Husband Gets Wife Fired Over Threat to PZ Myers

Well, I must say that this is a sad story.

I feel sorry for her, but in retrospect, her husband obviously was not to be trusted with her personal laptop and/or work e-mail address. You don't let anyone have access to a work account, ever.

What a coward.

UPDATED: Well, wife Melanie has shown up, and made a whole bunch of rationalizations for her husband's actions, and...well, I feel less sorry for her now. Unbelievable.

Via Pharyngula and Greg Laden

Choosing Symbols over Reality

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
-Henry David Thoreau

A man minds his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding the business of others.
-Eric Hoffer

UPDATED: Apparently planning to bring a supply of communion wafers with purple hearts drawn on them, the Catholic League is now calling for extra security at the Republican National Convention, being held in "Myers' backyard" (news to me - and it's in St. Paul anyway), to protect them from him (not to protect them from me, you understand), because PZ has received death threats. Uh-huh. You read that correctly. He has received death threats, and the Catholic League wants more security.

(Bill Donohue says, "But he’d [PZ] better be careful what he says, because if I get any death threats, it won’t be hard to connect the dots." Geez, such persecution. The next thing they'll have to construct burning pyres around the convention center to destroy all the witches arrayed against them. Must be fun being paranoid. I hope they succeed in turning this RNC into the laughing-stock that it promises to be.)

BTW, this is not blasphemy. ("Bucking court, EPA won't control climate gases -
Bush administration says it's leaving issue for next president, Congress.")
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Catholic League President Bill Donohue says, "It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ."

To which I say: Oh, yeah?

The only scary part of the story is that Robinson, himself a victim of sexual abuse as a child (not by a cleric), stands virtually alone among the world's Roman Catholic bishops in openly questioning a system that has resulted in thousands of children being molested and raped and the crimes of the perpetrator priests being covered up by church leaders [emphasis mine].

Desecration of a piece of bread is the most vile act possible? What about the wholesale desecration against the body of one's congregants, and the subsequent cover-up that lasted for decades - if not actually two thousand years?

Under an avalanche of lawsuits and media coverage, Robinson's colleagues (surrounded by a battery of attorneys and public relations specialists) were forced to enact reforms such as not allowing priests who had molested to serve in ministry. But the underlying causes have, for the most part, not been addressed.

In "Confronting Power," Robinson explores how the church could get it so wrong.

As the title suggests, Robinson believes the molestation scandal was the result of an abuse of power and sex. He argues that the church over the centuries has concentrated too much authority within the clergy and especially within the papacy -- leaving no room for debate on church teachings that, in theory, could be changed.

He says Catholics suffer from the doctrine of "creeping infallibility," where declarations by the pope are thought of as infallible -- and therefore not open to discussion -- though they don't officially carry the label of "papal infallibility." (The concept of papal infallibility wasn't introduced until 1870, and the only infallible statement issued by a pope was in 1950 when Pius XII declared that Mary, upon her death, was assumed bodily into heaven.)

Robinson, who handled sexual abuse claims in Australia from 1994 to 2004, said creeping infallibility effectively stops even a discussion on issues that may have caused the sexual abuse scandal, including mandatory celibacy and an all-male priesthood.

Reliance on direction from the pope is so strong, Robinson argues, that when Pope John Paul II was silent on the emerging sexual abuse scandal, his bishops and priests believed the church wanted them to continue to manage the problem as they had been.

They "managed" it all right.

The book has generated swift reaction and harsh words from leaders in the Roman Catholic Church. Robinson's fellow bishops in Australia labeled his positions problematic, claiming that his views question "the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the truth definitively.

"And the Vatican and a dozen American bishops -- including Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Tod Brown of Orange and Robert Brom of San Diego -- recently asked him not to speak out on his book tour lest he "be a source of disunity and cause of confusion among the faithful," in Brown's words. (He ignored their wishes.)

Going after PZ Myers for making a joke about a piece of bread supposedly imbued with God himself (a doctrine which, it must be remembered, other Christians consider to be a form of idolatry*) is the perfect opportunity for Catholics to continue to deny how the molestations happened (and are still happening) and to find a scapegoat and a diversion from their problems, which seemingly includes honest priests writing honest books.

