Peter Singer on why the Christian God doesn’t exist

April 28, 2018 • 1:45 pm

Reader Mizrob sent this 13-minute video in which philosopher Peter Singer dismisses the notion of the Christian god simply by showing that “the world around us” doesn’t comport with such a God. (His debate opponent is a mustachioed Dinesh D’Souza.) The most obvious stumbling block to such a god is the suffering in the world, but Singer dismisses the typical Christian response to suffering: it’s an inevitable result of god-given free will.

Many of us know these arguments and counterarguments, but it’s still salubrious to hear a smart person address them. The issue of suffering, both produced by natural disasters and in non-“fallen” animals, is the Achilles Heel of any religion that espouses a beneficent God.

Finally, he takes up the Biblical assertion that Jesus would return during the lifetime of those who heard him preach. Even if you’re a literalist about just the New Testament, this is a problem.

If you have some spare time on your hands, here’s a different debate, two hours long, between D’Souza and Singer, on the topic “Can there be morality without God?“

Natural history museum in Jerusalem covers exhibit on evolution to avoid offending ultra-Orthodox Jews

April 28, 2018 • 12:30 pm

UPDATE:

A kind reader sent me the email for the Natural History Museum, muzteva@gmail.com, and if you want to write to them about this, feel free. Here’s my email:

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To whom it may concern:

As an evolutionary biologist of Jewish ancestry, I am deeply offended at your practice of covering up the human evolution exhibit lest it offend the Haredi Jews who go to your museum. Why would a museum hide the truth, even if it’s offensive to some religious believers? Is this proper in a largely secular state like Israel?

I hope you realize that by literally hiding the evidence for human evolution, you are misleading people: in effect, lying by omission. The truth is the truth, regardless of whether some people are offended because it goes against their upbringing; and by catering to the false beliefs of creationists, you are, in effect, censoring whatever science that some people find unpleasant. This kind of behavior makes me ashamed of my Jewish background.

I have written about your Museum’s activities on my website, which has 55,000 readers:

Natural history museum in Jerusalem covers exhibit on evolution to avoid offending ultra-Orthodox Jews

I hope that in the future you can just present the plain scientific truth about human origins and not worry about who it offends. Your blatant censorship offends me–and has offended many others–but of course you’d prefer to offend scientists and truth-seekers than those who harbor religious superstitions.

Sincerely,
Jerry Coyne
Emeritus Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolution
The University of Chicago

_________

From the Times of Israel we have this article (click on screenshot) showing three things: not all Jews accept science; that the ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim)—a reclusive, fundamentalist, and extremist branch of the faith—are creationists; and finally that the largely secular character of the Israel government will nevertheless censor real science to cater to this group.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Natural History Museum in Jerusalem has been keeping an exhibit on human evolution covered under a sheet to avoid offending ultra-Orthodox visitors, and a staff member earlier this month asked a customer to leave when she inquired why the museum was censoring the display.

“I was saddened by it and rather shocked,” the visitor, Chaya David, told The Times of Israel following the incident. “It’s unwarranted and illegal.”

The Hebrew-language display, titled “The beginning of human evolution and culture,” details the stages of the gradual transformation from apes to the modern homo sapiens [sic], complete with various skulls, models and ancient hunting tools along with written explanations.

It is kept under a pink sheet that blocks it from visitors’ view.

Here’s that sheet:

Photo: Michael Bachner/Times of Israel

 

Here are two photos of what’s behind the sheet. The article describes the exhibit as outmoded—not updated for decades—so it will surely be wrong. But despite that, it still describes the key fact of human evolution over millions of years (both photos by Michael Bachner), something that the faithful must come to terms with:

What’s equally offensive is that the local government approved this covering (the Jerusalem Haredi Education Division) and that the exhibit is funded by Israeli taxpayers:

The museum said it had received approval from municipal authorities to hide the exhibit, along with two other displays on dinosaurs and on the human body and sexuality, during visits by ultra-Orthodox groups.

. . . [A] 31-year-old mother of two visited the museum during the Passover festival earlier this month with her three-year-old son.

“Why are they covering this? It’s totally inappropriate,” she said. “And then it dawned on me: I realized it was probably being covered due to some sort of social and political agenda.”

An employee that she asked told her that “Haredim don’t like to see these things,” David recollected.

“I was totally shocked because there weren’t any Haredim there to be offended. It wasn’t making anyone upset at the time,” she charged. “You can’t just choose one exhibit you think might offend someone and self-censor in that manner. It’s sad and unwarranted, and it’s also illegal.”

