ABANDON ALL HOPE

Or at least most of it. 

“The fundies are so frightened they are out of their minds. Imagine being enslaved by such a small, in imaginative and venal interpretation of the Creator of the Universe. If there is a such thing as sin, this is a prime example...” Lisa’s comment on my last entry.

And that attitude is a sin. Not against God but against our humanity. Which, I guess is a sin against Creation, in my opinion. If there is a Creator, whoever He or She is they were the ones responsible for our curiosity, our sense of wonder, our drive to learn how the universe works.

I’ve been watching the new Cosmos. I like what I see so far. And I’ve been replaying my DVD’s. Carl Sagan was not only a great teacher, although he does go on a bit occasionally. He was passionate. Passionate about the search for the truth. Passionate about the right of every child to learn the wonders of Creation. Passionate about our, for want of a better word, humanity.

Russell Crowe’s new movie sounds interesting, I probably won’t see it until it comes out on DVD. But, the chorus has already started. “It’s not like the Bible.” Yo, choristers. You do realize that it’s a story right? You can’t take it literally. Right? You do realize that it’s at least two separate versions cobbled together and really could use a good editor. Right. Wrong. Once you’ve locked yourself into Biblical literalism it’s as if you’ve undergone a do it yourself lobotomy. Denial of scientific evidence. Irrational and willfully ignorant. I have no sympathy for you and almost no respect. Actually, what I'm feeling is a lot closer to contempt than lack of respect. 

Or at least a lot of it. 

We’ve launched ships that have helped write the new books on the Solar System. We have telescopes that can literally “hear” the echoes of the Big Bang. When Voyager reached the other side of Neptune’s orbit they turned the ship around and she took a series of now iconic photographs of all the planets and the sun.

And between twenty and twenty five percent of Americans believe that the earth is standingstill and the entire universe is rotating around us. Face palm, head bounce, loud groan. The article didn’t indicate whether the people polled were also asked about their religious beliefs. However, a little time spent surfing the net has me believing that fundamentalist religious beliefs and scientific illiteracy go hand in hand. Don’t believe me? Try Googling fundamentalism and geocentrism. And despair.

Which leads to a comment I made on another thread.

“Yeah, the fundies are crazy but they're determined. And thanks to misused religious freedom laws in this country they're free to indoctrinate their kids in so called Christian schools. Also free to try to screw up public education because they don't want their little darlings exposed to anything that might shake their "faith."

Here's a news flash for you fundies. I have to share a country with your ill educated offspring. That gives me a say in what they're taught. If you can't prove that your curriculum meets basic standards then we'll close you down.

 Oh, I forgot we don't have any basic, national standards in this country because education should be controlled at the local level so our little darlings don't get contaminated by outside influences. In case you didn't figure it out. this is a pet peeve.” I was really on a roll that night. 

The first amendment states that congress will make no laws regarding religion. It doesn’t guarantee that your neighbors won’t come to the conclusion your bats have left the belfry and aren’t coming back. 

GET TO THE BACK OF THE BUS GIRLIE

These are the stories that are the source material for this entry. From the RoanokeTimes and from ABC.

This is a story about a little girl and the obsession of the right wing fundies with sex and sexual identity. It’s an example, in my opinion, of the fundagelical subculture at its very best (worst). While we’re agonizing over whether a local bakery will provide a cake for a gay wedding sectarian academies like this are doing their best to make sure their students, especially girls, “know their place” and what might happen if they dare to color outside the lines.

Her name is Sunnie. She’s being raised by her grandparents. She was enrolled in a local Christian academy as a preschooler. She’s currently in the second grade. But no longer in the “Christian” school. She preferred to wear slacks with her uniform shirt and wasn’t the only girl who did. She likes baseball cards, collects rocks and likes to go BB shooting with her grandfather. Ask if she's a girl and she'll tell you yes. When she was three she asked to have her waist length hair cut and have it donated to cancer patients. Actually I'm not sure if she asked or just got out grandma's scissors and went for it. Instead of celebrating the generosity of a little girl the folks at the school asked if she was lesbian. Remember she was three years old at the time.

