What's New Archive ● 2004 ● September
What's New on the Secular Web?
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September 19, 2004
Updated the Islam page in the Theism section of the Secular Web Library with the addition of Predicting Modern Science: Epicurus vs. Mohammed, by Richard Carrier.
Michael Corey claimed in a recent debate that the Koran predicted the expanding universe. But did it? Only if you employ a liberal reading of the original text. Carrier uses the same interpretive methods on the poetry of Lucretius to show that Epicurus was a far more amazing prophet of modern science than Mohammed. Yet if Mohammed really had a pipeline to God, surely he would have done better than a mere mortal who used nothing more than human reason and observation.
Updated the Creationism page in the Science and Religion section of the Secular Web Library with the addition of a link to From the National Academies: Teaching the Science of Evolution (Off Site), by Bruce Alberts and Jay B. Labov.
This article focuses on the Academies' efforts to address challenges to the teaching of evolution in the nation's public schools. It describes the nature of the problem and how the Academies have joined with others in the life and physical science communities to confront it. It also points out what you can do, if and when similar challenges emerge where you live.
September 1, 2004
Feature article: "Three Strikes, You're Out!--The Quick and Dirty Case Against Mormonism," by Kyle Gerkin.
As one can see, every time the Book of Mormon has met a true challenge, the result has been nothing short of colossal failure.
Book-of-the-Month: Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, by Barbara Carroll Forrest and Paul R. Gross.
Forrest and Gross expose the scientific failure, the religious essence, and the political ambitions of "intelligent design" creationism. They examine the movement's "Wedge Strategy," which has advanced and is succeeding through public relations rather than through scientific research. Analyzing the content and character of "intelligent design theory," they highlight its threat to public education and to the separation of church and state. "This book is chilling. It lets one see how totalitarian religious thought can begin to take hold even of a multi-cultural free society."
Video-of-the-Month: The Other Side of Sunday.
This Oscar-nominated Norwegian film's original title was "Sonntagsengel," ("Sunday Angels") which comes close to reflecting the state of innocence and grace from which the young heroine, Maria, attempts to penetrate adult mysteries in defiance of her father, a priest. The story is set in 1959, and Maria is unhappily lagging behind the rock & roll rebellion of her peers. Her father is severe and arbitrary in his judgments of what's best for her, her mother is in and out of a hospital, and her Sundays are spent in church, allegedly hanging on the old man's every word despite her ever-clarifying atheism.
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