The employee then recommended that she leave.

The excuse the Museum gave is pathetic: they don’t want to offend the Haredis and doing so would reduce Museum attendance:

When a Times of Israel reporter visited the museum almost a week later, the exhibit was still covered by the sheet.

“The curtain is closed only when there is a Haredi group that reserves an activity ahead of time,” the museum said. “Due to shortage of manpower, the curtain was mistakenly not opened [afterward].

How much “manpower” does it take to open a curtain, for crying out loud?

“The Natural History Museum has existed for 60 years and serves all populations in the city,” the museum added. “We are interested in attracting as many visitors as possible.”

Well, that’s not excuse for a state that’s modern, science-friendly, and largely secular. Scientific truth is scientific truth, and shouldn’t be hidden from the public by the government because it offends religion. Such censorship would never stand in the U.S.

It’s as if the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. covered up its evolution exhibit permanently (or eliminated it) because 39% of Americans are young-earth creationists. A religious museum can promulgate whatever lies it wants (viz., the Creation Museum in Kentucky), but a public museum in a secular state can neither lie to the public nor censor exhibits (lying by omission) because they go against the religious dictates of any sect.

I tried to find the email address of the Museum so I could protest, but the site is in Hebrew and also seems to lack email contact information. If you can find it, please let me know.

h/t: Diane G.

Spot the owls!

April 28, 2018 • 11:15 am

In the Home Depot here in Las Cruces, the shed that abuts the garden section—thus having free access to outside—has harbored for years a pair of Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus), the most widely distributed owl in North America and the second heaviest (after the Snowy Owl). Owls have been resident here for about 25 years (not necessarily the same pair), and have had multiple clutches.

These species are nocturnal, so there’s a good chance of seeing them if you visit Home Depot (a large do-it-yourself store) during the day. My host Avis had previously written about the owls and sent a picture (see here), but I wanted to see them for myself.

What I’ll do is show two pictures of the roosting birds and ask you to spot the owls, and then in the reveal (click “read more” below), show zoomed pictures of what I saw. The male was more visible than the female.

Okay, spot the male owl. This ain’t hard! But you wouldn’t see it if you didn’t know it was there!

And then the female owl:

Then click below:

Continue reading “Spot the owls!” →

Caturday felid trifecta: Odd-eyed Oklahoma boy with a cleft lip finds perfectly matching cat, more unrealistic early cat art, and the burning question: why are kittens so cute?

April 28, 2018 • 10:15 am

The Claremore [Oklahoma] Daily Progress has a nice story about a boy born with a cleft lip, a green right eye and a blue left eye adopting a cat with a cleft lip and exactly the same odd eyes (on the same side). An excerpt:

Mending Spirits Animal Rescue took in a stray feline with a cleft lip, a blue left eye and a green right eye [JAC: “heterochromia iridium”]. The cat’s new family includes a 7-year-old boy named Madden Humphreys who also happens to have a cleft lip, a blue left eye and a green right eye.

“Fate willed these two together,” the boy’s mom, Christina Humphreys, wrote in a blog post that has been shared more than 45,000 times on Facebook in less than a week.

After no owner claimed the unique feline, Mending Spirits volunteers named him Valentine and got him neutered and vaccinated. Foster caregiver Angie Kimes gave Valentine a home until he was ready to find a forever home. The all-volunteer Mankato-based rescue group posted about Valentine on multiple websites. Christina discovered Valentine after a post was shared on a social media group of moms of children with cleft lips.

Days later, the Humphreys were making the over 600-mile trip to Mankato to claim Valentine.

“We’re usually not spontaneous people, but we knew that we were meant to love this kitty,” wrote Christina, who did not respond to interview requests from The Free Press.

A family friend started a GoFundMe page that raised money to help the Humphreys pay for their trip to Mankato to meet Valentine. A Mankato area man paid their adoption fee.

“Madden and Valentine connected instantly,” Kimes said.

Madden renamed his new friend Moon and they are home in Owasso, Oklahoma getting to know each other better.

“I’m so thankful Madden has Moon,” Christina wrote. “Not only so that both he and the kitty have a relatable and sweet companion, but also, I hope Moon helps Madden realize that being born unique in an incredible thing.”

