Wiccan symbol added to City Hall roof alongside nativity scene
...GREEN BAY, Wis. - A nativity scene on the roof of the local City Hall will share the spotlight this year with at least one other religious symbol _ the Wiccan pentacle...
Great idea to put it on the roof! Now some jackass can't drive over it in his pickup.
...The Wiccan display added Friday consists of an evergreen wreath, about three feet across, encircling a gold five-pointed star. Perched a few feet away is a statue of Mary, in a nativity setting installed this week by City Council president Chad Fradette...
Beautiful display. I know what I'm making this afternoon.
...Fradette initially decided to install the nativity scene to defy an anti-religion group that was protesting a similar display in Peshtigo, a smaller town about 40 miles northeast of Green Bay. "So now the Freedom From Religion Foundation can pick on somebody a little larger than Peshtigo," Fradette told a city committee. The committee approved the nativity scene 4-1 Tuesday night...
I have no objection to Nativity scenes. Hey, Wiccan's have no bone to pick with the baby Jesus! Heh! As pointed out by the ACLU and other orgs, the concept of 'separation of church and state' does not necessarily excluded religious holiday displays from public property. This is especially true if some private individual or group bares the expense of setting up and maintaining the display (and tax dollars are not being uses), as happened in a town near me:
Update: Jewish Federation rescinds request, apologizes
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Presidential Debate: Science and Technology
A Call for a Presidential Debate on Science and Technology
After sitting through the recent disgraceful and Xtain pandering Republican candidate debate on CNN, this strikes me as a very good idea--actually asking candidates about issues of vital importance:
...As you watched the scores of U.S. Presidential debates, did you ever wonder why there has been no debate devoted to policy surrounding what may be the most important social issue of our time: Science and Technology...?
Yeah. I have wondered. It was really jaw-dropping watching Anderson Cooper lob softball "what would Jesus do" questions to preachers and Dominionists:
...We have noticed that science and technology lie at the center of a very large number of the policy issues facing our nation and the world - issues that profoundly affect our national and economic security...
And I might add 'our survival as a species', yet:
...as science and technology continue to transform our lives...We believe a debate on these issues would be the ideal opportunity for America and the candidates to explore our national priorities on the issues, and it is hard to imagine any candidate not wishing to be involved in such an occasion. Please join us and make Science Debate 2008 a reality...
(via Josh at TFK)
Monday, December 10, 2007
A Wiccan for President?
Wiccan politics by Puck Goodfellow
Great post at DailyKos about being born Wiccan:
...Even though Wiccans are usually WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Pagans) we are a small enough minority to face Religious Discrimination. For the most part it's little things like the constant question of ",So you cast spells?"
That's just kid stuff. I usually get "So, you worship Satan!, but I'm hard-core.
...My Religious Beliefs are actually what made me heavily anti-George W. Bush during the 2000 election...
Heh, welcome to the club.
...What would happen if I, a Wiccan, ran for office? This latest kerfuffle definitely has reinforced my feeling of being shut out of the political process.
I have a feeling my religion would be at the bottom of the list of factors precluding my run for high office. Well, probably even low office. :)
Check out the excellent comments following the post. Nice to know there are so many supportive Kossaks.
Great post at DailyKos about being born Wiccan:
...Even though Wiccans are usually WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Pagans) we are a small enough minority to face Religious Discrimination. For the most part it's little things like the constant question of ",So you cast spells?"
That's just kid stuff. I usually get "So, you worship Satan!, but I'm hard-core.
...My Religious Beliefs are actually what made me heavily anti-George W. Bush during the 2000 election...
Heh, welcome to the club.
...What would happen if I, a Wiccan, ran for office? This latest kerfuffle definitely has reinforced my feeling of being shut out of the political process.
I have a feeling my religion would be at the bottom of the list of factors precluding my run for high office. Well, probably even low office. :)
Check out the excellent comments following the post. Nice to know there are so many supportive Kossaks.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
I want my Zeus TV!
Greek Gods Come to Television
Jason over at Wild Hunt asks:
...Is the world ready for a comedy television series starring Zeus, Dionysus, Apollo, and Artemis...?
