Lemming Post of the Month

Taken from FSTDT.com:

"I appreciate your recommendation, and it is intriguing, but as a pro-lifer, I cannot support an organization that is opposed to the death penalty."

Originally posted here.

Catholic Church Sides with Science

Although not an "official" position, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has published an article written by biology professor Fiorenzo Facchini in which he states that intelligent design is "...not how science is done."

Rev. George Coyne, head of the Vatican Observatory, says that, "Intelligent design isn't science, even though it pretends to be."

Though I realize that they have myriad other issues that they are totally backward on, I have always commended the Catholic Church for their willingness to think reasonably when presented with overwhelming evidence contrary to established church canon. This is no exception. I just wish the born-agains would get their act together.

The article referencing the above quotes can be read here.

California ID suit settled

A rural CA school district that intended to use ID as the subject for a philosophy class, has settled with parents who sued them claiming that the class would be used to teach a religious ideology to students. NBC.com posted an article here.

The teacher of the class was also the wife of a local minister. In a letter that she wrote to a local newspaper she said, "I believe this is the class that the Lord wanted me to teach."

Well, okay then... I think their (at least her) motives are pretty clear. Chalk up another, albeit small, victory for science.

Since it's clear that the ID proponents are going to fairly well lose their ass when it comes to shoe-horning ID into science classes, I expect too see more attempts to "teach the controversy". In this case, their effort consisted of moving ID into a philosophy class in which the curriculum consisted only of videos that purportedly presented creationist ideology as science.

Dumb football players?

I am not a huge football fan, but I enjoy the game with friends as much as anyone else. I have also known several professional football players and believe that in many cases the label often applied to them as all being "dumb jocks" is often unfairly applied. Good players need to think their way around the field in order to be successful against myriad offensive and defensive schemes. However, Joey Porter of the Pittsburgh Steelers isn't helping their cause. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (the article is posted here), he's asked about the Indianapolis Colts (another NFL team) and this is what he had to say:

"They don't want to just sit there, line up and play football. They want to try to catch you off guard. They don't want to play smash-mouth football, they want to trick you. ... They want to catch you substituting. Know what I mean? They don't want to just call a play, get up there and run a play. They want to make you think. They want it to be a thinking game instead of a football game."

Joey Porter got paid $ 2,751,600 in 2004. I'd like to think that someone that makes that kind of money should have to think, at least a little. I know this isn't representative of all football players, so step down from your soapbox right now, please. I guess the thing that bothers me most is that Joey seems to think that being smart isn't a good thing. To him, using your brain is a waste of time and something, it seems, to be made fun of.