Let's remember that this all began because some student didn't eat the wafer but carried it home in his pocket - apparently an act of high treason - prompting the same Bill Donohue to call for the student's expulsion and for nun guards in the sanctuary. (Can't Jesus take care of himself?) The student gave back the eucharist, but still got death threats, and calls for more punishment.

For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage--regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance--is beyond hate speech. That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table, including expulsion.

Oh. Expel the student? But I thought we wanted dissent in our colleges and universities? I thought that we wanted to end the "persecution" of upstarts who dare to "question" orthodoxy? I thought we wanted our students to "defy authority" and be "rebels"? I thought it was okay to disrupt Biology class with loudmouth "witnessing" to souls for Christ? What about "freedom of speech and inquiry"? Well, I hope you know by now that this is all balderdash.

People who appeal for "more freedom" for themselves actually want less freedom for everyone else. They want to impose their form of slavery and conformity. Lacking any real meaning for their lives, they want to impose "meaning" which is in fact security in conformity. (I find no "meaning" in their meaning.) They want Darwin stricken from the culture and evolution wiped off the map. They want religious orthodoxy enshrined, because they care more about imaginary beings than human beings. They don't believe in creating a world we can live in - they think the planet and our lives on it is a dress rehearsal for some place "better."

As my protagonist in my first novel says, "A reason, a plan, a meaning, a god. We’re obsessed with ideas... We’ve made abstractions more real to us than our own lives, and now God is more real to us than each other. Theories about life are more real to us, more important to us, than the living itself. And that’s sick! It’s cowardly." And that's the story of western civilization. The artist, the scientist, the poet, and the adventurer commits the "blasphemy" of falling in love with life itself, rather than seeing life as a means to something/place else, or for the glory of someone else.

It is a struggle against fear - the fear of being alone, of being a true dissenter, a fear of the pain of being a unique, misunderstood, pitied**, and ultimately reviled individual.

What's more vile than desecrating a symbol? How about desecrating what is real, as religion teaches people to do? How about teaching people to lie about our origins, as creationism teaches people to do? (What are you ashamed of? What are you ashamed of, creationists?) How about turning out cookie-cutter kids, like the callow, incurious youths I saw being led into that screening of Expelled? ["No, they're not all related, they just look alike, because they have adopted the same mannerisms and behaviors, because they've been molded," Rev. Barky whispered to me when I wondered if it was one big extended homeschooled family filing into that theatre.]

How about putting life off for later, saying to oneself, "I'll be happy tomorrow, I'll write that novel tomorrow, I'll start exercising tomorrow," or just neglecting yourself, your health, and your personal ambitions entirely? Sacrificing the present on the narrow altar of someday?

Media whores like Ben Stein like to portray themselves as dangerous counterculture rabblerousers. Well, PZ Myers has riled these same "free spirits" to the point that they're calling for his expulsion. PZ expelled - again! And of course they don't see the irony.

And that is the most vile act I can think of.

And by the way, child molestation is not the sole province of the Catholic church. It's in the mainstream churches. It's rife in the Pentecostal movement, where preachers are seen as gods themselves and are not accountable, financially or otherwise, to their congregations. It's not the sole province of Christianity. It goes on practically unpunished (for the men) in the land of our great ally, Saudi Arabia. The women and girls of Iraq have been forced to prostitute themselves to live. Forced marriage is a form of prostitution. (Maybe they could use some communion wafers to eat instead of selling themselves, or being sold by their fathers, for a hunk of bread.)

In South Africa, men persist (enabled by such cretins as ID advocates Philip Johnson and Jonathan Wells) in their belief that raping a virgin, even as young as three months old, will cure them of AIDS. PZ Myers has spoken out on his blog Pharyngula about all these things. Has Bill Donohue, or is Donohue more worried about crackers?

If he is, then in my opinion Donohue is a frackin' cracker himself.
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*It is the nature of religion to start wars over niggling theological points that have no basis in reality. I'm not proud of what was said about Catholics in my Girl Scout Troupe.

**"I'll pray for you." For what? So that my life can be as desperately boring as theirs? Chances are, I'm happier than they are. (If they want to pray, they should pray that someday atheists can run for public office like everyone else.)

