PZ Myers has set up a blog carnival over at Pharyngula to combat the Creation Museum. He has collected a bunch of links about this atrocity, to make it easy for people to find real science information. Hopefully his list will help to undo some of the damage this fundie museum brain-washing tool is doing to science education in this country.

The jaw-droppingly stupid Creation Museum is opening this weekend in Kentucky. In “honor” of this event, I thought I’d re-post a podcast I made a couple of years ago, when this national embarrassment was announced.

The podcast is 29 minutes long. I think you’ll enjoy it. It starts off with an item about the Scopes trial and its modern equivalents. Then (starting about 4 minutes and 40 seconds from the beginning and running through the end), I talk about the Creation Museum. I take you on a virtual tour. Join me as I make fun of this pathetic monument to superstition!

(Those of you reading via RSS may have to go to my web site to see the Flash player. And by the way, the links mentioned in the podcast are now out of date. Sorry!)

Christopher Hitchens may be an S.O.B., but he’s our S.O.B. Upon Jerry Falwell’s untimely demise (by which I mean it happened way too late), Hitchens wrote an article for Slate that has some brilliant lines. Here are just a few of them:

The discovery of the carcass of Jerry Falwell on the floor of an obscure office in Virginia has almost zero significance, except perhaps for two categories of the species labeled “credulous idiot.”
[…]
…there is no vileness that cannot be freely uttered by a man whose name is prefaced with the word Reverend.
[…]
Like many fanatical preachers, Falwell was especially disgusting in exuding an almost sexless personality while railing from dawn to dusk about the sex lives of others. His obsession with homosexuality was on a par with his lip-smacking evocations of hellfire. From his wobbly base of opportunist fund raising and degree-mill money-spinning in Lynchburg, Va., he set out to puddle his sausage-sized fingers into the intimate arrangements of people who had done no harm. Men of this type, if they cannot persuade enough foolish people to part with their savings, usually end up raving on the street and waving placards about the coming day of judgment. But Falwell, improving on the other Chaucerian frauds from Oral Roberts to Jim Bakker to Ted Haggard, not only had a TV show of his own but was also regularly invited onto mainstream ones.
[…]
It’s a shame that there is no hell for Falwell to go to, and it’s extraordinary that not even such a scandalous career is enough to shake our dumb addiction to the “faith-based.”

Finally, here is the YouTube video that faithful (Oh wait—I guess I shouldn’t use the word “faith”.) loyal reader Ericsan mentioned in the comments to my last post. It shows Christopher Hitchens trouncing Sean Hannity on his own turf.

I don’t believe in heaven and hell, but if I did, I’m sure Jerry Falwell would be in the latter.

When Falwell died last week, my first reaction was elation. Some people claim that it’s impolite to speak ill of the dead, let alone dance on their grave. I disagree. If somebody is as vile and evil as Falwell, we should all rejoice at his passing.

I wasn’t sure what to write that could properly eulogize this fiend. Then I came across this YouTube video of Christopher Hitchens on CNN:

Tony Perkins of the Fundie Research Council recently gave us yet another example of why fundies are hazardous to our collective health, in his article “Gideons Replaced by Gore”.

According to one hotel, saving souls isn’t nearly as important as saving the environment.

That’s because hotels consume natural resources, not souls.

Under a policy that started last month, guests at the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel won’t find the Gideon Bible in their nightstand, but they will have a copy of Al Gore’s book on global warming. Apparently, hotel executives have decided to replace absolute Truth with An Inconvenient Truth, or better titled “Incomplete Truth.”

No, they’ve replaced an ancient fantasy with a book about climate change.

As one spokesman says, it’s the hotel’s attempt to “go green.”

It sounds like Tony Perkins is the one who has gone green—with envy. The Gideons’ 100-year monopoly on hotel rooms is showing a crack. He’s afraid this leak in the dam will get bigger. Quick, Tony! Stick your finger in the dyke! No, don’t. She might get mad.

