Out of Town- Quick update

Hey everybody sorry I haven't posted much as of late. My workplace has recently made it harder to access the blog and other reference information. That along with working on a committee to roll out a new program and plan for yesterdays meeting and prep for a race that will have me out of town for a week has made time tight. I will try to get one more post up before the 31st and then there probably won't be anything until the 6th or 7th.



I always appreciate comments on the blogs and the more comments I see the more I will try and get out there. Even if you don't have anything to say just leave a note that says "read it", that way I have a better idea of how many eyes I'm getting on this. If there are topics you would like me to cover, either email me or leave a comment on this post with the topic you would like to see. Thanks for everyone's support.

Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Rep. Valarie Hodges OK with Govt. Money going to Christian Schools but not Muslim

Louisiana state representattive (R)Valarie Hodges voted to approve governor Bobby Jindall's overhaul of the state education program. Hodges was fine with the voucher program when she believed that parents could send their kids to public school or a school that would be "teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity". Hodges narrow-minded thinking kept her from realizing that religious schools would include religions other than her own and now she isn't happy.



She also stated that "I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”  I  have to say that I agree with her, but let's not stop with Islam, let's not use public funds to teach any religious schools. Public funds should be for public schools, we shouldn't be handing any taxpayer money over to churches.

As Hemant Mehta the Friendly Atheist said -
"Rep. Hodges made the mistake of saying out loud what most conservative Christians only say to themselves in private: When they say they want “religious freedom,” they’re only referring to their own faith. Everyone else can fend for themselves.
Message to Rep. Hodges: Your Christian privilege is showing."

Now someone just needs to start a School of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Louisiana.

What do you think?
Are you OK with vouchers going to private schools? What if they aren't affiliated with a religion?

The Friendly Atheist, and reference

Irreducible Complexity, Eye Don't Think So?

Debate enough theists and the irreducible complexity argument will undoubtedly arise. The irreducible complexity argument, as defined by Michael Behe who coined the term goes as follows.

A single system which is composed of several interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning 

Those who aren't familiar with the evolution of the eye often cite it as an example. I find this to be a weak example of intelligent design anyway, given the fact that our eye is subject to so many flaws. Cataracts, glaucoma, color blindness, near/far-sightedness, how are our eyes held up as an example of the best design by anyone? Below is a chart of the evolution of the eye, from a patch of photoreceptor cells to our eye.

Of course there are variations in these eyes as well and that's the interesting part I wanted to share with you today. We see more colors than our dogs because instead of 2 types of color photoreceptor we have 3. That one extra type of receptor allows us to perceive a much wider range of colors. Now while that may lead to arguments as to what color to paint the kitchen, it lets us enjoy all the colors we see in the rainbow. But, while our 3 types of receptors are great, most butterflies actually have 5 types of receptors, allowing them to see ultraviolet and infrared light.



So our eye is in some ways "less complete" or has one less part, but it does not cease to function, it just functions differently. When it comes to number of receptors though, the butterfly is not the king. That honor goes to the Mantis Shrimp.



The mantis shrimp has 16 different types of receptors and can see in ways that would be difficult to imagine. Radiolab has an episode all about color and there is a segment that discusses the rainbow and particularly how differently dogs, human, butterflies, and mantis shrimp would see it. You can listen to it here and if you want to get right to the rainbow section skip to about 9:40. It's about 10 minutes long from there, but well worth the listen.

What do you think?

Would you want more receptors or the ability to see ultraviolet or infrared?



Oreos Attack Marriage?

I am very unlikely to eat an Oreo cookie again. On June 25 Kraft the maker of Oreos posted on their Facebook page this picture (June 25 being Pride day)

Now many evangelical christians, the group called Minnesota for Marriage for example, is calling for a boycott of Kraft's products. Now this is where we differ, I am unlikely to eat another Oreo because I think there are about 50 other cookies that are far superior and wouldn't waste my time with an Oreo. These folks however feel that because of one picture, they need to rally the troops and wage a war against Kraft. I went to Oreo's Facebook page and it seems that they post a theme or a picture for each day, here is July 2 for example.


So I am sure that all the detractors are doing is drumming up business for Oreos, which was probably Kraft's plan the whole time. By the way, a quick trip to Kraft's website shows how many different brands that they own/distribute, good luck boycotting all of them. Here are all the brands that fall under the Kraft family. I used the Wikipedia page because on Kraft's site they are broken down a-z with a link to click for each letter, not user friendly. Now if they actually make the sextuple stuff Oreo then I'll give it a try but until then the tagalong is at the top of my cookie list.
Now that's a cookie worth fighting over.