Implicit Associations Testing

Posted on May 25, 2006 by Dwight

We are often unaware of the implicit associations or unconscious biases we carry around. Scientists Mahzarin Banaji, Tony Greenwald & Brian Nosek believe they may have found a test for identifying such implicit biases.

It is well known that people don’t always ‘speak their minds’, and it is suspected that people don’t always ‘know their minds’. Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology.

“This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.”

You can take their tests here (if you dare). If interested, you can also volunteer to take part in Project Implicit.

Posted in Atheist Culture, Ethics & Morality | Comments Off on Implicit Associations Testing

Doctors Complain about Health Lies

Posted on May 25, 2006 by Dwight

Now that conservative Christians have gained control over the Federal and some State governments, doctors are complaining about “unreliable” and in some cases entirely false information showing up on government websites and in sex education programs. So reports an article in Glamour magazine titled “The new lies about women’s health” by Brian Alexander. Glamour’s own investigation found “blatantly false anticondom information” on both state & Federal websites. According to the article,

“radical conservative activists have used fudged and sometimes flatly false data to persuade the government to promote their agenda of abstinence until marriage. The fallout: Young women now read false data on government websites, learn bogus information in federally funded sex-education programs and struggle to get safe, legal contraceptives and different treatments but does herpes blitz protocol work? you can find out reading reviews online.”

Perhaps even more shocking are efforts by the anti-sex crowd to prevent release of Merck’s new vaccine Gardasil, which protects women from cervical cancer. Why? Because it would take away one of their (misleading) arguments against condoms: namely, that condom use doesn’t protect against HPV and that HPV causes cervical cancer.

“The public should be outraged at this misrepresentation of facts for political reasons,” says Dr. Holmes. “This really reveals the true agenda for those who have argued that the reason for not promoting condoms is to protect girls against HPV.” If you truly cared about HPV prevention, his reasoning goes, you’d be thrilled at the advent of a vaccine to save women’s lives. “It really illustrates that the opposition to condoms has nothing to do with protecting women and girls,” he says, “but everything to do with opposition to discussion of sexual health.”

“The new lies about women’s health” by Brian Alexander, Glamour, Apr 3, 2006

Posted in Bush Science, Christinsanity, State & Church | Comments Off on Doctors Complain about Health Lies

1,000,000 Rupees for Dan Brown’s head

Posted on May 23, 2006 by Dwight

Catholics in India are so upset with the movie version of The Da Vinci Code, that some are going beyond just trying to get the movie banned in India. According to Ecumenical News,  Nicolas Almeida, a Catholic from Mumbai India, has offered 1.1 million Rupees (about $25,000) for anyone who can bring him Dan Brown’s head. Dan Brown is the author of The Da Vinci Code. The Vatican does not endorse Almeida’s head bounty.

Posted in Christinsanity | 1 Comment

Losing Sacred Stories

Posted on May 13, 2006 by Dwight

Over the past decade most major daily newspapers added a religious section. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) calls theirs “Faith & Values”. Its primary goal seems to be defending the faith — or at least the various faiths — of the newspaper’s readers. Last month the AJC even used that phrase for its lead article: “Defending the Faith” by John Blake.*

“Millions of Christians read the Easter story through the lens of faith,”* the author tells us. This is supposed to be a good thing. Problem is, Blake continues, popular culture is interfering with that faith by presenting alternate mythologies about Jesus: The Da Vinci Code, The Jesus Papers, Misquoting Jesus: the Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, and to top it off now scholars have discovered the long-lost Gospel of Judas according to the May issue of National Geographic.

It’s enough to prompt Bob Hodgson with the American Bible Society (he’s actually dean of the Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship with ABS) to complain, “we’re losing control of our sacred stories.”*

But Bob, it’s your own fault for insisting that your sacred stories are historically true — for that means that they are not “your” stories but everyone’s. Stick with Christianity’s sacred stories as just that: mythologies belonging to Christianity alone, and Christians have some emotional right to claim proprietorship. But once you insist on historical truth for your myths that right dissipates. History belongs to us all, even if only to be mythologized anew, as a book like The Da Vinci Code attempts to do.

So Hodgson and other Christians need to make a choice: is Jesus a sacred story belonging to the Christian religion, or is Jesus historical and therefore a story which belongs to everyone?

And if you choose the latter, remember: history is no respecter of mythology.

—-
* John Blake, “Defending the Faith”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 15, 2006, Faith & Values section, page 1

Posted in Christinsanity, The Bible, Unsacred Texts | Comments Off on Losing Sacred Stories

Am I an Atheist Whackjob?

Posted on May 6, 2006 by Dwight

In a column in The Raw Story, Melinda Barton argues that just as the right has a problem with “religious nutballs” on their extreme, so the left has a problem with “atheist whackjobs” on the extreme left. Sounds plausible to me, since every group and viewpoint has extremes. Plausible, that is, until I realize that her definition of “atheist whackjob” includes me. In fact, includes every atheist I ever met. The left needs to kick us out, she says. (All quotes of Barton are from her article, “The Left’s Own Religious Extremists”).

“Why face off with the atheist whackjobs? Because extremism is extremism is extremism. No rational movement dedicated to intellectual courage and honesty should maintain a relationship with those for whom intellectual laziness, dishonesty, and cowardice are a way of life. Doing what must be done to insure the integrity of the left will require identifying our extremists, countering their mythologies, and acknowledging the dangers they pose to a truly liberal society.”

“For whom intellectual laziness, dishonesty, and cowardice are a way of life” — ouch! Charitably, she goes on to explain that “not all atheists are atheist extremists,” though we will see presently that by her criteria it would appear that all atheists are.