They’ve also switched out traditional room features with solar lighting, recycled paper, and low-flow toilets. Thirty-five miles south, the Orchard Garden Hotel is following suit and others say they’ll do the same.

Tony’s crack is getting wider.

But not everyone thinks Al Gore’s truth will set them free. Let’s face it–a lot more people believe the prophetic events of the Bible will come to pass before the shaky predictions of An Inconvenient Truth.

Actually, I doubt that. Not everyone in the world is Christian, and not all Christians believe that Rapture is imminent. Global warming is fairly well accepted outside of the U.S. Tony may have already lost this battle on numbers alone.

Now I’m not against Christian stewardship…

Actually, it sounds like he is.

…but when nature worship takes the place of real worship, then America has bigger problems than people realize.

Nobody said anything about nature worship. We’re just talking about reducing carbon emissions so that we can all survive for a few more centuries.

When it comes to global warming, these hotels should be less worried about the heat and more concerned about the Light.

Tony should be less concerned with butting into everybody else’s affairs.

The thing that jumped out at me about this article was the underlying assumption Tony makes that we don’t have to worry about the environment, because the end of the world is nigh anyway. If you know you’re about to die, why not blow all your money on booze and hookers? This attitude is prevalent among the rapture-ready.

I’ve noticed a lot of global warming deniers among the fundies. Just go to any of the major fundie websites, and you’ll see these types of articles. It’s fine if they want to leave their crops in the field to die, but they have no right to destroy ours.

Here are a couple of videos I found on YouTube. Set aside 17 minutes and watch them!

The Ten Commandments

(YouTube page is here.)

God, the Sun, and Joe Pesci

(YouTube page is here.)

Last Sunday’s Family Guy was a bit better than usual. Maybe it was the numerous jabs at Conservative America, or maybe it was the ending. Therein lies our tale.

The latest diatribe from Bill Johnson of the American Decency Association is called The Chutzpah of Fox.

After monitoring the latest episode of Fox Television’s “Family Guy”, the Yiddish term “chutzpah” immediately came to mind. Definition of chutzpah: unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity.

BJ is so greatly offended by Family Guy that he has to watch it every week!

The sarcastically named “Family Guy” is an attack upon families from the first minute to the last. The weekly animated show is rife with incredibly crude, sexual dialogue and depictions, profanities, references that legitimize pornography use, deviant sexual behavior, as well as regular attacks upon Christianity.

That’s why it’s usually rated TV-14. If BJ and his brain-dead followers would just use their V-chips, they’d never have to worry about accidentally stumbling across it.

Sunday evening’s episode contained all of the above. From references to “kinky porn” and allusions to S&M, to vulgar dialogue that is too explicit to repeat.

Yes, it was great, wasn’t it?!

However, the main theme of this latest episode was to make a mockery of the Christian faith.

This episode featured a young male character from “Family Guy” fantasizing about meeting Jesus. He imagines Christ nude while bathing and the scene strongly suggests homosexual overtones between Jesus Christ and this boy.

When I saw that scene, I knew old BJ would be popping a blood vessel. But BJ needs to keep things in perspective. That was a fantasy scene. They weren’t claiming it happened that way. Stewie has latent homosexual tendencies, so it’s only natural that he would fantasize like that.

Is BJ saying that we can never portray a character’s distorted thoughts on television? How are we supposed to understand what motivates a character? If this were a TV production of Genesis, is BJ saying that the producers would not be able to portray Cain’s distorted thinking that led him to slay Abel?

In addition, a church service is shown where Holy Scripture as the Word of God is mocked and the sacrament of communion and its significance are turned into a joke as the sacred representations of the body and blood of Christ are described as a snack treat.

That scene was primarily about Stewie’s confusion over the distinction between a holy ritual and a light snack. Are we not allowed to joke about how a young child could be confused by this?

