With friends like these...

[onager]

Well, the "Clergy Letter" project is off and running. This was the...uh...brain-child of Michael Zimmerman. He is currently in a giant pissing contest with Jerry Coyne and some other Gnu Atheists who insist on telling the truth - science and religion are not friends.

The idea: it would be great if the lib'rul clergy actually got up in the pulpit and defended something science-y. Like evolution.

As P.Z. Myers notes, it didn't exactly work out that way:

So Susan Andrews preaches on evolution Sunday, and what does she promote? Intelligent Design...

Rabbi Friedland preaches on the Sabbath, and what does he promote? Biblical creationism...

Unsurprisingly, everything in those sermons pushes a pro-religious agenda and wraps the science of evolution in a gushy, goofy package used to endorse religion, not science.

I'd be more impressed with Michael Zimmerman's claim that Coyne was undermining efforts to educate the faithful in good science if Zimmerman's project was actually doing that. But it's not. The Clergy Letter project is actually encouraging more fuzzy, sloppy thinking and reinforcing religious authority.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/10/by_their_fruits_you_shall_know.php#comments

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R

[laconicsax]

2. Love the graphic. n/t

[DeSwiss]

3. There are some signs that say it all...... n/t ;-)

[meeshrox]

5. I had to "borrow" that sign for my desktop image... nt

[DeSwiss]

6. You're more than welcome.....

...to the truth. ;)

[ZombieHorde]

4. They know where their money comes from. nt

[struggle4progress]

7. Rather graceless and intolerant fellow, much given to misrepresenting the views

of other people, isn't he? If we ever decide we need a Chief of the Thought Police, I suppose PZ would fit neatly in the slot

[trotsky]

8. And there you go again. n/t

[darkstar3]

9. Thought Police? That's where you decided to go with this?

Tell me, oh hyperbolic one, what thought is anyone attempting to police here? A Christian apologetic came up with the idea to have his friends show the world how progressive and scientific they are, only to have the idea laughably backfire. Now you want to call the people happy to point and laugh at such foolishness Thought Police?

Sickening, and let me be clear as to why: "Thought Police" is an overused right-wing meme trotted out every time someone reveals the truth behind their bigoted motherfuckery, and the meme has no place here.

[struggle4progress]

11. Lessee. PZ reads some sermons and then flies into some kinda fritter cuz

the sermons have (as he says) "a pro-religious agenda"

Now some folk might say, yeah, well, y'know, thems there is sermons, so mebbe one mighta coulda sorta predicted some religiosity stuff -- but not PZ. Nope! PZ is just outraged and apoplectic, again as usual, still, that somebody or other went to his or her own church on their own time and listened somebody or other say something PZ doesn't agree with

[trotsky]

12. You really go out of your way to miss the point, dontcha? n/t

[Goblinmonger]

13. The point of the "event" was to promote religion and science being compatible

The sermons were about creationism. PZ isn't complaining that they were about "religiosity" but that they ironically failed at their point.

[darkstar3]

14. And where does thought policing come into play in your incredibly stretched view?

I see that seems to be lacking from your current response.

[Goblinmonger]

10. Telling the truth is intolerant?

This is just another example of an atheist being portrayed as evil just because they speak out.

Do you agree with the creationists that are being mentioned? Do you think PZ misrepresented what happened?

It is not the "thought police" to say that something that was supposed to go one way took a completely opposite--and deliciously ironic--turn.

[laconicsax]

15. The truth is intolerant to fiction. n/t