An aphorism for atheism

September 3, 2013 • 7:16 am

In my pathetic attempt to coin a bon mot, I was inspired by the famous statement of Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion.

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”

(Yes, I know that someone said it before him.)

Here’s my try, inspired by the idea that nearly all religious believers have some non-negotiable beliefs, although others are Biblical literalists about nearly everything. For more liberal believers, the divinity of Jesus and his resurrection is the last but firmly held redoubt of their faith. But it remains a form of fundamentalism.

So here’s my statement, which is mine (Professor Ceiling Cat):

“Some believers are fundamentalists about everything, but every believer is a fundamentalist about something.”

And yes, I know that there are some “believers” who don’t accept any form of supernaturalism, though they’re thin on the ground.

NYT profiles Genie Scott

September 3, 2013 • 6:36 am

Genie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), was the subject of a nice profile by Cornelia Dean in yesterday’s New York Times.

Scott has been NCSE director for 27 years, but, according to Dean, will step down at the end of this year, and will also write a memoir. I’m curious who the new director will be. Genie had a calm and genial demeanor that was remarkably effective when combined with her steely resolve.

Regardless, she’s done a superb job fighting creationism in the U.S., capped by the remarkable and influential victory for evolution in Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover et al., the Scopes Trial of our generation. The NCSE has now added climate-change denialism to its list of issues to battle.

As everyone here knows, of course, I have some problems with the NCSE’s accommodationist strategy of coddling religion. This is noted in the article:

[Scott] is particularly distressed to hear people assert that belief in evolution is incompatible with religious faith. Though Dr. Scott described herself as a “humanist” who is not religious, she said, “there is not a dichotomous division between people of faith and science. There are many people of faith who accept evolution. This is something many people do not realize.”

This, of course, is a political tactic, and I suspect Genie knows better. After all, of evolution is compatible with religious faith, why does every bit of opposition to evolution in America (and elsewhere as well) come from religion? Yes, people can be scientists and religious, or religious and science-friendly, but that shows compatibility in the trivial sense of being able to embrace incompatible worldviews and methodologies.  Science’s methods of finding truth about the cosmos are absolutely incompatible with religion’s methods for discerning “truth”: revelation, dogma, authority, and wish-thinking. And yes, most religions do depend on discerning and accepting truths about the universe.

And there’s really no evidence that accommodationism has helped reduce creationism in America. Opposition to evolution has been pretty steady, waning only a bit in the last few years, which is consonant not with accommodationism, which has always been the dominant strategy, but with the rise of “nones” and public atheism.

But congrats to Genie on a job well done. She’ll leave large shoes to fill.

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Photo by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Massachusetts Supreme Court to hear challenge to Pledge of Allegiance

September 3, 2013 • 4:49 am

Many venues, including the Religion News Service, have reported on this story, involving a Massachusetts challenge to the U.S.’s “Pledge of Allegiance.”

First, a bit of surprising history from USHistory.org. I had no idea this was writen by a socialist (Bellamy was an American):

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.

In its original form it read:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1923, the words, “the Flag of the United States of America” were added. At this time it read:

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God,” creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy’s daughter objected to this alteration. Today it reads:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

I used to recite this last version, facing the U.S. flag and holding my hand over my heart, in my elementary school classroom each morning. I’m not sure whether it’s still done in schools, or obligatory, but I think so, for it’s being challenged in Massachusetts as a violation of the First Amendment.

The RNS explains:

Since the addition of the phrase “under God” in 1954, the pledge has been challenged repeatedly as a violation of the separation of church and state. In 2004, one case reached the Supreme Court, but ultimately failed, as have all previous challenges.

But the current case before the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, is different because lawyers for the plaintiffs, an anonymous atheist couple, won’t be arguing about federal law but rather that the compulsory recitation of the pledge violates the state’s equal rights laws. They argue that the daily recitation of the pledge is a violation of their guarantee of equal protection under those laws.

This change of tack in pledge challenges is modeled on a successful precedent laid down in the same court on gay marriage. In 2003, Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 in favor of a same-sex couple seeking the right to marry under the state’s equal rights laws. Their win led to similar successful challenges in other state courts — something that could happen here if judges rule for the plaintiffs.

“You would then see a rash of state court lawsuits challenging the pledge all over the country,” said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is arguing for the defendants. “A win for us would completely avoid that unnecessary harm. And it would affirm that it is not discriminatory to have the words ‘under God’ in the pledge.”

Well, it’s certainly discriminatory against atheists, and even if reciting it is not obligatory, any child who refrained would become an outcast.  So making the “God” pledge optional isn’t a good solution—any more than is the recitation of a mandatory prayer in school with children given the right to opt out. I’m not sure,  given that prayer in schools is forbidden under the U.S. Constitution, why pledging allegiance to God is “not discriminatory.”