Humans can be wonderful, paying for this boy’s trip to meet his soul cat (surgery has largely fixed both). Here’s another photo:

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It’s long been my theory (which is mine) that medieval artists were simply unable to paint cats, either putting human faces on felid bodies or botching the job completely. I’m not quite sure why this was the case, but BuzzFeed proves my point with its piece “23 Ugly medieval cat paintings that will speak to your soul“. Here are a few (sources at the BuzzFeed post):

Typical human face on cat body:

This cat has its tongue coming out of its nose:

Human mouth with lips:

Another human face. Why couldn’t these artists get the cats right? Hadn’t they seen one?

For even more grotesque and distorted cats, like the one below, see the paintings at Honest to Paws:

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Finally, the Guardian crowdsources the answer to a burning question (click on screenshot to go to article):

There are several answers, and I’ll let you read them yourself, but this is the one we all think of:

So what else is it about kittens that trigger this cute reflex? Much of the earliest work into cuteness as a scientific phenomenon began with Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz who coined the term “Kindchenschema”. As the name suggests, it basically proposes that the more qualities and features something has in common with human babies, the cuter it’s perceived as being. For instance, babies have disproportionately large heads and eyes compared to their eventual adult form, thanks to the uneven ways the brain and body develop. Kittens (and puppies) also have large heads and huge eyes, so are considered cuter than the more evenly-proportioned beady-eyed rodents nature provides us with.

Of course this just raises another question: why do we find big heads and eyes so attractive? My response would be this: babies are born that way for developmental reasons, and natural selection has altered our perceptions so that we find this appearance adorable enough to tend the bearer. After all, any parents who found human babies horribly ugly would be less likely to pass on their genes. But who knows?

But at least the mechanism can be tested, and one famous test was Steve Gould’s well known Natural History essay, “A biological homage to Mickey Mouse.” Who but Gould, who specialized in allometry—the differential relative growth of body parts—would think to apply that biological idea to a cartoon character?

But sure enough, as Mickey’s phenotype evolved over the years, his snout got relatively smaller and his head and eyes relatively bigger. Do read the essay; here’s a Disney drawing of Mickey’s evolution used in Gould’s essay:

h/t: Jon, Grania, Michael

Readers’ wildlife video and photo

April 28, 2018 • 9:00 am

It looks as if Stephen Barnard has been successful in getting the kestrels Boris and Natasha to use the nest box he built and affixed to his garage. Or so his video suggests. His notes:

Like you, I’ve been curious about whether Boris and Natasha are using the nest box. This evening I set up a camera on a tripod and started recording. After reviewing about two hours of video I came up with this. I think it’s safe to say there’s a brood in the box.

And a photo I just got:

This shows the size difference nicely.

Saturday: Hili dialogue

April 28, 2018 • 6:30 am

by Grania

Welcome to the weekend. It’s the birthday of Saddam Hussein (1937), Violent J of Insane Clown Posse (1972), and writer Harper Lee (1926). Today in 1996 Whitewater controversy was underway and President Bill Clinton had to testify in his own defense.

For reasons unknown to the gods, it was #OldHeadshotDay on Twitter. This prompted every Hollywood actor out there, normally so shy and self-effacing, to post pictures of themselves. Well, more pictures of themselves. Don’t encourage them.

On Twitter today, we have an Amsterdam traffic jam.

Termite circles in the Namib.

Today in Interspecies love we have capybaras loving on everything.

A Royal Flycatcher (Onychorhynchus coronatus)

https://twitter.com/masrento/status/989978600559570949

And finally the Obligatory Cat.  This one has a unique way of asking for its dinner.

https://twitter.com/StefanodocSM/status/989415384548806656

From Poland, Hili is showing her contempt for deities.

A WOODEN GOD
Hili: You are good for claw sharpening.
A: Hili, do not blaspheme.

In Polish:

DREWNIANY BÓG
Hili: Nadajesz się do ostrzenia pazurków.
Ja: Hili, nie bluźnij.

Hat-tip: Blue

New Mexico: The penultimate post

April 27, 2018 • 1:40 pm

I have one more day with my friends Avis and Bill, and, despite their having to work Wednesday and Thursday, we still had lots of fun (plus I have my own work to do when they’re working).

Here’s what happened yesterday (Thursday).  I first returned the CeilingCat RentalMobile to Enterprise, where, mirabile dictu, they fully reimbursed me for the tire I had to buy to replace the flat tire that was too damaged to be patched. They also gave me a 10% discount and free upgrade on my next rental. An unexpected bonus, and kudos to Enterprise.

We then repaired to a nearby gas station for burritos. You’d think that a gas station would be an unlikely place to get burritos, but in Las Cruces that’s where the best burritos are to be found. In fact, I’m told that people decide where to buy gas based on the quality of the burritos (they’re made in a kitchen at the station).

