http://www.christianpost.com/news/trial-begins-in-nasa-intelligent-design-discri\
mination-case-70875/

Trial Begins in NASA Intelligent Design Discrimination Case

By Jonathan Moormann
Christian Post Contributor
March 6, 2012

(excerpts)

A lawsuit between Jet Propulsion Labs and a NASA mission specialist who claims
he was demoted for his beliefs begins Wednesday, the latest in a series of court
cases featuring intelligent design proponents suing former employers.

David Coppedge was employed at the JPL for 14 years and served as an information
technology specialist on the Cassini mission to Saturn before being demoted. He
first took his case to court in the summer of 2010 and was later fired in Jan.
2011.

In the complaint, Coppedge alleges that he was demoted and disciplined for
discussing intelligent design with co-workers and distributing DVDs on the
subject.

Other JPL employees were not penalized for expressing similar views in
opposition of intelligent design, according to Coppedge's lawyers.

According to Coppedge's supervisor, other employees complained about his
actions, saying they were harassing in nature and disruptive to the workplace.

The supervisor also says that Coppedge received a written warning prior to his
demotion.

NASA and the JPL have remained relatively quiet with regard to Coppedge's case
and could not be reached for comment.

The case has received the support of both the Alliance Defense Fund and the
Discovery Institute, who have frequently spoken out on behalf of intelligent
design.

> "Mr. Coppedge has always maintained that
> intelligent design is a scientific theory,
> but JPL has illegally discriminated against
> him on the basis of what they deem is 'religion,'"

said the ADF in a release.

In the first direct challenge to intelligent design theory in the U.S. courts,
Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District, the majority opinion stated that
intelligent design could not be taught in biology classes because it

> "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist,
> and therefore religious, antecedents."

However, as the Discovery Institute points out,

> "Since 2011, the California Science Center,
> University of Kentucky, and the journal Applied
> Mathematics Letters each paid settlements ranging
> from $10,000 to more than $100,000 to avoid trial
> for suppressing Darwin-doubting viewpoints."

-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------

--- In Maury_and_Baty@yahoogroups.com,
Charles Weston wrote:

> Shame the AP people don't have the conjones
> to put their nonsense on a blog where readers
> could comment.

HMM!

Forbes On-Line has had a column posted by Ken Ham in days gone by and a number
of columns/articles regarding creationism.

Maybe I can get my new found friend over their to post a column on the "Goliath
of GRAS"!

That would be nice!

Sincerely,
Robert Baty

--- In Maury_and_Baty@yahoogroups.com,
"rlbaty50" <rlbaty@...> wrote, in part:

> Forbes On-Line has had a column posted by
> Ken Ham in days gone by and a number of
> columns/articles regarding creationism.
>
> Maybe I can get my new found friend over
> there to post a column on the "Goliath of GRAS"!
>
> That would be nice!

I also have now noticed that Forbes had an article from Jonathan Wells back in
the day.  PZ Myers responded with a critical article on his blog.

So, maybe there is some hope that my "Goliath of GRAS" will be making an
appearance on Forbes On-Line.  After all, the young-earthers appear to this day
to be making news on their efforts to influence legislation and work their way
into the public school science curricula.

Sincerely,
Robert Baty

Those radical, offensive atheists!
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/02/those-radical-offensive-atheists/

And those anti-atheist Christians (and other religious people who are just as
bigoted) who do these kinds of things wonder why we laugh at their rhetorical
justifications for their censorship.

- Todd Greene

http://www.christianpost.com/news/crystal-cathedral-treading-water-family-member\
s-fired-hour-of-power-goes-to-reruns-70987/

Crystal Cathedral Treading Water?
Family Members Fired!
'Hour of Power' Goes to Reruns!

By Luiza Oleszczuk
Christian Post Reporter
March 7, 2012

(excerpts)

Three family members of Crystal Cathedral's founder, the Rev. Robert H.
Schuller, including the executive producer of the "Hour of Power," were fired by
a vote of the ministry's board last week, it emerged Tuesday. In addition,
ministry leaders are considering putting the ailing "Hour of Power" into reruns.

Crystal Cathedral's December donations plunged by 68 percent, as the ministry
collected $7.3 million in December 2010 and $2.3 million in December 2011,
according to The Los Angeles Times.

Robert H. Schuller founded the ministry nearly 50 years ago and led the "Hour of
Power" to be one of the most popular televised sermon shows in the country for a
while, watched by a million viewers every week.

Today, the founder and his wife seem to be in the dark about the future of the
program, as they told reporters.

--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------

http://www.repealcreationism.com/678/75-nobel-laureate-scientists-call-for-repea\
l-of-louisiana-science-education-act/

75 Nobel laureate scientists call for repeal of Louisiana Science Education Act

by Zack Kopplin
March 6, 2012

For Immediate Release

Baton Rouge, LA — (March, 6, 2012) – Senator Karen Carter Peterson (D-New
Orleans) has filed Senate Bill 374 to repeal the Louisiana Science Education
Act, Louisiana's misnamed and misguided creationism law.

