Denialism

Category: Religious Extremism

  • Dr. Egnor: taking medicocrity to a whole new level

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    MarkH
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    I hate to do this to you but I have to fisk a fisking. You see, Dr. Michael Egnor, the creationist neurosurgeon, was a bit miffed about my takedown of a particularly idiotic post of his. For those of you who left your program at the gate, Egnor is a (apparently competent) neurosurgeon in New…

  • False equality

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    MarkH
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    I’m off to the west coast (of Michigan) for a few days, and if I don’t blog, I shall die…or something. So I have a few posts from my old blog to share with you. As my child approaches school age, I worry about school board battles a little bit more. I hate politics, but…

  • Mormons Supporting CA Gay Marriage Ban Big Time

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    Chris
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    Here’s a bit of a surprise. In California, our Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. Opponents quickly arranged a ballot proposition to reverse the ban. Support for the ban has been slipping, from almost 50% earlier in the year, to 42% in July, and now to 38% in the latest Field Poll. Mark Schoofs reports in…

  • A very confused pharmacist

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    MarkH
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    I’ve written often about the ethics of doctors and pharmacists imposing their own morals on their patients and customers. Our Sb pharmacologist has as well. And even though all of our legitimate professional organizations recognize this line, Bush’s Department of Health and Human Services has jumped into the ring to join a fight that should…

  • Theocracy in action—HHS proposes to limit birth control

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    MarkH
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    I’m so angry I can barely type coherently. I have very strong feelings about abortion, but I believe it is possible to respectfully disagree about the ethical issues involved. I have an obstetrics colleague who does not perform abortions, but refers patients needing this service to others. That’s the ethical way for a doctor to…

  • PZ vs. the cracker

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    MarkH
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    I was trying to avoid weighing in on this one, but blogorrhea always wins. I won’t bother rehashing the details of the imbroglio—if you don’t know, well, you’ve been sleeping. Go on…google “pharyngula cracker”…I can wait. OK, now that you’ve caught up, here’s my two cents. I’m conflicted about this. It’s not usually a good…

  • NISSSBETTTTTT!!!!

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    MarkH
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    Arghhh!!! Framing. What is it? Is it a way of communicating issues effectively to diverse populations? Or is it another word for compromising your values until they become meaningless? In his latest piece, SciBling Matt Nisbet shows it to be the latter. While many of us are shaking our heads as we are forced to…

  • The Taiping Rebellion—mass murder in the name of Jesus’s crazy little brother

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    MarkH
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    A number of years ago, I saw an older physician reading a book with an intriguing title—God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, by Jonathan Spence. Like most Americans, I know very little about Chinese history. I certainly had no idea that there was a massive civil war in 19th century China…

  • Faith Healing in the WSJ

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    MarkH
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    The WSJ brings us news of increasing opposition to laws that would protect faith healing. Or as I call it, negligence. As usual it has required the death of innocents before people will come to grips with common sense. The recent death from untreated diabetes of an 11-year-old Wisconsin girl has invigorated opposition to obscure…

  • Just one more note on Expelled

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    MarkH
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    Many of my fellow bloggers, and many fellow Michiganders, have noted a breath of fresh air out of (ironically) the Motor City. This quote from Real Detroit Weekly’s review of Expelled hits on an important point. By way of background, the following quote refers to the incident where biologist PZ Myers (who happens not to…