Merit-bound Alley

So, I won’t be linking to the drives of Christian writers that support Expelled because I couldn’t find any that didn’t support it out of prejudice against atheists (because all evolutionary biologists are, of course), blindness and rationalization to the deceitful tactics of the Expelled crew, or plain ignorance of scientific method.

Until now, that is. I will feature two Christian writers who have taken a rational and educated view of ID and the film Expelled and, unsurprisingly, know the failings of ID and Expelled and hold little support of the tactics of the ID movement.

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Compliments of the Friendly Atheist, we have the target of the above referenced rage:

As a memorial to the painful, frightening and needless death of Madeline Kara Neumann, the Wisconsin Legislature needs to finally show some gumption, and remove from the statutes its callous exemption sanctifying child homicide in the name of faith. (link)

Wait, what? Surely there can’t be an exemption of homicide in any case! If you thought that, as I did, them you were wrong. From the Wisconson Code defining types of abuse:

EXCEPTION. Nothing in this section may be construed to mean that an individual at risk is abused solely because he or she consistently relies upon treatment by spiritual means through prayer for healing, in lieu of medical care, in accordance with his or her religious tradition.

Are we in the fucking Dark Ages? In what version of reality is it actually okay to let your child die as long as you prayed it didn’t happen? If a child is playing in the road and there’s a truck coming, can the parent pray that the driver swerves, even if the parent is a few yards away? If the child gets hit and killed, is the parent not liable for not trying to get their child out of the road?

At what point is a person’s trust in god not only irresponsible, but criminal? What is the limit of allowance the law can give to theists just because of their religion?

The primary happened what feels like a billion years ago, but we finally have the results of the caucuses.

Barack Obama cruised to victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton in Dallas County’s Senate district conventions Saturday, as Texas Democrats continued their arduous and sometimes frustrating process of choosing national convention delegates.

Mr. Obama had double-digit leads in all five of the county’s Senate districts, mirroring his electoral power here in the March 4 primary. (link)

Now, all we have to wait for is the final numbers, so we can see who got how many delegates. Is this getting tiresome to anyone else?

The siblings of Madeline Neumann, the 11-year-old girl left to die while her parents prayed, have been removed from their home while an investigation of the death proceeds. While I think that it’s commendable that these kids, aged 13 to 16, are being moved to safety, there are still some things that concern me.

The parents and social services experts agreed the move would be best for everyone, Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said. The children are staying with other relatives, though they were not in danger, he said.

Some might argue that the possibility of neglect resulting in death is a danger.

“There is no intent. They didn’t want their child to die. They thought what they were doing was the right thing,” he said. “They believed up to the time she stopped breathing she was going to get better. They just thought it was a spiritual attack. They believed if they prayed enough she would get through it.”

Gee, if only there was some kind of charge, like murder, but without intent that could be brought up against these parents-of-the-year.

Everything in my mind and heart screams that these people need to go straight to jail, and that their children deserve a more stable home than they can provide. Let’s hope that the law does not let us down.

Our last look at Expelled showed the early stages of development and the first reviews. In this part, I will discuss more recent misbehavior of these no-accounts and the explosion of coverage shedding light on Expelled crew in both the blogosphere and national news.

Some of the most humorous news with Expelled happened earlier this month at a screening in the Mall of America in Minnesota. Those not familiar with how the screening work, here’s a breakdown: potential viewers go to the Expelled RSVP site, sign up using your full name and also reserve room for guests. You name is put on a list to see the film, and there are no tickets issued for the event. Also of note is the fact that you do not have to name your guests.

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I’m continuing my work on the site itself with a new tab under the header that holds all of my Why Atheism posts. If you missed them, check them out!

I’ve upgraded M-BA to Wordpress 2.5, so you may have noticed the site being down for about 3 minutes.

I’m not expecting any issues, but please let me know if there’s any wierdness.

Started by Mojoey of Deep Thoughts The Atheist Blogroll has exceeded 600 links to atheist-themed blogs from philosophical to ethical to scientific. Many of these have made it to my newsreader, and are great reads. On my right sidebar, you’ll see a rolling list of 25 blogs on the list. Browse and take a look!

This is… sublime!

My most thankful h/t ever: Bad Astronomy

Hey folks, check out this weeks ATHF even though M-BA got the finger this week around!