I had mixed reactions when I heard that Tammy Faye Messner (formerly Bakker) had died. She suffered from colon cancer for many years. I’m sure her last months were not pleasant. With the exception of a few truly evil people, I don’t like to see anyone suffer, no matter what they’ve done.

Those who knew me in the 1980s know how much enjoyment I derived making fun of Jim and Tammy Faye. They were the buffoons of the televangelists. The makeup, the crying, the singing, the amusement park. It went on and on. No matter what crazy parody I came up with, a few weeks later the Bakkers would actually top it. I think it was Tom Wolfe who once said something about how hard it is to parody reality, because reality always finds a way of being more absurd than anything anybody can dream up. So it was with the Bakkers.

The Associated Press obituary sums up that era well:

For many, the TV image of then-Mrs. Bakker forgiving husband Jim’s infidelities, tears streaking her cheeks with mascara, became a symbol for the wages of greed and hypocrisy in 1980s America.

PZ Myers has a harsher eulogy:

She and her husband bilked thousands of people, lied lied lied, perpetuated superstitious myths, lived lives of gag-inducing hypocrisy, and wallowed in outrageous self-pity when their empire of corruption crumbled. I’m sorry she lived a wasted and deluded life, but beyond that … good riddance.

I’m willing to cut her just a little bit of slack. I don’t know how much she really knew about the fraudulent activities of Heritage USA. She never faced charges, but that doesn’t mean she was innocent. Maybe her crime was self-centered negligence. She should have known what was going on, but she was too wrapped up in herself to care. That’s still guilt. That’s still being responsible for the crimes that were committed for her benefit. But there’s no malice there. Being selfish isn’t as bad as being wicked.

Or was she wicked? Have the two decades since this stuff happened erased all of my memories of her wrongdoings? Are my memories of all of the fun I had making jokes at her expense obscuring the vile things she did?

In today’s world, we have the Bush/Cheney cabal. They are shredding our Constitution, diverting hundreds of billions of our dollars to their Haliburton cronies, destroying our standing in the world, and leaving us more vulnerable to terrorism. We now know what evil truly is.

Compared to all that Bush & Cheney are, how bad could Tammy Faye have been? Am I being nostalgic? In the 1980s, we could laugh at the bad guys. If only we could laugh at the bad guys now. Yes, Tammy Faye, I’m sorry you got cancer. I’m sorry you died. I’m sorry for us all.

The 65th Skeptic’s Circle is up at NeuroLogica. There are some good articles about skepticism in general, and there are a few devoted specifically to the bad idea that won’t die: creationism.

My favorite article of the bunch is Skeptico’s Argument by Analogy:

An argument by analogy takes place when the arguer:

1. Has a point to prove about something
2. Gives you an analogy for the thing
3. Points out that the analog contains the feature they are trying to prove exists in the original
4. Concludes the feature in the analog must also exist in the original.

The flaw is simple: the analogy always breaks down somewhere. If the analogy breaks down, the conclusion the arguer is trying to draw from the analogy just doesn’t follow. That’s all there is to it.

Go check out the 65th Skeptic’s Circle, and don’t miss Skeptico’s article.

(For the preamble to this article, see my previous post.)

The National Geographic Channel has a series called Is It Real?. One of its episodes is titled “Exorcism”, which they play periodically. As I complained in the last article, the documentary is fairly even-handed. Let’s take a look at it.

The program says that belief in the Devil’s influence over people was waning before the movie The Exorcist was released. As the program put it, this movie “…dragged an ancient Catholic ritual into the spotlight and scared the holy pants off a generation.”

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Cognitive Psychologist and Memory Expert, says that people felt sick just by watching the movie. They began to feel that they were possessed.

Dr. Joe Nickell, Paranormal Investigator, says that there were numerous reports of people claiming that they were possessed after seeing the film.

Although the movie was released over 30 years ago, its effects are still with us. To quote the program: “Today, exorcism is alive and well and thriving in Rome.”

The Vatican’s Pontifical University of Rome now offers a two-month exorcism class! Sheesh! All this, just because a movie triggered a mass delusion among its viewers (versus a Mass Delusion, which is what you can get any day in a Catholic church just by listening to the priest).

Bob Larson

The documentary actually covers quite a bit of ground in how exorcisms are done and some of the psychological factors involved, but what caught my attention the most was the profile of fundie exorcist Bob Larson (By that, I mean a fundie who conducts exorcisms, not somebody who exorcises the fundie out of people. Alas, if only.).

Narrator: Welcome to one of Bob Larson’s popular exorcism seminars. Larson is all about getting right into the Devil’s face. Larson, a controversial figure, even among Charismatic Christians, has been exorcising demons for the past 30 years.

Larson: There are times when I think half the population has some level of demonization and doesn’t know it.

