Ellen Johnson: Not a Great Atheist Representative, IMO

As some readers may already know, American Atheists has dismissed Ellen Johnson as its President. In hearing about this, I decided to check out a few Johnson YouTube videos, as I hadn’t done so in quite some time. Upon watching two videos, I remembered why I never made it a point to keep an eye out for her public addresses. Before I get into why, however, I must say why I am writing this piece now, just after she has been let go.

In the interest of good taste and compassion, I was originally going to wait a week until I did this. However, after watching a few of her interviews I had to say something. I thought I would satisfy my need to speak by posting a comment at the Friendly Atheist blog. That should tie me over for a week. But while I was writing this comment I felt that I should post it at TFP right now as well.

Why? Well, quite frankly, from what I have seen, she has not impressed me as a favourable representative of rationalism and atheist public relations. Furthermore, why should I be extra sympathetic to her? Because she’s an atheist? If the Catholic League had just booted Phil Donahue, I would surely not feel compelled to hold off for a week for him (note: I’m not deliberately inviting any comparisons between Donahue and Johnson). In the interest of fairness, I absolutely should criticize an atheist spokesperson just as I would a religious spokesperson. I have cut and pasted my comment on Friendly Atheist below, though with a few additions and small modifications.

Responding to an ID-Sympathizing Blogger

On his blog Vere Loqui - which I like the title of, Martin Cothran wrote:

L. Ron Brown at “The Frame Problem” takes Ben Stein to task for making careless remarks about science on the Glenn Beck show. Of course Brown employs the usual array of hyperbolic terms favored by Darwinists in such cases to describe Stein’s remarks, in which he seems to blame “science” for historical atrocities. Were Stein’s remarks careless? Sure they were. Shame on him. Were they examples of “Ignorance, deceit, and stupidity”? I don’t think so.

I’ve been on plenty of television and radio interviews and I don’t know if there is single one I didn’t walk out of thinking, “I shouldn’t have said it that way.” But for every instance of hyperbole, there seems to be an equal and opposite incidence of hyperbole, and that is what we are getting from the Darwinists.

But let’s face it, Stein’s remarks were careless. Bad boy! An afternoon’s detention I say.

But let’s just remind the hyperreactive critics of Intelligent Design about their own record of stupid remarks made, not in the midst of a television interviews in which there is no editing option, statements made in carefully written statements in which they did have plenty of opportunity to make sure it said exactly what they wanted it to say?

Of this species of remark, my personal favorite is this one, by Richard Dawkins:

Odious as the physical abuse of children by priests undoubtedly is, I suspect that it may do them less lasting damage than the mental abuse of bringing them up Catholic in the first place.If Stein’s remarks deserve afternoon detention, Dawkins gets a week’s suspension.

My Response:

Intellectual Volunteering Opportunities Available Here!

Hi all. When I started this blog my intent was to engage every debate that comes my way regarding my posts - with little regard for how inane the other side was being. I viewed it as a matter of being a good citizen and being responsible for my content. When the blog first started there were generally between 150-200 hits per day, and I had more time on my hands as I was at the early stages of recovering from a car accident. Now on most days the blog will get 800-1000 hits per day, sometimes substantially more. Moreover, as my healing is essentially complete and as I’m in the process of setting up a 1-year work term in South Korea, I have less time on my hands to deal with the increasingly common heaps of religious dogmatism that come The Frame Problem’s way.

As the site has grown over the months, readers like Stoobs, the Matts, thisbusymonster, and Mark, have done an amazing job of representing science and rationality. For their efforts, they each receive a slice of delicious cake:

Today, opportunities for on-site intellectual volunteerism continue to abound. Because of my increasing external priorities and my internal focus on the Cult of Scientology, I have limited time to devote to metaphorically bashing my head against a wall in “debates” with IDists who actually believe the BS being thrown against the world’s biggest fans by Ben Stein and his Expelled cronies and by organizations like the euphemistically named Discovery Institute, Answers in Genesis, and the Institute for Creation “Research” (i.e., research in which only that which can be interpreted as supportive of our views will be pursued and will be viewed as counting).

Delicious cake is on offer for any other brave and remarkably patient samaritans who are willing to take one for the team (Team Reason) by subjecting themselves to defending reason to the local ID/Creationists who have managed to fall for the religious right propaganda that there is an international conspiracy in which the scientific, education, judicial, media (even many in the more conservative media), and even liberal religious communities of the world have all banded together to bully the entirely inane legitimate and entirely unscientific dim-witted collapse-at-the-logic-of-a-four-year-old just-a-theory of Intelligent Design into intellectual oblivion. I will continue to take part, too, but I no longer have the time to fully engage all of these “debates” myself.

“Debate” is just waiting to be engaged in here.

_____________________________________

UPDATE:

Cake is being served. Please come forward for your cake.

The first person in line is Ubiquitous Che. Here’s his slice:

Ben Stein and Glenn Beck: Ignorance, Deceit and Stupidity, OH MY!

Nothing I say short of quoting them directly could prepare you for the profound levels of ignorance you are about to hear. Stein and Beck’s ignorance of and/or deliberate deceit with respect to science, evolution, atheism and morality are absolutely depressing.

They are an unfortunate pair of exemplars of the intellectual dysfunction that dogmatism - religious or otherwise - constitutes.

