Twenty Third & Seventh

MSPs hire interns from anti-gay US college

Link: MSPs hire interns from anti-gay US college - [Sunday Herald Scotland].

All my life I've wanted to study at a Mormon University and now my dreams are destroyed!

MSPs [Members of the Scottish Parliament] are hiring interns from a right-wing American university that refuses to enrol openly gay students. Scottish taxpayers are helping fund the placements from Brigham Young in Utah, a Mormon institution which has a zero tolerance policy on “homosexual conduct”.

At least one of the Holyrood interns has used his time at the parliament to research the case against liberalising divorce law.

News of the placements has alarmed gay rights activists, who say the parliament should be cautious about working with bodies that have a poor record on equal opportunities.

The row centres on a scheme started by the SNP’s Brian Adam in the first term of the parliament. The MSP, who is also a Mormon, is the point of contact for students at Brigham Young University (BYU) who want to work at Holyrood and learn about Scottish politics.

A number of students have made the trip across the Atlantic and worked for SNP, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MSPs. Eight students from BYU have been granted security clearance by Holyrood in the past 12 months.

But BYU, which is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is controversial because of its stance on gay rights and other issues. More than 90% of the student intake are Mormons, and all are expected to uphold the university’s “honour code”. One part of that cosays being actively gay is not compatible with membership of the university.

“Nobody known to be guilty of overt and active homosexual conduct is to be enrolled or permitted to remain at [BYU] unless this behaviour has been repented of and forsaken for a suitable lengthy period of time,” it states.

The university’s opposition to homosexuality was highlighted earlier this month when several gay rights activists were arrested on campus for trespassing.

BYU also caused a row in 2003 by staging a presentation on “curing” homosexuality. Two years before, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that student Richard Escoto was suspended by university officials for allegations of gay conduct that involved receiving “gifts” from men and kissing a male.

In the past, BYU has also banned Boy George albums.

'Affirmation' Gay Mormons Website

Abort the Loonie Right!

This is indicative of just how stupid Australian politics is getting.  Gasp in wonder as conservatives confuse RU486 with Muslims and announce that 'Australians' are aborting 'themselves' out of exsitence?

Ms Vale has caused a furore by tying debate over the abortion drug RU486 with   published comments by an imam saying Australia would be a Muslim state in 50 years. She said Australians were aborting themselves out of existence and at the current rate of 100,000 a year "that's five million potential Australians we won't have here."

I bet she'd cry if hit with a complicated idea like a Muslim Australian wanting to take RU486 in full hijab.

Oprah Explains How to Lick an Asshole

And we don't mean Dr Phil.   The Smoking Gun has some fabulous letters of complaint from concerned citizens horrified by Oprah's hardcore action.

Surprise victory for rational thought. Fundies dig deeper bomb shelters and stock up on Left Behind books.

I've said it before, it warrants repeating.  'Intelligent Design Theory' is a concept that implicitly chokes on it's own shit.  Why would an intelligent God send hateful, unchristian, fundies out to do his PR work?  Would a 'thoughtful' God let them go out looking so drab after designing an infinite band of colours and so many sensual fabrics in his extremely busy six days? All that so that his cheer-squad can stick to beige with a touch of off-white?  That's not intelligent design- it's cardigan design. What kind of 'intelligent God' would launch Christian Rock onto the world?  By their very existence fundies disprove an 'intelligent' God, what Tommy Gnosis called  'a micromanaging God'.  A micromanaging God would, at very least, give them something decent to wear wouldn't he? 

I hold that challenging material and access to contrary points of view are both critical to true education.  Without engaging the process of questioning, the outcome is only teaching.  Education develops an individual in an wholistic process of personal and intellectual growth. Teaching transfers skills from master to apprentice. If I could attribute the quote I would, but google isn't co-operating.  Our old mate whatshisface said 'a man is not educated until he comprehends the extent of his ignorance'.  Perhaps Voltaire or Descartes? 

From that base, I find it hard to argue that 'Intelligent Design' shouldn't be a part of high school education.  In the first, the subject now has suficient social currency that to be ignorant of it is undesirable and probably dangerous. This might mean that it should be moved from the science labs to the social studies room?  It seems to me that a lecture devoted to sketching and deconstructing Intelligent Design Theory would be productive. It would provide a powerful tool for teaching the difference between a hypothesis and a theory.  Studying the material published by IDers would provide good operational examples of pseudo-science and equip students to distinguish good research from bad.  It might even help a few more Americans to truly understand the concept of separation of Church and State.

If the ID mob choose to believe in ID I'm not here to stop them. I'm quite content to assume that they have had access to competing ideas and made their choice.  I'll even send a pack of biscuits to their next conference. ID 'theory' itself is not a threat to science. If Darwin is problematic, ID could only be described as still-born.  It isn't ID theory that poses a threat, it's the motivations and prejudices of the people who peddle it.  The true threat is to secular education and the very foundations of rationality,  Darwin is big enough to look after himself.

Bluntly, any good speaker with skill in logical argument will overpower the Intelligent Design mob easily and quickly. A base in science isn't needed- the IDers have little or no regard for the concepts that hold science together like reason, demonstrability and the quaranteening of 'superstition' from academic inquiry. Their 'hypothesis' is so flawed that the entire body of nonsense that they call a theory can be demolished in no more than fifteen minutes.  The IDers themselves will never be persuaded to jettison this madness, they can't back down now. Our best hope is that that they get bored and find a less effective tool with which to stage their assault on rationality.

And that makes this very good news indeed.  As humanity devolves at such an alarming pace it's a comfort to see one small victory for reason over dogma and superstition. 

There's a comments box below where anyone who wishes can confirm / correct my understanding of US Federalism.  My understanding is that this ruling will ony apply in Penn State where it was handed down?

Intelligent design loses

In scalding decision, judge denounces rival to evolution theory

By Lisa Anderson
Tribune national columnist
Published December 20, 2005, 9:25 PM CST

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- In a broad and blistering landmark decision, a federal district court judge Tuesday ruled it unconstitutional to teach intelligent design, a concept critical of modern Darwinian evolutionary theory, in public-school science classrooms.

Using scathing language that described the defendants as liars and their actions as "breathtaking inanity," Judge John Jones III rendered what many consider a watershed decision in the culture wars over the teaching of evolution, also ruling that intelligent design, or ID, is not a scientific theory but a religious belief.

"In fact, one unfortunate theme in this case is the striking ignorance concerning the concept of ID amongst board members. Conspicuously, board members who voted for the curriculum change testified at trial that they had utterly no grasp of ID," wrote Jones in his 139-page decision. It came 46 days after the close of Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area School District, a six-week bench trial heard in Pennsylvania's Middle District Court in Harrisburg.

continues