Narrator: …Lurking behind the eyes of the sad, the hurt, the angry, and the confused, he sees demons preying on human weakness.

And I see him preying on human weakness. It’s pretty obvious by watching this documentary that the people attending his seminars have physical, emotional, psychological, or family problems. He has convinced them that they are possessed. The only thing they are possessed by is gullibility. These people belong in therapy. He is preventing them from seeking that help, by convincing them that a Satanic demon is inside.

I suspect that Larson himself believes that he is confronting demons. Psychologists have to have extensive training and be licensed, because mucking around with somebody’s fears and emotions is dangerous. Yet any self-deluded fundie can hang out his shingle claiming to be an exorcist, and he can have free reign mucking around with somebody’s subconscious. There are no laws or safeguards.

For what it’s worth, his audience looks like it belongs at a Jerry Springer taping.

Narrator: In the last 30 years, Larson claims to have exorcised over 6000 demons. On average, he conducts 20 seminars a month and has lectured in 80 countries worldwide.

Isn’t it great that one of America’s chief exports is ignorance and fear?

Narrator: Heidi Dena has been attending these seminars for over a year. She claims that she’s been tormented by demons since early childhood.

Dena: I’d have nightmares as a little girl, and I’d see demons—really scary demons—in my room. They would come and attack me in my sleep and have sex with me, and it was gross, and it was filthy, and it was disgusting. I’d wake up and I’d say “What the heck is this?”

This woman clearly has psychological issues. She seems to have some sort of anxiety about sex. I don’t know if it’s incest fantasies, real (non-demonic) memories that she is suppressing, or simply that she has been traumatized about sexuality because of a stifling Christian upbringing. She is playing it out in these fantasies. She belongs in therapy.

Dena: I’ve been in mental hospitals. I’ve sought professional help. I’ve done everything that they’ve told me to do. Nothing has helped me at all. And when I started coming here, I’ve slowly gotten relief.…

Narrator: In the past year alone, Heidi has been exorcised over 50 times.

I certainly agree that psychology has many flaws. I would even go so far as to claim that it is barely a science. It doesn’t help everyone equally. But it is the best we have right now. Talk therapy takes a very long time to root out problems. Change therapists. Be patient. Eventually, you will get real relief instead of getting your sex fantasies reinforced and perpetuated.

Narrator: For skeptics, the strange dialog between Heidi and Bob looks more like something else: stage hypnosis, wherein suggestible people act out what a charismatic leader asks of them.

I completely agree with this assessment. The documentary showed Larson’s exorcism of Dena. She was definitely performing. She seemed to be in a trance, and she didn’t seem like the same person.

When I was in Las Vegas last year, I made the mistake of going to a hypnosis show. People did and said things that they wouldn’t otherwise. They definitely seemed to be out of it. This is yet another example of religion exploiting the quirks of our amazing brains and claiming it is supernatural.

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus says:

It worries me very much for the individuals who are succumbing to this, because perhaps they have a problem that has a real cure…. Instead, they’re spending their time and their resources possibly getting a phony cure that is diverting them away from getting genuine help that would make a difference in their lives.

The other problem Loftus expresses is that these people just serve as examples that draw other people into it.

The documentary covers so much more than just Bob Larson and his stage show. The next time you see it in the National Geographic Channel’s schedule, you should give it a look.

I occasionally review documentaries about religious subjects. I’ve been sitting on one about exorcism for a while now, which I will get to in the next post.

As is typical of all of these documentaries, they try to be even-handed and present both sides of the story. I did not detect any obvious bias, like you get from watching “documentaries” on Fox (e.g., Alien Autopsy, Apollo Moon Hoax, etc.).

The problem with this approach is that even-handedness still creates a bias in favor of the incredible. How? Two ways. First, the crazies always make more compelling television; it’s hard not to get swept up in the mystery. Second, remember the mantra:

I know that’s boring and it takes some of the fun out of life, but you’ll save yourself from being duped by every two-bit charlatan and backwoods huckster who comes along.

When these documentaries take an even-handed approach, that automatically elevates the crazy claims to a level of credibility that they don’t deserve. Documentaries like this need to take an actively skeptical approach. The vast majority of incredible claims actually have mundane explanations. Case in point:

The job of a documentary about an incredible event is to explore the plausible explanations for the apparent phenomenon. Just interviewing a couple of skeptics and then presenting the crazy people and all of their quite impressive (but usually bogus) showmanship and leaving the viewer to sort it out is irresponsible. Showmanship appeals to emotion. Emotion almost always trumps logic in the viewer’s mind. That’s just the way our brains are wired. Giving equal time to scientists and showmen has the unintended consequence of biasing the documentary in favor of the showmen (crazies, charlatans, delusional—call them what you wish).