Fast forward a couple of years. With an enrollment of just over four hundred from preschool to 12^th grade I’m sure that the kids in first grade know who’s a girl and who’s a boy whether they’re wearing slacks or not. Anyway apparently some of the first grade girls asked if a boy was trying to use the girls’ s bathroom. That was last year.

This year she’s eight years old and in the second grade. This year some of the boys tried to force her into the boy’s bathroom.  Remember what I wrote in my Everything I Needed to Know I learned in Kindergarten Entry. I guess they skipped that lesson back in Virginia. The incident “brought concerns from the school about Sunnie’s gender expression and appearance to the forefront again.” And apparently the grandparents have discussed this with her doctor. The doctor told them not to worry about it until she hits puberty. The response from the school when this information was passed on? That they should “find a Christian doctor.”  WTF????????? It just keeps getting better and better. 

Anyway late in February or early this month the school sent out a letter telling the family that this little girl wouldn’t be allowed to reenroll next year “unless Sunnie as well as her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity."

This is part of the text of the letter. “You’re probably aware that Timberlake Christian Schools is a religious, Bible-believing institution providing education in a distinctly Christian environment, and we believe that our biblical role is to work in conjunction with the home to mold students to be ‘Christlike,’” Bowman’s letter reads, elaborating that her school “reserves the right” to refuse admission to students on grounds of homosexuality or alternative gender identity. “It seems that the school’s goals and biblical foundations are going to be in contradiction with the direction that Sunnie is heading at this point.”

In other words, grandparents get with the program and make sure the kid understands her place in the world. Lose the cards and the rocks. Grow out the hair and agree to be a good little girl. Make sure she understands that “you’re a girl; cut your hair and people might think you’re gay.” “You’re a girl so get used to being treated like a second class citizen.” “You’re a girl so get used to being pushed around by the boys.” “You’re a girl so get used to being objectified and judged by your appearance.” “You’re a girl so…”

And excuse me. God ordained. Yoo fuckin’ hoo. God had nothing to do with it unless you count creating a world that include eggs and sperm. A sperm carrying an X chromosome caught up with an egg carrying an X chromosome and the result was a unique little girl named Sunnie. Remember she’s been going to this school since she was in preschool. This is where most of her friends are. Instead of caving, the grandparents immediately enrolled her in public school and went public.

Naturally the school has gone into defensive mode, hired a law firm and issued a statement. They never said she couldn’t come back. Well they didn’t. Exactly. Just that she couldn’t come back until the family got with the program and made sure she understood exactly where she stands in the fundie Christian universe. Get the back of the bus girl. That’s your place. Get used to it.

SELECTIVE MORALITY?

Some folks have really selective definitions of what is moral and what isn't. 

Our moral wall is weakening

I applaud the courage of Janetta Overholser (letters, March 24) in condemning the appalling laxity of today’s morality. It reminds me of a stone wall undermined by creeping damp. Each loosened stone represents a weakness in our moral structure — i.e., young persons living together sans marriage, midterm abortions and more. First one crumbling stone weakens the whole, then another, until the wall collapses. What once shocked is now the norm.

Not only the participants in such moral degradation are affected, but entire families. Parents and grandparents feel bewildered and somehow violated when what passes for morality intrudes on their standards. They question how far parental love and support can stretch when egregious damp loosens the stones of their belief structure.

And our laws seem to only encourage destructive behaviors. For shame!

Author's name withheld in the interests of avoiding their embarrassment 

Letter in the local paper (Eugene Register Guard) this morning, I left out the author’s name. Wouldn’t want to embarrass her.

I also have some worries about weakening morality. My triggers are a hell of lot different from this authors.

Did he/she oppose the voluntary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? How many children born or unborn were sacrificed on the alter of American Exceptionalism as we claimed the right to remake the regimes in the Middle East.

