aldenswan.com

Quixote tipped me off to the new site, Disbeliefnet.com. You probably know all about Beliefnet, one of the oldest faith-oriented sites around. Beliefnet is all about faith of all stripes and tolerance of anything related to faith, providing a place where people with even crazy beliefs can find acceptance and dialog with one another.  It strikes me as a site for spiritual wimps.  Disbeliefnet, on the other hand, is a site dedicated to ridiculing any kind of weird belief that exists, and some that aren’t quite so weird. It’s a perfect complement to Beliefnet, providing a place for non-spiritual wimps to hang out. However, I think it is evidence of a new trend, a sign that a pendulum somewhere is perhaps beginning its back stroke.

Another bit of news that Quixote passed along is also advertised on Disbeliefnet: Bill Maher, the ex-host of Politically Incorrect, has jumped on the documentary bandwagon. His film Religulous, to be released on October 3rd, also ridicules the things that people believe in. Click on the link and you can see a pretty cool trailer.  Maher must have a lot of faith in his followers, as he’s got a film targeted at a very, very small audience, if you believe any of the poll data. Unless, of course, he’s hoping it will attract everyone, because we all - except perhaps for some of the beliefnet wimps - like to laugh at other people’s weird beliefs.

It’s true - I’ve laughed at things that you probably believe for years.  I’ve been known to make fun of Jim Dobson, TV preachers like Robert Tilton (who hasn’t?) and that lady with the pink hair. I’ve laughed at Pat Robertson, I’ve laughed at the Fool on the Hill, and I’ve laughed at people who believe they reincarnate into cows.  I also laugh at people who don’t believe anything, like Buddhists and atheists.  Laughter is what happens when your brain doesn’t know what to do with a particular bit of information that we’re trying to assimilate. And, medical research shows that its good for us to laugh, so we have some scientific basis for it.

But, let me tell you what Disbeliefnet and Religulous signify: they are signs that there is a change in the wind, that we are now entering a post-tolerance age.  That’s right, post-tolerance.  For the last few years, we’ve had liberals stuffing tolerance down our throats, and obviously, we’re tired of it.  People have become so afraid of offending anyone that they can only make fun of themselves. What fun is that?  We’re still allowed to ridicule public figures, of course, which helps a bit. Then there’s the Minority Rule, which says that if you’re a recognized minority, you can make fun of the majority, but they can’t make fun of you. I mean, get real. There’s more of us, so explain to me why we can’t make fun of minorities?

But, apparently it’s now fair game to make fun of anyone.  It was essental, of course, that this trend began with liberals, seeing as how the tolerance movement also came from the left.  The gauche have criticized those on the right all along for being intolerant, so for conservatives to be intolerant is no big deal. But, now that the left has come out in support of intolerance, it’s a different story.

Wow.  What freedom! Freedom of speech returns!  Stay tuned for more post-tolerance posts in the days to come.

Today’s been a great day so far, if you rate your days on cool blog posts that you’ve read. It’s also a great day if you consider the weather, which is why I’m taking the afternoon off. But, that’s beside the point. Here are three good reads for a great Friday:

Shock: First Animal on Earth Was Surprisingly Complex

Earth’s first animal was the ocean-drifting comb jelly, not the simple sponge, according to a new find that has shocked scientists who didn’t imagine the earliest critter could be so complex.

Essentially, rather than the simpler organism evolving into the more complex, the complex comb jelly came first.  The comb jelly has both connective tissues and a nervous system, so if this is now thought to be the first multi-celled animal, it disrupts the previously-accepted tree of life.  Perhaps they’ve simply been looking at the wrong tree…

An interview with Ben Stein about Expelled

Some guy named Jerry interviewed Ben Stein. It’s an interesting little interview, and Ben talks a bit about his views about Darwinism and the Holocaust:

Because I had always had very serious anger about Darwinism, because I think Darwinism led to the Holocaust. I think this belief that there are superior and inferior races, and that the superior races had a moral duty to eliminate the inferior races was one of the main building blocks of Nazism and the Holocaust, and I never thought that had gotten out enough.

And, his thoughts about the current state of the scientific community:

I would say to Eugenie Scott, Yes, you are right; in reality, science is what the scientists say it is. That is the reality of the situation, but it’s not a good reality. It’s not a reality that advances knowledge. It’s not a reality that advances the frontiers of man’s understanding of the universe or even of the human body. Eugenie Scott, you’re right, in the sense that you say, “We’re the boss, do what we say.” And that is usually how life operates; the boss gets to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. As Bob Dylan said, “The princes make the rules for the wise men and the fools.” And in this world, big science are the princes. We’re asking for a world where there aren’t princes and kings. We’re asking for Thomas Jefferson’s world, where there is freedom of speech for everyone, where people can say, “Look, you have no proof of this. You’ve never seen a single mammalian species evolve into a separate species. It’s never been seen. So why don’t you give us a chance to give our explanation? You’ve never seen how a cell got to have a million moving parts. Let us give our explanation. You’ve never seen how the laws of gravity got created. Let us give our explanation. You’re right, Eugenie Scott, you’ve got all the power right now. We agree, you’ve got the power. We’re just little dinky nothings, just asking for what Thomas Jefferson asked the King of England for—freedom of speech, freedom of representation, freedom to make our points. We’re just little dinky nothings, but we have truth on our side.” Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of history is long, but it inclines towards truth.”

You don’t have to agree with him, but if you’re interested in what Ben himself thinks and why he made the movie, it’s a good little interview.

Things you can say about a line

… a religious person could look at a line and say it is a car and you could not argue with them. They would just say you have to see the car by faith and that only atheists see a line because they don’t believe in religion. This is what you call a circle argument which is not a line as I have said already. This is why science and religion don’t mix. Science wants a line and religion wants a car or maybe a nice house. There is no use arguing.

It’s a “must read,” one of the more brilliant megaphysical pieces I’ve read in a long time. And, a great thing to read on such a great Friday. I’m going to go enjoy the sunshine now.

Apparently this video has been posted on science blogs all around the web, including Panda’s Thumb.  What’s interesting is that while the science blogs see this as a pro-Darwinist video, most others see it as making fun of Dawkins, Myers, et al.  It’s an interesting phenomenon, isn’t it?  I mean, really, you decide:

Regardless of who it pokes fun at, you have to admit, it’s pretty clever.