Another religious fanatic goes ballistic over cartoons, but this time it has nothing to do with Islam:
Soul singer Isaac Hayes said on Monday he was quitting his job as the voice of the lusty character "Chef" on the satiric cable TV cartoon "South Park," citing the show's "inappropriate ridicule" of religion.
Sometimes I like a nice glass of red wine after a hard day's work; many prefer a beer or a martini or a hit of something illegal, but I'll take the red wine. I also enjoy a really great meal -- crisp salad, a main course with a couple of side dishes, some crusty bread, a light dessert. I don't need the meal with the wine or the wine with the meal. Each is enjoyable on its own. But one can complement the other, and there's nothing quite like a great meal with a glass of great red wine.
OK, enough; the "Christmas wars" are getting tiresome. I like this take that strikes a "plague on both their houses" attitude:
Intelligent design has lost big-time in the Dover, Pa., case. Federal Judge John said in his ruling that “We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom." A key point, I think, is Jones' rejection of the notion that evolution is somehow anti-religious:
I'm not Catholic. I'm commenting about the Vatican's new Instruction on not ordaining gays because I think it's an interersting issue of importance to the larger society, not because I want to tell Catholics how to be Catholic.
So, maybe the universe had an intelligent designer, who used evolution as a tool. There now, was that so hard?
Intelligent design has been roundly -- and rightly -- criticized for being bad science. David Darlington at In the Agora makes the valid point that it is also bad religion (or at least incomplete theology):
The god of Intelligent Design is not even an identifiably Christian god. Any religion that posits the existence of a supernatural creator-being can fit under its umbrella. At best, Intelligent Design represents a warmed-over deism, with an eternal watchmaker god.
Yesterday I went off on the people who seem to want a theocracy in the United States. It seems only fair to also say a word or two about the nuts on the other side. Michael Newdow, the pest who has been trying to get the Pledge of Allegiance banned on account of the "under God" phrase, is now going after "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency.
It looks as if there's an outside chance the short session of the General Assembly won't be derailed by a contentious debate on intelligent design. Even some Republicans who might be inclined by philosophical predisposition to support including ID in science classrooms, such as Bill Friend and Brian Bosma, seem to have a good conservative aversion to the state dictating local education issues.
I hate it when the season is rushed. Could we please have a rule that nobody is allowed to sue until after Thanksgiving?
Communities and courts have long fielded protests against municipal creche displays and school Nativity pageants, based on strict views of church-state separation and sensitivity toward religious minorities.