Does the author believe that we need to do “something” “anything” about the Crimea and the Ukraine? Does he or she realize that Crimea had belonged to Russia for about two centuries before Khrushchev transferred sovereignty to the Ukraine in the 50’s. Pretty much on his own initiative and with little or no explanation. That Ruthenian/Ukrainian independence can be measured in decades? And damn few of those at that. If we’re going to revive the Cold War I expect their children or grandchildren to be first in line to join up for the fighting. Riiiiiiiiiight.

Does the author shed the same crocodile tears over families that need adequate food, clothing, housing, jobs so they can raise and educate their children? Does she give a damn about the mothers to be that don’t have access to any or all of the above. Oh, but I forgot. Before you start your family you’re supposed to consult your crystal ball first. If you find out things won’t go well, then you don’t get married or have kids. And if it goes bad after you have the kids. Well, you should have known that was coming, now shouldn’t you? And you are on your own.

Whose fault is the rape culture that objectifies women and tells our moms, sisters, daughters, nieces that if you only ____________ you wouldn’t have been ________. Give me a freakin’ break.

Is there the same concern for moral weakness as we rape the natural world? We cut down the last of the rainforests and rip out the lungs of the planet what in hell do they think is going to happen. We keep dumping fertilizers, oil, fuel oil, coal waste and other poisons into our rivers and oceans what kind of life is there going to be for the zygotes they’re so worried about? Are there crocodile tears shed when rights to freshwater in drought areas are traded to energy companies to use for fracking? I suspect not.

We can’t eat money and we can’t drink oil. Somebody needs to get their head screwed on straight. 

IS YOUR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REALLY THREATENED?

Found this great test in the comment section of an entry over on Patheos. Given the Catholic church's actions over the past few years, make that centuries,  I think the bishop still doesn't get it. And the commenters were letting him have it with both barrels. Reminds me of a story dad told about is logging years. It was summer and the crew was having problems with wasps trying to horn in on their lunches. One young guy, new to the crew, found the nest as was all for taking an ax handle an knocking it down. "Go right ahead but let us get in the crummie (crew bus) first. And we won't be opening the doors." Guess he decided his idea wasn't so great after all.

And he learned his lesson a lot faster than that bishop will. And no, I don't know who wrote this originally, but it really hits home.

"How to Determine if Your Religious Liberty Is Being
Threatened in Just 10 Quick Questions." Just pick "A" or
"B" for each question.

1. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to go to a religious service of my own
choosing.

B) Others are allowed to go to religious services of their own choosing.

2. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to marry the person I love legally, even
though my religious community blesses my marriage.

B) Some states refuse to enforce my own particular religious beliefs on
marriage on those two guys in line down at the courthouse.

3. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am being forced to use birth control.

B) I am unable to force others to not use birth control.

4. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to pray privately.

B) I am not allowed to force others to pray the prayers of my faith publicly.

5. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) Being a member of my faith means that I can be bullied without
legal recourse.

B) I am no longer allowed to use my faith to bully gay kids with impunity.

6. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to purchase, read or possess religious books
or material.

B) Others are allowed to have access books, movies and websites that I do not
like.

7. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) My religious group is not allowed equal protection under the
establishment clause.

B) My religious group is not allowed to use public funds, buildings and resources
as we would like, for whatever purposes we might like.

8. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) Another religious group has been declared the official faith
of my country.

B) My own religious group is not given status as the official faith of my country.

9. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) My religious community is not allowed to build a house of
worship in my community.

B) A religious community I do not like wants to build a house of worship in my
community.

10. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to teach my children the creation stories of
our faith at home.

B) Public school science classes are teaching science.

Scoring key:

If you answered "A" to any question, then perhaps your religious liberty is indeed
at stake. You and your faith group have every right to now advocate for equal
protection under the law. But just remember this one little, constitutional,
concept: this means you can fight for your equality -- not your superiority.

If you answered "B" to any question, then not only is your religious liberty not at stake, but there is a strong chance that you are oppressing the religious liberties of others. This is the point where I would invite you to refer back to the tenets of your faith, especially the ones about
your neighbors.