The repeal effort now has the unprecedented support of 75 Nobel laureate
scientists–nearly 40% of all living Nobel laureate scientists in physics,
chemistry, or physiology or medicine.

This incredible number surpasses the historic 72 Nobel laureate scientists who
filed an amicus brief in opposition to Louisiana's first creationism law during
the Edwards v. Aguillard Supreme Court case.

A complete list of Nobel laureates supporting the repeal effort can be found
here: http://www.repealcreationism.com/endorsements/

Nobel laureate chemist and supporter of the repeal effort Sir Harry Kroto says,

> "One can only be amazed that [the repeal] has
> managed to assemble such massive support (75
> Nobel laureates) for the effort to ensure that
> only educational material which is supported
> by reliable evidence is presented in the science
> lessons of Louisiana's schools."

Earlier this year the conservative Thomas Fordham Institute released a report
that said Louisiana's science standards suffer from a "devastating flaw" because
of the Louisiana Science Education Act.

The report said:

> "The Louisiana science standards are reasonably
> challenging and comprehensive, but they suffer from
> a devastating flaw: Thanks to the state's 2008 Science
> Education Act, which promotes creationism instead of
> science, the standards (especially for biology and
> life science) are haunted by anti-science influences
> that threaten biology education in the state."

> "This year the Governor has asked the Louisiana
> legislature to focus on education,"

said Senator Peterson.

> "If this Legislative session is truly about improving
> Louisiana's education system, then the first place to
> start is to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act."

------------------------------------
------------------------------------

Where does Ken Ham propose to go in his interpretation of Genesis if some things
are actually more than a few thousand years old?

Ken Ham doesn't appear to tell us!

Maybe later.

Ken Ham still has refused to respond to my "Goliath of GRAS" inquiry.  Ha! 
Looks like Ken Ham is on the run from my "Goliath of GRAS"!

For now, Ken is just proposing to offer some of his opposition theories for what
they may be worth:

--------------------------------------

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/oect/other-interpretations

Other "Interpretations" of Genesis

by Tim Chaffey and Jason Lisle
March 8, 2012

(excerpts)

The purpose of this section is to define some of the interpretive schemes that
have arisen since the idea of vast ages became popular in the late 18th and
early 19th centuries.

Please bear in mind that old-earth theologies were essentially non-existent
prior to 1800.

This fact alone provides strong evidence that these views are not derived from
the Bible. Instead, they are an attempt to accommodate the long ages promoted by
uniformitarian science.

The Gap Theory

...

Theistic Evolution

...

The Day-Age Theory

...

Progressive Creation

...

Framework Hypothesis

...

Other Views

There have been other attempts to synchronize the Bible's account of creation
with the evolutionary viewpoint.

Two of these views have diminished in popularity in the past few decades.

The revelatory day view...

The other view is called the literal-day-with-gaps. This view...

Numerous other minor views have been proposed in an effort to harmonize Genesis
1–11 with secular scientific opinion.

Those described here represent the vast majority of believers who seek this
harmonization.

The very fact that so many views exist provides evidence that each of them is
inherently flawed.

Footnotes

Weston Fields, Unformed and Unfilled
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2005).

----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------

http://www.pepperdine.edu/biblelectures/welcome/rushford-center.htm

The Rushford Center Fund
Honoring Jerry Rushford

Jerry Rushford

The indefatigable spirit of Dr. Jerry Rushford has influenced the Pepperdine
University Bible Lectures for three decades.

This year, Jerry will depart his director post at the close of the Bible
Lectures. On Friday evening, May 4, he will deliver the final keynote address
entitled, "The Wondrous Story."

Following the Bible Lectures, Jerry will begin an exciting new ministry on our
campus.

Honoring his leadership and scholarship as a church historian, Pepperdine is
preparing to establish

> The Jerry Rushford Center for Research on
> Churches of Christ and the Stone-Campbell
> Restoration Movement.

Within it, Jerry will oversee the work of the Churches of Christ Heritage Center
he founded in 2009.

He will also plan and host lecture programs and produce publications related to
the history of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.

The Rushford Center will be housed in Payson Library.

---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------

http://www.ffrf.org/news/blog/anthony-comstock-lives/

FFRF Blog

Anthony Comstock lives
March 8, 2012

By Annie Laurie Gaylor
FFRF Co-President

It is outlandish that in the 21st century, women are being forced to re-defend
the long-won right of contraception. The right to contraception, first secured
as a constitutional right of privacy by the Supreme Court in a 1965 decree,
Griswold v. Connecticut, was a done deal.

Not anymore.

In January, Rick Santorum told ABC News he opposed Griswold, averring that
contraception should be left up to states to ban or not. Translation:
Connecticut had the right to bar married couples from purchasing or using
contraception! Anthony Comstock lives!

The bizarre temper of the times is revealed by Rush Limbaugh's scurrilous attack
on the appealing young Georgetown law student who was muzzled when she tried to
defend Obama's contraceptive policy to a roomful of Congressmen and clerics.

Limbaugh essentially labeled as "sluts" all young women who use birth control
pills.

