Clearwater City Council NOT Going to Stop Anonymous Protesters

The St. Petersburg Times (or the SP Times, heh) is reporting that to the chagrin of some petitioning locals who are primarily Scientologists, the Clearwater City Council has no intent of preventing Anonymous protesters from assembling in downtown Clearwater. As was posted on a few days ago, business workers, managers and owners - again, most of whom are Scientologists - petitioned to have Anonymous protesters banned from protesting in downtown Clearwater, saying that it is negatively affecting their businesses on protest days. They claimed that the protesters were not peaceful (though they gave no actual evidence of this claim), that they were preventing customers from entering their stores, and that they were ruining the local ambiance. The Council spent less than two minutes on this disingenuous clearly cult-related petition, and have no intention of considering the issue any further. Hear, hear!

Just a quick suggestion to local business owners concerned about their financial viability. Y’know what can really hurt your business? Having it located in a town that a malevolent cult is trying and having some success in taking over as their mecca. A recent Gallup study has demonstrated an unsurprising social trend: Scientologists are the least trusted religious/spiritual group in the US. So when retirees who are interested in flying South for their Golden Years, some are probably not going to want to live in a town over-run by aggressive cultists. And when vacationers are picking amongst Florida hotspots, which of the following are they most likely to have an immediately negative opinion of: Daytona, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Orlanda, or Scientologisrael? (Note: I am not implying that contemporary Judaism is morally comparable to Scientology).

For more on Scientology, click here.

Scientologists EXPOSED Trying to Stop Anon Protests in Clearwater (UPDATED)

A group of Clearwater merchants located near the local Cult of Scientology base have produced a petition asking Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard to prevent local Anonymous protesters of the cult from protesting. In reading this petition, it is very clear that Scientology is behind this. The contents of the letter are so completely Scientologized (i.e., full of lies that serve the interests of the Cult of Scientology - feel free to add this term to Urban Dictionary, by the way) as to remove any sense of mystery regarding the primary driving factor behind the petition and the signatures on it.

Excellent Operation: FairGameStop VIDEO MEDIA COVERAGE

Yesterday, May 10, thousands of protesters of the Cult of Scientology assembled outside of CoS buildings around the world. In this post, which will be updated repeatedly, I will be collecting outstanding video media coverage of the protest. Feel free to provide links to media video (as well as other forms of media, which I’ll post separately) in the comment section.

CBS Milwaukee (great coverage of Fair Game policy and the purpose of the protest; reference to Operation Freakout):

Stay tuned for more as video footage is found and post links in the comment section!

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.

Anti-Defamation League Condemns Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

From the official ADL website:

New York, NY, April 29, 2008 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued the following statement regarding the controversial film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

The film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed misappropriates the Holocaust and its imagery as a part of its political effort to discredit the scientific community which rejects so-called intelligent design theory.

Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people and Darwin and evolutionary theory cannot explain Hitler’s genocidal madness.

Using the Holocaust in order to tarnish those who promote the theory of evolution is outrageous and trivializes the complex factors that led to the mass extermination of European Jewry.

As the weeks go by the number of detractors of this crocumentary continues to escalate. The National Center for Science Education’s ExpelledExposed website presents this growing collection of negative reviews, including reviews from national science agencies (e.g., the National Academy of Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science), science and skeptic magazines (e.g., Reason Magazine), individual scientists (e.g., Richard Dawkins), major magazines (e.g., Time, Variety, Slate) and newspapers (e.g., the New York Times), major blogs (e.g., The Huffington Post), and even conservative sources like Fox News and religious organizations such as BeliefNet, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and Reasons to Believe - a Christian organization with which I found things to disagree with very quickly into their statement, but at least we can share some common ground when it comes to this piece of Creationist propaganda.

It seems, once again, that it is the fundamentalists versus the world. And as has always been the case, it is the fundamentalists versus reality. And as Stephen Colbert once pointed out: reality has a well-known liberal bias.

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.

Evolved Rationalist reviews Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

The Evolved Rationalist, in an act of self-sacrifice, has subjected herself and her brain cells (a few thousand of which are probably dead now) to watching Ben Stein et al.’s crocumentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. She reviews the intellectual and moral travesty here.

PS: ER has the best blog tagline I’ve ever seen: We have the fossils. We win.