40 thoughts on “FFRF podcast”

    1. Well, I guess sometimes one must accommodate… *snicker, snicker*

      A really fine podcast. I’m still confused about the pronunciation of Heydin / Hayden / Heedin. Nice to hear such a concise rebuttal to the “academic freedom” canard.

      1. I’ve seen the academic freedom ploy even used to defend creationism in public high schools. We all know how it works (it’s always the same): “it’s not about religion; it’s about ______.” Fill in the blank. The pious love to find a secular Trojan Horse to hide inside of. They get really pissed when their scam is discovered.

          1. Well, to be fair, they took that position not to defend creationism but in a misguided attempt to ensure outside institutions couldn’t mess with courses.

            They were wrong though 🙂

          2. I guess I knew that in the back of my fuzzy little brain. I haven’t kept up with their side of the story though… anybody hear of any softening of positions? Any indication by the M&M twins that they might have been… *gasp* mistaken?

  3. My zebra finch strongly objected to Kiri Te Kana’s performance of “Summertime.” I didn’t particularly like it, either.

    Zebra finches are some of the most well-studied birds (they are the mice of the avian world). They are all individual, and they have individual taste in music. A former finch used to get frisky with his mate to certain music.

    1. Trade it in for a zebra fish. They are also well-studied and have more eclectic tastes in music.

      2. I actually read that as zebra fish at first and wondered how a danio would hear that and how it would react.

    2. I didn’t like that they mispronounced Kiri Kiri Te Kanawa’s name twice!

      1. Haha that’s what i get for making fun of someone else’s mistake Kiri Te Kanawa not Kiri Kiri Te Kanawa! Damn you instant karma!

          1. LOL look what happened to you – did you mean that typo for extra LOLs or were you a victim?

          3. I love it. That and L’esprit de l’escalier happen to me all the time and I learned both here!

          4. Oh wait now I get it. 😀 That’s pretty hilarious. I hadn’t noticed that funny twist before.

  4. oops forgot to add: great interview. I have to wonder if other complaints will come out of colleges and universities after the attention the Ball State kerfuffle has gotten. Are creationists/ID-ers lurking in the hallways of other institutions?

  5. Yes thank whoever for the ability to turn the sound way down during the ‘summertime’song.Otherwise enjoyed it.

  6. I like to see science people and humanities people team up in the fight against religion. Everyone was comfortable in the interview.

    I think expecting taxpayers and students to pay the salary of someone who doesn’t believe in what they’re teaching is ridiculous and a fraud. A teacher should know why what’s taught is true; obviously, a creationist teacher doesn’t know why evolution is true. A teacher can’t provide an argument he doesn’t have. Also, even if the words could be parroted, the personal enthusiasm won’t be there–thus the inspiration for the students won’t be there. The fraud belongs in a church; not a university classroom.

    1. Most profs have to teach something outside their professional area of expertise because they have to have a very narrow area of research. So Jerry could teach a graduate seminar on drosofila, but in an undergraduate 100-level survey course at best he could indulge his drosophilia (couldn’t resist!) for about 10 minutes. If he thinks research on zebra finches is stupid, he would have to suck it up and teach about them if the required textbook includes them.

      I think this is why so many profs are boring in intro level courses. Gonzalez seems to have genuine enthusiasm for the solar system, perhaps a little too much! If he conveys “Wow, isn’t this a great place to live?” without the added hubris, that could be an engaging course.

      1. (not that our peerless leader is a boring prof or hates zebra finches – just a hypothetical of course)

      2. That isn’t why most profs are boring in introductory courses. Sorry, but it is the students and the dynamics of the class. Most of them don’t want to be there – period. I have a colleague who is wildly popular when he teaches freshman chemistry to a a class of thirty chemistry majors. (General chemistry offers a lot of stuff that is genuinely interesting know – IF you’re really interested in knowing it. I have no problem generating enthusiasm for teaching most of it.) When my colleague teaches in the same style to a class of 300 nonmajors, they HATE him with a passion. They don’t want to be there, they’re immature, they don’t like it that there is this course reminding them every day that when – in high school – they whined and said they’ll never use this stuff (algebra, chemistry, physics, etc.) they were wrong.

        1. I guess I was never a typical student. I thought my intro courses were fascinating, but they were outside of my major so they were a change of pace. Also, I went to a small liberal arts schools so I never had to deal with TAs or professors who would rather be teaching grad courses.

    2. I like to see science people and humanities people team up in the fight against religion

      Like the Justice League. 🙂

      1. Only without the tights. There are a lot of people who shouldn’t wear tights.

  7. …and then I wake up from my nap to NPR’s Terry Gross interviewing Reza Aslan. He’s equating the rise of religious fundamentalism with enlightenment values — apparently, literalism in interpreting scripture was science’s fault. (fumbles for ‘off’ button)

    1. Ahhh…That is what I turned off on NPR as I was going home this afternoon. I heard about one minute of his drivel and clicked off just as he said, “…but then the more I learned about Jesus the man…”.

      1. And people wonder why I don’t even bother with NPR any more, let alone have a TV….

        Anybody who says they’ve learned something about “Jesus the man” is smoking crack. There aren’t any sources about Jesus the man, just Jesus the unholy half-dead zombie god.

        I’m quite serious. Find anything written about Jesus before 300CE (and probably for quite some time afterwards) and, whatever human characteristics Jesus might have, it’s also got him walking on water or raising the dead or getting squicked or teleporting to and / or from the heavens or being a snake god or all sorts of weird shit. It’s only very late apologetics that would have you think there’s a human buried in all that shit, and they do so by the most blatant means of cherry-picking possible. “See? It says Jesus was born of a woman, so he must have been human!” Riiiight…pull the other one….

        b&

        1. Actually, I think Terry Gross is a good interviewer. The only thing worse than this crap, however, was when I heard her interview a propagandist for the Cato institute (Club for Growth) – I nearly wrecked the car.

        2. Way to miss the point, Ben. All those fantastic stories were merely the old ways of remembering the underlying messages. Poor Reza was almost put completely off the whole Christianity thing, until he accepted the real, historical Christ, warts and all. It’s only flaming fundamental scientismists like you that keep insisting on the literal interpretation of the Biblical stories. When are you going to wake up?

          2. ‘Sokay. I think three Holy Mammaries and an extended bellyrub for the masters should do the trick. Might want to start with waving around something sniny for them to chase, just to play it safe.

            b&

    2. He’s equating the rise of religious fundamentalism with enlightenment values…

      I missed that part. Thank goodness. I just caught the part about the historical Jesus. Total crap. He takes Jesus’ existence from the New Testament as a fact, but apparently doesn’t accept any of the supernatural stories about him from the same source. Then, still clinging to this ALLEGED FACT, he switches to the historical record of the first century Roman empire.

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