His belated "apology," grudgingly offered to placate advertisers, is not
accepted.

Much of what is wrong with the United States is due to the influence of this
demagogue.

Why is he even on the air?

Let's hope the advertising backlash rings in the death knell for his radio
career.

Limbaugh's remarks (initially defended by Newt Gingrich, et. al) follow the
grotesque remarks in February of millionaire Santorum backer Foster Friess.

Back in the late sixties and early seventies as a young teenager tabling for
Zero Population Growth tables, I used to commonly hear (and wince at) that
remark every time I staffed a booth. Older men would approach the table to leer
about the "tarts" who went out "and got themselves pregnant," and how they ought
to have put "an aspirin between their knees."

I never expected to hear this vulgar and demeaning line repeated in the 21st
century as part of a presidential campaign.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation exists because religion's war against women
and reproductive rights was the wake-up call to the dangers of religion in
government for FFRF's principal founder.

Her phone never stopped ringing after my mother, as editor of a weekly
newspaper, wrote the first editorial in support of legalizing abortion in
Wisconsin. She went on to woman a hotline on contraception, and abortion
services when it was still illegal, and founded the Wisconsin Committee to
Legalize Abortion.

She began raising funds to assist women without means to pay for abortion care
by the early 1970s and at 85 is still administering the all-volunteer Women's
Medical Fund, which has helped well over 20,000 women exercise their rights
under Roe v. Wade in Wisconsin.

She is such an old-timer in the abortion rights movement that she served on the
governing board of NARAL when it stood for National Association for the Repeal
of Abortion Laws! (It later was changed to the National Abortion Rights Action
League and today is NARAL Pro-Choice America).

It was always religion, usually Catholic dogma, that was thrown out as
justification to deny reproductive freedom in those early days of the movement
as it is today. During heated hearings in the Wisconsin State Capitol on
contraception in the early seventies, nuns, priests and bused-in parochial
school students filled the state Rotunda, and where the "anti" testimony all
began, "God's law says . ."

In Wisconsin, we had special insight to the harm of the Catholic Church's
political fight against reproductive rights because we were fighting that church
on contraception long after the Griswold decision.

Wisconsin was the last state in the union to legalize contraceptives for
unmarried people.

Up until a federal court decision in 1974, a state statute referred to
contraceptives as "indecent articles," a vestige of the notorious 19th century
Comstock laws, and forbade their sale to the unmarried.

Were it up to our conservative Catholic-dominated Wisconsin State legislature,
"indecent articles" would still be off limits.

The bible and the Christian Church are still, as Elizabeth Cady Stanton found
more than 100 years ago, the major stumbling block to woman's emancipation.

With the defeat by a narrow 51-48 margin a week ago of the Blunt Amendment to
override President Obama's contraception mandate in the Senate, it's currently
Women 1, Orthodoxy 0.

But the Catholic Church, now joined by Protestant fundamentalists and
evangelicals who are increasingly siding with that church against birth control,
has promised not to give up.

The House version has more than 200 sponsors.

It's going to take vigilance to defeat the latter-day Comstockians playing
football with women's rights and lives.

Once more the assault against women's rights has taken center stage as the most
significant state/church battle of our time.

-------------------------------------
-------------------------------------

http://notesfromthequad.yale.edu/meet-greg-sterling-next-dean-yale-divinity-scho\
ol

Meet Greg Sterling, the next dean of Yale Divinity School

by Gustav Spohn
Director of Communications and Publications
March 2, 2012

(excerpts)

In 1990, YDS Dean Harold Attridge was a professor in Notre Dame's Department of
Theology when Gregory E. Sterling, an up-and-coming New Testament scholar from
the Graduate Theological Union, joined the faculty as an assistant professor.

Now, two decades later, Attridge has the pleasure of welcoming Sterling once
again—this time to Yale Divinity School, where Sterling will succeed Attridge as
dean.

In an email to the broader YDS community—including students, faculty, staff, and
alumni—Yale President Richard Levin announced his decision to appoint Sterling,
who is currently dean of the Graduate School and professor of theology at Notre
Dame.

Sterling is not only a professor and administrator.

Like his father before him, he is a minister in the Churches of Christ, a
denomination of about 1.6 million that, among other things, has a heritage of
ecumenical involvement and is distinctive in lts liturgical preference for a
capella music in four part harmony over instrumental music.

For 16 of his years at Notre Dame, until 2009, he served as a part-time minister
for the Warsaw Church of Christ in Warsaw, IN.

In an interview, Sterling spelled out what he believes will be the biggest
challenge of his deanship at YDS:  the impact of the school on American religion
and on global religion.  He said he hopes to use YDS

> "as a platform so that we can address the
> global context in which we appreciate and
> value other religions without surrendering
> Christian identity so that we are unashamedly
> Christian but not narrowly Christian."

Sterling also notes,

> "YDS has a rich faculty tradition. The
> quality of the faculty has always been
> exceptional. It is an honor to be associated
> with the current faculty and the YDS tradition."

From 2007-11, Sterling served as chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the
Society of Biblical Literature and has had an active role as well with the
Catholic Biblical Association.

