Millions of Years of Evolution ...

 ... and we've come to this ... (started Dec. 8, 2003) 

A new feature dedicated to showcasing events and beliefs that give lie to the idea that mankind has evolved as an intelligent species. I suspect that religion and pseudo-science will be major contributors. After all, let's not forget astrology, UFOs, feng shui, and people that still believe in a flat earth. 

Opposition to evolution will provide a lot of material too ("it's only a theory, isn't it?"), by advocates of creationism and intelligent design. There's our intellectually limited president, George W. Bush, who's quoted as saying that the jury is still out on evolution. Actually, Dubya, that jury made a decision and went home a very long time ago - some folks just weren't paying attention. And somehow the best example of evolution on a compressed time scale gets ignored - the adaption by bacteria to antibiotics. 

One can't speak of evolution and intelligence without mentioning the Darwin Awards. In their own words: "The Darwin Awards honor those who improve our gene pool... by removing themselves from it. We commemorate the men and women who gave their "all" in an effort to improve the human species. Of necessity, the honor is generally bestowed posthumously." 

Here then are some examples of thinking that could profit from a little more evolution, to be updated regularly: 

Ban Spheniscidasexuals (December 2006) 

(Note: Penguins belong to the Spheniscidae family) 

From the Boston Globe - Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Schools chief bans book on penguins 

Tale describes males raising egg 

By Mcclatchy Newspapers | December 20, 2006 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Charlotte schools superintendent and his top lieutenants have ordered a picture book about two male penguins raising an egg removed from school libraries. 

But the superintendent, Peter Gorman, said yesterday he will let a committee review the decision after questions from reporters indicated that he and his staff sidestepped the school district's policy by banning the book. 

"And Tango Makes Three," the real-life story of "the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies," has drawn objections in schools or public libraries in several states. All decided to keep the book, according to the American Library Association. Charlotte-Mecklenburg's public library has also rejected a request to remove it, a spokeswoman said. 

The school district pulled the book without receiving a formal complaint. Gorman said a couple of parents had asked him about the book, in which two male penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo pair up and hatch an adopted egg, and Republican County Commissioner Bill James had e-mailed him. 

James said he read an online article about the book and asked Gorman whether school libraries had it. "I am opposed to any book that promotes a homosexual lifestyle to elementary school students as normal," he said. Four schools in the district had the book. 

On Nov. 30, top school administrators sent a memo to principals and media specialists explaining the decision to ban the book from all schools. 

"First, it is a picture book that focuses on homosexuality. Second, we did not feel that such information was vital to primary students. Next, we did not believe the book would stimulate growth in ethical standards, and the book is too controversial," it said. 

Banning books is controversial, too. 

"One parent's decision shouldn't dictate whether or not the book is available to all the other families in the community," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the American Library Association. "Any challenge to a book is ultimately an attempt to remove an idea from public discourse." 

Banning "Tango" is a bad idea, she said, and doing it without conducting an open, balanced review is worse. 

The national controversy over the book began in March, when Missouri parents asked two public libraries to remove it. Complaints also surfaced in Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois. 

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

... and now we've come to Intelligent Design (November 2005)

Probably the best argument against Intelligent Design is its advocates. But one does have to admit a certain cleverness on their part, mutating (dare one say: evolving) Creationism into Intelligent Design (ID). 

In Kansas and the Dover school district in Pennsylvania, schoolboard members are using the courts to press the teaching of ID as an alternative theory to Evolution in science classes. Isn't that just what we all needed, to have science defined by lawyers and judges in the courtroom? Only in America! 

Evolution, after all, is "just a theory" and, like any living scientific theory, has some gaps and flaws that require more research. And so, the ID proponents, totally ignorant of what "theory" and "science" mean, posit that something as complex as human life cannot possibly have evolved, and therefore requires the magical hand of a Designer, bringing us back to the magic myths of primitive aborigines. 

Our foolish and intellectually empty President Bush has of course weighed in on the side of teaching "to the controversy", i.e., of teaching Evolution and ID together in the classroom. This certainly proves that a high level of education such as Mr. Bush received at elite institutions is no antidote to stupidity. And Senate Majority Leader "Doctor" Frist makes two. 

All of this is perhaps not surprising, since Americans are so abysmally illiterate in science. According to a 2000 NSF (National Science Foundation) survey, about half of the respondents did not know that

The earliest humans did not live at the same time as the dinosaurs; 

It takes the Earth one year to go around the Sun; 

Electrons are smaller than atoms; 

Antibiotics do not kill viruses.

They also generally don't understand what molecules are. Fewer than a third know that DNA is the key to heredity. Only about 10% know what radiation is. One in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth. And these people are making decisions about teaching science in the schools! 

