Parents object to date designations

This column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's online site deals with parental objections to using BCE/CE rather than BC/AD.

I thought the article had a nice history and background on the controversy, but thought the descriptive lead was really odd. What do loafers and rimless glasses have to do with a parent having an opinion?

Controversial group gains no traction

Westboro Baptist Church was here in Central Texas this picketing outside Ft. Hood while the memorial service was going on. When it was over, they came up and picketed at Baylor for a while, in front of our science building.

I knew about it through a grad student, who had a friend who was in contact with them because of a sociology of religion project where he had had contact with church members.

I didn't know about it through our local media, none of which covered either event. I imagine this is disappointing for a group that issues press releases and publishes a picketing schedule on its web site.

Kids' album on science subtly addresses religion

Alternative rockers They Might Be Giants released a new children's album this fall called Here Comes Science, which features songs about the planets, the sun, electric cars, the periodic table and more. The first track, Science is Real, contains the lyrics I like the stories about angels, unicorns and elves. Now I like those stories as much as anybody else. But when I'm seeking knowledge, either simple or abstract, the facts are with science.

The band's John Flansburgh, in an interview with Wired said Although it wasn’t designed to create controversy, it’s still a big relief to me that the opening track, “Science is Real,” didn’t raise any red flags with the label. The song freely acknowledges the Big Bang and evolution, and casually conflates angels with unicorns and elves–all of which might bug some anti-science, pro-angel folk.
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It has generated some notice, for example on the science blog Pharyngula and in the comments section on the Amazon listing for the album, where a few commenters mention that the album is likely to offend creationists.

Food for thought - does pro-angel necessarily mean anti-science? How about the reverse?

Story on LDS church draws comments

This community story on the San Antonio Express News web site is typical regional/religion page fare. What I thought was interesting was the number of comments that the story drew.

Poynter's NewsU is hosting a webinar on newspaper comments.

"Greeting Card Emergency" addresses fall from faith

This NPR story focused on David Dickerson, a former Hallmark Card wizard who left the company, wrote a memoir about this work for the company paired with his journey away from evangelical Christianity.

Dickerson now maintains the vlog Greeting Card Emergency, where readers can write in with their own situations for which there is no card and get his advice. He recently posted this entry about National Coming Out Day that includes card suggestions and a heartfelt thank you to friends who declared they were gay and, he says, started him on a journey away from his faith.

Atheist group advertises on New York transit

According to this story from CNN, a group called the Big Apple Coalition for Reason will be advertising in multiple media as part of a campaign to make New Yorkers more aware about atheism and atheists. Supporters, who are spending money from an anonymous donation, are hoping to attract members to atheist groups and to promote dialogue about religion and morality.

I thought it was interesting the story quotes a representative defending both the campaign as non-aggressive and atheism in general.

In case you have it on your DVR

Last week's Big Bang Theory, The Pirate Solution, has an interesting religious reference when one character attempts to lecture another from India about the significance of cows in the Hindu religion. The Indian character takes great offense at this and tells the other "The mood I'm in today, I'll take you out - I swear to Cow!"

Dietary issues are also mentioned when the Indian character mourns "Beef. I will miss you most of all," continuing to explain that in India, you can't get a Big Mac from McDonald's, but only a Chicken Maharaja Mac. And the special sauce is curry which "In India is not all that special, believe you me."

CBS does not post full episodes of this show on line, unfortunately.

The cross and the Supreme Court, from the lighter side

Stephen Colbert weighed in on the issue of the cross in the Mojave in an episode of The Word that he called Symbol Minded. It's worth a look.

Sweat Lodge Practice Leads to Deaths

This article from the AP focuses on the story of a retreat in Arizona that included two hours in a sweat lodge, after which two retreaters were found dead, with 19 others sickened.

I thought this story lacked context. What is a sweat lodge? Why might someone use one? Does it have risks? In the story, the only risk listed was that the sweat lodge was built without a building permit.

Here is a description of a sweat lodge ceremony.

More on the cross in the desert

CNN has this story , which includes an interesting picture.