Evolution Sunday

Happy Evolution Sunday. In case you missed it, yesterday was the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin. A number of churches had sermons promoting evolution.

At the Evanston Mennonite Church, Susan Fisher Miller, 48, an editor and English professor, said, "I completely accept and affirm the view of God as creator, but I accommodate evolution within that."

To Ms. Fisher Miller, alternatives to evolutionary theory proposed by its critics, such as intelligent design, seem an artificial way to use science to explain the holy. (NY Times)

Someone here has a misconception. I don't know if it's Ms. Miller or the reporter, but her description of accommodating evolution within the view of God as creator sounds exactly like "intelligent design". Or maybe I'm the one with the misconception?

What many religious people have a problem with is many evolutionists' declaration that God had nothing to do with the way the world turned out. This is something the latter can't prove, something that cannot be scientifically verified, something scientists have no business saying. Feel free to offer your opinion, but isn't that all the ID'rs are doing? There's no need to get huffy about it.

But if one is going to be dogmatic about God not being involved, well now, that strikes me as religious and fundamentalist as can be. You don't know it for a fact and you shouldn't care, if you're really a scientist. Go back to work and leave the fundamentalism to the professionals.

Small minded elitism

we should not cater to small mindedness on the Right or on the Left. The prejudice of many people on the Left against religious and spiritual people, the view that they must necessarily be on a lower level of intellectual or psychological development if they believe in God, is a view that is elitist and destructive.

We need to make that kind of elitism as unwelcome in the Left as we once had to make sexist or homophobic approaches to the world. [...]

Leftists have to decide if they are more attached to winning peace, justice, and environmental sanity in the world -- in which case they need to make hostility to religion and spirituality an unwelcome sentiment on the Left -- or if they are more attached to their cynicism and elitism and ability to laugh at or ridicule those who hold on to a religious and spiritual vision of the world.

Michael Lerner on laughing with Bill Maher.

Evangelicals against global warming

Kudos to the 86 evangelical Christian leaders who are backing legislation that would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."

Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."

"For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the statement said. "Indeed, many of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians. But now we have seen and heard enough."

The statement calls for federal legislation that would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions through "cost-effective, market-based mechanisms" -- a phrase lifted from a Senate resolution last year and one that could appeal to evangelicals, who tend to be pro-business. The statement, to be announced in Washington, is only the first stage of an "Evangelical Climate Initiative" including television and radio spots in states with influential legislators, informational campaigns in churches, and educational events at Christian colleges.

And a big raspberry to "some of the nation's most high-profile evangelical leaders" who are trying to derail such statements.

Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, "Global warming is not a consensus issue." Among the signers were Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Their letter was addressed to the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group of churches and ministries, which last year had started to move in the direction of taking a stand on global warming. The letter from the 22 leaders asked the National Association of Evangelicals not to issue any statement on global warming or to allow its officers or staff members to take a position.

E. Calvin Beisner, associate professor of historical theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., helped organize the opposition into a group called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance. He said Tuesday that "the science is not settled" on whether global warming was actually a problem or even that human beings were causing it. And he said that the solutions advocated by global warming opponents would only cause the cost of energy to rise, with the burden falling most heavily on the poor.

I don't buy this reasoning that "do nothing about global warming" evangelicals are motivated by their concern for the poor. Basically everything falls "most heavily on the poor" (including the effects of global warming). They might as well advocate removal of safety standards in automobiles such as air bags because they increase the cost, "with the burden falling most heavily on the poor."

PS: Blithering Idiot says:

First, I am not sure that "global warming" exists; second, I'm not sure, if it does, that it is human-created; third, I'm not sure it would be a bad thing if it did exist.

I think it's pretty well established that the Earth is getting warmer. It's harder to determine how much of it is due to human activity. We've gotten warmer pretty fast in the last 40 years, which might make us think our pollution is having a great affect, but it's been warmer than this even before the industrial revolution. As to whether global warming might be a good thing, BI cites how between 750 and 800 there was global warming and great abundance. In northern Europe. No word yet on how the rest of the world fared!

Hybrids begets gas guzzlers

The NY Times had an article yesterday about how buying a hybrid may have zero effect on how much oil the US saves.

