Friday, January 05, 2007

Creationism gains foothold in schools

British schools, that is: this article is from the London Times.

Sadly, this article contains a number of factual errors:

  1. Intelligent design, which is the actual subject that Her Majesty's government is thinking of introducing to their government schools, is not the same thing as creationism. Creationism explicitly speaks of God. Intelligent Design says only that the world has a "designed" quality to it, without regard to Who the Design-er might be.
  2. The "religious right" understands the difference between Intelligent Design and creationism. I certainly will acknowledge promoting the latter--but not the former. Or at least, not what is understood by that term, which one might better label restricted intelligent design.
  3. Evolution was never the basis of biology. At most, it was a sideline, relevant only to taxonomy. And taxonomy has never been an exact science. Read any taxonomic journal, and note the often uncivil tone that rival taxonomists often take with one another.
That said, any development that might eventually cause people to reject evolution as the logically fallacious (not to mention fraudulent) house of cards that it is, is welcome.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

'Confronting the Death Arriving From the West' – Santa Claus in Algeria

That's right: Santa Claus! An Algerian op-ed writer is all in a lather because someone dressed in a Santa Claus suit, driving a sleigh drawn by a team of goats, was handing out presents in the streets of the town of Tizi Ouzo--and prclaiming the Name of Jesus Christ, according to the writer as quoted in this article from MEMRI.

Considering that Santa Claus is a mythical figure--and mainly an American mythical figure--this is crybaby time.

Hey--if that opinionist wants something to cry about, I'd give him something, all right. How about the real Saint Nicholas--who was not jolly, was never an elf, and who wasn't namby-pamby, either. I mean, we're talking about a guy who destroyed pagan temples and personally intervened to stop an execution--even going so far as to wrestle the executioner's sword from him. Saint Nicholas, were he alive today, would be leading a movement to blow up mosques--not with worshipers in them, either, because his mission would be the destruction of an edifice to false religion, not the killing of its misguided proponents. He knew how to be militant when militancy was called for.

So how 'bout it, Mister Al-Crybaby? You want a militant Christian; I'd love to give you one. How would you like them dates? And by the way: I eat pork chops for dinner.