Expelled: Fear of Not Flying and the Story of O(vation)

UPDATED: ReligionProf received an e-mail (actually two) about Freedom Friday! When my mouth stopped watering, because I thought that meant French Fries Day, I read his sarcastic wit about being "invited" to rent a theatre in which to show Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Those Gone with the Wind allusions are becoming more appropriate by the second! (If you rent a theatre so that Ben-I-love-credit-cards-Stein can show his movie in it, do you get to bring your own treats - say French Fries - into the theatre, or do you still have to put up with what's at the concession (they named it that for a reason) stand?)

(Photo courtesy of Quidam at AtBC)



So now you know where we got the information about the super-secret, no-atheist-cooties-allowed screening of Expelled. It was Glen Davidson, Expelled debunker extraordinaire, who informed us about the screenings. And where did Glen get his information? It was posted on a Christian blog.

Well, so much for "crashing" the screening. If anything, it was this film that crashed, and burned.

Troy Britain also found another public link to these screenings. He says:

This is followed by miscellaneous links and quoted endorsements. Did you happen to catch the URL in the middle of that? It goes right to one of the RSVP pages. Glen thought people might find this interesting so he promptly posted it on several popular blogs, web pages, and newsgroups, that deal with the CvE debate.

It was found on one of those sites (After the Bar Closes on Antievolution.org) by Kristine Harley, who then passed it on to Myers, and you know what happened after that.

So there were at least two places on publicly accessible web pages where one could find links to the Expelled RSVP pages and sign up to see the film. And both apparently included the Mall of America showing.

Slap the cuffs on me.

Troy himself found out what happens when you are "invited" to see a screening of the film Expelled: you don't see the film Expelled. You pay $10 see a trailer of the film. Oh, and you see Ben Stein win another incestuous ID award, to which the audience treated him to three Minnesota "we're-too-polite-to-tell-you-to-step-away-from-the-microphone-but-we-have-to-pee" ovations.

Oh, yes, this is exactly how previews for legitimate films meant for a wide audience are screened. Who can forget those merry days when Gone with the Wind was previewed before a hand-picked audience of cave hermits who thought that the Civil War was still going on? And those chivalrous cops dressed in authentic Confederate uniforms "skulking around" [that's really funny, Denyse O'Leary!] the theatre to make sure that no one gave away which side won the war?

Shimmies to Bad at Bad Idea and Troy at Playing Chess with Pigeons (and no, my shimmies do not cost $10, nor do I know specifically where $10 blowjobs can be found. Quit asking me!) :-)

P.S. Gee, come to think of it, we haven't heard from Ben Stein on this. In fact, he's been pretty quiet about this whole incident.


Maybe he's too busy rewriting everything "from Darwin to Hitler!"

(courtesy Quidam from AtBC again. Shimmies, Quidam! I read Mein Kampf. Bleh. More on what Hitler thought was evolution here at AtBC.)

Expelled: PZ, Darwin, and Now, Jackson Pollock

UPDATED: Richard and Greg weigh in. Richard mentions me *shimmy!* and Greg has the equivalent of the Encyclopaedia Britannica of links about Expelledgate (including my characteristically ladylike and demure THOSE FASCIST FUCKS THREW PZ OUT OF THE THEATRE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! rant.)

I'd like to take this moment to thank those intelligent design theorists who have given me what turned out to be a shitting-bricks-but-ultimately-awesome roller coster ride.
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Well, now Mark Mathis has backed off of the “PZ Myers was being disruptive” lie and has confessed to Denyse O’Leary – the biggest information leaker since Robert Philip Hanssen – that the real reason that he expelled PZ from Expelled was money, and his own pettiness.

You should know that I invited Michael shermer to a screening at NRB in Nashville. He came and is writing a review for scientific American. I banned pz because I want him to pay to see it. Nothing more.

Mark Mathis, did you think that this nitwit Denyse could keep a secret? No, Denyse goes and posts this admission on her blog for us to see. Thank you, Denyse. That is precisely how she ruined the screening of the creationist film “The Privileged Planet” at the Smithsonian, by not staying mum about how this is a stealth “documentary” for the intelligent design camp.

