Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). You can hear its lovely calls here:
Diana MacPherson, who sent a note, enclosed pictures of a male and female ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). Since I posted a photo of the female the other day, I’ll put up two pictures of the male.
Here are a couple pictures of the male (in the first one he is in a weigela next to some cobwebs, guarding the feeders). He dive-bombs the poor girls and I have a picture of one of them cowering in the weigela as he does so. You can see their pretty green feathers in the dusk sunlight.
I think I saw an interloper male. He outmanoeuvred the regular male and dashed to the feeder to get a quick sip before going on. 🙂
Hili is getting philosophical in her teenage years. . .
Hili: I’m pondering over being an sich…
A: I do not understand.
Hili: When you’re asleep you’re a being an sich, and when you eat you’re a being für sich.
In Polish:
Hili: Zastanawiam się nad bytem w sobie…
Ja: Nie rozumiem?
Hili: Śpiący byt jest bytem w sobie, jedzący bytem dla siebie.
It’s been announced in the last few hours that the only U.S. soldier who was held by the Afghans as a prisoner of war—Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl—was handed over to the U.S. this morning. Bergdahl had been held captive for nearly five years (he’s reported to be in good shape). In return, the U.S. released five prisoners from Guantanamo. According to the Daily Beast, these aren’t low-level functionaries, but major Taliban commanders:
The five Guantanamo detainees released by the Obama administration in exchange for America’s last prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, are bad guys. They are top Taliban commanders the group has tried to free for more than a decade.
According to a 2008 Pentagon dossier on Guantanamo Bay inmates, all five men released were considered to be a high risk to launch attacks against the United States and its allies if they were liberated. The exchange shows that the Obama administration was willing to pay a steep price, indeed, for Bergdahl’s freedom. The administration says they will be transferred to Qatar, which played a key role in the negotiations.
In the initial statements released about the deal, the White House declined to name the detainees who would be leaving the Cuba based prison Obama has been trying to close since his first day in office.
A senior U.S. defense official confirmed Saturday that the prisoners to be released include Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammed Nabi Omari.
While not as well known as Guantanamo inmates like 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Taliban 5 were some of the worst outlaws in the U.S. war on terror. And their release will end up replenishing the diminished leadership ranks of the Afghan Taliban at a moment when the United States is winding down the war there.
“They are undoubtedly among the most dangerous Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo,” said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior editor at the Long War Journal, who keeps a close watch on developments concerning the detainees left at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
I’m absolutely thrilled for Bergdahl’s family that he’s coming home: imagine thinking for five years that you’d never see your husband/father/relative/friend again. What a relief that he’s free!
But I’m a bit puzzled and, I admit, slightly disturbed by the swap.
Lord knows I despite the sequestration of prisoners on Guantanamo, and think they should be given a fair trial in the U.S. by civil courts. But I thought it was the policy of the U.S. government never to negotiate with terrorists, and it seems to me that these Taliban bigwigs are terrorists. Or, even if they’re regarded as prisoners of war (in which case swaps are okay), why do we give up five to get one? What is the right ratio? Should release dozens of people who will go back to the business of trying to kill us in return for one of our own? Do we hold the life of a single soldier higher than the potential damage the released prisoners may cause?
The policy of not negotiating with terrorists is supposedly designed to avoid legitimizing such groups, and to prevent the wholesale kidnapping of our citizens as a means of securing the release of criminals. Yet this is what we’ve done. I have to conclude that our government’s policy is a sham: an official policy that is honored in the breach. And I can understand that, for the pressure from distraught family members must be overwhelming. In other words, we always hear “we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” but there’s a whisper out of the side of the mouth: “But really, we will.”
I don’t know the answer, and am willing to listen to readers. All I know is that I’m elated for Sgt. Bergdahl, his family, and his friends, but worried that we’re enabling more of the same. All it will take is a few more kidnappings—even by civilians, and our jails will be emptied of terrorists.
By Matthew Cobb This popped up in my Twitter feed https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnDlawWCMAAnoHL.jpg Not sure what kind of owl it is – any ideas? Apologies to the photographer – I don’t know who took it. The title of this post is one of Jerry’s favourite French ooh raises. It means “terrific, fab”, but translates literally as “cowly owl”.
Oh, how I wish that Stephen Jay Gould were still alive! Not only would we have a huge additional corpus of writing about evolution and other topics (although Gould’s writing got less readable and more baroque as he aged), but I’d also be able to tease him about NOMA, his untentable notion that religion and science are compatible because they comprise “non-overlapping magisteria.”
