Rowan Atkinson in 'We are most amused'

This is just too darn funny on its own for any additional commentary from me.

Richard Dawkins: Faith School Menace

This week, a television documentary entitled 'Faith School Menace?' aired in the UK. Thanks to YouTube, the video is available to us here in the US. It is quite interesting to note that, according to data presented in the documentary, one-third of state funded schools in the UK are "faith schools," which is, of course, what has Dr. Dawkins concerned. In the US, our government doesn't explicitly fund religious private schools, however, through a system of 'faith-based initiatives' and 'school choice' (i.e., private school tuition vouchers), there is also de facto funding being provided by tax-payers to religious schools here in the States. Therefore, many of the issues raised by this documentary apply just as easily to our own secular nation.



Quote of the Day:

"Are faith schools better? Surely God isn't helping pupils with exams."

--Richard Dawkins

A Godless Heathen's Love Affair with a Dead Scientist

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon some videos put out by Symphony of Science, which include several very well-done musical tributes to Carl Sagan and other prominent scientists, as well as the contributions of science itself. (My personal favorite right now is entitled 'We Are All Connected' and features Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Feynman, and Bill Nye. You can check out all of them at the Symphony of Science website linked above.)

Many of the images in the videos were taken directly from Carl Sagan's 1980 series Cosmos. Watching these moving videos stirred vague memories from my childhood of having seen Cosmos before, at least in part, and piqued my interest in experiencing it from start to finish.

Thank goodness for public libraries! At the beginning of the summer, I was fortunate to find that my library had one complete, 13-episode set of Cosmos on DVD and it was immediately available for check-out. From the moment that haunting theme music started and the word Cosmos appeared on the screen, I was hooked. And even though the "look" of the show and many of the special effects are dated, (my kids and I got a good giggle out of the fashions of the day---can anyone say terry cloth, tube socks and afros?), the scientific information was interesting (and surprisingly, little in need of updating) and the timeless humanist message struck such a resonant chord that I don't even remember how many times I found myself choked up or teary-eyed.  

By the end of the first episode, it was pretty clear that I was completely and utterly in love with Carl Sagan.


Like any respectable love-sick fool, I wanted to know more about the object of my affection. Fortunately, when your beloved is a world-reknowned scientist and public figure, it's not hard to find information. I watched clips from old interviews and television appearances, began reading his books, and even downloaded the movie Contact from Netflix and watched it with the family. (I think it should be fairly obvious that I've got a bad case of Saganitis.)

Anyway, in my quest for knowledge about Carl, the first book of his that I chose to read was 'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'. As a godless heathen, I figured it would be a comfortable place to start getting to know him better. I couldn't have been more right.

"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring," he states in the first chapter (p. 12).

Well, that about sums up my worldview.

At the beginning of chapter 2, I nearly wept when I read the following:

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time--when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness (p. 25).

How could he have known that I worry about the same basic things today?

Despite being an astronomer and astrophysicist (or maybe because of his profession), it's quite evident that however much time he spent gazing up at the stars, Carl Sagan's feet were quite firmly planted here on Earth. How could anyone NOT love Carl Sagan? Everything that I have learned about him points me to the conclusion that he was (is) the epitomy of the scientific humanist (or is it humanistic scientist?), an incurable optimist, and a hell of a great man.

{Completely Irrelevant Sidenote: If there was an award for "Sexiest Mouth on a Scientist" my vote would definitely go to Sagan. I just love to watch him talk. Ann Druyan was one very lucky woman!}

Quote of the Day:

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

--Carl Sagan

The War on Brains

I have a confession...

I've never been one of those people that is big into national flag waving, and I never have felt the compulsion to proclaim my superiority as a citizen of America over the citizens of other countries, or my homeland's innate superiority over someone else's. In fact, nationalism hasn't much figured into my perceptions of the world in general. It's just not something I've ever cared anything about.

Perhaps the blame for this tendency should be laid at the doorstep of the public schools I attended, which apparently failed in their patriotic duty to indoctrinate me fully into the culture of American exceptionalism. Or, maybe it's actually my parents' fault. After all, they were bleeding-heart liberals who consistently reinforced the radical notion of social equality and the ideas that "people are people," regardless of where they come from or how they look, and that each individual should be judged on his/her own merits. From them, I also learned to appreciate the (clearly un-American) value of helping those less fortunate than myself. The nearest I've ever come to national pride is cheering for the American athletes competing in the Olympic games. (Of course, personally, that's not nearly as emotionally vested a loyalty as say, rooting for my university football team on any given Saturday during the fall season, but at least it's something.)

I'm making this first confession of absence of homeland hubris only to highlight a second confession...

While I've never been exactly overtly patriotic, until this past decade or so, I've never been ashamed of being an American either. However, the more I see how grass roots, conservative, or tea party "common sense" is being marketed to and accepted by the general public at the expense of actual knowledge and reason, (and the more material that enlightened, rational-minded individuals from other countries have to poke fun at), the more I find being identified as American to be an embarrassment. 

Case in point: This segment by Rachel Maddow simply highlights what lies at the root of my discomfort and discontent. In the U.S., there is a ferociously raging war on brains; or more specifically, a war on knowledge and intellectualism. As an educator, a parent, and yes, even as an American citizen, I am shamed to my core to have anyone think that the cretins highlighted here speak for me. 

Topic of Cancer: Christopher Hitchens

It is a sad day for this godless heathen to find out that one of the "Four Horsemen" has been diagnosed with cancer. True to form though, Hitchens provides his readers with the news in his singularly straight-forward and witty style.

Keep fighting the good fight, Christopher! We're not ready for you to depart this world just yet.

Topic of Cancer


One fine June day, the author is launching his best-selling memoir, Hitch-22. The next, he’s throwing up backstage at The Daily Show, in a brief bout of denial, before entering the unfamiliar country—with its egalitarian spirit, martial metaphors, and hard bargains of people who have cancer.

Read the entire article here: Topic of Cancer Culture: vanityfair.com

Quote of the Day:

"I am not even an atheist so much as an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually true....There may be people who wish to live their lives under a cradle-to-grave divine supervision; a permanent surveillance and monitoring. But I cannot imagine anything more horrible or grotesque."

--Christopher Hitchens

Militant Atheist

I know I post a lot of videos on my blog. Some are posted simply for humor's sake, some simply to rant about what I perceive as political/societal, or other injustice, and others provide something upon which to reflect. The video I am posting today falls in that third category. While I disagree with the videographer on a couple of minor points, I still think the message is well worth repeating.

Suggested Explanation for a Physiological Role of Religion

This is an interesting look at anthropologist, Lionel Tiger's explanation of his theory of a physiological role of religion in humans.