He currently serves as general editor for both the Philo of Alexandria
Commentary Series (E.J. Brill) and the Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity
Series (University of Notre Dame Press).

Sterling earned a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies/New Testament from the Graduate
Theological Union; an M.A. in Classics from the University of California, Davis;
an M.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University; a B.A. in Christianity and
History from Houston Baptist University; and an A.A. in Biblical Studies from
Florida College.  He also did post-baccalaureate work in Classics at the
University of Houston.

Sterling grew up in a Christian household (California and Idaho) where the
rhythm of life was delimited by Sunday morning worship, Sunday evening worship,
and Wednesday night prayer service.

His father was a Churches of Christ minister for 46 years.

His mother essentially shared in the ministry, focusing on care of people no one
else would help—the mentally challenged, the indigent and, in Sterling's words,
"some simply outside the system."

He recalled,

> "The home I grew up in was something like
> a hotel.  We had people on a regular basis...
> We had people live with us who were indigent...
> It wasn't a job.  It was the way my parents
> lived. That shaped my upbringing in a profound
> way."

-------------------------------------
-------------------------------------

It seems to me that the Catholic folks represented in the article prefer to
"dish it out" rather than "take it":

----------------------------------------------

http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/anti-catholic-bigotry-steroids

Anti-Catholic Bigotry on Steroids

by Michael Sean Winters
March 09, 2012

A new ad ( http://ffrf.org/uploads/legal/QuitCatholicAd.pdf ) set to run in
prominent newspapers from the Freedom From Religion Foundation is so chock full
of anti-Catholic bigotry and pure venom, one is tempted to fret that we should
expect an anti-Popery riot sometime soon.

Of course, it tells you something about the secular left that they seem more
concerned with lifestyle choices than with life itself, which ends for them and
for us, in the grave. They do not acknowledge that the Church has something to
do with proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ, but that would probably not
impress them. If they were to be confronted with deLubac's beautiful sentence -
what would I know of Him, but for her - they would not likely see the value of
knowing Him.

In the small print, they same something about being "free thinkers."

This brings to mind a joke I was told by one of my Jewish mentors.

An aspiring free thinker goes to visit the Great Free Thinker of Minsk.

He knocks at the door and a servant answers it but explains that the Great Free
Think of Minsk is saying his afternoon prayers, and the young man should come
back later.

When he returns several hours later, he is told that the Great Free Thinker is
saying his evening prayers, and is instructed to return the following day.

He does so.

The servant explains that the Great Free Think of Minsk if just finishing his
morning prayers, but that he is welcome to have a seat and wait.

Finally, he is ushered in to meet the Great Free Thinker of Minsk.

The young man cannot help but saying that he came twice yesterday and now this
morning, and each time the Great Free Thinker of Minsk was at prayer.

> "Do you not pray?"

asks the Great Free Thinker of Minsk.

> "No,"

says the young man.

> "I am a free thinker."

The Great Free Thinker of Minsk replies,

> "You are not a free thinker
> - you are just a goy."

-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2012/03/09/feedback-timeline-for-the-fl\
ood

Feedback: Timeline for the Flood

by David Wright
March 9, 2012

(excerpts)

> I can find info on the flood but I
> am looking for good estimation fixing
> the date of the flood.

Using the Bible, well-documented historical events,
and some math, we find that the Flood began
approximately 4,359 years ago in the year 2348 BC.

Some may look for an exact date (i.e., month and day),
but we are not given that sort of precision in Scripture.

---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------

You can now go to the referenced website and review the readers' comments there,
including my own that have now been posted there.

Sincerely,
Robert Baty

--- In Maury_and_Baty@yahoogroups.com,
"rlbaty50" <rlbaty@...> wrote:

It seems to me that the Catholic folks represented in the article prefer to
"dish it out" rather than "take it":

----------------------------------------------

http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/anti-catholic-bigotry-steroids

Anti-Catholic Bigotry on Steroids

by Michael Sean Winters
March 09, 2012

A new ad ( http://ffrf.org/uploads/legal/QuitCatholicAd.pdf ) set to run in
prominent newspapers from the Freedom From Religion Foundation is so chock full
of anti-Catholic bigotry and pure venom, one is tempted to fret that we should
expect an anti-Popery riot sometime soon.

Of course, it tells you something about the secular left that they seem more
concerned with lifestyle choices than with life itself, which ends for them and
for us, in the grave. They do not acknowledge that the Church has something to
do with proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ, but that would probably not
impress them. If they were to be confronted with deLubac's beautiful sentence -
what would I know of Him, but for her - they would not likely see the value of
knowing Him.

In the small print, they same something about being "free thinkers."

This brings to mind a joke I was told by one of my Jewish mentors.

An aspiring free thinker goes to visit the Great Free Thinker of Minsk.

He knocks at the door and a servant answers it but explains that the Great Free
Think of Minsk is saying his afternoon prayers, and the young man should come
back later.

When he returns several hours later, he is told that the Great Free Thinker is
saying his evening prayers, and is instructed to return the following day.