Here’s the large selection at the One Stop station in Las Cruces, and if they don’t have the kind of burrito you want, they’ll make it for you on the spot. Each tray has a different kind of hot burrito. Note the posole and menudos (also house-made) in the front:

I had the jalapeño and chicken burrito:

Avis had the chile relleno burrito, something I hadn’t encountered before. They simply wrap an entire chile relleno in a flour tortilla. I got to taste it, and it was very good:

I left out one place we visited on Wednesday. In my quest for the perfect green chile cheeseburger, we repaired to Dick’s Cafe, renowned for the item, which is simply a juicy cheeseburger smothered with sauteed green chiles. The tradition is to add mustard, but I eschewed that condiment.

I had the “jumbo” chile cheeseburger, cooked rare, with fries. Here I’ve peeled back the cheese so you can see the chiles. They also have a “double jumbo” burger made with 18 ounces of meat. I didn’t think I could handle that one.

When cooked rare, the burger is ungodly messy, and I ultimately had to use a knife and fork to eat it. It was delicious. Green chile cheeseburgers should be adopted more widely in the U.S.!

To complete the pigout, we went to Caliche’s Frozen Custard for dessert; it’s a local favorite and serves all kinds of sundaes and mix-ins. Note that it’s famous as the “home of the green chile sundae” (see bottom of left column, too). I didn’t have one as that didn’t sound too appetizing. But who knows?

“Caliche“, by the way, refers to the calcium carbonate deposit under the surface of the local desert, a stiff white layer whose name has been appropriated in the name of this treat.

The extruding custard:

I had a caliche with hot fudge topping and brownie chunks mixed in. It was studded with large pieces of homemade brownies. After that jumbo green chile cheeseburger and then this, I needed a nap.

The ocatillo (Fouquieria splendens) is a familiar plant of the Southwestern desert, flowering once a year, as it is here in the nearby town of Mesilla.  As Wikipedia notes:

The bright crimson flowers appear especially after rainfall in spring, summer, and occasionally fall. Flowers are clustered indeterminatelyat the tips of each mature stem. Individual flowers are mildly zygomorphic and are pollinated by hummingbirds and native carpenter bees.

The “spines”  are actually petioles, the leaf stalks that attach the leaves to the twigs. The first leaves produced die, and the remaining petioles become the thorns that protect the plant.

Lovely flower, eh?

Hesperaloe parviflora, a native red yucca whose flowers attract (and are pollinated by) hummingbirds:

This native species (Echinocereus triglochidatus or Echinocereus coccineus; names differ) is variously called the  hedgehog cactus, kingcup cactus, claretcup, or Mojave mound cactus. It’s dioecious, meaning that plants are either male or female. I show both below:

Here’s a female plant, whose pistils are extruded and ready to receive pollen, while the anthers (male bits) are nonfunctional and produce no pollen.

The male plant, with lots of pollen-bearing anthers but whose pistils are clustered together and unable to receive pollen.

The Rio Grande River has diminished substantially by the time it reaches Las Cruces, as water is diverted to grow pecans, pistachios, and various vegetables.

And a bunch of pictures of lovely Boris. Not to neglect his calico step-sister, I’ll post pictures of Janet in the next and last installment.

A formidable tuxedo cat!

Yesterday when I was working at home, Boris slept between my feet:

. . . and when I tried to take his photo, he played with the strap on my camera:

Cuddling him the night before, he bit my nose (it didn’t hurt too badly):

Last night we went to the Game Sports Bar and Grill to meet other faculty after the departmental seminar. There we sat in the outside beer garden, blissfully free of televisions and loud people. I had a local darkish beer, Scotia Scotch Ale (7.8% alcohol), as well as a local speciality: fried green chiles coated with crushed pecans. This is the Las Cruces equivalent of buffalo wings (ranch dressing on the side). They were great. It’s hard to have a bad chile.

The inside of the chile:

Some other people in the beer garden. I didn’t understand this tee shirt (I’m clueless) until it was explained to me that this meant “Hands off my daughter!”

A woman nearby had “Slinky hair”, which would wiggle like a Slinky each time she moved. I am assured that this is her real hair:

A lovely local woman with bird tattoos on her shoulder:

And a final shot of Boris, who’s wont to sleep all stretched out on his back.

I’m returning to Chicago tomorrow morning, but I believe there’s one more post to go. Stay tuned for a pair of huge horned owls that live in the local Home Depot.