SPACESHIP EARTH

Probably not the best shot that's on the web, but it'll do.

A shot from the Cassini space probe taken through the rings of Saturn. That tiny little, sort of blue dot is Earth. As you can see the inset shot is nothing more than a blur.

That's our home folks. That tiny, pale dot is the stage that's seen all out wars, plagues, arguments, loves, hates, indifference. All of human history in that speck.

I've been feeling, well ready to chew nails and spit red hot rivets this week. And I haven't exactly kept it to myself have I?

Sometimes it's time to take a couple steps back and look at the world from someone else's point of view. In this case it's Carl Sagan. Again. In a quote from The Pale Blue Dot.


"From [the] distant vantage point [of deep space], the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known."

We need to remember that this planet is a space ship. A huge space ship, to be sure but a self contained "ship." If we treat her with love and respect she will provide everything we need to sustain ourselves and our children. If we don't, and we're doing a piss poor job of it so far, she won't. And we won't have anyone to blame but ourselves.

THE WORLD VISION SAGA CONTINUES

Benjamin Corey at FormerlyFundie has a wicked take on World Vision's advance to the rear on allowing gays in marriages to work for them. Great post Benjamin.

And out of the mouths of babes. Or cartoonist David Hayward. So dad? What do you tell your kid?

I have to wonder if the change in employment policy caught the organization itself by surprise. I mean, with a good media blitz World Vision could probably have made up the possible losses of support. Instead they chose to cave in to what amounted to a bullying blitz.

Why am I surprised? The intolerant side of Christianity has been using bullying successfully for centuries. Once Christianity was legalized during the reign of Constantine there are stories of mobs of monks destroying pagan temples in the Eastern empire. Hell, different sects used the same tactics on each other. So why should it be different now? And it won't change until we force the change.

TWO STEPS BACK AND THREE SIDEWAYS

Well, World Vision caved. With threats to pull donations the organization backed down on hiring employees in gay marriages. I wonder how many people who were "threatening" to pull their donations actually donated money to World Vision in the first place. How many of us might have been willing to pick up the slack. They could have at least waited to see if the threats were real. Instead they caved in. Didn't even take forty eight hours. If our ancestors had been that spineless Christianity would never have gotten off the ground. Who knows. It might have been for the best.

The comments on the blog entry were predictable. Quoting scripture. The same five or six verse sets over and over and over. When more liberal commenters gave alternate opinions those comments slid off like water off the duck.

One of these days it's finally going to sink in. They can quote scripture until they're blue in the face and their fingers cramp over the keyboards. It won't do you any good because a lot of us simply don't give a damn what you say. We don't share your beliefs. We don't believe that the Bible has to be taken literally. We don't believe that scripture doesn't have mistakes and we refuse to be bound by something that was written nearly two thousand years ago.

I don't even bother to answer those comments anymore. It just encourages them. Maybe when their share of the population falls to next to nothing it might just start to sink in. But, I doubt it. They'll just claim they're being persecuted. That quote from Tacitus that I've put in the sidebar is painfully appropriate. World Vision will be forgiven their lapse from grace. The fundies will be happy. "They make a desolation and call it peace."

I'm tired.

A REASON FOR HOPE, SMALL ONE

When I did the Spiritual Exhaustion entry several days ago, that’s just exactly how I was feeling. Between the religious bullshit and the political bullshit I was feeling flatter than roadkill. Well, the bullshit is still there topped with a letter from the pentagon to congress detailing how much it's costing the military (an us) to investigate the nonexistent Behghazi scandal.  We can't afford to feed and house the poor but we can pour millions down a rathole trying to find something that  isn't there. It's enough to depress a hyena. 

