A Musical Interlude

The songs are all referring to Expelled, the bore-fest of a movie now facing litigation on at least two fronts.

Rhapsody in Lies:

I’ve got a little animation of a cell,
When in haste, copy paste, yes indeed that was the plan, though-
Copyright infringement lawsuit noose is tightening on me

Imagine B.S.:

Imagine there’s no science
So many people do
Nothing to study or wonder
The end of seeking truth
Imagine all the country
Dumber than a post…

via Pharyngula


Not quite in the same vein, I notice that P.Z.'s reaction to the pope's visit was rather similar to mine. All I could feel was mild disgust when I saw how much news coverage it was getting, and note that, yes, this pope looks an awful lot like the emperor from Star Wars. I particularly liked this part of P.Z.'s post.

I am often told that religion is a source of morality. I've read the Bible myself; I can see that there were moral philosophers at work behind that book, that we have a tradition of law in the Old Testament, with a fellow named Jesus adding social justice and concern for the poor and weak in the New that are actually rather commendable. I also see a lot of myth and error and misplaced obsession with the supernatural that rational people are willing to set aside to focus on the core humanitarian message … or at least they do so in the best of circumstances.

Yet what I also see in modern religion is a re-prioritizing: the secular concerns that should matter, the egalitarian word of a religious tradition that valued the cohesion of the social fabric and demanded equal treatment for even the least of society is ignored, given a little lip service perhaps, but made subservient to the intangible theological nonsense of prayer, of an invisible god, of submission to dogma and hope in an unevidenced afterlife.