Also, throughout the episode Christians of course are portrayed as judgmental, extremist whackos.

Actually, it was Texans who were portrayed as “judgmental, extremist whackos.” If judgmental, extremist whackos overwhelmingly choose Christianity as their religion, well, then maybe Christian leaders need to look at themselves to figure out why that is.

And here’s where the “chutzpah” comes in. The ending scene has the main character of the show lecturing viewers on “family values”. The character states: “If you’re watching a TV show and you decide to take your values from that, you’re an idiot. Maybe you should take responsibility for what values your kids are getting. Maybe you shouldn’t be letting your kids watch certain shows in the first place if you have such a big problem with them, instead of blaming the shows themselves.”

Sounds reasonable to me. Not to BJ! Here’s his reaction:

Here is Fox who just used the public airwaves to attack morality and insult and ridicule what millions hold sacred all in the guise of “free speech”, yet those whose values have been assaulted are told to just “not watch”.

Yes. That’s what freedom is all about.

BJ has a lot of gall to accuse Fox of “chutzpah”. I’ll tell you what chutzpah is: Chutzpah is being told not to watch something that offends you, watching it anyway, and then complaining about it.

Fox’s rationale to the moral pollution they spew would be comparable to corporations polluting the air and water at will and without regulation or control and telling citizens: ‘Maybe you should take responsibility for the air and water your kids get. Maybe you should wear air masks and boil your own water if you have a problem with it instead of blaming corporations themselves’.

Here’s the root of the problem. Fundies think that even if they don’t watch something, they have the right to tell everyone else not to watch it as well!

There’s also a problem with his pollution analogy. With actual pollution, we all agree that it’s bad and that it causes health problems. With “cultural pollution”, nobody agrees on what’s bad. I do agree that the images and messages we are exposed to from television, movies, billboards, politicians, etc. affect the collective culture. But which of it is bad?

I’m offended by extreme right-wing religious nut-jobs who have their own TV shows, wherein they spout off ridiculous nonsense such as creationism and damnation and Armageddon. So many people believe that crap that it hurts society. These are the people who try to get evolution removed from the public schools, who ban research into stem cells, who interfere with a woman’s private right to control her own body.

By BJ’s logic, all religious programming should be ripped from the airwaves. Is that really what he wants? Somehow, I doubt it. I assert that religious programming weakens our nation. BJ probably would disagree. BJ asserts that Family Guy weakens our nation. I assert that any reasonably-intelligent adult or older teen is not harmed. (We’ve already established that younger kids shouldn’t watch the show, so that’s not an issue.)

What they do affects the public which then in turn affects my family and yours and the children in families who don’t have the parental guidance they need. It is those children who especially are in danger of “taking their values” from a TV show.

Hey BJ! Would you be offended if I came into your house and told you how to raise your children? Yes? Then keep the hell out of everyone else’s!

Fox and their sponsors must be held accountable not just on behalf of my family, but for the sake of our culture and the generation growing up in this moral cesspool.

Wow! A “moral cesspool”! BJ sure has a way with words! Well I’ve got some words for you, BJ! They’re spoken by a very wise man (he’s actually not very intelligent, but he is wise!):

If you’re watching a TV show and you decide to take your values from that, you’re an idiot. Maybe you should take responsibility for what values your kids are getting. Maybe you shouldn’t be letting your kids watch certain shows in the first place if you have such a big problem with them, instead of blaming the shows themselves.

—Peter Griffin

I was in the local Barnes & Noble recently. I wandered over to the Religion section to see if there was anything especially alarming that I hadn’t seen yet.

Then I discovered that next to that was a section they call Religious Fiction. Here you’ll find crap like Left Behind and other “inspiring” stories of Armageddon.

I realized that the store was having difficulty keeping their shelves organized. I must help them! So I went over to the Religion section, grabbed a Bible, and refiled it correctly under Religious Fiction.

No need to thank me.