Other current events are split down the middle right now. World Vision announces that they’re going to employ candidates who are in gay marriages and gets slammed by the religious right. The organization already had a policy that insisted that single employees abstain from sex until marriage and that married employees be faithful to their partner. So they looked around, decided that they were a charitable organization not and church and decided to add married gays

And I mean they are really getting slammed. Granted that most of the demo that reads Christianity Today will probably be pushing up daisies in another twenty years. If they don't kick the bucket early from terminal bile poisoning. Trouble is,  the majority of evangelicals don’t seem to have heard the old saw ‘when you find yourself in a hole stop digging.” Too many of them only put down the shovel to replace it with a backhoe. And forget to listen to other believers who are just about where I am. Throw in the towel, let the whole damn, misbegotten mess crash and burn. Maybe when the smoke clears we can find a phoenix in the ashes waiting to take wing. Never mind the Millennial generation that's heading for the exit door in disgust over the support for hate and discrimination that seems to drive their elders. 

On a much more cheerful note. The new Cosmos is a worth successor to the original series. Tyson doesn’t have quite as much time to work with, remember the original was a PBS series. No commercial breaks. We’re only at the third episode but the programs seem more a bit more focused.

This week it was how our perceptions of comets have changed over the centuries accompanied by a short, but complete bio of Edmund Halley. The man who worked out that the comet that bears his name appears every seventy six years. He also mapped the stars of the Southern Hemisphere, invented a diving bell, worked out the distance from the earth to the sun and worked to publicize Isaac Newton’s Principia which included the math to support the Theory of Universal gravitation.

I kind of wish that Tyson has spent a little time explaining HOW Halley worked out the relationship between the orbit of Venus and the math that gave him the answer. In any case his theory was confirmed later in the 18^th century when observed the transit of Venus across the sun during his first voyage.

And the intro to the third episode is, I believe an homage to Sagan’s Shadow’s of Forgotten Ancestors because that “orphan” baby in the basket is straight of the cover of the book where Sagan describes humanity as being like an orphan left on a doorstep with no information. No name, nothing but the baby. Cosmos, both series, is part of the search for our identity and place in the universe, 

Image courtesy of Amazon. 

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT, BUT SHOULD YOU

More sweepings from the culture wars. 

Another case of “you’re picking on us.” And as usual because of the source has a spiritual finger in the pie is probably only telling half the story.

In a nutshell. A pair of brothers, now in the third and fourth grade, have been handing out coins with Bible verses on them to their classmates during recess. This has been going on for over a year. So, what changed?

Reportedly a teacher and a principal told the kids they couldn’t do it any more. The teacher is supposed to have said she “hated the coins.”  I wonder if she actually hates the coins or if they aren’t staying in pockets where they belong during class time. I suspect it’s the latter since it’s been going on for so long. Apparently they arent’t very big and look a lot like tiddly winks markers.

Show me a third grader who can keep something bright and shiny in their pockets for longer than five minutes and I’ll show you a kid who is probably in a coma. I can sympathize with a teacher who has to spend precious class time getting the kids to put away their new toys and pay attention. I just might get a little frazzled myself.

Naturally the kid’s parents have contacted a law firm and are demanding an apology. Ok, here’s my take on this based on the little I know. And after some Googling I can only find the story on other faith based websites.

This has been going on for over a year, so the kids were what, second and third graders when it started? I really doubt if this was their idea, so it goes back to the parents. They’re the ones who bought the coins. They’re the ones who sent their kids out to “evangelize” their classmates,

I gotta tell you, if I was the parent of one of those classmates I’d be royally pissed. These kids are what eight, nine, ten years old? It’s my right to decide what my kids (if I had any) are exposed to when it comes to religion. It certainly isn’t yours. If it was high school I’d probably feel a little differently. At the least the kids would be old enough to have, maybe, made the decision on their own and their classmates would have enough maturity to say yes or no and have it be their decision.

Another glowing example of in your face fundamentalism. Pushing, pushing always pushing until someone pushes back and you can claim you’re being persecuted. Anything for a headline.

Ran across this fascinating article on the Alternet website.The fundies are losing the kids and at the rate things are going there’ll be more atheists and agnostics than self identifying Christians. And they're losing them because they keep insisting on trying to force their beliefs on those who don't share them. Just keep pushing. Just keep pushing. 

