MBains's blog

Cross Posted from Silly Humans
As you may have read, Silly Humans will be the stage for the 43rd installment of the Carnival of the Godless. Chief Carny, Brent Rasmussen, has already forwarded a few of the rides for this event, but we're always looking for new and different entries.

I hope that I make it clear, I'm not a hater of religions in general. I don't slam on folk just for the fact that they (you?) believe in something for which I have never found any evidence. I do have fun with some of the less realistic aspects of peoples' belief. And I certainly verbally hammer on religious calls for violence and bigotry. What I mostly try to do with this blog is to expose the failures of ignorance and faith in providing efficacious and progressive methods of human cultural existence.

'South Park' Creators Skewer Own Network
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer 4 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the creators of "South Park" skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon's most recent episode.

The comedy — in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians — instead featured an image of Jesus Christ defecating on
President Bush and the American flag.

This story is weird enough, simply because it's Parker and Stone.

But then some nutter from an anti-defamation group gets to chime in on the story, as if he actually knows the definition of hypocrite.

To me it's just good, good sense. (nod 'n' a wink to AC/DC)

I've been wanting to blog on this Salon story all day. It's an interview with Edward O Wilson, a biologist and the author of quite a few books, including The Ants, The Diversity of Life, and Consilience, all of which are considered seminal, though controversial, works on the evolution of human intelligence.

As I mentioned in my last post, work was just too hectic to do it justice today. Luckily for me, PZ Meyer's has done his own brand of justice on it. So I'll just say that it's a thoroughly enjoyably read and that Edwards makes it clear that atheism isn't what science is selling. It's simply a logical conclusion for anyone who takes material reality seriously and, science being all about discovering what is really and demonstrably real, tends to lend credence to an atheist view of the universe.

In PZ's words,

Awe is good. Appreciating the majesty of the universe is good. Demeaning it by coupling it to false and non-existent concepts like gods and spirits is bad.

I think Wilson already knows this, though.

Addendum: I hesitated ending this the way it is now because, except in obvious humour or to make a Life or Death type of point, I do try to avoid offending folk on the grounds that they believe in "G"od. Yeah, sometimes I'm a nutter in other ways than that.

heheheh...

I realized whilst writing the following that I don't ever take advantage of one the main tools of the blogosphere: community bloggin'. I suppose that being "mad surfer" when it comes to finding always other interesting blogs to read, I forget how important also being a member of community really is. With that in mind, please allow me to share my joy in A) the thrill of a little (very! lol!) celebrity, and B) being a Blogchild of UTI.

Thanks Boss Daddy Brent!

[Link] Silly Humans, Three Quarks Daily and The Secular Outpost offer more criticism in the same vein, with Silly Humans taking aim in particular at Wieseltier's accusations that Dennett is guilty of "scientism." "Scientism," writes Silly Humans' Michael Bains, is "the ultimate meme. It is insanely inane since it ignores the fact that Science is only a method for revealing the material workings of reality. Since it misdefines what science is, it says absolutely nothing about it."

More below the flip...

I thrive on my silliness. It helps me deal with the oh so serious flaws in my understanding of what it means to be alive and, inexorably, me.

There is nothing silly about the seat Rosa Parks refused to relinquish in 1955 so, today, I profer a moment of silence in honor of the passing of Mrs. Parks.

This is a poem by my friend jKarr. It's for cindy.

What say you
of honor and sacrifice?

What manner of spirit
opposes another's grief?

The price of freedom—
buried in the ground.
A hero's welcome wheedles
a mother's tears.

jKarr

"Okay then."