If the scientists and skeptics can provide plausible explanations (and in many cases—e.g., Roswell—the actual explanations), the documentaries need to present that information as the likely explanation. That actually makes the documentary slanted or biased toward the reality perspective. But that is what they must do! It is, after all, a documentary—a television program that is supposed to be about facts. If it wants to titillate, it needs to be labeled as fantasy and presented elsewhere, not on a channel (e.g., Discovery, History, National Geographic, et al ) devoted to exploring the facts.

Some of you out there might be offended by my advocating that documentaries shouldn’t be even-handed when it comes to pseudoscience. If you have a differing opinion, feel free to leave that in the comments section for this post. If you’re eager to read my opinions of the exorcism documentary itself, please proceed to the next post.

It’s funny. It has been over 48 hours, and the Earth is still spinning on its axis, a giant crack in the Earth hasn’t opened up and swallowed Washington DC, and no asteroids are raining down upon us in a fire-and-brimstone apocalypse.

The way the fundies have been talking these last few days, I was convinced that the end was nigh. What they’re upset about this time is that the daily prayer that opened the Senate on Thursday was delivered by a Hindu. This is the first time ever. Every day that the Senate has been in operation since 1789, they have started the day praising Jeebus or some other Judeo-Christian pink elephant. In a surprising bit of tolerance, and a reflection of the diversity that makes up our great nation, the Senate decided to let a Hindu have the honor of saying the prayer that day.

This, of course, did not sit well with the fundies. In fact, three of them interrupted the prayer by creating a commotion in the visitor’s gallery. If the situation had been reversed and somebody had tried to interrupt the Christian prayer that normally opens the Senate, you can be sure that some fundies would be claiming “Christian persecution”. Another interesting point is further down that article:

Zed [the Hindu chaplain] addressed a mainly empty Senate chamber. Among other staff, only Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) were present for the opening invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Reid’s office sponsored Zed’s request to serve as a guest chaplain. Inhofe was there to deliver a speech moments later on the Fairness Doctrine.

Where was the rest of the Senate? Admittedly, this is the middle of the summer. I’m sure many Senators were back in their home districts fundraising or taking bribes from the lobbyists on K Street, but this is still a pathetic showing. I’m guessing that many of them were too cowardly to show up. They couldn’t dare let their constituents see that they were in attendance.

Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education was on the Ring of Fire program on Air America Radio one week ago. This is the first chance I’ve had to review it.

You can listen to the program on their website (click on “RF 063007 Hour 2 Jason Alexander Eugenie Scott”).

The show begins with Jason Alexander talking about his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. The Eugenie Scott interview begins about 18 minutes into the segment. The interview focusses on The Discovery Institute and their stealth tactics to subvert the Constitution.

Scott says that the DI is actually a fairly small group of people, but they are extremely well fund(i)ed and have been very successful pushing their agenda.

The DI is known primarily for its promotion of “intelligent design” creationism, but its scope is actually much broader. Much of the DI’s agenda is right-wing libertarian (e.g., shrink government to the point of ineffectiveness, laissez-faire capitalism, etc.).

Scott talks about the Wedge Document, which is, to quote Scott, “a roadmap to theocracy”. She says they want to “rechristianize America”; “they want to establish Christianity as virtually the state religion” (by this she means in a de facto sense instead of officially).

This is an excellent interview. I strongly urge you to listen to it.

I’m going to start participating in The Carnival of the Godless. Number 70 is up this weekend over at Friendly Atheist. This is a good way to drum up new readers. This, of course, is all part of our master plan to turn more people away from Christ and toward Atheism (Atheism, after all is just an anagram of our secret agenda: “Ah Smite”. Getting people smote is what this is all about!).

Reading the Carnival of the Godless is also a good way of finding some excellent blogs. For example, it pointed me to The Greenbelt, who has a post about The Family Circus. I’ve always found that comic to be disturbing on many levels.

For example, I once had a dream that I was reading the comics page in my local newspaper. After reading such brilliant strips as The Lockhorns and Cathy, I then turned to Garfield, which was very funny (That’s right, only in your dreams is Garfield ever funny.).

Finally, I got to The Family Circus. I had been saving it until last, for it was my favorite! It’s the dessert of the comics page! Oh, Family Circus! The anticipation is killing me! I felt like the dog with the Milk Bone on his nose, trembling with discipline and desire, just waiting for his owner to give the command, so that he might snatch it and devour its milky goodness! (Milk Bones do have milky goodness, don’t they? I can think of another bone that gives milk, which leads me to…)

At last, I allowed my gaze to fall upon the Holiest of Holies. I rejected Indiana Jones’ plea to not gaze upon the contents of the Ark. I gleefully ignored Lot’s command not to turn around and look upon the city. I finally allowed my eyes to fall upon The Family Circus! With all proper reverence, I read the strip: It depicted Billy giving his father a blow job.

I don’t know if that dream says more about me or The Family Circus.

