed the text so that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath - a change unsupported in the original Hebrew text. Forgive 80 for quoting the actual passage but it is up there with some of the best of Monty Python "And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam." So, to recap, what has Maeir discovered? Nothing - beyond the fact that the name Goliath existed in 10th century BCE Philistia. (For more see this interesting page on who really killed Goliath)

Bend It - like Youens! Nails have not been such fun since Passion of the Christ. In A Nail Bending Suggestion from Discovery Channel we look on as Tony Youens uses the awesome power of his mind to bend nails - apparently. What we in fact have here is a fascinating illustration of the power of suggestion and its affect upon our perceptions, organized by Chris French head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit and Tony Youens. Recommended viewing for skeptics and believers alike but you will need broadband. On the same page make sure you check out Richard Wiseman in The Man Behind the Magic, in which he looks ".. at the science of illusion and the secrets that magicians use." (Also see Tony's Commentary on the latest offering from crap psychic Derek Acorah called Ghost Towns. Another offering from scruple-free Living TV)

Benson on Buxton - sometimes someone says something that is so stupid that your blood boils. In this particular instance it is Nicholas Buxton who is talking bollocks, and Ophelia Benson whose blood (quite understandably) boils. Her rebuttal on the Butterflies and Wheels site of Buxton's pathetic and false view of secularism is a joy to read. Buxton, whom the Guardian tells us is "writing a PhD thesis on Buddhist philosophy" is shown to be not only a fool with little grasp of how to present an argument but one who thoroughly deserves the onslaught from Benson. Perhaps he will think twice before trotting out his ill-thought out tosh before the public. Come to that, what was the Guardian thinking of to print it in the first place? Did no one read it before publication? 80 is all for freedom of speech and expression but please, give it at least a semblance of coherence. Happily the paper has managed to redeem itself somewhat with this item featuring Philip Pullman on the Blair government's religious hatred bill, in which he " asks if the law will distinguish between a rational analysis of theology and a call for violence...". Also weighing in on the dangers posed to free speech are Monica Ali, Philip Hensher and Salman Rushdie. Recommended.

Wishful Physics - You can't win, you can't break even and you can't get out of the game - that, sadly, is how the universe seems to operate. In other words not only are you unable to extract from a process more energy than you put in, you cannot even achieve unity. You also cannot isolate any such process from interacting in some way with the rest of the universe. These three (gross) simplifications of the laws of thermodynamics would appear to be complete showstoppers for the free energy crowd. These are the folk, ranging from carnival-type hucksters to qualified scientists, who claim to get more energy out of a system than they put in - what is called achieving an over unity result. Some of these really look like they are onto something but somehow concrete results are never seen, often after years of investment frequently provided by willing, but scientifically ignorant, dupes. The Guardian newspaper recently looked at one of the companies that claims over unity results from harnessing the power of the "hydrino". That this variant of a hydrogen atom, with its electron occupying a closer orbit or shell around the central proton than normal contradicts what is known of quantum physics seems not to bother Blacklight Power (BLP) and its leading light Randell Mills, a "Harvard University medic who also studied electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology".

Long before the Guardian's interest the name of Blacklight Power (formerly HydroCatalysis Power) used to crop up regularly in Bob Park's newsletter, What's New. One mention, from 2000, was over the notoriously lax US patent office's decision to actually withdraw a patent (likely at Park's instigation) issued in February of that year to BLP and to re-examine another on the grounds that the office was "concerned that the BLP technology involves perpetual motion and cold fusion". A later entry, for September 2002, mentions that BLP was suing the Patent Office saying it had changed its mind too late in light of the firm going public "with an estimated $1B stock offering". (Now where else in the world of science is recourse taken through legal action and not through rigorous scientific proof? Oh yes, Intelligent Design. Hardly the best of company.) Suffice it to say the court rejected BLP's suit. The fact that Mills and company managed to get money out of NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts proves nothing - after all NASA invested over $600,000 in an antigravity machine with nothing to show for it. BLP also makes an appearance on The Museum of Hoaxes web site with the label "Most likely a free energy scam". Given the above you will surely understand why 80 was less than excited at the Guardian's news that "Dr Mills says that his company, Blacklight Power, has tens of millions of dollars in investment lined up to bring the idea to market. And he claims to be just months away from unveiling his creation." Just don't hold your breath.

Dolphin Pick-me-up? - a new study claims people suffering from mild to moderate depression may benefit from swimming with dolphins, although 80 suspects another factor may be involved. Dr Iain Ryrie, research programme director at the Mental Health Foundation is quoted in this BBC report as saying "Swimming with and caring for dolphins as a group activity in a vacation context is very likely therefore to alleviate depression." The study notes that sufferers in a control group swimming without dolphins did less well - but both groups swimming off the coast of Honduras, improved. 80 can't help thinking the important factor here may be not so much dolphins as a free vacation, which is likely to improve most people's outlook. On the subject of dolphins (and small whales) the UN, following a global survey, has announced that more than 70% of species are at risk through snaring in fishing nets, intentional catching, pollution, habitat destruction and military sonar. It seems that if we humans want to use cetaceans as psychotherapists we had better hurry before we drive them to extinction. (The full report of the depression study from the British Medical Journal is here although this is certainly not the first time claims have been made for "dolphin therapy" - see this story from 1995. The UN review on small cetaceans is here and here is a directory of dolphin conservation charities).

Magical Xmas - Channel 4, the British TV network, have what looks like a great seasonal line up. According to the Times, "On Christmas Day, in a programme entitled The Magic of Jesus, two magicians will reenact biblical miracles such as turning water into wine and the feeding of the five thousand, the channel has revealed. The show will be followed by Tsunami: Where Was God?" It makes Nine Lessons and Carols so last millennium, don't you think?

Panexa - 80 wholeheartedly recommends nothing more than the new prescription drug Panexa.

Audiomartini - a short while back 80 recommended a trip to Bad Psychics. Now there is another reason - an interview with James Randi by Rick Wood. Just look for the Audiomartini link.