Unlike the Alternet article I don't see a time when Christians are reduced to meeting in secret and drawing a picture of a fish in the sand. I do see a time when the majority will be some kind of hybrid between some basic non trinitarian Christian beliefs and some neopagan practice. Preferably without the in your face my way or the highway zealot attitudes. 

HOW SCIENCE WORKS PART 2

Caution mini rant ahead. 

The Creationists strike again. At least a few of them. The newest schtick? Demanding that Cosmos offer them equal time to refute evolution. It's not like the episodes aren't complete so that extras can be added. I guess they could buy commercial time to present their "side" of the story. After all it's only fair. Right? 

Well, the fairness doctrine got dumped more than a few years ago and that only covered news stories anyway. Seeing as how Cosmos isn’t news program AND the episodes have already been completed I guess the folks from Answers in Genesis are SOL.

If you want to present your flat earth, off the wall ideas then do what the producers of Cosmos did. Line up a producer, get the financing, get your shit together, make your own series and see if you can get anyone besides TBN, CBN, EWTN or the Mormon channel to carry it. If you don’t recognize the station designations, don’t feel bad. You probably don’t watch them anyway.

Dr. Falkner really is an astronomer. But after reading his entry in the Creation Wiki I’m not sure that he understands, even though he’s a professor emeritus that he really understands how science works.

“I’m really concerned with people who put that much faith in the big bang. It is the overwhelmingly dominant model, and they’ve had a few impressive predictions, like the background radiation. But it has many problems—they keep changing the model to make it fit the data we have. As a Christian, my biggest concern is that it doesn’t agree at all with the Genesis account of how the world came to be, and my big concern is that when you make that the fingerprint of God, as it were, then when the big bang is discarded, what does that do to Christianity? “

Daniel Falkner and yes, he has the degrees. It's not a matter of faith. It's the best explanations we have at this time for how the observable universe works. Who knows how that explanation might change in fifty years. A hundred years. Or a thousand years from now. 

Back in the dark ages when I took Chemistry and senior science high school, biology in college and enough anthro classes to choke a small horse I was taught that you observed the natural world. If there was something you didn’t understand you came up with a possible explanation, a hypothesis. Then you tried to design an experiment to prove or disprove that hypothesis. Then you submitted your work to other scientists and they tried to duplicate your work. If they can’t, then it’s back to the drawing board. If they can, you come up with a theory to cover the information you’ve discovered.

You do the best you can with the information you can discover at the time with the available information and equipment. Who knows five, ten, twenty, fifty years down the road someone will add to the work. Then maybe fifty years later someone else will add to it again. That’s how science works.

You most definitely do not start with the Bible, the Koran or the Torah. And you don’t finish with them either,.

HOW SCIENCE WORKS

Carl Sagan on how science works. Through observation and experiment. Observations that can be verified through experiment. Experiments that can be presented to other scientists and if necessary repeated obtaining the same results.

MAYBE I'D LEAVE THE ATHEISTS HOME TOO

I've read comments on the net from folks claiming to be atheists and they can be as militant as the most determined Southern Baptist or Pentecostal. So, it would probably best to leave the atheists at home too. I have to admire an honest agnostic like Bart Ehrman. He's done the reading. He's done the teaching. He's done the thinking. And at this point he's just not sure what he's willing to swear to right now. At least someone with that mind set might be willing to take the time to find out where the alien is coming from.

As I mentioned before I ran across a review of Pale Blue Dot that took Sagan to task for suggesting that we could terraform other worlds as long as that didn't have native life forms. Presumptuous. Arrogant. And so on and so forth. I noticed that the reviewer (apparently Catholic) had no problem with sending communities of colonizers with both lay and clerical members. And we know how well that worked here on the home planet. Just ask the spirits of the exterminated tribes what happened when the bearers of the cross or crescent came to their homelands.

NOT FOR EXPORT

The following opinions are purely personal. 

I’ve been slowly working my way through Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot and knocking out James Michener’s Poland in record time.