He does so.

The servant explains that the Great Free Think of Minsk if just finishing his
morning prayers, but that he is welcome to have a seat and wait.

Finally, he is ushered in to meet the Great Free Thinker of Minsk.

The young man cannot help but saying that he came twice yesterday and now this
morning, and each time the Great Free Thinker of Minsk was at prayer.

> "Do you not pray?"

asks the Great Free Thinker of Minsk.

> "No,"

says the young man.

> "I am a free thinker."

The Great Free Thinker of Minsk replies,

> "You are not a free thinker
> - you are just a goy."

-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------

We do appreciate those young earth creationists who honestly acknowledge the
fact that their beliefs are RELIGIOUS beliefs, such as David Wright does here.
Also, just to clarify, there's not a lick of "well-documented historical events"
documenting any worldwide flood. Not a single historical or archaeological piece
of evidence of any kind substantiating any worldwide flood. Indeed, the
historical and archaeological evidence shows that the idea of a global flood
wiping out all humans on the planet around 4,300 years ago is not just false,
but it's ABSURDLY false (just as absurd as believing that we live on a flat
planet). That "well-documented historical events" reference by Wright refers to
what they use to try to tie down the timing of the Exodus, and then they work
backwards using Bible statements ONLY to estimate the number of years between
Noah's Flood and the Exodus.

And, Of course, young earth creationism doesn't even exist in geological science
today, and has not existed in geological science for over two hundred years,
because the first serious geologists back in the 1700s - who for the most part
were young earth creationists (because of their belief in the Bible) -
discovered that real world geology falsified young earth creationism. Granted,
the specific idea that *some* geology could have been produced by a global flood
a few thousand years ago hung on in the form of "diluvialism" through the early
1800s, but as geological science continued to develop - i.e., as more and more
details about the earth's geology were discovered, and as understanding of
geological processes increased - even diluvialism was falsified by the
mid-1800s. This is the kind of stuff - the historical and geological context of
young earth creationist beliefs - that young earth creationists like to sweep
under the rug and ignore.

- Todd Greene


--- In Maury_and_Baty, Robert Baty posted the following (post #26590):
>
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2012/03/09/feedback-timeline-for-the-fl\
ood
>
> Feedback: Timeline for the Flood
>
> by David Wright
> March 9, 2012
>
> (excerpts)
>
> > I can find info on the flood but I
> > am looking for good estimation fixing
> > the date of the flood.
>
> Using the Bible, well-documented historical events,
> and some math, we find that the Flood began
> approximately 4,359 years ago in the year 2348 BC.
>
> Some may look for an exact date (i.e., month and day),
> but we are not given that sort of precision in Scripture.

I still remember (from back in the 1970s) the young earth creationist Duane Gish
and other YECs teaching everyone that there were no fossils of any multicellular
organisms before the Cambrian. They were factually wrong then, and they're even
more wrong today.

And, of course, since we don't know how this particular organisms reproduced,
that means God did it. (This is according to standard creationist logic: "We
don't know X, therefore God did/does it." AKA, the god-of-the-gaps notion that
permeates creationist rhetoric.)

Chuckling,
Todd Greene

----------------------------------------------------------------

Oldest Organism With Skeleton Discovered in Australia
(Science Daily, 3/8/2012)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120308120105.htm

A team of paleontologists has discovered the oldest animal with a skeleton.
Called Coronacollina acula, the organism is between 560 million and 550 million
years old, which places it in the Ediacaran period, before the explosion of life
and diversification of organisms took place on Earth in the Cambrian.

[...]

The Ediacaran Period, named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, ranges
630-542 million years ago. The Cambrian Period, marked by a rapid
diversification of life-forms on Earth as well as the rise of mineralized
organisms, ranges 542-488 million years ago.

[...]

Study results appeared online Feb. 14 in Geology.

The researchers note that Coronacollina acula lived on the seafloor. Shaped like
a thimble to which at least four 20-40-centimeter-long needle-like "spicules"
were attached, Coronacollina acula most likely held itself up by the spicules.
The researchers believe it ingested food in the same manner a sponge does, and
that it was incapable of locomotion. How it reproduced remains a mystery.

http://www.catholicleague.org/frontal-assault-on-catholicism/

FRONTAL ASSAULT ON CATHOLICISM

March 9, 2012

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Never has there been a more vicious anti-Catholic advertisement in a prominent
American newspaper than the one in today's New York Times by Freedom From
Religion Foundation (FFRF). The demonization of Catholicism is palpable.

The pretext of the ad [click here:
http://www.catholicleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/FFRF-NYT-AD2.pdf ] is
the Catholic Church's opposition to the Health and Human Services mandate
forcing Catholic non-profits to include abortion-inducing drugs, contraception
and sterilization in its insurance plans.

Its real agenda is to smear Catholicism. Here is how the ad begins:

> "It's time to quit the Roman Catholic Church.
> Will it be reproductive freedom, or back to
> the Dark Ages?"