OINK! - 80 recently instituted the award known as the OINK! (Order of the Imbecilic Nincompoop Kowtowers!) for those who are running scared of the new, aggressive stance religionists adopt over imagined slights. The latest nincompoops are the producers of the Christopher Marlowe play at the Barbican, London, Tamburlaine the Great. The play, written sometime before 1587 tells the tale of the Tartar conqueror's bloodthirsty exploits. Originally written as two plays - Marlowe incorporated a sequel as the original  had proved so popular - the character of Tamburlaine is not glorified and full cognizance is given of his overweening pride and brutality. Part of this was his adoption of the soubriquet Scourge of God - he believed himself greater than any deity. In Tamburlaine's ravishing of Persia therefore it is only natural that Muslims were the subject of his cruelty and persecution - the play includes attacks on Mohammed and the burning of the Koran - or it would do if not bowdlerized by artistic cowards. The Times reports Simon Reade, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic believed that if the play adhered to Marlowe's text it "would have unnecessarily raised the hackles of a significant proportion of one of the world’s great religions". This is absurd and shows the stultifying effect fear of religious fanatics can have on the arts and free speech - and this without Blair's religious hatred laws. Plenty of scholars and leading lights in the theater have lined up to condemn this pathetic censorship including Park Honan, Emeritus Professor at the School of English, University of Leeds, and author of Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy, who is quoted in the Times as saying "It is wrong to tamper with the play, wrong to shorten it and wrong to leave out the burning of the Koran because that is involved with the exposition of Tamburlaine’s character. He’s a false prophet. This is meant to horrify the audience." When is this cowardice and appeasement in the face of often non-existent threats going to stop? It is the equivalent of rolling over and surrendering before a blow has even landed, like the pathetic performance of Tate Britain over John Latham's piece, God is Great. David Farr, who directed and adapted the play, is also responsible for its mutilation. He rewrote Marlowe's text following the July 7th London bombings fearful that the original would have caused offence. What he did was in direct opposition to the mood in London and the country in the aftermath of that atrocity, which was one of steadfast defiance. This kind of self-censorship plays into the hands of the religious fanatics and actually does their dirty work for them. (The Times has helpfully printed the "offending lines" at the bottom of its report so you can see what all the fuss is about.)

Update - David Farr denies that his alteration of Marlowe's original text was censorship, calling the Times report "complete nonsense". He told the Guardian "...my decision to adapt the text was purely artistic. Journalists and academics often forget that theatre directors are dealing with living texts. We constantly adapt, chop, cut and change to make the work vibrant and rigorous for a modern audience, to present our particular vision in as limpid a way as possible." Take a moment to look at the excised lines in the Times report and see for yourself whether their loss added in any way to the play's limpidity/clarity or detracted from its vibrancy or rigor. Farr then spends the rest of the page ineffectually defending his textual alterations. One is surprised he did not choose another play altogether considering that he describes Marlowe's classic as an "anti-Turkish pantomime" as revealed in this quote, "The decision to focus the play away from anti-Turkish pantomime to an existential epic was artistic, mine alone, and I stand by it." Oh well, if it was "artistic" censorship that makes it alright then, doesn't it? We are indeed lucky to have Farr improve Marlowe for us. If anything Farr's undignified, wriggling attempts to justify his actions merely serve to make him look even sillier than if he had simply kept quiet.

Joy of Invective - one thing missing in much modern discourse is an occasional bit of invective. Now it seems as though things may be picking up. Australian-born mathematician Lord Robert May, described in this Observer piece as Britain's most senior scientist, has made it abundantly clear how he feels about climate change denial, making the Bush administration's Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton the target of his derision. In a refreshingly blunt comment on the fact that Connaughton is no scientist May said "Of course, if you are trying to defend the indefensible, the first thing you do is hire a good lawyer. That might explain it. Personally, I think Connaughton's argument that US carbon dioxide emissions are really going down - if you compare them with America's rising GDP - is loony. He and I live on different planets." Many American environmental scientists would agree with that assessment. Sadly climate change deniers do occupy the same planet as the rest of us - and it is warming up. (for the full text of May's address to the Royal Society, Threats to Tomorrow's World, on the dangers that fundamentalism poses for the future of science go here for either a webcast or a downloadable Adobe PDF file.)

In another enjoyable piece of abuse, physicist and author Simon Singh, in the Guardian, gives short shrift to poet John Keats, who thought that physics destroyed beauty. He abhorred Newton's work on optics and called it unweaving the rainbow. Such a foolish and ignorant stance has been thoroughly refuted by the likes of Richards Feynman and Dawkins but Singh brings an enjoyable earthiness to his dismissal of the poet before extolling the the joys of being informed both scientifically and aesthetically. "John Keats talked of "unweaving the rainbow", suggesting that Newton destroyed the beauty of nature by analysing light with a prism and splitting it into different colours. Keats was being a prat. Physicists also smile when we see rainbows, but our emotional reaction is doubled by our understanding of the deep physics relating to the prismatic effects of raindrops. Similarly, physicists appreciate sunsets more than anybody else, because we can enjoy the myriad colours and at the same time grasp the nuclear physics that created the energy that created the photons that travelled for millions of years to the surface of the Sun, which then travelled eight minutes through space to Earth, which were then scattered by the atmosphere to create the colourful sunset. Understanding physics only enhances the beauty of nature." Do read the rest of this fascinating piece as Singh laments the current dire state of physics education in the UK. Still with invective, where would we be without The Two Percent Company? See here for their thoughts regarding so-called liberal attacks on Xmas.

"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination - stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one - million - year - old light. A vast pattern - of which I am a part... What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent? "
Richard Feynman The Feynman Lectures on Physics

"After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked -- as I am surprisingly often -- why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it?"
Richard Dawkins Unweaving the Rainbow

She's At It Again - another day, another sniveling Madonna. Given the miserable state of the world it would have been nice if the de facto Christian goddess had laughed or put on a song and dance but no, she is blubbing again, this time in Sacramento, California. This has inevitably led to the usual crowd of credulous gawpers, some with their own insightful analysis of this "miracle". The supposedly weeping statue is at the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church and one of the parishioners, who believes the tears are a sign, had this gem of wisdom to impart "There's a big event in the future — earthquake, flood, a disease." He needed a seeping statue to tell him that? The Roman Catholic hierarchy are, as usual, non-committal as to whether this is a miracle. The Rev. James Murphy, deacon of mother church, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament told the San Francisco Chronicle "For people individually seeing things through the eyes of faith, something like this can be meaningful." The phrase "... the eye of faith" is a good one, which roughly translates as "without any trace of rational inquiry". This is not the first time that a Vietnamese Catholic church has hosted a blubbing Virgin - see Statue Sell-Out about an Australian manifestation from 2004. In that instance a canny individual from a Christian Supplies Store turned the whole thing into a nice little earner. 80 leaves the (almost) last word on the Sacramento affair to another believer who travelled miles to see the statue "I think that it's incredible. It's a miracle. Why is she doing it? Is it something bothering her?" Perhaps she has just got a bug in her eye.........