Anyway, head on over to The Carnival of the Godless, then be sure to visit The Greenbelt. I’m sure you’ll find his description of a real Family Circus to be even more distressing than my dreamworld version.

The Big Valley Creation Science Museum in Alberta is a tiny building full of big lies. It opened on June 5th. At that time, we looked at their promotional video. In just a few days, it will have its “grand opening”, even though it has been running for a month already. Maybe that’s how creationists can get away with claiming that the Earth is only 6000 years old. It “unofficially” opened 4.5 billion years ago, but it didn’t have its grand opening until Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE.

In honor of the Big Valley Creation Science Museum’s grand opening this weekend, I thought it would be worth looking at their web site. Let’s start with the Press page, because it distills the essence of the museum onto one page. It’s sort of the eau de toilette, with the emphasis on the toilet. It starts with:

The museum is located on main street in Big Valley … right across from the train station.

Oh, good! The citizens have a rail on which to run these blockheads out of town.

The vision of Harry Nibourg to offer a scientific and biblically based alternative to the evolutionary view of earth history … has become a reality in Big Valley, Alberta.

So which is it? Scientific or Biblical? According to the Bible, pi = 3, so it’s hardly the source I turn to for reliable science.

It is Canada’s first permanent creation museum.

As weird as that sounds, Canada has at least two traveling creationism museums. I wonder if that’s by necessity and not design. If your museum is on wheels, you can flee town before the locals realize they’ve been swindled.

The artifacts and displays in the museum have been obtained from around the world and it is immediately evident when you step into the museum that you are looking at world class fossils and displays.

As in third-world class.

There are numerous themes presented in the museum displays including:
“Evidence From Geology” display which deals with the geological column….

I wish a geological column would fall on this museum.

“Fossils and the Flood” is a fantastic visual arrangement…

Finally, some truth from these people! Here’s the first (i.e., preferred or dominant) definition of “fantastic”, according to Merriam-Webster:

1 a : based on fantasy : not real b : conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy c : so extreme as to challenge belief : UNBELIEVABLE

At least there’s a little truth in advertising. Continuing with the BVCSM Press page:

…that contains only genuine, museum quality fossils and a giant model of Noah’s ark.

The “giant” model somehow manages to fit inside their tiny museum building! The only thing giant about the model is the lie it tells.

“Dinosaurs and Humans” display shows considerable evidence that not only did dinosaurs exist recently, but also that humans existed with them.

That’s right! Mr. and Mrs. Ogg living right next door to their wacky neighbors, the Velociraptors! “Hey honey, the Velos invited us over for dinner!”

“Terrible Lizards” display demonstrate dinosaurs were one of God’s greatest creations (Job 40 & 41).

Again, according to Merriam-Webster, “dinosaur” comes from the Greek deinos terrifying + sauros lizard. A “terrifying lizard” is a better description than a “terrible lizard”. This is yet another simple detail that these creationists can’t get right. (Here’s another site with more information about the origin of the term.)

“Bacterial Flagellum and DNA” are interactive displays … which provide compelling evidence for creation and refute any unguided, ‘natural’ processes such as evolution.

Creationists keep bringing this up, as if the bacterial flagellum has some sort of a magical ability. It doesn’t. It’s a simple mechanical system that evolved just like millions of other simple mechanical systems in nature.

I think that fundies have a subconscious flagellation fetish. It’s apparently the only form of self-abuse that they approve of. Self-flagellation used to be quite the thing for the devout to do on a Saturday night, or any other time they were feeling randy. It’s all to reenact the fundies’ favorite snuff film, the crucifixion of Jesus.

“Age of the Earth” display packs a pile of leading-edge information regarding dating methods, fast fossils, rapid cave formations and Out of Place Artifacts.

Well, it packs a pile of something!

“Evidence From Genealogy” is one of the favourite displays of our visitors. These scrolls from the Lambeth Palace in England trace the genealogy of King Henry the 6th and the current monarchy of Queen Elizabeth back to Adam and Eve.

I haven’t the foggiest idea what that’s supposed to prove. That genealogy was manufactured in the 15th century by the royal court to try to justify the monarchy’s dictatorship over the populace. By counterfeiting a document “proving” that Henry #6 was descended from A&E, they could justify their claims of divine rule.

By this logic, the BVCSM might as well stock their museum with all of the hoaxes that P.T. Barnum created for his fake museums. A fake mermaid doesn’t prove that mermaids exist, only that some people know how to create lies convincing enough to fool the retarded. There’s a fundie born every minute.

The final paragraph on this page tries to convince the unwary to make the long detour from wherever they are really going to come way out to Big Valley to see this house of lies. It finishes with:

Additionally you can make it a day’s adventure by booking a trip on Alberta’s Steam Train which includes lunch and a train robbery.

As opposed to the Big Valley Creation Science Museum, which is merely highway robbery.