NOMA, as most of you surely know, was laid out in Gould’s 1999 book Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life. I reviewed that book (negatively) for the Times Literary Supplement, but I can’t find the review online. At any rate, Gould claimed that religion’s sphere was to discuss and adjuciate meaning, morals, purpose, and values, and to stay the hell away from claims about the natural world. Science, on the other hand, deals explicitly with the natural world, and, according to Gould, should stay away from religion’s bailiwick.
You’ll immediately recognize the two big problems with this thesis—and I’m surprised Gould didn’t. First, there’s a long tradition of secular and philosophical analysis of “meaning, morals, and values,” and, in fact, those areas give better answers than do religion. Secular philosophy, for instance, doesn’t decree it immoral to have sex before marriage, divorce your spouse, or allow women to drive. (Gould really did appear to construe all analysis of values and purpose as “religious.”)
Second, religion simply can’t keep its mitts off the natural world or the cosmos, for it’s constantly making statements about the way things are. With the exception of obscurantist theologians like David Bentley Hart, religion makes truth claims about heaven, hell, divine beings, the veracity of scripture, the occurrence of miracles, and so on. In fact, it is on those grounds that theologians and religious scientists have criticized NOMA, and these include folks like John Haught and Ian Hutchinson.
And, of course, creationism is a huge intrusion of religion into the magisterium of science. But Gould insulated himself in advance from that criticism by claiming that creationist faiths weren’t “proper” religions. By defining “proper” religions as those not making existence claims about the cosmos, Gould at once made his NOMA a tautology, as well as informing billions of believers whose faith rests on existence claims that their religions weren’t “proper.”
This is all a long-winded introduction to this video, presented by Right Wing Watch, showing Matthew Hagee, executive pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Pastor Hagee presents a perfect violation of NOMA by claiming that if science conflicts with God’s word, the science must be wrong. In this case the “science” is global warming, which Hagee claims is not man-made, but a harbinger of Jesus’s return.
A partial transcription from RWW:
Matthew Hagee kicked off this week’s “Hagee Hotline” by informing his viewers that in situations where “men are saying things that contradict God’s word, God’s word is accurate and men are wrong” … and that is why Christians should not believe in climate change.
As Hagee explained, the views put forth by scientists and experts on any subject are not to be believed if those views are at odds with what the Bible teaches. As such, the extreme weather events that the climate has been experiencing are not the result of climate change but are rather signs of the End Times and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
“The Bible says that whenever we approach the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Hagee explained, “that there would be strange weather patterns. Jesus said this in Matthew the twenty-fifth chapter. So we have a decision to make: do we believe what an environmentalist group says and choose to live in a world where we’re attempting to make everything as clean in the air as possible, or do we believe what the Bible says, that these things were going to happen and that rather than try to clean up all of the air and solve all of the problems of the world by eliminating factories, we should start to tell people about Jesus Christ who is to return?”
In other words, forget cap and trade, forget trying to clean up the planet and forestall our planet’s imminent human-caused degeneration. Jesus will set it right—and the Good News is that he’s on his way!
Here’s Kevin Lowery, Principal of Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Missouri, giving an address at his school’s graduation. This extended riff on the religious nature of the U.S. is an apparent protest of court decisions deeming it illegal for school officials to pray at school functions.
Lowery brandishes U.S. paper currency to flaunt its “In God We Trust Motto,” and then, at 2:00, offers a moment of silence (a common way around prayer restrictions). After breaking the silence, he tells the audience that during his moment of silence, he gave thanks to God.
This is clearly a violation of the First Amendment. Since I’m the Discovery Institute’s official Censor of the Year, I might as well tell you that I’ve contacted not only Prnicipal Lowery, but also members of the Lebanon School Board and the Superintendent of Schools (see my email below). Oh, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation as well.
Remember, this is truly a slippery slope: if we let even small violations of this kind slide, it becomes easier for the courts to say that they’re “traditional.” Our silence also conveys the message that this kind of stuff is okay.