Webb Strategy - here is a transcript from BBC Radio 4's excellent show From Our Own Correspondent. In this instance it is Justin Webb, the Beeb's Washington correspondent, who reveals a wonderfully cunning ploy in which he used a 5-year-old boy as a litmus test for the beliefs of his parents regarding evolution. Webb is obviously (and rightly) alarmed at the spread of creationist beliefs among the American public, mainly Republicans. As Webb puts it "In other words these Americans, heirs to every scientific advance in history, deny rational accounts of how the world came to exist." Webb uses his story to investigate the increasing tendency for the description Republican and evangelical Christian to mean much the same thing, and to ask whether fundamentalist views should influence the Republican party. He also examines George Bush's plummeting popularity, even within his own party, which he neatly summarizes thus "He famously told an interviewer that when deciding to go to war in Iraq he listened to the authority not of his dad but of a Higher Father. And, Republicans are daring to think, if not quite say, out loud: "Look where that got him." " (You can listen to BBC Radio 4 on the web and also download many shows)

On a similar them is an article by Martin Kettle, writing in the Guardian, called America is caught in a conflict between science and God. He cites the example of an exhibition on Charles Darwin at the American Museum of Natural History that has failed to find corporate sponsors because of the American public's attitude toward evolution (The Creationist Museum near Cincinatti, Ohio, which takes literally the Bible's account of creation, has recently raised $7 million in donations). Kettle sees the Darwin exhibition as a gesture of defiance against the onslaught that science is enduring in 21st century America and laments the need for such tactics. In looking at the retreat from science and the increasingly fundamentalist religiosity that afflicts the US it seems to 80 that Kettle is missing another factor that contributes to the current situation and that is a widespread anti-intellectualism among the general public. This distrust of "the wise guy" has culminated in a White House incumbent who has trouble in stringing together a simple sentence. This has not always been so - one has only to compare the country's Founding Fathers, men such as Jefferson and Franklin, to the current crop of legislators to see how low things have sunk. In the Darwin exhibition Kettle sees an indication that science and rationality are fighting back against the fundamentalists and finds this a cause for hope, as he does with regard to the steadily growing domestic debate over the direction taken in Iraq. Let us hope his optimism is not misplaced. (For more see Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science and this statement from the Union of Concerned Scientists.)

Challenging Drama - here is an interesting piece by Stephanie Merritt, writing in the Observer, on the alteration of classic texts to accommodate current sensibilities. Triggered by the censorship of Marlowe's Tamburlaine (OINK!) she makes this point "Drama ought to challenge assumptions, question prevailing attitudes and lay open complacencies and unreflecting mores, whether it is being written today or staged for the thousandth time. In a society that prizes free speech, no artist should be censored, or feel obliged to censor themselves, because of pressure from religious groups which might take offence." On the alteration of Marlowe's text by David Farr and the subsequent condemnation and Farr's own inadequate defense Merritt takes no sides, preferring to defend textual editing in some situations but certainly not in order to appease fanatics of whatever stripe. Her conclusion deserves quoting in its entirety, "One of the biggest problems we face is that an increasing number of religious groups - even meek and mild Christians - now include rogue elements who feel their freely chosen beliefs are not robust enough to withstand criticism or mockery and must be defended by threatening or violent means. Any writer or director, whether of modern or historical drama, who allows their production to be compromised by the real or imagined response of these small knots of militants has made a grave error of judgment. But that is is not the same as saying that classic texts can never be updated."

A Load of Blocks - one entertaining aspect of surfing the web is the occasional bizarre juxtaposition of pages that seem to be following a theme. (naturally 80 attributes this to coincidence rather than spookiness) A recent example involved Lego, the children's plastic building block, invented in Denmark and known around the world. It would seem that hard disk drive company LaCie found the rectangular shape studded with connecting nodules so attractive that it copied the look for a new range of stackable drives. This is not plagiarism apparently, but a "homage". Someone else who found the shiny little plastic bricks irresistible is William Swanberg of Reno, Nevada. We are told he "stole and resold on the Internet up to $200,000 of the brick sets" before being caught. According to ABC news "Records of the Lego collector's Web site, Bricklink.Com, show that Swanberg has sold nearly $600,000 worth of Legos since 2002". He is now held on bail for a cool $250,000. Finally here is a site for those with an interest in the bible - The Brick Testament - where the whole mish-mash of legend, history, bigotry and cruelty is lovingly created in Lego blocks. To see how arbitrary and cruel the good book can be check out what happened to poor Ham when, by accident, he saw his dad Noah naked and drunk on the floor of his tent.

More OINK! - two more spineless recipients of the OINK! award are the British retailers who have bowed to complaints regarding the DVD of Jerry Springer: The Opera and removed it from sale. The two stores are Sainsburys and Woolworths. Those who protest to Woolworths receive a standard, weasel-worded reply.

"Thank you for your e-mail. Woolworths is not a censor and does not wish to act as one. Like any other retailer, it is guided by government legislation with regard to film certification. However, we also listen to our customers and their feedback. On this occasion we have received numerous complaints and it is clear to us that our customers would prefer us not to stock this product. As a result it has been removed from sale."

- oddly the company refuses to divulge the number of complaints, claiming the information is confidential. It is interesting to speculate how many other people have been in touch to protest Woolworth's act of censorship - apparently a sufficient number to make it worth setting up a standard response. Thanks to Woolworth's secretiveness whether that number exceeds the number of the original complainants cannot be known. If you feel sufficiently annoyed by this ridiculous state of affairs why not let Danny Myers, Woolworths Customer Support Advisor know how you feel - just click Customer.Relations@woolworths.co.uk. You can use this page to do the same for Sainsburys. All the justifiable anger at this backdoor censorship has now attracted the attention of the BBC. Update - see MediaWatchWatch for the latest developments and further contact details.

They're Back - the Independent article that brought the unwelcome censorship news (see above) says that complaints about the DVD originated from "a tiny fringe Christian group". Yes, that rancid odor of sanctity assailing your nostrils undoubtedly emanates from Christian Voice. They also feature in the Liverpool Daily Post,  threatening demonstrations against the live performance of Jerry Springer the Opera at the Empire theater in the city. Two things are noteworthy about the report. One is the confirmation that Christian Voice actually does consist of more than just Stephen Green, for we are told an Alan Chester is organizing the protests. (So there are at least two members) In the event Chester, poor soul, may be too much of a wimp for the job as he claims watching the show made him physically ill. The second item of note is the poor reporting by the Daily Post, whose reporter, Homa Khaleeli, seems content to parrot religionist propaganda about the frequency of swearwords in the show and the number of protests received by the BBC when it aired the Opera in January of this year. Even minimal research would have shown these figures were wrong. (Nausea induced by popular works of art may be on the increase as Polly Toynbee, writing in the Guardian on the new Narnia film, tells us "...adults who wince at the worst elements of Christian belief may need a sickbag handy for the most religiose scenes.)