*We pause here for a fit of laughter*

But that’s not all, folks. The story just gets better and better. The writer of the film has weighed in at After the Bar Closes.

As I said on my blog, as a documentary filmmaker, I'm under no obligation to be objective.

*We pause here to run to the ladies' room to laugh and, er, expel at the same time!*

But that's not all. It looks like Mark Mathis is padding his audiences with his own staff.

The film was just silly, with virtually zero scientific content, which, of course, is not surprising coming from Ben Stein - a comedian, speech writer and game show host . . . but not a scientist.

I'm hopeful that anyone with the least bit of intelligence (no pun intended) will see straight through the film's hokey attempts to distract viewers from the lack of scientific credibility with appeals to their emotions - like the dark lighting, foreboding music and harsh camera angles that set the scene for Stein's interview with - dun dun dun - biologist Richard Dawkins, an avowed atheist.

Or worse, the countless images and references to Nazis that culminate in Stein dopily wandering through the Dachau concentration camp pondering the ways in which the "Darwinian gospel" was a "necessary but not sufficient condition" for the atrocities that took place there.

But the real silliness came after the credits rolled, when the audience had a chance to pose questions to Mark Mathis, the film's producer.

One woman said it was morally reprehensible to equate the death of six million Jews with Darwin. I clapped, and was astounded when nearly everyone else remained silent.

I shot my hand up to ask a question. "The intelligent design movement has gone to great lengths to argue that intelligent design is not religion, that it's science. And you made a whole film arguing that it is religious. How do they react to that?"

"Well," Mathis said, "I guess it makes them a little uncomfortable."

Some arguing ensued concerning the scientific merits of ID, and someone asked, "Where's the evidence? Where are the peer reviewed papers?" to which Mathis proudly proclaimed, "Actually, there are ten peer reviewed papers."

A guy in the front row scoffed. "Ten papers?" he asked sarcastically.

Mathis told the guy not to interrupt, and then mockingly called him "Mr Darwinist." Zing!

He began calling on others in the crowd, who asked friendlier questions. But Maggie and I quickly realised that we'd seen some of these people before - earlier that evening, in fact, working at the movie's registration table. These friendly audience members worked for the film? Had Mathis planted questioners?

People asked what they could do to help the film succeed, and a young woman in the front row inquired: "How can I pray for you and for the movie?" Mathis grew excited. "We need to start a grass roots movement!" he said, encouraging people to tell their "networks" about the movie and to get as many people as they could to go on opening weekend.

Another man in the front row wondered about the film's premise that supporters of ID are being silenced. He pointed out that a recent trial about the teaching of intelligent design held in Dover, Pennsylvania, gave supporters of intelligent design all the time in the world to make their case, but most of the 'leading lights' of ID didn't even show up.

When Mathis was responding, the guy asked another question, and the producer shot back, "How about you let me finish talking?" Then, a security guard for the film approached the calmly seated man and told him, "I may have to ask you to leave."

"Does anyone else see how ironic this is?" the guy asked.

"Shut up!" someone shouted from the back.

Now that’s what I call honesty and integrity – filling a theatre with plants who yell "Shut up!" and "Darwinist!" at anyone who asks real questions (as opposed to “How should we pray for this film’s success?”) at a film that purports to be about "free academic inquiry."

(Now, I thought it was bad when someone screamed, "Read Mein Kampf!" at me during the Q&A. "I have!" I yelled back. And I have. Whom do I sue to get that part of my life back? By the way - do you want me to name a little kampfing film that broadcasts the "news" of its "struggle" in the same manner as Hitler's ponderous, whining book? Do you? Can you guess?)

I saw this film, Expelled. The reviews are out there at Expelled Exposed, and despite my background as a movie critic myself I don’t have much to add to what has already been insightfully articulated about this astonishingly inarticulate film.

Just let me just add this comment: If the intent of Expelled was to draw a line between Darwin and Hitler, the effect was to make a film that was as banal and inartful as Hitler’s attempts to be a portrait artist. (Did you know that Hitler was a frustrated artist?) If you believe in this film and in prayer, you’d better start praying, because its specious message aside, its construction blows goats.