This is because of the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) rule, which sets the minimum average gas mileage a manufacturer's product can have. Right now all of a maker's automobiles must average 27.5 miles per gallon, with its light trucks averaging 21.5 mpg. If a manufacturer has a car that averages 26.5 mpg, it must have another car that averages 28.5 mpg to make up for it.

So here's where the hybrids come in: if a hybrid truck averages 26.5 mpg, that allows a manufacturer to have another truck that averages 16.5 mpg. If they can make a hybrid truck that averages 31.5 mpg, they can have another truck that averages 11.5 mpg. So everyone that buys a hybrid with better mileage is essentially allowing someone else to buy a worse gas guzzler. As far as the country is concerned its a zero-sum game because every gallon of fuel you save is consumed by someone else.

This does not appear to be the case with Toyota's Prius (and, I imagine, Honda's hybrids as well). Toyota's cars are above the 27.5 average so buying a Prius does not mean Toyota is going to push the envelope in manufacturing gas-guzzling cars. But not so with Toyota's light trucks & SUVs. They are very close to the 21.5 mpg minimum, so your buying a Highlander hybrid means someone else can buy the Lexus SUV. Ditto for Ford's Escape hybrid; most likely a Lincoln Navigator owner will thank you.

The article offers two ways to really decrease the country's consumption of oil: financial incentives or financial disincentives (i.e., gas tax). I'd offer a third: increase the CAFE minimums.

Windows OneCare Live

Starting in June, Microsoft will charge users $49 for Windows OneCare Live, a subscription security service meant to protect you from the nasty malware that takes advantage of Microsoft's mistakes. You can't help but admire the vertical effectiveness of selling both the problem and the solution.

John Murrell

Black genocide

The Democratic Party, true to its pro-slavery past, recently defined another group of human beings as non-citizens, thereby excluding them from legal protection under the law. This group of Americans is the unborn. In the tortured reasoning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, unborn children are essentially property. And just as the Dred Scott case predominantly (though not exclusively) affected African Americans, the Roe v. Wade decision has paved the way for a veritable black genocide.

Recent statistics indicate that since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population by over 25%.

Cook County Republican Party (via ProLifeBlogs)

Spontaneous Muslim rage

The more you study this story of "spontaneous" Muslim rage, the odder it seems.

The complained-of cartoons first appeared in October; they have provoked such fury only now. As reported in this newspaper yesterday, it turns out that a group of Danish imams circulated the images to brethren in Muslim countries. When they did so, they included in their package three other, much more offensive cartoons which had not appeared in Jyllands-Posten but were lumped together so that many thought they had.

It rather looks as if the anger with which all Muslims are said to be burning needed some pretty determined stoking. Peter Mandelson, who seems to think that his job as European Trade Commissioner entitles him to pronounce on matters of faith and morals, accuses the papers that republished the cartoons of "adding fuel to the flames"; but those flames were lit (literally, as well as figuratively) by well-organised, radical Muslims who wanted other Muslims to get furious.

Charles Moore

Ford subcompact

Ford may not be bringing the Ka to the US (at least not yet) but word has it that Ford is working with Mazda on a common platform for the next-generation Fiesta and Mazda 2. Still, it may be several years before we see anything in the US.

Siding with the strong

The Democratic Party, in many ways, abandoned its great tradition of caring for the weakest members of our society. It has elevated a philosophy of choice and individual autonomy above the needs of the unborn, the handicapped, and, on the question of euthanasia, the elderly. These are the very people I thought the Democratic Party should care about.

Bush administration senior policy advisor and speechwriter Michael Gerson on why he left the Democratic Party in the 1980s.

Colorado child abuse legislation targets Catholics

The Colorado Senate and Legislature are considering bills that remove damage caps and statute of limitations in child sex abuse crimes. The problem? Public schools are exempted.

But public institutions, including schools, remain protected under the principle of "sovereign immunity," which curtails the ability of citizens to seek harsh penalties against the government.
[...]
People who wish to pursue a lawsuit against a public institution have only 180 days to file an intent-to-sue notice and their damages are capped at $150,000.

Wow. Way to cover your a**, Colorado. In the meantime, be sure to continue fighting the fight against perpetrators employed by private (read: Catholic) schools. You have to look like you're doing something to protect children from abuse, and if it doesn't come out of your pocket all the better.