Britain's Psychic Challenge - is the name of a new TV show coming to Channel 5 in the UK. According to the blurb the show's host, Trisha Goddard, "will conduct the largest ever national search for people who claim to have psychic abilities." The aim is to "..lift the lid on psychic powers and scrutinise those who claim to possess them. Not only will our competing "psychics" have to contend with our demanding panel of sceptical experts but also various scientific and logistical tests." Goddard herself, at least in this article from the Sunday Mail, seems quite skeptical for a talk show host, usually a fairly gullible bunch. She told the paper "We'll be having a screening process almost like a Psychic Idol. There are non-believers and total cynics and then there are people who believe they have been whisked off to alien lands on a spaceship. I'm in the middle but I'm always looking for a rational explanation. I think there are instincts we all have, from thousands of years ago, when we needed a sixth sense to pick up subtle signals in order to survive." Goddard's attitude, plus the presence of Chris French, of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College, University of London, could well make for an interesting show. The launch program is on Sunday, December 4th at 8pm and will go out weekly from Sunday January 15th.

Review To Come - one to look out for next week, as heralded here by James Randi, will be a review of the TV show Britain's Psychic Challenge, involving Randi and 80's favorite psychic commentator/debunker Tony Youens. The comments of these two eminently qualified gentlemen will be, 80 is sure, well worth the wait. Update - there is more information, including a report from Tony Youens, in James Randi's Swift newsletter.

Sick and Tired - of the meaningless twaddle that goes under the name of astrology? You are not alone - join Tony Youens in a (highly) critical tour of the kind of crap that the British national press calls "your stars". Tip - when asked for your birth sign by an astrological nitwit say "Pyrex! - I was a test tube baby." Also bear in mind the observation by Ivan Kelly, courtesy of the excellent Skeptics Dictionary, that astrology "..has no relevance to understanding ourselves, or our place in the cosmos. Modern advocates of astrology cannot account for the underlying basis of astrological associations with terrestrial affairs, have no plausible explanation for its claims, and have not contributed anything of cognitive value to any field of the social sciences." More from Kelly can be read at Butterflies and Wheels.

Kingdom of Satan? - a church belonging to the Faithworks group, addressed by UK political party leaders back in March of this year in an attempt to curry favor with the religious vote, has been banned in Zambia as "satanic". The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), upon which 80 cast a jaundiced eye (see Faith works?) for its connections with the apalling Victoria Climbie child abuse case in the UK and its money grabbing ways, seems to have fallen out of favor in the southern African state. It stands accused of involvement in "satanic rituals" by the Zambian government. According to this BBC report "On Saturday, police fired teargas as demonstrators threw stones at a UCKG church building in the capital, Lusaka. After order had been restored, two men - who the crowd claimed had been kidnapped for satanic rituals - came out of the building painted from head to toe. They said that they were unable to remember what had happened to them or how they got there." The next day rioters burned down a UCKG church south of the capital, Lusaka. This is not the first time Zambia has banned UCKG - it fell foul of the authorities in 1998 but was reinstated after appealing to the Supreme Court. While the UCKG may be on the outs in Zambia, its Bishop Renato Cardoso is still on the Faithworks Council of Reference. 80 wonders if the other members of the Council like the company they are in? A page on the UCKG web site called Case Studies consists of pictures of various smiling people with quotes underneath such as "Members of my family who had died would be enticing me to join them.", "No partner, no son, no job, no money, and no happiness." and "I ate their hearts and livers raw." Whether these quotes refer to their lives before or after joining the church is, at least to this observer, unclear. Also see the rib-tickling Christian Jokes page with such hilarious gags as "Why do they use sterilised needles for death by lethal injection?" and "What level of importance must a person have, before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?" What a charming bunch. Suddenly 80 finds himself sympathizing with the Zambians............. Update - the ban is lifted while the High Court deliberates.

Quote - "For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins." Martin van Creveld, from an utterly damning article in the magazine Forward. Creveld is a professor of military history at the Hebrew University and the only non-American author on the U.S. Army's required reading list for officers (but probably not for much longer).

White House Christmas - regular as clockwork every winter holiday time the sound of whining can be heard from Christians upset that their Christmas celebration is under assault. Various right-wing fundagelical groups perform a yearly boycott of those stores and businesses that dare to greet customers with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". Bill O'Reilly, talk show host, ladies' man and all round reactionary bigot has been plugging a book called, believe it or not, "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought" by fellow Fox broadcaster John Gibson. The "war", it seems, is only part of an agenda that includes "legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage"  O'Reilly expounds his belief that there is a secular, atheist plot to destroy the traditional Christmas. (Whose tradition? This midwinter celebration actually goes back much, much further in time than Jesus' supposed birth date - see Our Pagan Christmas) But now the holy holiday is under attack from an entirely unexpected quarter - the White House. To the horror of many talibangelicals, the Washington Post tells us "President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season."" Not one mention of Christmas or baby Jesus. Naturally this has gone down like a lead balloon with the likes of William A. Donohue, (president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights), the Heritage Foundation, Joseph Farah (of the conservative WorldNetDaily.com) and the American Family Association. It goes to show that lame duck Dubya is succeeding at one thing - pissing everyone off - including his erstwhile pals, the conservative, right-wing Christians. Happy Holidays!

No Time - to find that special Christmas gift for a loved one? Then click here for the solution to your problem! And here's a Christmas homily for the kids, bless 'em, plus a nostalgic look at how Christmas ought to be.

Platitude for the Day - for those of us who choke with rage at the facile and condescending drivel that is the BBC's "Thought for the Day", broadcast on Radio 4's Today show every morning, relief is now available. Just click here to find accurate summaries of each talk (at least so far as 80 managed to check without becoming nauseous) which amusingly demonstrate just what trivial, patronizing, shallow tosh these little talks truly are. The pap is then given a rating for platitude content, which again is spot on for accuracy. If 80 had a site of the month to recommend this would be it. A couple of years ago there was a move to allow secular thinkers to deliver the thought, but the BBC rejected this idea owing to its unhealthy obsession with religion. To find out what a non-religious Thought for the Day would sound like if Richard Dawkins were the speaker, go here.

Mohammed Bounty - Back in October, 80 wrote about the row in Denmark over some cartoonists' drawings of the prophet Mohammed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper (see Democratic Denmark). This had the inevitable result of death threats being issued by those Islamists who seem think their faith cannot stand on its own and needs a violent helping hand. Now things have taken a nastier turn with a Pakistani group actually putting a price on the cartoonist's head (they mistakenly think only one person was responsible for all the drawings). The threat was denounced by the Pakistani government and Jyllands-Posten has offered no comment. Sadly this is yet another attempt by fanatical religionists to stifle free expression, a phenomenon that is on the increase.

