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.
We need a break, so here:
Nope, it’s just a drawing of a bottle of vodka, but an amazingly realistic one by Italian artist Marcello Barenghi, whose webpage is here and whose YouTube channel, with similar hyperrealistic drawings, is here.
You can see how this was created in the following speeded-up video:
The video has already gotten more than 1,400,000 views in a week.
While sitting here polishing the prose of my book, I’m nagged by the dreadful decision announced today by the Supreme Court (see the New York Times story). What they’ve done is not only classified corporations as people (something they did in an earlier decision about campaign donations), but also classified them as religious people: firms that can control on religious grounds the working conditions and benefits of their employees.
This seems to me to violate the very freedom of religion that the Founders wrote into the Constitution. Can a Christian Science business refuse to give their employees any conventional medical care? After all, they don’t believe that disease or injury is real, but are illusions curable by prayer. Can a Scientologist-owned firm refuse psychiatric coverage for its employees? After all, Scientologists see psychiatry as repugnant and useless.
I could go on, but today I’m really afraid for America: afraid that, due solely to our Supreme Court, we are becoming a theocracy. And given the court’s status as the last legal resort in America, only the legislature (also highly religious) can effect change. But in this case, since the ruling is on Constitutional grounds, I doubt that even Congress could affect it. [Note: the preceding sentence is wrong: Congress could amend the law by overturning the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allows people to get exemptions from Federal Law; see here.]
What can we do? The FFRF just put out a “call to action,” which I’ll reproduce here. Please consider taking some of the steps they suggest, including joining the FFRF itself, which you can do here. And also consider boycotting the horrible firms involved in this decision: Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties.
Here’s the FFRF’s bulletin:
My CNN news alert has just given me the depressing decision:
The Supreme Court today sided with Christian-owned companies that don’t want to pay for some types of contraceptives for their employees.
The owners of Hobby Lobby, furniture maker Conestoga Wood Specialties and Christian bookseller Mardel argued that the Affordable Care Act violates the First Amendment and other federal laws protecting religious freedom because it requires them to provide coverage for contraceptives like the “morning-after pill,” which the companies consider tantamount to abortion.
The decision may serve as a primer for other pending challenges to the health law championed by President Barack Obama.
I’m busy and haven’t time to look this up, but I’m betting the vote is 5-4, with Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy concurring, and Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer and Ginsburg dissenting.
This opens the door to every business being able to determine its employees’ health care on religious grounds. Abortion is next.
Last Tuesday, June 24, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent its second letter to the Superintendent of the Lebanon (Missouri) R-III school district, asking them to respond to the FFRF’s previous letter about Principal Kevin Lowery’s prayer at the graduation ceremony at Lebanon High. (You can see Lowery’s prayer on YouTube here, which I now notice says “embedding disabled by request.” Now I wonder who made that request? No comments are allowed, either.)
The FFRF sent its first letter by snailmail and email on June 2, and I posted it. Delivered to the Superintendent and all the members of the Lebanon school board, it was completely ignored. Although Lowery issued a notapology for his prayer, he claimed that nobody forced him to. At the request of the FFRF I won’t reproduce the second letter, as they want to give the school board time to respond. You will see it soon.
This is a no-brainer for the Lebanon school board: if they don’t issue a written statement saying that public prayer at Lebanon High School won’t take place again (apparently Lowery did this all the time), they will be sued. I’ve already heard that the American Civil Liberties Union has some legal action in the works. And I’m pretty sure that the requirement for such a suit—a “complainant,” a student or parent willing to join a lawsuit—will be found. Given all this, and the cost of a losing suit for the Lebanon School District (for they will lose a lawsuit), they should accede to the FFRF’s reasonable request.
What we see here is a case of cognitive dissonance. The town of Lebanon is so soaked in Christianity, and the people so sure that they have the God-given (if not Constitutionally-given) right to pray in public, that they simply can’t look ahead and see the ruin that awaits them. That’s why they’re simply not responding. But if they think the ACLU or the FFRF will give up, they’re mistaken.
Meanwhile, at the American Family News Network’s site, One News Now (this is a Christian news organization), there’s a piece by Bob Kellogg, “You say I can’t pray? Well just watch me,” whose title tells it all. It gives a brief precis of what happened at Lebanon High and then adds only positive comments on the school prayer:
Travis Weber, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, offers his assessment of the principal’s actions.
“He basically was pointing out the ridiculous state of the law in this area – really, the prohibitions on any expression of faith in the public square, including schools,” he says.