I don't know. I always look at these things with a mix of anticipation and dread.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Evolutionary Conversion
Former Evangelical Minister Has a New Message: Jesus Hearts Darwin
Fun (and short) interview from Wired News with former Evangelical preacher Micheal Dowd, who now embraces Darwin. There's a number of interesting comments. When asked if 'evolutionary theology' might trump scriptural truths, Dowd answers:
...God didn't stop communicating truth vital to human well-being thousands of years ago, when people preserved insights on animal skins. God communicates through science. Facts are God's native tongue. Who of us would let a first-century dentist fix our children's teeth? Yet every day we let first-century theologians fill our children's brains...
Heh, that one's a keeper! I have to admit I'd like to see a 'fire and brimstone' pro-evolution revival meeting. If the spirit called me, I'd start knuckle walking around the tent! :)
Fun (and short) interview from Wired News with former Evangelical preacher Micheal Dowd, who now embraces Darwin. There's a number of interesting comments. When asked if 'evolutionary theology' might trump scriptural truths, Dowd answers:
...God didn't stop communicating truth vital to human well-being thousands of years ago, when people preserved insights on animal skins. God communicates through science. Facts are God's native tongue. Who of us would let a first-century dentist fix our children's teeth? Yet every day we let first-century theologians fill our children's brains...
Heh, that one's a keeper! I have to admit I'd like to see a 'fire and brimstone' pro-evolution revival meeting. If the spirit called me, I'd start knuckle walking around the tent! :)
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Peking Man, Science, and God
Faith, science, censorship, and the search for Peking Man
Excellent review of the book "The Jesuit and the Skull", about the man who discovered 'Peking Man':
...Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955) helped uncover one of the most important scientific finds of the 20th century: Peking Man. The French scientist was working in China alongside an international team of anthropologists, geologists, and paleontologists in December 1929...
But Teilhard was a Jesuit priest, so his findings were subject to review and censorship by the Vatican:
...Not only did the Vatican censor Teilhard's groundbreaking scientific work in his own life, it continues to limit it...in 2006...documents containing the Vatican's decision to censor the French priest's work remained unavailable for review...
The book combines biography, the history of evolutionary thought, and the conflict between science and religion:
...Teilhard himself saw no contradiction between his role as a scientist and man of God. Indeed, he viewed evolution as bolstering his faith. In his "The Phenomenon of Man," censored during his lifetime, Teilhard wrote that "Man is not the centre of the universe as was naively believed in the past, but something much more beautiful - Man the ascending arrow of the great biological synthesis...
This book sounds like a must read.
Excellent review of the book "The Jesuit and the Skull", about the man who discovered 'Peking Man':
...Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955) helped uncover one of the most important scientific finds of the 20th century: Peking Man. The French scientist was working in China alongside an international team of anthropologists, geologists, and paleontologists in December 1929...
But Teilhard was a Jesuit priest, so his findings were subject to review and censorship by the Vatican:
...Not only did the Vatican censor Teilhard's groundbreaking scientific work in his own life, it continues to limit it...in 2006...documents containing the Vatican's decision to censor the French priest's work remained unavailable for review...
The book combines biography, the history of evolutionary thought, and the conflict between science and religion:
...Teilhard himself saw no contradiction between his role as a scientist and man of God. Indeed, he viewed evolution as bolstering his faith. In his "The Phenomenon of Man," censored during his lifetime, Teilhard wrote that "Man is not the centre of the universe as was naively believed in the past, but something much more beautiful - Man the ascending arrow of the great biological synthesis...
This book sounds like a must read.
Chinese Turtle at brink of extinction
China’s Turtles, Emblems of a Crisis
Only two remaining Giant Yangtze Soft Shell Turtles are known to exist. A male and female, both are in captivity at separate zoos:
...The agenda is simple: The turtle must not die. Earlier this year, scientists concluded that she was the planet’s last known female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle. She is about 80 years old and weighs almost 90 pounds...As it happens, the planet also has only one undisputed, known male. He lives at a zoo in the city of Suzhou. He is 100 years old and weighs about 200 pounds. They are the last hope of saving a species believed to be the largest freshwater turtles in the world...
China contains some of the worlds richest biodiversity. Yet China's wildlife has been under unrelenting pressure due to economic development. 40 percent of animals are threatened, as well as 70 percent of non-flowering and 86 percent of flowering plants.