The ad blames the Catholic Church for promoting

> "acute misery, poverty, needless suffering,
> unwanted pregnancies, overpopulation, social
> evils and deaths."

It says the bishops are "launching a ruthless political Inquisition" against
women. It talks about "preying priests" and corruption "going all the way to the
top." In an appeal to Catholic women, it opines,

> "Apparently, you're like the battered woman
> who, after being beaten down every Sunday,
> feels she has no place else to go."

FFRF is led by a husband and wife team, Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker.
Fortunately for Gaylor, her mother did not follow through on the advice she gave
women in her book, Abortion Is a Blessing.

Not a single Catholic who reads this ad will be impelled to leave the Church.

That is not the issue (Catholicism, unlike many other religions, is actually
growing in the U.S., and worldwide).

The issue is the increase in hate speech directed at Catholics.

Nothing will stop Catholics from demanding that the Obama administration respect
their First Amendment rights, this vile assault by FFRF notwithstanding.

Why the Times allowed this ad is another issue altogether.

Contact the "free thought" bigots at FFRF:

> fttoday@...

--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------

Better late than never! Charles Darwin cleared of stealing ideas for theory of
evolution... 40 years after historians first accused him
by Ted Thornhill
(Daily Mail Online, 3/9/2012)
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2112773/Charles-Darwin-finally-cleared-s\
tealing-ideas-theory-evolution--40-years-historians-accused-him.html
[go to link for full article]

Excerpt:

Iconic naturalist Charles Darwin has finally been cleared of stealing ideas that
helped shape his theory of evolution more than 40 years after historians first
accused him.

Researchers assumed Darwin kept a letter from fellow naturalist Alfred Russel
Wallace, also with theories about natural selection, for two weeks - enabling
him to revise elements of his own theory of evolution, before announcing it to
the world in July 1858.

However, scientists turned detective have now vindicated Darwin from the
accusations by tracing historical shipping records to prove he received the
letter a month later than previously thought.

What Have We Got in Common With a Gorilla? Insight Into Human Evolution from
Gorilla Genome Sequence
(Science Daily, 3/7/2012)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120307132210.htm
[go to link for full article]

Excerpt:

Researchers have just completed the genome sequence for the gorilla -- the last
genus of the living great apes to have its genome decoded. While confirming that
our closest relative is the chimpanzee, the team show that much of the human
genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the chimpanzee genome.

Journal Reference:

Insights into hominid evolution from the gorilla genome sequence. Nature, 2012;
483 (7388): 169 DOI: 10.1038/nature10842
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10842

Of course, Bill neglected to mention that, in fact, the vast majority of
Catholic women in the U.S. (who are sexually active) use artificial birth
control methods (I think it's around 70%) - in other words, they IGNORE Catholic
Church doctrine on this, just as the FFRF says they should.

Side note: Atheists love people like Bill Donohue, because of how much they aid
in the growth of atheism.

- Todd Greene


--- In Maury_and_Baty, Robert Baty wrote:
> http://www.catholicleague.org/frontal-assault-on-catholicism/
>
> FRONTAL ASSAULT ON CATHOLICISM
>
> March 9, 2012
>
> Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
>
> Never has there been a more vicious anti-Catholic advertisement in a prominent
American newspaper than the one in today's New York Times by Freedom From
Religion Foundation (FFRF). The demonization of Catholicism is palpable.
>
> The pretext of the ad [click here:
http://www.catholicleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/FFRF-NYT-AD2.pdf ] is
the Catholic Church's opposition to the Health and Human Services mandate
forcing Catholic non-profits to include abortion-inducing drugs, contraception
and sterilization in its insurance plans.
>
> Its real agenda is to smear Catholicism. Here is how the ad begins:
>
> > "It's time to quit the Roman Catholic Church.
> > Will it be reproductive freedom, or back to
> > the Dark Ages?"
>
> The ad blames the Catholic Church for promoting
>
> > "acute misery, poverty, needless suffering,
> > unwanted pregnancies, overpopulation, social
> > evils and deaths."
>
> It says the bishops are "launching a ruthless political Inquisition" against
women. It talks about "preying priests" and corruption "going all the way to the
top." In an appeal to Catholic women, it opines,
>
> > "Apparently, you're like the battered woman
> > who, after being beaten down every Sunday,
> > feels she has no place else to go."
>
> FFRF is led by a husband and wife team, Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker.
Fortunately for Gaylor, her mother did not follow through on the advice she gave
women in her book, Abortion Is a Blessing.
>
> Not a single Catholic who reads this ad will be impelled to leave the Church.
>
> That is not the issue (Catholicism, unlike many other religions, is actually
growing in the U.S., and worldwide).
>
> The issue is the increase in hate speech directed at Catholics.
>
> Nothing will stop Catholics from demanding that the Obama administration
respect their First Amendment rights, this vile assault by FFRF notwithstanding.
>
> Why the Times allowed this ad is another issue altogether.
>
> Contact the "free thought" bigots at FFRF:
>
> > fttoday@...
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------------------
>

A blog entry regarding the Annie Gaylor (FFRF) New York Times advertisement (go
to link for readers' comments):

http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=4981

Freedom From Religion Foundation Ad: "Time to Consider Quitting the Catholic
Church"

Friday, March 09, 2012
Author: Tom Beaudoin

In January of 2011, on this blog, I posted an entry with the title "A New
Post-Catholic State of Awareness: Has Public Discussion of Catholicism Reached a
New Moment?" In that entry, I suggested that "a new courage for telling the
truth about the range of affiliations in and out of Catholicism seems to have
taken over in the last several years, and I wonder if 2010 was the year in which
this dynamism reached a certain irreversibility."