Holhut points out that "In our nation, we have a president who sincerely believes he's been chosen by God to lead. We have people in public life who selectively quote from the Bible and believe not in the Jesus of compassion and mercy, but in a Jesus inflicting vengeance on non-believers....The warped Christianity of the fundamentalists and evangelicals has merged with fascism almost seamlessly." (Which merger is also happening in the UK - see Jackboot Jesus. As for Bush's delusion of being advised by God, see this entirely believable explanation) In conclusion, Holhut has a fine suggestion for the US, in that it is fair and reasonable - and therefore most unlikely to be adopted.  "Perhaps this should be the test — say what you want in your church, but once you enter the political arena, you are subject to the same rules of evidence as everyone else. You can't hide behind your Bible and try to pass off dogma as truth." (Do take a moment to check out the site OpEdNews.com for other good stuff)

Jackboot Jesus - it has often been said that you can learn a lot about someone by the company they keep. It therefore came as a shock to 80 to learn that those stalwart enemies of enlightened and liberal thought, the British National Party (BNP - see Toytown Nazis) have thrown in their lot with loony pressure group Christian Voice and its war on theaters that intend to stage Jerry Springer:The Opera. How a thuggish, fascist gang such as the BNP could lower itself in this demeaning way by cooperating with a thuggish, fascist Christian gang is beyond 80's comprehension. Oh wait, there is a precedent for such a union, so that's alright then. Talk about a marriage made in hell.............(By the way, has anyone thought to tell the BNP that Jesus was Jewish?) For all the latest news about the censorship imposed by retail giants Woolworths and Sainsburys on the Springer DVD go to MediaWatchWatch - recommended.

Ghost Hunting 101 - ever wonder how those brilliant psychics on the Most Haunted shows and LivingTV's other offerings achieve their amazing results? Here is the complete lowdown on how to get started, from assembling your team to the right kind of  equipment, courtesy of Germany’s Dieter Sarkoses. Consider this comprehensive primer the last word on ghost hunting. Follow the recommendations, and, if you apply them correctly, maybe next time the cry goes up "Who you gonna call?" you could be the ghostbusters!

Quote - "Governors make horrible presidents. ....You should absolutely never elect a former vice president, a governor, a minister, the son of a minister, the head of a major corporation, an admiral or a general." -- the late Eugene McCarthy, who died on Saturday December 10th, speaking in 1992.

Interfaith Discussions - for those of you keen to promote dialogue between two of the world's major religions take a look at this page to see just how this could actually work.

Truthdig - a new online magazine, had 80 signing up for its newsletter immediately. The brainchild of journalist Robert Scheer, it has already set a high standard. To judge the quality of the content check out Imagine There's No Heaven - An Atheist Manifesto by Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith. (An extract from the essay was featured in Humanist Network News in October) Highly Recommended. For more on Harris's views, here is an extended interview with the man, originally from The Raving Atheist, but reproduced on Brian Flemming's site - Flemming, you may recall, is the maker of the movie The God Who Wasn't There. (The movie is available in the UK from the National Secular Society and would make a great present for the festive season!) For a different take on Harris and his views of "spirituality" see Trading Faith for Spirituality: The Mystifications of Sam Harris by Meera Nanda on the Butterflies and Wheels site.

Quote - "It is worth noting that no one ever needs to identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, atheism is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma" Sam Harris

Randi - "Sam Harris has done it again—eloquently, thoroughly, and clearly.  Would that I could express myself so well. Living as we in the USA do presently, subject to governmental decisions based on “faith-based” notions, I salute this site, and will recommend it at every opportunity." James Randi (see his Swift newsletter for news of Britain's Psychic Challenge including a report from Tony Youens)

JC Says, Enough! - Mark Morford, writing his idiosyncratic column, Notes and Errata,  for the San Francisco Chronicle's online incarnation has excelled himself with his latest offering. "In an astonishing but not completely unexpected announcement, Jesus H. Christ, vice president and CFO of All That Is Inc., appeared today on a large tortilla at a roadside taco stand in Zacatecas, Mexico, to announce that, effective immediately, the pseudo-Christian group Focus on the Family, led by Dr. James Dobson and best known for its blazing hatred of gays and its fear of glimpsing the human female nipple during nationally televised sporting events, is effectively banned from His Divine Beneficence." Now read on.....

Herod Lives! - here is what 80 is sure will be only the first of a flood of heartwarming Christmas stories. It seems a nativity scene, belonging to Pastor Harry Berg and family at their home in Draper, Utah has been vandalized. KUTV.com tells the story "When the Bergs got home that night, a picture of King Herod was taped to the nativity scene, blindfolds had been put on Mary and Joseph, and baby Jesus was missing. “And the note said King Herod has taken your baby Jesus,” said Pastor Berg. The note (also) said baby Jesus would be found at the South Mountain Bridge. Pastor Berg called police who went to the bridge, found baby Jesus and returned the figure to the Bergs. The figure had been damaged, they had used red nail polish to signify blood on his hands and feet." Aaah, at least it is a happy ending. Now baby Jesus can grow up, die horribly and then come back as a ghost and condemn bad people to everlasting torment. Hallelujah! (if you want to know more of a great biblical (and real life) figure just click Herod the Great)

December 18th 2005

Do Unto Others - in a piece about a change in legislation governing the borders of the USA a religious basis for morality is revealed in all its warped selfishness. A new Republican-sponsored bill proposes punishment of up to five years in prison for those convicted of assisting "... undocumented immigrants who enter or attempt to enter the United States illegally". The Washington Post uses a true-life example of an individual who found a woman lying on the ground in the Arizona desert this summer. He gave the women, an illegal immigrant, water and undoubtedly saved her life. However these actions in future could place her rescuer on the wrong side of the law, something which "..has sent a chill through church organizations that help migrants in the belief that they are carrying out the will of God." The actual justification for such compassionate action, according to Joan M. Maruskin of the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program, is that "The overriding biblical mandate is to care for the stranger or the alien because that stranger or alien might very well be God." 80 had to read that a couple of times for it to sink in. It appears that the religious motivation is not based upon sympathy and a wish to help another human being in distress and mortal danger but because "..that stranger or alien might very well be God". So, it is the self interest of the religionist wishing to keep on the right side of the deity that is the motivation, and not compassion and empathy for the the sufferer. And these are the people that say of atheists how can they be moral with no belief in God? It is far more moral to help someone in dire need out of no other motive than the wish to alleviate the suffering of another human being than to do so because that stranger may be a deity in disguise. This selfish attitude demonstrates that true morality needs no laws handed down by a mythical being, but the application of natural human empathy and compassion, the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. This is something we should all cultivate regardless or not whether we have supernatural beliefs. Perform a good and charitable act for itself, and not for how many steps it takes you nearer to some imaginary pearly gates.