...“It’s a very dire situation,” said Peter Pritchard, a prominent turtle expert in the United States who has helped in trying to save the species. “This one is so big and it has such an aura of mystery...
How the turtle wound up at the zoo is an amazing story:
...Fifty-one years ago, a traveling circus performed at the new zoo in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province in southern China. For a cash payment, the circus left behind a large female turtle. Zookeepers slipped the turtle into a large pond, where for a half-century it hibernated in winters and poked its pig-like snout above the water’s surface every spring. The walls of the zoo became the equivalent of a time capsule...Outside, the convulsions of modern Chinese history were scarring an already damaged landscape...
Only two remaining Giant Yangtze Soft Shell Turtles are known to exist. A male and female, both are in captivity at separate zoos:
...The agenda is simple: The turtle must not die. Earlier this year, scientists concluded that she was the planet’s last known female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle. She is about 80 years old and weighs almost 90 pounds...As it happens, the planet also has only one undisputed, known male. He lives at a zoo in the city of Suzhou. He is 100 years old and weighs about 200 pounds. They are the last hope of saving a species believed to be the largest freshwater turtles in the world...
China contains some of the worlds richest biodiversity. Yet China's wildlife has been under unrelenting pressure due to economic development. 40 percent of animals are threatened, as well as 70 percent of non-flowering and 86 percent of flowering plants.
...“It’s a very dire situation,” said Peter Pritchard, a prominent turtle expert in the United States who has helped in trying to save the species. “This one is so big and it has such an aura of mystery...
How the turtle wound up at the zoo is an amazing story:
...Fifty-one years ago, a traveling circus performed at the new zoo in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province in southern China. For a cash payment, the circus left behind a large female turtle. Zookeepers slipped the turtle into a large pond, where for a half-century it hibernated in winters and poked its pig-like snout above the water’s surface every spring. The walls of the zoo became the equivalent of a time capsule...Outside, the convulsions of modern Chinese history were scarring an already damaged landscape...
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Beliefnet: RIP
Well, Beliefnet was not a complete hosejob, but pretty close too. Now it can sleep comfortably in the Dominionist hands of News Corp (aka: Fox News). Yes, Murdock has purchased Beliefnet! As Jason points out on WildHunt:
...No doubt promises of independence and a glorious future are forthcoming, but I'm not sure this will be good for the already-marginalized religious minorities who were once strong supporters of Beliefnet. I wouldn't be surprised at all if, over the next few years, Beliefnet grows ever-more Christian and conservative in tone. A "family friendly" site to help promote Fox Faith films and hype new Christian book releases from (coincidentally) Zondervan...
Jason provides a great screen grab of a recent Beliefnet article, giving you a good example of what they considered 'balance' in their articles.
...No doubt promises of independence and a glorious future are forthcoming, but I'm not sure this will be good for the already-marginalized religious minorities who were once strong supporters of Beliefnet. I wouldn't be surprised at all if, over the next few years, Beliefnet grows ever-more Christian and conservative in tone. A "family friendly" site to help promote Fox Faith films and hype new Christian book releases from (coincidentally) Zondervan...
Jason provides a great screen grab of a recent Beliefnet article, giving you a good example of what they considered 'balance' in their articles.
WitchVox, WTF?
I think it was the Atheist Richard Dawkins who said "It's good to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains drip out your ears". Maybe we Neo-Pagans can learn a thing or two from our Atheist friends.
I know WitchVox has a policy of not "taking sides" when publishing essays from its members. But do we really need 3 different essays from Global Warming deniers? (Heh, and I sure am not linking to them.) None of the essayists offer any proof of their claims. Sheesh, anyone willing to spend 3 minutes on 'the google' can make mince meat out of their arguments. I wish I had the time to waste taking them on point for point, but all they manage are oil industry talking points or sad displays of scientific illiteracy.
But if you want to check out an article which debunks such propaganda, read BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER:
The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change
Just a preview, in regards to the tired 'there's no consensus among the experts' ploy:
...For example, the National Academy of Sciences report, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, begins: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise"... The report explicitly asks whether the IPCC assessment is a fair summary of professional scientific thinking, and answers yes: "The IPCC's conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue"...Others agree. The American Meteorological Society..., the American Geophysical Union..., and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) all have issued statements in recent years concluding that the evidence for human modification of climate is compelling...