According to Weber, a letter of complaint to the superintendent about Lowery’s comments was riddled with typos and errors. “Then they can’t even accurately cite the Declaration of Independence,” he laments. “It’s kind of ironic when you have them claiming to rest upon accuracy in the law and they make an error like that.”
Christian News Network quotes several individuals who were appreciative of Lowery’s remarks, complimenting him on his boldness and his encouragement to students – through his example – to stand up for what they believe.
Riddled with typos and errors? I’m baffled. I just read the letter quickly (read for yourself here), and I can’t see anything erroneous, though combing through it carefully might reveal a few errors. But why does that matter? As for the Declaration of Independence being misquoted, the quote used comes from Lowery, not the FFRF. As for accurately quoting the law, the FFRF correctly pointed out previous cases in which courts prohibited prayer at school-sponsored public events, including graduations. Weber is simply avoiding the issue, and makes himself look silly in the process. But of course he’s a Christian and has to dissimulate about such things.
Here’s a sample of the 39 comments; surprisingly, there are some favoring the FFRF’s stand against religious intrusion into public schools. The third one is a hoot:
Muslim indoctrination? What’s that about? I’m pretty sure that doesn’t occur in Lebanon.
And yay for this guy!
Of course he was deluged with criticisms, including all those legal-savvy Lebanon residents who just know that Lowery’s act was legal.
Someone even claimed that Lowery didn’t go far enough—he was a wimp to utter a silent prayer!:
But another person stood up for the Constitution, too:
The dogpile inevitably ensued:
Rosa Parks? How dare these people equate their public-school prayers with civil rights? And Parks, committing an act of civil disobedience, took the penalty for her actions. Will the people of Lebanon take theirs?
I’ll close with a typical sentiment from the area:
This is a new bit of apologetics to me: The Argument from Supper.
Here’s today’s schedule. Since I can watch only one game, perhaps it’ll be Deutschland vs. Algeria, though I’d like to see France and Nigeria,too. Whichever one I watch has, however, already been determined by the laws of physics.
There is no contest today for readers to guess winners, nor will there be another besides the Big Contest still in force (who plays in the final game, and who wins by what score), but please feel free to tender your predictions below, including scores.
Once again I suggest that penalty kicks are no way to end a tied football match. What’s the rationale for this? They could just add successive fifteen-minute overtimes until someone scores. In baseball, a game can go on for twenty or more innings in case of a tie (the standard length is nine innings). When a team wins that way, at least the game has been played all the way in the same way. Penalty kicks are unsatisfactory, for even readers who think they should be kept seem dissatisfied with games settled that way.
End of rant; what do I know?
Some fuzzy highlights of yesterday’s heartbreaker for Mexico, who lost 2-1 to Netherlands:
And Costa Rica’s victory over Greece (1-1 in regulation time and overtime; settled by penalty kicks). The first Costa Rican goal looked lame to me; the Greek keeper just stood there. But I didn’t watch the game.
Today’s Google Doodle suggests that they’re running out of ideas for animations, but we have more than a week to go!
This panorama of Chicago (above us only sky) was taken with my iPhone, as I didn’t have my camera. I had no idea it could take fisheye-lens-like pictures. This was taken from Promontory Point, a bit of land that sticks out into the lake near my place, and it affords a great view of the city (lower left):
This photo, also shot with my iPhone (I much prefer my point-and-shoot Panasonic Lumix!) was taken at the Cubs/Nationals game on Saturday.(I had to adjust the exposure in iPhoto). Wrigley Field is a classic ballpark, and you can see its friendly confines. I was with my old friend Sarah, who was in town for a wedding. The photo is significant because the last time Sarah and I went to a ballgame together was a Yankees/Red Sox game in Fenway Park in 1973. And it was at that game when the botfly in my head (acquired in Costa Rica) began emerging from my skull. Sarah was there to see it pop out of my head later that evening.
You can hear the whole botfly tale, if you haven’t already, on Robert Krulwich’s NPR show RadioLab (link here, story starts at 44:05). Krulwich interviews me but, unbenownst to me, also talked to Sarah. You can hear us both.
She is a diehard Oakland A’s fan and is wearing their team hat:
Has Hili been reading Ecclesiastes?
A: Why are you sitting under this cherry tree?
Hili: There is time for sitting, and there is time for running.
In Polish
Ja: Czemu tu siedzisz pod tą wiśnią?
Hili: Jest czas siedzenia i czas biegania.