For more, read Morality Without God by Chapman Cohen. "Are we to believe that if we had never received a revelation from God, or even if there were no belief in God, a mother would never have learned to love her child, men and women would never have loved each other, men would never have placed any value upon honesty or truthfulness or loyalty? After all we have seen an animal mother caring for its young, even to the extent of risking its life for it. We have seen animals defend each other from a common enemy and join together in running down prey for a common meal. There is a courting time for animals, there is a mating time, and there is a time however brief when the animal family of male, female and young exist. All this happened to the animals without God. Why should man have to receive a revelation before he could reach the moral stage of the higher animal life? Broadly, then, the assertion that morality would never have existed for human beings without belief in a God or without a revelation from God is equal to saying that man alone should have never discovered the value of being honest and truthful or loyal. He would not even have had such terms as good and bad in his vocabulary, for the use of those words implies moral judgement, and there would have been no such thing -- at least, so we are told."

Deya Update - the latest episode in the seemingly interminable saga of "Archbishop" Gilbert Deya and the miracle babies is the news from Nairobi, Kenya that Deya's wife, Mary, has failed to convince a doctor that she had given birth. This came to light during a court case in which Mrs Deya and others are accused of stealing a baby. The doctor told the court that a clinical examination showed the woman had not given birth as she had claimed. The prosecutor added two more charges of giving false information even as Mrs Deya insisted she was telling the truth. As far as is known, while his wife faces the music in Kenya, the Archbishop is still keeping a low profile in the UK. It seems strange that a man who claims miraculous powers from God should leave his wife in such dire straits instead of going to her side in Nairobi and confounding the court. That is, of course, assuming that he is an inspired man of God, and not a baby smuggler. (For more on Gilbert the miracle worker, who claims he can make barren and post-menopausal women bear children, see What, Still Here? and Miracle Babies. Caution - links from AllAfrica.com tend to have a short shelflife.)

The Daily Show's - contribution to the "war on Christmas" debate delivered by Jon Stewart in sincere mode, straight to camera "...and remember, every time you say "Happy Holidays" an angel gets AIDS."

December 20th 2005

Lying By Design - this paragraph from New Scientist  puts it quite neatly, "Judge John Jones of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled that intelligent design (ID) - which bills itself as a scientific theory and states that life shows signs of being the work of an intelligent designer - is in fact reworked creationism." In fact, Judge Jones put it like this "The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the board who voted for the ID policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy. We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom."   (Here is the full judgement in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format and for an interesting examination of the case read the report in eSkeptic. While there, why not subscribe?)

Well, who would have thought it, members of the school board were not only closet creationists, they were lying, deceitful, sneaky closet creationists. This should really come as no surprise as the claim that ID was science didn't even impress the Templeton Foundation, which offers a prize to those it deems successful in reconciling science and religion. Previously, 80 had wondered what its take on ID would be, and now we know. Charles L. Harper Jr., senior vice president of the Foundation, told the New York Times (reg rqd) a short while ago that it had asked for proponents of ID to submit proposals for research. "They never came in. From the point of view of rigor and intellectual seriousness, the intelligent design people don't come out very well in our world of scientific review." Nor, as we now know, do they come out very well in a court of law. This, of course, is very far from an end to the nonsense of ID/creationism. Too many people have a huge emotional investment in the belief that they are somehow specially created and not a type of ape, proven to be closely related to others on the planet.

Sadly, on that level, no judicial decision is going to make much impact, but it has, at least, kept theology out of the science class - for now. Just read this press release from the Discovery Institute to understand that there is a hell of lot of work to be done. Dr. John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Institute sees the judge's decision through the mental equivalent of a fairground distorting mirror "The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate, and it won't work. He has conflated Discovery Institute’s position with that of the Dover school board, and he totally misrepresents intelligent design and the motivations of the scientists who research it." No, Dr West, he has not, and no amount of whingeing and bluster can change that.

West continues, “A legal ruling can't change the fact that there is digital code in DNA, it can’t remove the molecular machines from the cell, nor change the fine tuning of the laws of physics. The empirical evidence for design, the facts of biology and nature, can't be changed by legal decree." "Empirical evidence for design" has yet to be demonstrated in any convincing manner. That there is digital code in DNA, molecular machinery in cells and laws of physics that appear to favor biology has absolutely nothing to do with a creator, whoever or whatever that creator is,  be it the Judaeo-Christian god, Rael, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or even the Great Green Arkleseizure. (These beings are, in 80's view, of equal probability.) You might personally believe such a creator exists but that has absolutely nothing to do with science education. 80 takes strange comfort from the words of Discovery Institute attorney Casey Luskin, "In the larger debate over intelligent design, this decision will be of minor significance. As we've repeatedly stressed, the ultimate validity of intelligent will be determined not by the courts but by the scientific evidence pointing to design." There is no scientific evidence pointing to ID, but it is certainly scientific standards of evidence that will decide the outcome, as even the Templeton Foundation acknowledges. Merely repeating the moronic mantra that "ID is science, ID is science", as the Discovery Institute does, will not make it so.

“To be sure, Darwin’s theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.” Judge John E. Jones

Unintelligible Design - in which Tony Youens looks at  Evangelical Times, finds a "scientific" explanation of the biblical Genesis creation myth, and confirms that the USA hasn't completely cornered the market in ID/creationism nonsense. Plus, further observations on Britain's Psychic Challenge.

Doonesbury - the creationist's dilemma - priceless! It didn't go down too well with the po-faced Answers in Genesis crowd, who have obviously been working jolly hard to concoct a nice line in gobbledegook. This cleverly serves the dual purpose of explaining everything (at least to their satisfaction) and parading their monumental ignorance.

December 22nd 2005

Archaeo-Hype - it seems a commonplace ocurrence these days to boost the significance of a discovery beyond what the evidence will bear. This happens in many fields (stem cells, anyone?) but one of the most popular is archaeology. It is very rare to find any kind of artifact conclusively linking a character from history (or myth) to an actual physical location (except perhaps Kilroy). This doesn't stop many folk from indulging in what is little more than unbridled speculation. Notable in this regard is the profusion of sites in the "Holy Land" associated with biblical events. There are, for instance, many places that people believe to be associated with events and characters in the New Testament, in particular the figure of Jesus. Many of the locations that the faithful believe are connected to this figure turn out not to be based on any real historical record dating from the 1st century CE*, but upon visions experienced by the devout centuries later- one such being the Emperor Constantine's mother Helena, who visited Jerusalem in 326 CE, and who is commonly credited with finding Jesus' burial place, the "True Cross" and even the route he took to his execution, the so-called Via Dolorosa. Given that the city had twice been sacked by Roman legions and rebuilt, the actual streetplan in the supposed time of Jesus is most unlikely to have been known to the Byzantines. Three recent examples of an archaeologist going beyond the evidence and linking a place with a biblical character are Shimon Gibson who garnered much interest in a cave near Jerusalem which he claimed was used by John the Baptist, (see  Cave of the Baptist?) Eilat Mazar, with her claim to have found the palace of King David in Jerusalem, and Dr. Aren Maeir with his Goliath shard (see What's In a Name?) .