A bit more history of the case:

The plaintiffs are represented by the American Humanist Association, a national advocacy group for humanists and other secularists. David Niose, the plaintiffs’ attorney and president of the AHA, could not be reached for comment.

The defendants won the first round in June 2012 when a lower court judge ruled that daily recitation of the pledge did not violate the Massachusetts Constitution, the school district’s anti-discrimination policy or state law. The upcoming oral arguments address an appeal of that decision.

I’m betting the state will win, and “God” will stay in the pledge.  I’m hoping otherwise, but the wall between church and state in the U.S. has slowly been eroding. I don’t understand what the arguments are for not going back to the pre-1954 version (indeed, I object to any recitation of “allegiance” in school!), nor how any rational person can construe “one nation under God” as a nonreligious statement.

A batch of orphaned squirrels

September 3, 2013 • 3:16 am

I’m off to Poland today, but I’ll arrange for posts to be put up as if it were a normal day.  None of them, however, will be weighty. This first one starts Tuesday with some rodential cuteness.

Reader Diana MacPherson sent in a photo of a batch (I don’t know what the technical term is) of orphaned red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus).  Here’s the story:

 A friend of mine found the babies around her complex last night – two out  in front of her house and two in a corner. Mom was nowhere to be found so something tragic must’ve happened. She is feeding them pedialyte with a syringe every 30 mins or so & they are in a nice warm box with a hot water bottle. I hope they do okay. The local humane society wouldn’t take them nor would a bunch of different rescue places, so after placing 10 calls, she is going to try to look after them until they can go out on their own. She said they are three boys & one girl.

Now it distresses me that a rescue organization wouldn’t take care of this cute little bunch.  If you live near Mississauga, Ontario and have advice about squirrel-rearing, please leave information in the comments below.  I’m not sure whether orphaned squirrels can become wild squirrels on their own, or need a certain amount of tutelage!

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Let it Be

September 2, 2013 • 1:41 pm

To my mind, “Let It Be” is the best song on the Beatles’ last studio album—also called “Let It Be”. The album (1970) was a bit of a letdown, but I suppose its relative mediocrity was a way of preparing us for the Beatles’ demise, much like ill health prepares us for our extinction. It’s almost as if the album was stage 5 of Kübler-Ross’s famous sequence of life’s-end emotions: acceptance.

This song, however (written by McCartney), stands out among the others on the LP. I was pleased to see that Rolling Stone ranked it as #8 on its list of the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs.

Channeling the church-born soul of Aretha Franklin, Paul McCartney started writing “Let It Be” in 1968, during the White Album sessions. (Aretha’s cover of the song was released before the Beatles’ version.) McCartney’s opening lines — “When I find myself in times of trouble/Mother Mary comes to me” — were based on a dream in which his own late mother, Mary, offered solace, assuring him that everything would turn out fine. “I’m not sure if she used the words ‘Let it be,'” McCartney said, “but that was the gist of her advice.”

As everyone knew then, the Beatles were on the verge of breaking up. Lennon and McCartney were squabbling constantly, Yoko (whom the others didn’t like) was on the scene, and it just seemed a matter of time before they were gone.  For this album Phil Spector, unaccountably, was brought onboard as co-producer, and George Martin marginalized. Rolling Stone recounts the mess around “Let It Be,” which was released on LP nearly a year after recording began:

. . . the band worked for days on the song, recording the basic track at Apple Studios on January 31st, 1969.

After wrapping up the filmed sessions that day, the Beatles turned a mountain of tapes over to engineer Glyn Johns to assemble into an album, tentatively titled Get Back. George Harrison didn’t like his solo on the version of “Let It Be” that Johns picked, so he replaced his part with a new take, in which his guitar was run through a rotating Leslie organ speaker. That solo, with its distinctive warbling tone, ended up on the single.

At the beginning of 1970 — almost a year after the initial recording — McCartney, Harrison and Starr convened to do touch-up work on a few songs from a year earlier, including “Let It Be.” (Lennon, who had effectively quit the Beatles after the recording of Abbey Road, was in Denmark with Yoko Ono.) McCartney replaced John’s bass part with his own, Harrison recorded another guitar solo (the one used on the album mix), a brass section scored by Martin was added, and Harrison and Paul and Linda McCartney sang backup vocals.