I don’t know when or if it will happen but someday we will send human beings into space. There’s one thing I’m absolutely sure of. Under no circumstances should we allow followers of Judeo/Christian/Islamic religion to leave this planet. Make up the crews from atheists, pagans or even Buddhists, but there are very few of the others that I would trust to make contact with an alien civilization unless they’re willing to admit that the revelations we’ve received on this planet are unique to this planet.

If this universe has a universal God/dess working behind the scenes I’m assuming that each populated world (if there are any) would receive a revelation unique to that world. Any attempt on our part to interfere with that would be arrogant, sacrilegious and in the end probably self defeating since it’s probably going to be centuries before we can send out ships that can carry more than a minimum crew.

I’d like to assume that non militant atheists and agnostics would have the good sense to keep their mouths shut until they understood the lay of the new land. And I include nominally atheist philosophies such as communism on the list. Neopagans would probably also hold off until they’d had a chance to open themselves to any spirits native to the new world. If those spirits chose to reveal themselves. And Buddhists are by definition non theistic. I’m not sure how well Nirvana might translate into an alien world but it might just travel better than our traditional monotheistic religious groups.

I mean we’ve done such a fantastic job of respecting the beliefs of our neighbors here on earth. Michener’s first four chapters deal with threats of invasion of the Polish/Lithuanian state from four directions. Tatars from the east. The Teutonic Knights from Germany in the west. The Swedes from the North and the Muslim Ottomans from the south. Ironically it was their fellow Christians that were the worst enemies. Especially the Swedes.  It was the mid seventeenth century and Sweden was not only Lutheran but fanatically Lutheran.

The invading forces swore to leave no Papist alive. And they did their damndest to carry that out. Poland was out gunned and out generaled. Castles that were built to withstand the sieges of the last century were helpless against the new artillery. And when the castles fell, when the cities and villages fell no quarter was given. Men, women, children, babes in arms were slaughtered.

At least the Tatars didn’t hold anything against farmers; except for the almost universal contempt that nomads had for farmers. Once the population had been terrified into submission it was “pay your taxes, deliver your tribute, send your conscripts when needed and we’ll pretty much leave you alone.” There was no effort to interfere with religious beliefs or convert the conquered population to whatever religion the conquerors followed.

Look at our history.  I do not want to see that history repeated on other worlds.  

IN OUR IMAGE?

Carl Sagan really knew how the illuminate our prejudices.

This picture was taken last year by the Cassini space probe. That little dot below Saturn's rings is the earth. Carl Sagan's pale blue dot. Yeah, we're the center of the universe all right.

“This conceit is brought close to culmination in the notion that we are created in God’s image: The Creator and Ruler of the entire Universe looks just like me. My, what a coincidence! How convenient and satisfying! The sixth-century-B.C.  Greek philosopher Xenophanes understood the arrogance of this perspective:

‘The Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair…Yes, and if oxen and horses or lions had hands, and could paint with their hands, and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen….’

Such attitudes were once described as ‘provincial’ - the naïve expectation that the political hierarchies and social conventions of an obscure province extend to a vast empire composed of many different traditions and cultures; that the familiar boondocks, our boondocks, are the center of the world. The country bumpkins know almost nothing about what else is possible. They fail to grasp the insignificance of their province or the diversity of the Empire. With ease, they apply their own standards and customs to the rest of the planet. But plopped down in Vienna, say, or Hamburg, or New York ruefully they recognize how limited their perspective has been. The become “deprovincialized.’

Modern Science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home.” Carl Sagan in The Pale Blue Dot.

Ah, Carl. To bad you passed beyond the veil between the worlds far too soon. We could certainly use your unique ability to illuminate pure, unmitigated willful ignorance and almost criminal idiocy.

Unfortunately we have plenty of boondockers in this country. Unfortunately, instead of realizing their provincialism when confronted with the country outside their little backward corner of the country they don’t deprovincialize. They insist that the rest of us conform to the prejudices they brought with them out of the back country. They need to be reminded that this is the twenty first century not the first, seventeenth or the nineteenth century and that the rest of us refuse to pretend otherwise.