In fact the pseudoscience of "biblical archaeology" is rife with such examples. It would seem two forces are at work here, often simultaneously. First is the religious faith that the bible accurately reflects historical events, which results in a tendency to view any finds and structures through the distorting mirror of the bible itself rather than assessing evidence without religious preconceptions. (Think Gordon and the Garden Tomb). The second is the need to attract publicity and funding - there is nothing better than a "biblical" dig to open fundagelical, usually American, pocketbooks. Such flights of imagination are not limited to the Near East and a recent example is from England, where a claim has been made for a site near Urswick in Cumbria as being the birthplace of St Patrick, best known for introducing Christianity to Ireland. Given the nature of the claim there appears to be little or no evidence to substantiate it. A local resident, Steve Dickinson, of the Urswick Origins Discovery Programme, believes he has found a Roman fort, Banna Venta Berniae, Patrick's supposed birthplace. In fact a good case can be made for other locations in Britain, notably Somerset. This is not necessarily saying that Dickinson is wrong, only that his association of Urswick and Patrick appears to owe more to publicity or wishful thinking rather than archaeology.

Many people feel, in this age of soundbites and short attention spans, that in order to engage the public in science, sensational claims can be a legitimate way of garnering interest and, hopefully, funding. The obverse of this is that the public could become jaded from hearing too many such claims. One of the most interesting English digs of the last century was that at South Cadbury Castle in Somerset, England. There, in the mid 1960s, was found evidence for habitation and fortification over a period of 5000 years, from Neolithic to Saxon times. But what was it that caught the attention of the public? King Arthur. A very late legend associates the hill with the mythical city of Camelot, and it was this that was seized upon by the media. The site had indeed been heavily fortified in the Dark Ages, a time when a historical war leader, the inspiration for Arthur, may well have existed, but unless a signed and dated foundation plaque is unearthed there is no reason to link the place with Arthur. It is only from sites that contain actual inscriptions can associations be made with historical figures - and even then they could still be mistaken or even deliberately misleading. An example of the former was the "discovery" of the tomb of John the Baptist's father Zachariah, based upon no more evidence than a Byzantine inscription that post-dated the tomb by hundreds of years. It would be a terrible shame if the general public was so overwhelmed by unsubstantiated and sensational claims that interest in real, scientific archaeology suffered as a result. It brings to mind a quotation from Richard Dawkins in a completely different context but still, in 80's view, apposite. "Scientific truth is too beautiful to be sacrificed for the sake of light entertainment or money. Astrology is an aesthetic affront. It cheapens astronomy, like using Beethoven for commercial jingles." (80 recommends Doug's Archaeology Site for the real thing, as well as analysis of the claims of pseudo-archaeology.)

Penn and Teller - take a look at the Christian bible. A highly entertaining and blasphemous trawl through what has been inaccurately described as "the good book", with the able assistance of Michael Shermer. Broadband required.

Green With Envy? - Stephen Green, the Führer of Christian Voice, must be feeling mighty pleased with himself. He was actually quoted at some length in the Washington Post in a piece on the civil partnership law that allowed Elton John to marry his male partner of 10 years. Sadly Green is talking the same old bollocks, full of rage and hatred. "I should think the majority of people will be absolutely sickened by the sight of two men and two women kissing after a sham ceremony," he said, adding the law was enacted by "an elite that holds the views of ordinary people in this country and the commandments of almighty God in contempt." Looking at British newspapers' response to the new unions it would appear that Green is, as ever, is completely out of step with the majority - but then if he wasn't he wouldn't be a voice crying in the wilderness, would he? The ignorant clod should stop cherry picking snippets of Leviticus to bolster his prejudices, and try reading the New Testament for inspiration. (It is altogether too much too hope that he would drop the silly religion thing altogether, and, to be fair, some people need a crutch in life.) Much more amusing than Green was the sign held up by protesters at a ceremony uniting two lesbian women in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It read "Sodomy Is a Sin". Someone should take these idiots to one side for a quiet chat.

Quote - "..any community that is worried about the ability of its students to compete in a global economy would be wise to keep supernatural explanations out of its science classes." New York Times editorial (reg rqd)

Protected Space - "I am by no means averse to including humanist or secularist writers but I tell all would-be contributors that the column is intended, in my opinion, to be a space for non-polemical or philosophical reflection. This means not attacking the beliefs of others. In my experience, humanists and atheists find this very difficult ... " So says Stephen Bates, the Guardian's religious affairs correspondent. He was talking about the regular religious column in the paper, Face to Faith, and effectively raising a barrier against non-religious contributors. Humanists and atheists do not believe in a deity and so any philosphical reflection they may offer will likely disregard or oppose a supernatural world view. This of course could be interpreted as an attack on the beliefs of others, but then surely the contributions of religionists must be doing the same thing? A Christian does not believe in say, Shiva or Allah but somehow Bates thinks this is acceptable. Yet to a Hindu or a Muslim the Christian's claim to worship the one true god certainly looks like an attack on their beliefs. An atheist merely disbelieves one more god than the others. Looked at in this way, Bates would appear to be talking nonsense when he singles out "humanists and atheists" as likely to rock the boat. The truth of the matter is, and we have a quote from the Guardian's editor, no less, to confirm this, that like the BBC's irritating Thought for the Day slot, the Face to Faith column is a "protected space" where religionists may spout their fantasies without the necessary counterbalance of a secular world view.