Spector, known for his lush arrangements—the famous “wall of sound”—seriously embellished the version that was released earlier as a single:

Lennon had been impressed with producer Phil Spector’s work on his “Instant Karma!” single, and in March 1970, he and Beatles manager Allen Klein called in Spector to work on the January 1969 tapes. “He was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit with a lousy feeling to it ever, and he made something out of it,” said Lennon. Spector did the LP mix of the title track (after the single had already been released) and is credited with producing it, although it’s mixed from the same tape as the single. McCartney later declared that Spector’s version “sounded terrible.”

Johns said he preferred his spare mix of the song, the one done before “Spector puked all over it.” Spector called the atmosphere between band members a “war zone” and felt he’d done the best he could under the circumstances. “If it’s shitty, I’m going to get blamed for it,” he said. “If it’s a success, it’s the Beatles.”

“Let It Be” was released on March 11th, 1970. A month later, on April 10th, McCartney took the occasion of the release of his first solo album to announce that the Beatles had broken up.

Here’s the single version for comparison.  Actually, I like the guitar solo on Spector’s version better.

For a fascinating listen to an early and unreleased version of the song, go here. This would be what the first recorded version would resemble, before the bells and whistles were added. Note the different words: “Brother Malcolm comes to me.” I wonder if that’s Malcolm X.

When we heard the Beatles had broken up, it was like getting punched in the stomach. Many of us knew instinctively that, on their own, they could never do what they had done together.

She made it

September 2, 2013 • 11:05 am

Diana Nyad has completed her cage-free, 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida. It took her 53 hours. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Nyad, 64, was “really hurting” as she neared her destination of Key West some 48 hours after she set off from Havana, according to blog updates on her website.

“I am about to swim my last two miles in the ocean,” she said this morning on her blog. “This is a lifelong dream of mine and I’m very very glad to be with you. Some on the team are the most intimate friends of my life and some of you I’ve just met. But I’ll tell you something, you’re a special group. You pulled through; you are pros and have a great heart. So let’s get going so we can have a whopping party.”

The marathon swimmer had said this would be her final attempt, this time using a protective silicone mask to better protect her from potentially deadly box jellyfish that forced her to end one of two attempted crossings last year.

Her doctors aboard a support vessel said Nyad’s tongue and lips were swollen causing her speech to be slurred, and raising concern about her breathing, the blog reported. Nyad was also “very cold” and had cancelled scheduled feeding stops overnight “in the hopes that swimming would keep her warm.”

I’m really happy for her; achieving a dream requiring such stamina, and at the age of 64, has got to be immensely fulfilling.

Maybe there’s hope for me yet to fulfill my own dream: climbing Mount Everest.

International Cat Day: Diddy stands alone

September 2, 2013 • 10:00 am

This cat is so unusual, and his story so bittersweet, that I’m posting him on his own. Besides, this isn’t really a reader’s cat, but a feral one.

Reader Robert B. sent me the picture below with the simple line: “This is Diddy, a Brooklyn feral tom cat, long term survivor.” But Diddy is gone now.

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Now that is one battered tomcat. Huge “apple head,” eyes askew, ears chewed down to the nubbins, but still sweet looking. I asked Robert for more information, and got this:

Here is a picture of Diddy taken on the deck in our backyard.  He was the king of our backyard colony and was, for years, way too wily to be trapped so that he could be neutered.  In nearly every backyard complex in Brooklyn there are feral cats where, after first being abandoned when their owners become disenchanted with them, they reproduce unchecked and often succumb to disease, parasites and malnutrition.  My wife and I got involved with the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) community and so we have a managed colony where the smells and yowls have greatly abated and the population does not increase.

His ears were chewed off and his face was puffed out with scar tissue from the many battles he fought for territory over the years.

Diddy, after living an epic feral life and displaying unparalleled feline character, eventually succumbed.  His strength waned and I was able to finally trap him but it turned out he suffered from both FELV, feline Leukemia and FIV, feline AIDS.  The combination of those two diseases creates an especially painful way to die.  He had to be put down and was subsequently buried in our backyard.  We still miss him and think of him often; his kind of character is rare.

RIP Diddy: the cat who looked like a bear.

Diana Nyad is gonna make it!

September 2, 2013 • 9:01 am

My CNN News alert has just emailed me to say that swimmer Diana Nyad, who is 64, is only two miles shy of finishing her swim from Cuba to Florida.  The journal is 103 miles, she’s not in a shark cage, and this is her fifth attempt.

Now she’s not the first person to do the swim: it was done in 1997 by Susie Maroney (aged 22). But Maroney used a shark cage, so Nyad’s achievement is a real first.

But Nyad is nearly three times that age, and, as a relative oldster, I have to say that I’m pleased as punch at Nyad’s success. (I’m assuming she’ll make it, of course.)

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