Here’s the contact information should you wish to do something (it’s easy to cut and paste from my email below):
To: dwidhalm@lebanon.k12.mo.us, john@carmeco.com, keldridge@central-bank.net, sheadley@midmobank.com, jeremiah.hough@independentstavecompany.com, klight@heritagebankozarks.com, bob@oneiloneil.com, jsriggs@webound.com
Subject: Inappropriate religious proselytizing during graduation
cc: klowery@lebanon.k12.mo.us
Dear Mr. Widhalm and Lebanon School Board members,
I recently watched a YouTube video, located at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctwrBqcBcgM , showing a graduation ceremony during which the principal of Lebanon High School, Mr. Kevin Lowery, blatantly disregarded the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to impose his religious beliefs on a captive audience. He flaunts a piece of U.S. currency, noting its motto “In God We Trust,” without mentioning that that motto was not added until 1956. He cites “God” in the U.S. Declaration of Independence but doesn’t mention that because our founders wished to erect a wall between Church and State in our young country, there is no mention of “God” in the Constitution.
What is most offensive is that Mr. Lowery not only called for a moment of silence (a common way around the prohibition of prayer in public schools), but then told the audience that he used his own moment of silence to ask for God’s blessing.
Lowery’s behavior during that graduation ceremony is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment, and of court decisions that prayer in public schools by officials of those schools is illegal. Apparently, by making a public display of his faith, Mr. Lowery wished to voice his disdain for those rulings, and for our Constitution.
Your students should not have been subjected to this unseemly and unconstitutional display. Do you think it is appropriate to foist religious beliefs on an audience that may include nonbelievers?
I’ve reported this violation to the Freedom From Religion Foundation for further legal investigation, but I would appreciate hearing whether Mr. Lowery’s display was sanctioned or approved by the Lebanon School Board, even in retrospect. If not, I would appreciate hearing how you are going to deal with this Constitutional violation. Can you assure us that this will never occur again?
Sincerely,
Jerry Coyne
Professor, Dept. of Ecology and Evolution
The University of Chicago
I’m not at all sure this is safe, but I’m posting it because it’s cute. Via Bored Panda, meet Craig Armstrong and his climbing partner Millie, a rescue cat, in a pictoral called “My adopted cat is the best climbing partner ever.”
Most pet cats will become timid or defensive when outdoors, but not Millie – after being adopted by her mountain-climbing owner Craig Armstrong, Millie has become a feline hiking and mountain-climbing legend. “She literally loves to climb things… if there’s high-ground she’ll seek it out,” Armstrong said in an interview with Bored Panda. He had nothing but praise for the tenacious little athlete: “Generally she does best on slabby routes where she can scramble from ledge to ledge. She’s an incredible athlete but steep juggy routes just aren’t her thing. When bouldering, though, she’s done some pretty amazing gaps and dynos.”
Millie’s gear consists of a harness, a leash and some rope
“I go on a lot of weekend climbing adventures. It never seemed odd to me, just seemed like something I’d do with my pet, take her places,” explained Armstrong. Ever since Millie climbed up onto his shoulder at the Furburbia adoption center in Utah, Armstrong knew they’d make a good team.
There are, of course, pros and cons to taking your cat hiking – “We camp in my truck; She peed in there one night, but she caught a mouse in there one night, too.” Armstrong hopes that they can become a team in other aspects of his life as well; “I’m still waiting for the day we come across a group of pretty ladies and they love Millie and invite us to their campfire that night.“
Free climbing!
He also had plenty of advice for owners who might consider hiking with their own cats. “Get them used to their name and to you as a safe place. In talus fields or thick woods she’ll get distracted and climb trees or explore tiny caves and under boulders and stop following sometimes. It’s taken a lot of practice and many trips to get Millie to the point where she follows me down a trail past areas like thickets that would have distracted her otherwise.”
I don’t believe the cat made it up there on her own!
There are many other pictures of Millie (and a climbing cat friend) at the site.
*****
Your lagniappe is yet another Russian cat video. As I’ve said repeatedly, some of the best cat videos around are coming out of PutinLand. Here’s one in which an overly eager cat licks a kitten right off the table. The cat’s expression after the kitten falls off is priceless. (The kitten wasn’t hurt.)
BTW, the label of the video was this “Котенок Упал Со стола (Смешно)”. Translation, pls. The licking cat appears to be a member of a rare breed, the lovely Snowshoe cat, so called because of its white mittens.
[JAC: Matthew asked me to post this as he “was on the phone.” He must make long calls!]
by Matthew Cobb
Last night England played Peru in a friendly football (= soccer) match on preparation for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil. The match took place at Wembley Stadium in London (England won 3-0).
In the second half the crowd started making paper planes. This video shows that one plane, launched from the Gods, not only made its way onto the pitch, it amazingly hit an oblivious Peruvian player in the head. He wasn’t hurt, and everyone cheered.
[JAC: Matthew is obviously one of those soccer hooligans.]