I thought about that irreversibility when, today, I opened the New York Times to
page A13, and I saw a full-page ad by the Freedom From Religion Foundation,
headlined "It's Time to Consider Quitting the Catholic Church." You can see the
ad at the FFRF website here.

The ad, an "open letter to 'liberal' and 'nominal' Catholics," asks Catholics to
consider leaving Catholicism because of a range of public harms that it lists as
being propagated by the Catholic Church, focusing most of all on the recent
debate over contraception. It concludes by pleading, in a pun that would
otherwise be playful were it not so striking in its content, "Please, Exit En
Mass."

A short blog post is not adequate space to think thoroughly enough about this
ad, but I want to offer a few reflections and see what comments folks might have
about it.

Whatever one thinks of this ad, it seems to mark a particular moment in the
unfolding history of the Catholic Church in the United States. That a full-page
ad in one of the most influential newspapers in the country would ask members of
a major religious group to walk away from that group is an extraordinary
occurrence.

I hope that before people take sides pro or con on the ad, before the tendency
to separate into "evil vs. good" or "good vs. evil" here, we might be able to
take this opportunity for some serious thinking, and ask: What is happening with
religion in general and Catholicism in particular today that would make such a
moment possible?

The ad trades on the newly widespread awareness that Catholicism is shedding
adherents: that most Catholics live on the "lower" end between moderate and
marginal affiliation, instead of high affiliation, and that a great many are
actively disaffiliating. It trades on the widely understood distance between
most Catholics' beliefs and practices and official teaching on certain matters.
Most important, as far as I can tell, is its remarkably confident appeal to a
kind of personal agency that would make Catholics, who so often see religion as
something akin to an ethnicity, walk away from it. The example the ad gives is
that of an abusive marriage, and the FFRF is trying to help Catholics who are
the victims-survivors of being married to Catholicism cry "Enough!" That such an
exit is up for public consideration is one of the most telling points here
regarding what is happening with religion in general and Catholicism in
particular.

A Fordham colleague, Prof. Patrick Hornbeck, and I are presently working under a
grant from the Louisville Institute on a study of "deconversion" in Roman
Catholicism. Deconversion, in the theological and religious studies literature,
is the process by which people step away from what they formerly held in
religious belief and practice. It is a deep change of mind and heart about one's
faith, away from where one had been formerly situated. This ad speaks to the
cultural legitimacy that deconversion has achieved (although of course that term
is not used), particularly in regard to Catholicism.

But some of the deconversion literature would suggest that when people do walk
away from their faith/religion/religious community, they don't only want
"freedom from religion." Some switch to another religious denomination or even
another religion, some hang loose and nurture a religious/spiritual life apart
from active affiliations with recognized religious communities, some let go of
faith/religion/spirituality altogether, and some hang on within their religious
community and struggle more or less openly with it. (These "trajectories" are
the findings of Heinz Streib, et al, in the important research study titled
_Deconversion_ (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2009).)

One challenge is that scholars don't have a strong and complex enough sense
about Catholic deconversions. There are very few in-depth deconversion studies
with Catholic (or formerly Catholic) participants. A lot of the research is with
evangelicals and mainline Protestants.

I know there will be those who want to vilify this ad, but I think a more
productive and theologically searching route is to see it as a conversation
starter, for the reasons I suggest above. It is an occasion to think about where
Catholicism stands in our culture, and to ask where things go from here, and
why.

Tom Beaudoin

-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------

Someone claimed the Catholic Church opposed chloroform in the 19th century and
sought to make an analogy to the present controversies.

Here's a link to and excerpts from an article regarding that:

-------------------------------------------------

http://www.churchinhistory.org/pages/booklets/chloroform.htm

SO WHERE DID THIS ANTI-RELIGIOUS MYTH COME FROM?

In 1896, A.D. White, published his: `History of the Warfare of Science with
Theology and Christendom'.

In it he claimed that:

> "From pulpit after pulpit Simpson's use
> of chloroform was denounced as impious
> and contrary to Holy Writ; texts were
> cited abundantly, the ordinary declaration
> being that to use chloroform was; 'to
> avoid one part of the primeval curse on
> woman'."

Simpson wrote pamphlet after pamphlet to defend the blessing which he brought
into use. White didn't cite one source for this anti-religious travesty of
history.

The title of White's book should have put intelligent readers on their guard.
But some people are very uncritical when swallowing anti-religious accounts of
history. White held a high position in University life, so his `example' of a
`typical conflict' between Science and Christian narrow mindedness, was widely
accepted and repeated in book after book. Recently some Radical Feminists have
been trying to exhume the myth.