So, what next Witchvox? Yule Sabbat suggestions from Holocaust deniers!
I know WitchVox has a policy of not "taking sides" when publishing essays from its members. But do we really need 3 different essays from Global Warming deniers? (Heh, and I sure am not linking to them.) None of the essayists offer any proof of their claims. Sheesh, anyone willing to spend 3 minutes on 'the google' can make mince meat out of their arguments. I wish I had the time to waste taking them on point for point, but all they manage are oil industry talking points or sad displays of scientific illiteracy.
But if you want to check out an article which debunks such propaganda, read BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER:
The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change
Just a preview, in regards to the tired 'there's no consensus among the experts' ploy:
...For example, the National Academy of Sciences report, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, begins: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise"... The report explicitly asks whether the IPCC assessment is a fair summary of professional scientific thinking, and answers yes: "The IPCC's conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue"...Others agree. The American Meteorological Society..., the American Geophysical Union..., and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) all have issued statements in recent years concluding that the evidence for human modification of climate is compelling...
So, what next Witchvox? Yule Sabbat suggestions from Holocaust deniers!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Pullman and Rowling, what good company!
The sum of all fears: organized religion
According to Dominionist and Absolutist Xtians, do you know what occupies even a lower step in Hell than Neo-Paganism? ATHEISM, that's what! I guess those who protest Harry Potter, claiming it's the Communist Manifesto of Wicca, have found an even more dreadful target. Move over J.K. Rowling, make room for our friend Phillip Pullman:
...If there is a piece of art, a TV show, a column, a book, a movie, a blog, a movement, a wine bottle or sexual position that somehow deeply threatens the various ultraconservative sects of Christian-blasted America to the point where their pale, dour representatives demand boycotts and distribute angry pamphlets to try to stop people from experiencing said hunk of culture because of how negatively it portrays their seething, condemnatory God, well, it's time to break out the Champagne. Or buy that book. Or get very, very naked. Or all of the above...
What great advice. Mark Morford's opinion in the SFGate hits even more perfect stride when he identifies the target of Pullman's "The Golden Compass":
...The nefarious thing the books aim to kill is religious authority. It's about the destruction of dogma....the God of organized religion...the false deity that promotes numb groupthink, inhibits growth and abhors the feminine divine (perhaps the books' most beautiful, inspiring theme), the same paranoid, dreadful God that votes for George W. Bush because he will smite the icky gays and protect us from vile pagans and Buddhists and Muslims and feminists and frumpy genius atheist British writers. If humanity is to flourish, to get over its addiction to war and guilt and fear, this is the false God that should - that must - die...
OK, I'm sold. I feel like such a jerk that I have not read Pullman's work.
According to Dominionist and Absolutist Xtians, do you know what occupies even a lower step in Hell than Neo-Paganism? ATHEISM, that's what! I guess those who protest Harry Potter, claiming it's the Communist Manifesto of Wicca, have found an even more dreadful target. Move over J.K. Rowling, make room for our friend Phillip Pullman:
...If there is a piece of art, a TV show, a column, a book, a movie, a blog, a movement, a wine bottle or sexual position that somehow deeply threatens the various ultraconservative sects of Christian-blasted America to the point where their pale, dour representatives demand boycotts and distribute angry pamphlets to try to stop people from experiencing said hunk of culture because of how negatively it portrays their seething, condemnatory God, well, it's time to break out the Champagne. Or buy that book. Or get very, very naked. Or all of the above...
What great advice. Mark Morford's opinion in the SFGate hits even more perfect stride when he identifies the target of Pullman's "The Golden Compass":
...The nefarious thing the books aim to kill is religious authority. It's about the destruction of dogma....the God of organized religion...the false deity that promotes numb groupthink, inhibits growth and abhors the feminine divine (perhaps the books' most beautiful, inspiring theme), the same paranoid, dreadful God that votes for George W. Bush because he will smite the icky gays and protect us from vile pagans and Buddhists and Muslims and feminists and frumpy genius atheist British writers. If humanity is to flourish, to get over its addiction to war and guilt and fear, this is the false God that should - that must - die...
OK, I'm sold. I feel like such a jerk that I have not read Pullman's work.
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