Truth and the Devil

The Intelligent Design creationists have tried all sorts of tactics to get their religious ideology taught in America’s science classrooms. They’ve written books, changed curricula, been involved in lawsuits, everything except actually doing science. Now, as a new extension of their PR assault on the media, they’re making a movie: Expelled — No Intelligence Allowed. It looks to be bullshit propaganda at its finest. Their website has a blog authored by the co-writer and MC of this film, Ben Stein. Let’s see what he has to say about the film.

A recent story from Newsweek focuses on a video shot of abortion protesters being asked the question: okay, if abortion’s illegal, what should the punishment be for the women?

You have rarely seen people look more gobsmacked. It’s as though the guy has asked them to solve quadratic equations. Here are a range of responses: “I’ve never really thought about it.” “I don’t have an answer for that.” “I don’t know.” “Just pray for them.”

The simple extension of making abortion illegal is that those who get them should be punished. Apparently this corollary has never been considered, by at least those protesters on the video, and I’m sure, many other anti-abortion advocates. The questioner does an excellent job.

Update: It appears that the article I cited was not entirely accurate. The educational report from the UK mentioned these types of problems, but this was not seen as a trend.

It’s interesting how insecure some people can be when they perceive their safety blanket being taken away from them. As is typical with some religious thought, an op-ed to the Lawrence Journal-World today bemoaned those who wish to remove the motto ‘In God We Trust’ from our money.

“In God We Trust.” To have this on our currency is to say that we trust in something higher than ourselves, namely God. For those who wish its inscription removed, I would ask them where we should put our trust and most importantly, to whom we are accountable.

This is one of the most important concepts for people professing the removal of church-state separation to understand: the danger of letting religious rather than constitutional law be the guiding force of the land.

The perfect example of transference regarding this issue, is exemplified by the following quote by Jan Markell (of Worldview Weekend) about the first Muslim to hold public office.

Ellison will be sworn in on a Koran. So now the Bible is equivalent to the Koran in the halls of Congress? Doesn’t this then mean he is pledging allegiance to Islamic Law (Sharia) rather than our Constitution? Where is the outrage here?

Ed Brayton puts the rubber band on the other claw and throws the quote right back at her.