December 31st 2005

Seasonal Distractions - Here is an overview of various items that distracted 80 momentarily from the task of seasonal over-consumption. The malign effects of religion are as much in evidence as ever and likely to be worse in the coming year. Andrew Brown, writing in the Guardian, gave a slap in the face to the season of peace and good will with his opening sentence "Religion, apparently banished from the world by reason, now threatens us with a global war." He goes on to suggest how this threat may be confronted "We can throw up our hands in horror, or we can throw them up in prayer; but it might be more useful to try and understand why this has happened, and what are the features of religion that make it so strong and so resilient, even in technologically advanced countries." That last phrase is an obvious reference to the US, where burgeoning religiosity has enabled an attack on science itself in the guise of so-called Intelligent Design/Creationism. This is also considered in an editorial from Forward, called Dover, Darwin and The Assault on Science. This makes the point that religious conservatives are indulging in hypocrisy when they insist on the teaching of "alternatives" to evolution in the science class purely in the interest of "balance" and characterize Judge Jones' decision (see Lying By Design) as an "assault on intellectual pluralism (that) denies parents the right to teach their children their own way of seeing the world." The editorial points out the inconsistency of such a stance "For three decades they’ve been calling for standards, railing against the possibility of multiple realities and blaming woolly-headed liberals for spreading the notion that knowledge is relative. It turns out that the greatest single threat to intellectual standards comes from their own backyard." In 80's view this is merely an extension of the dishonesty shown by members of the Dover school board who were upbraided by Judge Jones in no uncertain terms, "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID policy." To the religious fanatic almost any action is condoned if it advances the cause, including lying and flip-flopping. For an unlooked for but logical outcome of the "teach the controversy" ploy adopted by creationists see "Religious right says copy of pro- lesbian parenting book "Heather Has Two Mommies" should be taught in every school" from Americablog - good stuff.

Happy Olivia - By way of contrast see this sane and rational op-ed from the New York Times by Olivia Judson, an evolutionary biologist at London's Imperial College, entitled "Why I'm Happy I Evolved" (reg rqd).  She laments the poor quality of her school biology classes which failed to tell her "..about evolution and how it transforms biology....into a magnificent tapestry, a tapestry we can contemplate and begin to understand." Here are a couple of paragraphs that are sure to make you want to read the whole piece "Some people want to think of humans as the product of a special creation, separate from other living things. I am not among them; I am glad it is not so. I am proud to be part of the riot of nature, to know that the same forces that produced me also produced bees, giant ferns and microbes that live at the bottom of the sea. For me, the knowledge that we evolved is a source of solace and hope. I find it a relief that plagues and cancers and wasp larvae that eat caterpillars alive are the result of the impartial - and comprehensible - forces of evolution rather than the caprices of a deity." What Judson succeeds in conveying is the sheer sense of wonder at the beauty and complexity of life on Earth and an appreciation of our natural place within biology. (Olivia Judson is the author of the evocatively named Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation - The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex, described by Richard Dawkins as "winningly sophisticated zoological comedy.")

Pullman Class - Still with the sane and rational here is a long and fascinating interview in The New Yorker with Philip Pullman, author of the excellent His Dark Materials trilogy and outspoken atheist. Pullman recently attracted flak for his less than complimentary remarks concerning C S Lewis' Christian allegorical tales of Narnia. Laura Miller's piece is built around Pullman's invitation to the University of East Anglia in Norfolk, England to deliver a lecture on on the subject of religion and education. He used the opportunity to point out that moral lessons do not have to be derived from religion and makes a good case for the importance of fiction in illustrating ethical behavior. The interview ranges over a wide variety of subjects including the work of Lewis and his friend J R R Tolkien, Milton's "Paradise Lost" and William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", his stepfather's dramatic rocket-borne farewell and the university city of Oxford, a place Pullman believes fosters the imagination "I put it down to the mists from the river, which have a solvent effect on reality." The first book of the Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights (renamed The Golden Compass in the US) is now in production as a movie. It is to be hoped that Pullman keeps creative control of the project - although rumors already abound that references to God and the church are to be cut from the script. Referring to such bowdlerization Pullman's agent acknowledged the pressures ruling in the movie's largest market, "You have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of Bush's America." (A good fan site devoted to His Dark Materials can be found here.)

Only Believe - lastly is this piece from the Daily Telegraph about how the belief that they possess the fabled Ark of the Covenant may help lead Ethiopia into war with Eritrea. David Blair thinks that this widespread belief bolsters Ethiopian national pride - so much so that war with the neighboring country over "some isolated patches of arid land" is very likely. Blair's hypothesis may well prove true, but he does himself no favors when he refers, with a straight face, to pseudoarchaeologist Graham Hancock's (see Don't Mention Atlantis) explanation of where the Ark was between its disappearance from Solomon's Jerusalem and its presence, hundreds of years later and over a thousand miles away, in Axum, Ethiopia. There is no evidence that the Ark of the Covenant ever existed, and it is certainly not "Christendom's holiest relic" as Blair says. Equally unlikely to have existed are King Solomon, at least in the form given in the bible (see Missing, One Empire) or the Queen of Sheba, claimed to be a founder of the Ethiopian royal dynasty but whose name is associated with Yemen.  As for how rational the Ethiopian's belief in the Ark of the Covenant is, this quote from Amha Taklamaryam, who for 10 years has assisted the guardian of the Ark, which he has never seen, "If you see the Ark and you are not the guardian, you go blind and terrible things happen to your body." Then how does he know it is there? "Of course the Ark is here. I believe it because that is what everyone here believes. That is what my father and mother taught me to believe." For a weird (and hilarious) tale in the Old Testament of the theft of the Ark by the Philistines and their subsequent punishment by God see Preparation YHWH

Stirred But Not Shaken - the podcast is rapidly becoming a popular way to listen to material that is not often available through more conventional channels. Despite the name an Apple iPod is not required - a podcast is merely an MP3 file that can be listened to streaming through a web browser or downloaded to play at one's leisure on a computer or portable player. A few weeks back 80 recommended a podcast called Audiomartini which was then linked with the now apparently (and sadly) defunct Bad Psychics site. Fortunately for Audiomartini (and for the many listeners) the excellent podcasts produced by Rick Wood have found a new home with The Association for Skeptical Enquiry (ASKE). As regular readers know, ASKE is an association of individuals "..committed to the application of rational, objective and scientific methods to the investigation and understanding of ideas, claims and practices, especially those of an extraordinary or paranormal nature", of which 80 is a proud member. In adopting Audiomartini ASKE has added another string to its bow in the form of one of the best podcasts around. Check out the latest show at the ASKE web site. Stirred perhaps but not shaken by the change, Audiomartini's newest offering features an interview with Carla Baron, who is a "self described clairvoyant /clairaudient /clairsentient... star of Court TV's "Haunting Evidence" and claims involvement in a number of high profile murder and missing person cases". While on the ASKE site why not join for a paltry tenner a year? (£14 outside UK). If you need convincing of the wisdom of this read 80's view in Money Well Spent. Also on the ASKE site is an announcement of the return of the Psychic Challenge - more details will be posted soon. Other podcasts that are well worth your time are Skepticality and Hellbound Alleee, links for which are in 80's sidebar. (Note that although 80 is a member of ASKE views expressed on these pages are 80's alone) Update - there is now a permanent link to Audiomartini in the sidebar.