If the intent was for Stein to be the right-wing Michael Moore, the effect is a right-wing version of whatever ends up (mercifully) on Michael Moore’s cutting room floor. Moore is a blowhard but at least someone is keeping his ego (somewhat) in check. Not so with Stein. Expelled is a mess!

Ironically enough, on Sunday I caught the tail end of a debate between atheist Frank Zindler and conservative Jew Dennis Prager. I don’t care for these debates, but I had no idea who Prager was, and wanted to learn about him. Well, at the end he stood up and, like an old time fire-and-brimstone preacher started railing against little girls who play with trucks (moi?) and the “secularist, nihilist, Nazi-Communistist crap, like Jackson Pollock, that passes for art today – go to any gallery and see the effects of secular atheists on our culture! See the crap that passes for art today!” etc.

Well, I wasn't thrown out this time, either. I walked out. I stomped right out of there. I work in a museum dedicated to education, and the art world doesn’t deserve to be insulted by yet another cultural ignoramus who is scandalized by Haydn. (Apparently this dork who refers to evolutionary theory as a nineteenth century throwback thinks that music reached its nadir in the eighteenth century with Mozart!)

If you don’t like Pollock, or Georgia O’Keeffe, or Klimt or whoever, fine. But don’t deign to make global, purportedly “objective” statements on behalf of humanity about how this stuff is “bad” or “nihilistic” or “destructive to our youth” because you won’t take the time to at least understand it.

Don’t tell me that “atheists can’t be artists.” I am an artist. Just watch me, Bub. I’m writing a poem about what you said yesterday, Dennis Prager.

Remember, Adolph Hitler also wanted to be an artist, but wasn’t one – and his vision of National Socialist art was the kind of thing that conservative Christians would like to see: banal, safe, repetitive, derivative. Does anyone besides me see the irony of conservative Jews (Ben Stein, Dennis Prager, et al) echoing the statements of Joseph Goebbels in his speeches against "degenerate art" also known as "modern art?" Anyone? Anyone?

Um, Bueller?

This is the Alexander Calder Flamingo sculpture at the Federal Plaza as seen in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (while Ferris sings in the parade). Ferris run! Run away from the atheist, nihilistic Calder! Think of your salvation!

New York Times: "No Admission for Evolutionary Biologist at Creationist Film"

Scott Hatfield, mmmmmwah! The latest dirt, and on my birthday, too!

They are removing screenings of the film now! *gasp* Well, it's their choice. I cannot see how this ongoing tyrannical behavior helps their persecuted stance one bit.

They may as well release this thing on Torrent and be done with it. It hasn't even been transferred to 35mm anyway.
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UPDATED: I can't keep up! According to Pharyngula ("Still Straining to Find an Excuse"), the story is also at Salon and at Richard Dawkins' website. And Skatje has written a review of the film.

The New York Times article is up (requires login). Guess what - they interviewed Mark Mathis.

Two evolutionary biologists — P. Z. Myers of the University of Minnesota, Morris, and Richard Dawkins of Oxford — tried to go to the movies at the Mall of America in Minneapolis Thursday evening. Dr. Dawkins got in. Dr. Myers did not.

On those facts, everybody agrees. After that, things break down.

The movie the two scientists wanted to see was “Expelled,” whose online trailer asserts that people in academia who see evidence of supernatural intelligence in biological processes — an idea called “intelligent design” — have unfairly lost their jobs, been denied tenure or suffered other penalties as part of a scientific conspiracy to keep God out of the nation’s laboratories and classrooms.

Dr. Myers asserts that he was unfairly barred from the film, in which both he and Dr. Dawkins appear, and that Dr. Dawkins would have been, too, if people running the screening had realized who he was — a world leader in the field of evolutionary biology. But Walt Ruloff, a partner in Premise Media, the film’s producer, said the screening was one of a series the producers have organized for the film, which opens April 18, in hopes of building favorable word-of-mouth among people likely to be sympathetic to its message. People like Dr. Myers and Dr. Dawkins would not have been invited, he said.