Barton lists 5 “outrageous” claims made by atheist extremists. PZ Myers, a biologist who writes the blog Pharyngula, has already made an excellent point-by-point reply, however since my perspective is slightly different, I’m going to attempt to do the same. Continue reading →

Posted in Articles Highlighted, Faith & Reason, Naturalism | 4 Comments

More Unintelligent Design

Posted on May 2, 2006 by Dwight

Intelligent Design advocates like to claim that evolution can’t explain the existence of “irreducible complexity” in humans and other species. But they would be much better served worrying about the far greater difficulty Intelligent Design faces: how to explain mistakes and flaws in the “design” of humans and their world — or to put it another way, how to explain “blunders” by the intelligent designer. (After all, the intelligent designer is God, and God is supposed to be infallible.)

The latest example of a design “oversight” in humans was reported yesterday by EurekAlert!. Researchers at the Univ. of Calif San Diego School of Medicine have discovered the existence of certain T-cell molecules called “Siglecs”, “immune-dampening proteins that bind to sialic acids” which Continue reading →

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Rev. Alberts: Time to Censure Bush

Posted on April 30, 2006 by Dwight

Writing in Counterpunch, Rev.William Alberts says it’s time for people of faith — in particular the Methodist Church — to bring disciplinary action against the President, who happens to be a Methodist.

Rev. William Alberts: Time for People of Faith to Censure Bush

Alberts writes,

‘Resolving disputes peacefully was the first thing out of President Bush’s mouth and apparently the last thing on his mind. His pre-war public posture was that of a man of faith and peace. At his March 6, 2003 news conference, he said, “I pray daily. I pray for wisdom and guidance and strength. . . . I pray for peace. I pray for peace.” (The New York Times, Mar. 7, 2003) Two weeks later he ordered the bombing of the Iraqi people and the invasion of their country.’

Albert follows by impolitely bringing up the, ahem, public record as known so far. That records makes it clear that invading Iraq was on the agenda from day 1, and that the administration deliberately deceived the public in order to get their war. “I pray daily…for peace” indeed!

Alberts also pushes people of faith to call for Bush’s impeachment. But he overlooks one little detail. The one constant and dependable group these last 5 years, the segment of the American population that has steadfastly voted for, cheered on, and championed our current President, is none other than people of faith.

Perhaps what we should be asking is this: Why were people of faith so easily manipulated by the administration and shepherded along like, well, sheep?

Answer: that is what people of faith are good at — being sheep. And faith is the sheepdog that makes it possible.

Posted in Bush Wars, Bushwacked, Faith & Reason | Comments Off on Rev. Alberts: Time to Censure Bush

How Attacking Iran Benefits China

Posted on April 22, 2006 by Dwight

It’s widely recognized that the greatest beneficiary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq has been Iran. Just as clearly, the biggest beneficiary of a U. S. attack on Iran will be China.This is why the administration’s recent exhortation to China’s leader, Hue, to intervene in getting Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions is likely to be futile. Hue of course will want to create the appearance of trying to bring the Iranian leadership around, but it is not in China’s strategic interest for that to actually happen. Secretly, in fact, Hue must be hoping that the Bush administration will be foolish enough to attack Iran—preferably with tactical nukes—just as they were fooling enough to invade Iraq.

The consequences of a U. S. attack would be as positive for China as they would be negative for the United States. Continue reading →

Posted in Bush Wars, Iran | 2 Comments

al-Qaida Infiltrated Dubai Agencies

Posted on April 19, 2006 by Dwight

In the midst of all the controversy over allowing the state-owned Dubai Ports to manage seaports in the U.S., I never saw anyone mention that al-Qaida has infiltrated (and therefore compromised) the government of the United Arab Emirates.

Maybe I missed it. I heard all about money being funneled to terrorists through Dubai, about UAE bank secrecy rules making it difficult to trace that monetary flow, about terrorists traveling in and out of that country’s port.

But no where did I see it mentioned that al-Qaida has actually infiltrated various Dubai government agencies–and bragged about it. Yet documents taken from a captured computer which belonged to a high-ranking al-Qaida official confirm this. “You are well aware that we have infiltrated your security, censorship, and monetary agencies along with other agencies that should not be mentioned.” this official warned the emirates of Dubai and Abu-Dhabi.

What follows is the full text of the letter, which I found on a public government website. Continue reading →

Posted in Homeland Insecurity, Islam | Comments Off on al-Qaida Infiltrated Dubai Agencies

Life Goes On in Iraq

Posted on April 11, 2006 by Dwight

They even held a beauty contest to choose the Iraqi candidate for Miss Universe — shouldn’t that prove there’s no civil war going on? But here comes the big bad American media, focusing as usual on the bad news instead of the good. ABC News reports that the young woman who was proclaimed “Miss Iraq” had to give up her crown four days later because of death threats against her and her family. The family is now planning to flee Iraq. Undeterred, pageant officials offered her crown to the first runner-up, but she declined it. The 2nd runner-up withdrew from the beauty contest rather than risk accepting the crown. The 3rd runner up likewise withdrew. Pageant officials finally found a teenager — a Christian no less — brave enough or foolish enough to accept the crown.I’m sure the Administration will find a way to spin this positively while chiding the media for focusing on the negative, but it seems to me that a country where it is not safe to win even a beauty contest can only be described as in dire straits. At what point, if ever, will our President catch on that the God he relies on for guidance, the war-Jesus to whom he prays, exists only in his imagination?

Posted in Iraq, Islaminsanity | Comments Off on Life Goes On in Iraq