Fortunately, in the larger view, all this doesn't really matter all that much. If ID and scientific ignorance carry the day, science will continue to progress and give us greater understanding of our world anyway. It may not happen in Kansas, or in the Dover school district in Pennsylvania, and science may decline in the U.S., but the research and learning will go on elsewhere. 

But if we are truly concerned, maybe what we should do is to quarantine the virus of ID, and declare Kansas an Evolution-free zone. To help make it happpen, subsidize those who want to move there from, say, the Dover school district, or hotbeds of know-nothing evangelism. On the other side, also help those who want to move out of Kansas to more intellectually advanced climes.

Rules are Rules, in the church as everywhere else ... 

... after all, if God had meant for this girl to take communion, he wouldn't have given her the gluten intolerance, would he?

N.J. girl in Communion wafer dispute 

Sacrament invalid for 8-year-old with digestive disorder 

By John Curran, Associated Press (August 20, 2004)

BRIELLE, N.J. -- An 8-year-old girl with a rare digestive disorder who cannot eat wheat had her first Holy Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained no wheat, violating Roman Catholic doctrine. 

Haley Waldman's mother, Elizabeth Pelly-Waldman, is pushing the Diocese of Trenton and the Vatican to make an exception, saying the girl's condition should not exclude her from the sacrament, which commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ before his Crucifixion. She believes a rice Communion wafer would suffice. 

Church doctrine holds that Communion wafers, like the bread served at the Last Supper, must have at least some unleavened wheat. 

"This is not an issue to be determined at the diocesan or parish level but has already been decided for the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world by Vatican authority," Trenton Bishop John M. Smith said in a statement last week. 

Haley was diagnosed with celiac sprue disease when she was 5. The disorder occurs in people with a genetic intolerance of gluten, a food protein contained in wheat and other grains. When consumed by celiac sufferers, gluten damages the lining of the small intestine, blocking nutrient absorption and leading to vitamin deficiencies, bone thinning, and sometimes gastrointestinal cancer. 

The diocese told Haley's mother that the girl can receive a low-gluten wafer or just drink wine at Communion, but anything without gluten does not qualify. 

Pelly-Waldman rejected the offer, saying her child could be harmed by a small amount of the substance. 

Haley's Communion controversy is not the first. In 2001, the family of a 5-year-old Jenny Richardson, a Natick girl with the disease, left the Catholic Church after being denied permission to use a rice wafer. 

Some Catholic churches allow no-gluten hosts, while others do not, said Elaine Monarch, executive director of the Celiac Disease Foundation, a California-based support group for sufferers. 

Last year, as Hayley, a third-grader, approached Holy Communion age, her mother told officials at St. Denis Catholic Church in Manasquan that the girl could not have the standard host. 

After the church's pastor refused to allow a substitute, a priest at a nearby parish volunteered to offer one. 

Last month, the diocese told the priest that the church would not validate Haley's sacrament because of the substitute wafer. 

"I struggled with telling her that the sacrament did not happen," Pelly-Waldman said. 

She has written to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, challenging the church's policy. "This is a church rule, not God's will, and it can easily be adjusted to meet the needs of the people," she wrote. 

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Orthodox Rabbis with perhaps too much time on their hands? 

- or is this really what God wants of us? Two recent news event from the complex world of Orthodox Judaism:

Rabbis' Rules and Indian Wigs Stir Crisis in Orthodox Brooklyn (New York Times, May 14, 2004)

Synthetic wigs flew off the shelves yesterday at Yaffa's Quality Wigs in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. 

On the crowded streets of the neighborhood, an increasing number of Orthodox Jewish women were seen wearing cloth head coverings, having left their wigs at home. Sarah Klein, a neighborhood resident, said that until the confusion was cleared up, she would leave the house only if she wore a baglike snood. 

For thousands of Orthodox women, one of the most fundamental practices of daily life — adhering to the code of modesty that prohibits a public display of their hair after marriage — was thrown into turmoil this week by a ruling from a distant authority. More than 5,700 miles away in Israel, several rabbis issued a ban on wigs made in India from human hair, which is used to make many of the wigs sold in Brooklyn. The rabbis said the hair may have been used in Hindu religious ceremonies, which like other pantheistic practices are considered idolatrous in Orthodox teaching. 

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One of the most respected Jewish authorities in the ultra-Orthodox world, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, issued the Indian hair ban from Israel on Wednesday, prompting some people in Israel to create lists of stores selling banned wigs and to burn Indian wigs in bonfires, according to Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper. 

