Monthly Archives: September 2010
An Internet meteor shower
A collection of meteor videos for your amusement and amazement:
Continue reading An Internet meteor shower
Texas Creationists Pwned By Genie Scott
This is why we love Genie Scott:
The NCSE now has a channel on You Tube, and at this time you can see most, probably all, of Genie’s testimony in Texas. It is very instructive.
GENIE SCOTT IS A MACHINE!!!
The Pope was a Nazi UPDATED
This might be a little unusual for me, being an American of my age and all, but over the course of my life I’ve had a small number of close friends who were Hitler Youth in Germany during World War II. I don’t hold that specific fact against anyone. But, just in case you wanted to see it, I thought I’d post this photograph of The Pope giving the Nazi Salute something that looks exactly like the Nazi salute but is actually a Christian blessing thingie (which does not obviate the fact that he was a Nazi along with most of his Christian-German compatriots of the time):
But then, it turns out that he WAS giving a real lie Nazi salute in a different picture. Here.
Bottom line: The Christians (including their leaders) of Germany at the time included a lot of people who were perfectly OK with remaining silent or worse. How much harder must I make to make this case clear to the Nazi Symps and Holocaust denialists?
“warmest congratulations to the Fuhrer in the name of the bishops and the dioceses in Germany”
Hitler wth Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin, 1935
On April 20, 1939, Archbishop Orsenigo celebrated Hitler’s birthday. The celebrations, initiated by Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) became a tradition. Each April 20, Cardinal Bertram of Berlin was to send “warmest congratulations to the Fuhrer in the name of the bishops and the dioceses in Germany” and added with “fervent prayers which the Catholics of Germany are sending to heaven on their altars.”
The Wrong Way to Approach the Evolution-Creationism Debate
Amy Binder and John H. Evans, associate professors of Sociology at the University of California at San Diego, have written a piece on efforts to force religion in the guise of Intelligent Design and Creationism down the throats of children in Texas.
Continue reading The Wrong Way to Approach the Evolution-Creationism Debate
Hitler’s (Christian) Pope
Summary of Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII
Relying on exclusive access to Vatican and Jesuit archives, an award-winning Roman Catholic journalist argues that through a 1933 Concordat with Hitler, Pope Pius XII facilitated the dictator’s riseAand, ultimately, the Holocaust.
Hitler’s Willing (Christian) Executioners
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
I don’ t have time to write a review right now, but here’s the PW writeup:
Continue reading Hitler’s Willing (Christian) Executioners
The German Nazis were Christian and the German Christians were Nazis
Germany was a Christian nation long before the Nazi’s came along in the 1920s. When the Nazi’s took power in Germany, they were widely and generally supported. Even after the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, a majority of the German People (in a survey conducted by the US military) remained sympathetic to the Nazis and wished for a return of surviving Nazi leaders. Most Germans were either active members of the Nazi party or were sympathetic, and most were Christians, mainly Catholic. (There were a lot of non-Christian Germans at the beginning of this period, but the Christian Germans killed or drove away most of them.) Most Germans were anti Semitic and many were directly involved in the slaughter of over six million Jews and other “undesirables.” The Holocaust was a perfectly logical extension of over a century of increasingly bitter and obsessive anti Semitism evolving hand and hand with German Catholic political ideology and white supremacist doctrine in Germany and elsewhere. There were no Atheists involved in any of this. None.
The image above is the Catholic Church’s National Bishop Friedrich Coch saluting Hitler in 1933. Photo from here.
A genetic cause of rapid degeneration in some Alzheimer’s patients
A new study identifies a likely cause of rapid degeneration in some Alzheimer’s patients. The results of this study may lead to improved treatment.
But first, let’s look at the method used in this study, because that may be almost as important as a development. And for this, we will use a sports analogy.
Continue reading A genetic cause of rapid degeneration in some Alzheimer’s patients
Dinosaurs are …
Has a Google engineer been reading your teenager’s email?
I would hope not, but in fact there seems to be no effective mechanism in place to keep in check a not insignificant number of Google engineers who have full access to everyone’s gMail contents and other private information. And, there is always David Barksdale.
Continue reading Has a Google engineer been reading your teenager’s email?
How To Get Away With Teaching The Controversy
The following is an abstract from an article by Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education called “WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE “TEACH THE CONTROVERSY” SLOGAN?” available here.
Continue reading How To Get Away With Teaching The Controversy
A discussion with Genie Scott about Science Standards, Creationism and Evolution in the Classroom
This is from a few months back, but is very relevant to Back to School Month!
Yet Another Backwards Music Video
Rember this Hall and Oats video from Shorewood High School? If you liked that, you might like this: