BrainArmor's blog

I was recently driving on California highway 2 in the foothills north of Los Angeles and was pleasantly surprised to see that the stretch of road I was driving on had been adopted by a group called Atheists United.

My friend google found their web site for me and it looks like a pretty active group.

Seeing as we're mostly atheists and agnostics around here I thought it might be useful to post this Prayer for Beginners link, you know, just in case.

When I read things like this it really pisses me off. Why couldn't it have been one of the parents?

I just read this on Wired News:

The Florida Board of Education officially upheld evolution yesterday.

In a 4-3 vote, the Board accepted a proposed curriculum that makes evolution central to public school science education.

Until now, Florida's schools weren't required to teach evolution. The old curriculum guidelines didn't even mention it by name.

The 4-3 vote was obtained by including a last-minute amendment to the standards. Suggested last Friday by religious conservatives and dubbed the "academic freedom proposal," the amendment required that the curriculum's references to "evolution" be replaced by the "scientific theory of evolution."

The amendment's supporters called the language change a victory -- and it is, though not in the way they imagine.

Today the family went on a local Sierra Club-guided hike to find out about the Native American history in our back yard. Some of the impetus for the hike is an upcoming public meeting concerning the toll road they want to run smack dab through this site and the state park surrounding it.

As you might expect participants ran the gamut of far-left eco types to the right-wing NIMBYs, which is fine by me. There are many reasons to oppose this road.

While the hard core eco folks can sometimes get on my nerves because of their essentially religious (i.e. non-thinking) views, it was an overheard comment by a right-winger that made me shake my head.

I'm a lifelong Republican and I can see that we're getting screwed right and left by Bush, but you know, I like his religious views.

WTF? Here's a case of someone who sees the damage being done by Bush and still supports him just because they believe in the same fairy tale.

Simply astonishing.

I found this bit of Christmas cheer on CNN today.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) -- Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests attacked each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning on Thursday.

A general view from the Church of the Nativity compound in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

The basilica, built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born, is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities.

Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can touch off vicious feuds.

On Thursday, dozens of priests and cleaners were scrubbing the church ahead of the Armenian and Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in early January. Thousands of tourists visited the church this week for Christmas celebrations.

But the clean-up turned ugly after some of the Orthodox faithful stepped inside the Armenian church's section, touching off a scuffle between about 50 Greek Orthodox and 30 Armenians.

In my neck of the woods here there is a lawsuit that's been filed against a high school history teacher asserting that he makes anti-christian remarks in his classroom.

"He's only giving one side – that's not thinking critically at all," said Farnan, 16, who does not plan to attend his AP European History class again until Corbett is removed. "This might be a college-level class, but it's in high school, so he doesn't have the same rights."

I didn't realize that you have to be a college professor to have the right to foster debate.

It looks like yet another case of someone getting bent out of shape over criticism of their beliefs. I find it ironic that the kid whose parents filed the suit states "I am a strong Christian believer". If he's such a strong believer why doesn't he stay in the class and defend his views?

It's encouraging that many of the teacher's former students are coming forward in support stating that his classes promoted critical thinking. There is so little done in high to teach kids how to actually think that it's sad when someone gets into hot water for actually doing it.

It's not that god let the Colorado shootings happen, it was because the devil did it... uh, yeah.

LA Times article

I just read a disturbing bit of news on Wired Science about how the Texas science curriculum director was fired for forwarding an email from her work account about an upcoming speech being made by a person critical of Intelligent Design.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is going to be the subject of three presentations to be made at the upcoming American Academy of Religion's annual meeting.

You can read an article about it on cnn.com.

I particularly like this anedote from one of the presentors...

He recognized the point when his neighbor, a militant atheist who sports a pro-Darwin bumper sticker on her car, tried recently to start her car on a dying battery.

As she turned the key, she murmured under her breath: "Come on Spaghetti Monster!"

There was an interesting article in the LA Times yesterday about the religious right backing off from politics. All I can say is it's about frickin' time.

A fundamental shift is transforming the religious right, long a force in presidential politics, as aging evangelical leaders split on the 2008 race and a new generation of pastors turns away from politics altogether.

The other day my 13-year old daughter popped up with this gem after a long session studying for tests in both biology and geometry:

"Screw Jesus, caffeine is my savior."

It brings a tear to the eye of a proud father :)

Today I received a letter in the mail. It was from the 9-year-old son of a man with whom I've got a professional relationship. The letter, in 9-year-old pencil text, says:

Dear Mr. Barry,
I want to tell you about Jesus. Now I know I'm just a kid but you're never too young or too old to tell the gospel to people. Now I want to tell you a miracle that happened to a person that my dad told me about. So there's a man that had a tumor in his brain. The the doctor said to the man, "You only have 6 min to live." Guess what happened. The man still lives today. So I want you to know The Lord, and that he lives in heaven.
Love, xxxxx