Madeline Neumann and Why Society Should Stop Insulating Religion From Rational Scrutiny

On Wednesday Marathon Country District Attorney Jill Falstad annouced that Dale and Leilani Neumann would each be charged with second-degree reckless homicide (maximum punishment: 25 years in prison) for their failure to seek medical attention for their ailing daughter - relying instead on prayer - who withered away and died of a treatable form of diabetes. This death and the suffering visited upon 11-year old Madeline was unnecessary and unjustified. Yet, at the same time, I do feel for her parents, as I’m quite confident that they meant well and felt that their years of relying on prayer to the exclusion of medical treatment as an exercise and demonstration of their faith was in their, their children’s and their believed-in God’s best interests. In terms of their reason and behaviour, I would not say that they were good parents (i.e., parents who could protect their children as could reasonably be expected of them). But in terms of their intentions, I have no reason to think that they didn’t mean very well. In this sense, it is quite saddening that apparently well-meaning people who have lived in a culture which generally shows a high level of respect for religious faith and regularly disparages those who do not are being sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence and being separated from their other children, family and friends.

This case is an illustration of the sorts of things that can happen as a result of a culture giving undue deference to religious beliefs and making some areas of honest and fair debate socially inappropriate.

North Dakota Secularists File Lawsuit Against City of Fargo

From Ed Brayton:

The Red River Freethinkers have filed suit against the city of Fargo, North Dakota over their refusal to allow a monument citing the Treaty with Tripoli to be placed near the Ten Commandments monument on city property. The Treaty with Tripoli, negotiated under George Washington and signed by John Adams in 1797, includes the statement “As the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion…”.

Have you been expelled from pro-Expelled media (e.g., blogs)?

I was recently prevented from expressing dissent on a pro-Expelled blog. I know that I am not the first person to have been expelled for disagreeing with IDists, and will surely not the be last. PZ Myers of Pharyngula has been banned from commenting on a number of pro-ID blogs (e.g., Uncommon Dissent) and was prevented from attending a public pre-screening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (even though he went through all the right channels to gain admission and was also, y’know, IN THE MOVIE!). Larry Moran of Sandwalk has also been banned by pro-ID blogs like UD. Moreover, Blake Stacey recently chronicled a long list of evolutionists who have been fired, demoted, harassed, threatened, assaulted, and in one case killed for defending evolution and/or publicly dismissing Creationism or Christianity.

Given all of the discussion that is taking place around the Net right now over Expelled, evolution and Intelligent Design Creationism, the purpose of this post is to see who else has been expelled from commenting on pro-Expelled or pro-ID media, such as blogs. A post specifying such censorship (including links to blogs and the blogs of the expelled) will be produced.

So, I was Expelled from a Pro-Expelled Blog…

Initially, I wasn’t going to post on this out of consideration for the blogger that took my posts down - or didn’t let them go through in the first place. But given the importance of the issue, the fact that I know that I am not the only one who has been silenced in this way by people claiming to be for the free exchange of ideas and wanting to hear “both sides”, and given the incredible amounts of dishonesty, ignorance and information-filtering that surrounds this crocumentary, I’ve decided otherwise. Read on to hear about how I, like surely many others, was expelled from commenting on Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

On personal spiritualism and liberal religiosity

A little while back a friend asked me if I thought that recent violent acts by religious fundamentalists have stained the benefits of interiorized spirituality. Since this is a good question and one at the heart of much of my thinking on religion and “spirituality” (I’ll explain the shutter quotes later), I figured I’d make my response a fairly detailed blog post, and also address some related issues that she may not have actually had in mind.

Paul Kurtz, Center For Inquiry: Expelled is anti-science propaganda and anti-intellectualism at its worst

As a member of the Center For Inquiry, the world’s leading secular and rationalist advocacy organization, I received the following message in an email from CFI today:

CFI’s Paul Kurtz Joins the Chorus of Critics Dismissing Ben
Stein’s “Expelled” as Anti-Science Propaganda

Paul Kurtz, founder and chairman of the Center for Inquiry, has
called the new anti-evolution film “Expelled:No Intelligence
Allowed” featuring Ben Stein, “anti-science propaganda” and an
“exercise in anti-intellectualism at its worst.”

Kurtz went on to say that “the social and scientific progress we
take for granted has been advanced by a basic scientific and
philosophical point of view. As this new film makes abundantly
clear, the methods of the sciences, and the assumptions upon
which they are based, are being challenged culturally in the
United States with a renewed fervor. Despite its success in
providing us with unparalleled benefits, anti-intellectual
extremists seek to inhibit free inquiry and misrepresent the
tested conclusions of scientific inquiry. This is a highly
charged political issue, as science is under political attack.
Regrettably, we seem not to have come far culturally since the
Scopes “monkey” trial.”

CFI is particularly troubled by the fact that Stein and his
producers apparently engaged in a shameless array of dirty
tricks and dishonest tactics, among which many are detailed here
by Scientific American. Even FOX News has felt compelled to wax
critical about the film, saying that the film is “a sloppy,
all-over-the-place, poorly made ‘expose’ of the scientific
community….showing that Stein, who’s carved out a career
selling eye drops in commercials and amusing us on sitcoms, is
either completely nuts or so avaricious that he?s abandoned all
good sense to make a buck.”

In response, CFI’s Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) has
published a devastating critique of the film in the latest issue
(May/June 2008 ) of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Recently, CFI published an extensive position paper authored by
Barbara Forrest demonstrating convincingly that the ID movement
is simply a continuation of creationism.