In 1945 Thomas E. Keys published: `The History of Surgical Anaesthesia'. Keys,
as a librarian, had a good reputation for summarising medical history, but was
not an historian.

In one of his books he included a sentence, which appears to have been based on
White's book. It reads:

> "The Scottish Calvinist clergy and others
> objected to Simpson's use of chloroform to
> prevent the pain of childbirth". ((TEK 33))

In this way Key's book gave a new impetus to the: `narrow-minded Calvanist
clergy' myth.

-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

Well, it appears there is something to the claim, but I don't propose to know
the details.  It may be that, as far as the Catholic angle, many Catholics
opposed the use of the new drug while the Catholic Church did not "officially"
object to it.

Sincerely,
Robert Baty

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57394888/schullers-resign-from-board-of-c\
rystal-cathedral/

March 10, 2012 7:31 PM

Schullers resign from board of Crystal Cathedral

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — Dr. Robert Schuller and his wife Arvella have resigned
from the board of directors of the Crystal Cathedral, the ministry he founded
four decades ago.

Their daughter, Carol Schuller Milner, said Saturday the couple was stepping
down over an inability to agree on a deal for housing benefits and fees for
using the pastor's intellectual property, such as writings and sermons.

Arvella Schuller said negotiations had become

> "adversarial and negative."

A Crystal Cathedral representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

Robert Schuller retired from the ministries in 2006. Last month, the sale of the
financially ailing church to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange was finalized
in a $57.5 million bankruptcy deal.

The church was internationally known for its "Hour of Power" televangelist
program and its glass-paned building.

-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------

You may recall that Peter Reilly has been my recent sponsor, posting some of my
writings on the Forbes website.  Peter has now posted a column of his own
dealing with the mandate and the recent fuss between Cardinal Dolan and Annie
Gaylor.

See:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2012/03/11/would-obama-force-jesus-to-h\
and-out-birth-control-pills/

Sincerely,
Robert Baty

See:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/03/11/evolution-bugs-people/

-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------

--- In Maury_and_Baty@yahoogroups.com,
"rlbaty50" <rlbaty@...> wrote:
>
> See:
>
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/03/11/evolution-bugs-people/

My readers' comment has now been added to that page.

Check it out!

Sincerely,
Robert Baty

Response I just posted here:

Anti-Catholic Bigotry on Steroids
by Michael Sean Winters
(National Catholic Reporter, 3/9/2012)
http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/anti-catholic-bigotry-steroids

------------------------------------------------

If you look at Christian literature - including Catholic literature -
historically you see that Christians have been reveling - or wallowing, rather -
in anti-atheist bigotry for many centuries, and this continues today.

The difference is that now atheists - because there are so many more of them now
than in the past - fight back, and an awful lot of Christians just absolutely
hate it that atheists now dare to speak out and push back against the bigotry
and misrepresentation that's gone on for so many centuries.

So when it comes to complaints about alleged anti-Catholic bigotry on the part
of atheists, my first instinct is to think, oh well, what goes around comes
around. Eventually. So too bad.

But, on the other hand, there is also the fact that a huge number of Christians
express a nonsubstantive knee-jerk reaction of just being "offended" any time
atheists express *truthful* criticisms of particular religious beliefs and
attitudes. So I'd have to have more facts about what the FFRF has actually
stated (and no facts of any kind about that are presented here) before I would
lend any credence to religious believers proclaiming that the organization is
stating something merely out of "bigotry and pure venom".

But there's a further point to be made here: The vast majority of sexually
active women in the United States who are Catholics use artificial birth
control, and thus demonstrate that they - Catholics - just ignore Catholic
religious doctrine on this.

And a final point, in regard to the story told above. "Freethinking" does not
mean gullible. It refers to skepticism toward beliefs without evidence and
consideration of ideas contrary to religious doctrine, while still requiring
evidence in substantiation of those ideas before accepting them as correct.
Stories fabricated to try to denigrate freethinking based on ignoring such
fundamental aspects as this are pointless.

- Todd Greene

--- In Maury_and_Baty@yahoogroups.com,
PIASAN@... wrote, in part:

> The issue is compelling religious institutions
> to pay for behavior the denomination considers
> to be immoral.
>
> (Where to draw the line may be a bit more problematic.)

Pi,

That deals with what I have been trying to point out in my recent contributions
to the Forbes On-Line discussion of the issue.

That is; churches and their integrated auxiliaries are exempt from the mandate
and "where to draw the line" beyond that, if at all.

I have proposed that the Government would do well not to get involved in the
UNconstitutional venture of being forced to pick and choose which organizations,
businesses and individuals exhibit "religious enough" characteristics to gain
the benefit.

The Government has already done that in other areas and that's why we have so
many "basketball ministers" with income tax free housing allowances.

There are better reasons, in my opinion, for opposing ObamaCare.

Now, if we could only get Cardinal Dolan and Annie Gaylor together to discuss
their differences on all of that.

Sincerely,
Robert Baty