Mark Mathis, a producer of the film who attended the screening, said that “of course” he had recognized Dr. Dawkins, but allowed him to attend because “he has handled himself fairly honorably, he is a guest in our country and I had to presume he had flown a long way to see the film.”

Actually, Dr. Myers and Dr. Dawkins said in interviews that they had long planned to be in Minneapolis this week to attend a convention of atheists. Dr. Dawkins, an vocal critic of religion, is on the convention program.

Yeah, nice going, Mr. Mathis. Maybe if you ever stuck your nose into the real world long enough to figure out what's going on with all of these "enemies" whose coattails you hope to ride to fame with this clumsy, inartful "documentary," you'd have figured out why Dawkins was here. Great research skills, man, for someone purportedly informing the public about "science."

I repeat that the cop, and the staff member named "Jared," confronted PZ right in front of me, folks. They said nothing about "creating a disturbance" - PZ wasn't invited and he didn't have a ticket, they said. I did not have a ticket to this screening - my e-mail confirmation stated that no tickets were required - nor did I have a ticket to any other movie in the theatre. I was not invited, other than to sign up via the aforementioned website advertisement. PZ followed the same procedure I did. This was the most ham-handed example of "damage control" after the most unfortunate scheduling of an apparently top-secret "private screening" that I have ever seen!

Mr. Mathis, good luck in April. Maybe the fate of Expelled is at a "Crossroads"? Anyone? Anyone? Ben?

(Photo courtesy of midwifetoad at AtBC, where, ahem, they have another announcement...)

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed at Uncommon Descent

Evolutionary biologist PZ Myers debated a creationist named Geoffrey Simmons, and William Dembski's intelligent design weblog, Uncommon Descent, linked to it.

PZ Myers shredded the uninformed and unprepared creationist, and even the true believers at UD started posting in the comments that PZ won and that they were disappointed in the performance of Simmons.

Uncommon Descent's post about the debate, and all of the comments, disappeared. Again. As they always do whenever the news is bad for intelligent design!

Fortunately, one of the commenters at our intelligent design watch forum, After the Bar Closes, saved the entire post.

Comment 10 Atom 01/31/2008 5:09 pm
I’m with you bFast, I was disappointed by Dr. Simmons’ arguments and performance and think PZ easily won the debate.Oh well, hopefully they’ll choose someone else for the anti-Darwin side next time…(Sorry Dr. Simmons!)

And Richard Dawkins has now linked to it.

People like Ben Stein, William Dembski, and other intelligent design apologists make a big noise about "censorship" because religion isn't being taught as science in science classes, but when it comes down to it, they are the ones who have something to hide!

Like Ben Stein making preview audiences (in megachurches) of his creationist film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, sign Non-Disclosure Agreements.

That's the mnemonic device Stein came back to, time and again, last night in an Orlando screening of his new documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It's a rabble-rouser of a doc that uses all manner of loaded images, loaded rhetoric, few if any facts and mockery of hand-picked "weirdo" scientists to attack those who, Stein claims, are stifling the Religious Right's efforts to inject intelligent design into science courses, science curricula and the national debate.

He was showing the movie to what he and the producers hoped would be a friendly, receptive audience of conservative Christian ministers at a conference at the Northland mega-church next to the dog track up in Longwood. They're marking this movie, which they had said, earlier, they'd open in Feb. (now April) the same way they pitched The Passion of the Christ and The Chronicles of Narnia, said Paul Lauer of Motive Entertainment, who introduced Stein.

In other words, a stealth campaign, out of the public eye, preaching to the choir as it were in an effort to get the word out about the movie.

They postered the Orlando Sentinel with email invitations, then tried to withdraw the one they sent to me. No dice. They also passed out non-disclosure "statement of confidentiality" agreements for people to sign. I didn't.

What are they hiding from you? [emphasis mine]

Yes, what are they hiding from us? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

I'm familiar with a lot of the names of the commenters at Uncommon Descent. I wonder how these intelligent design supporters feel about having their comments deleted.

UPDATED: Rich Hughes at After the Bar Closes is the wizard of photoshop! And teh sexi hawt, may I say.

SECOND UPDATED: The "missing link" at Uncommon Descent is now posted at Panda's Thumb.