Rabbi Elyashiv's ruling was posted on at least one Israeli news Web site, and word quickly circulated in Brooklyn. But the worry was not universal. Many communities, like the large Satmar community in Williamsburg, were awaiting their own rabbis' rulings. 

The issue had come up several years ago, said Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, a leading authority on Jewish law for the Orthodox Union in the United States, but was resolved without a ban. He said it appeared that practices in the Hindu temples where the hair of Indian women is cut might have changed, prompting the new ruling. 

He said he would study the matter and consider his own ruling, but for now stood by Rabbi Elyashiv's interpretation. One of the difficulties, he said, was discerning just what the Hindu hair-cutters had in their minds when they made their offerings, because that had a bearing on whether their acts were idolatrous. 

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

California Measure Would Align Building Rules With Feng Shui (New York Times, Jan. 30, 2004)

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN 

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 29 — With a budget deficit of about $14 billion, California could use a major infusion of positive energy. 

So it may be appropriate timing that in this most Asian of mainland American regions, State Assemblyman Leland Y. Yee, Democrat of San Francisco, has introduced a resolution that urges the California Building Standards Commission to adopt standards that would aid feng shui, the ancient Chinese practice of promoting health, harmony and prosperity through the environment. 

The resolution, which has yet to pass a committee vote before going to the full Assembly, is meant to encourage planning agencies, building departments and design review boards to provide for the use of feng shui principles, which often touch on the placement of doors and staircases, the position of buildings and the alignment of objects in rooms. It aims to help people live in harmony with nature by promoting the flow of chi, or positive energy, and neutralizing or avoiding negative energy. 

"The structure of a building can affect a person's mood," the measure says, "which can influence a person's behavior, which, in turn, can determine the success of a person's personal and professional relationships." 

Mr. Yee said: "We need to allow the expression of one's culture. That's why people come to California." 

The standards commission typically deals with more mundane concerns, like plumbing pipes. But in California, feng shui is big business. In communities like Fremont and Cupertino, south of San Francisco, feng shui experts often consult with developers on the layout of subdivisions, avoiding placing a house at a T-shaped intersection, which would invite negative energy, or sha, the mouth of the dragon . 

"Feng shui is a very major cultural factor," said Irene Jhin, publisher of the Chinese New Home Buyer's Guide, based in Burlingame. 

Traditionally, feng shui is believed to have ramifications beyond domestic tranquillity. "If there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation," says a Chinese proverb. "If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world." 

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

The Karen Robideau murder trial (Boston Globe, Jan. 27, 2004)

The mother, Karen Robidoux, is on trial because her infant son died of starvation just three weeks short of his first birthday. The father, Jaques Robidoux, had already been convicted of first-degree murder. Quoting directly from the Globe: 

"The Robidouxs were members of a religious sect in Attleboro who refused to feed their son because another member of the sect, Jacques's sister, Michelle Mingo, received a "leading" from God in March 1999 that Samuel should only be breastfed to punish his mother for being vain." 

There is a description of another sect member, a Dennis Horton; quoting again: 

"Horton said he tried four times to leave the group, but returned each time because he feared he would lose "God's protection" and be adrift in "Satan's world." " 

"Horton, in whose house Jacques and Karen were living in the spring of 1999, said he saw Samuel Robidoux's health decline, but did nothing because he believed it was God's will."

St. Joseph sells (Boston Globe Real Estate, Dec. 7, 2003)

From the article: "According to Catholic folklore, a home where a St. Joseph statue is buried will sell quickly and be blessed." 

A sidebar gives details:

Tips for burying a St. Joseph Statue

• • Ask St. Joseph to intercede for you before the Lord with your requests, including the selling of your home.

  • Bury or place the statue on the property with the feet pointing toward heaven. The location varies: near the for-sale sign; in the backyard, in one corner. [If you live in a condominium, you may bury the statue in a flower pot; if that's not possible, place it inthe basement or on the lowest level of your home.]

  • After the sale, move the statue to a place of honor in your new home.

Source: Autom Co.'s St. Joseph Home Seller Kit, available at religious gift shops.

For reference, here's a web site selling St. Joseph Home Seller Kits.

If Shoe Won't Fit, Fix the Foot? Popular Surgery Raises Concern (New York Times P. 1, Dec. 7, 2003)

Women are having foot surgery to be able to wear fashionable shoes, as by Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. Instead of revolting against the designers of these unnatural shoes, they are having toe bones cut short, collagen injected under the foot, and bunions removed. Apparently there is a high failure rate for this type of surgery, no surprise when one considers the complexity of the foot, and the stresses it undergoes; the result - often pain and disfigurement. 

There's no slave quite like a voluntary one.