Get ready for the news lede that is a sure winner for the No Shit, Sherlock Award that I just made up. Variations appear in various outlets, and here’s NBCNews.com:
Cancer patients who choose alternative medicine over standard, proven cancer treatments are more likely to die, researchers reported Thursday.
WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY???
Complementary medicine did no apparent harm if people used it alongside conventional surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, the researchers found. But when people opted out of proven treatments to choose herbs, homeopathy or other alternative treatments, they were twice as likely to die of their cancer.
Twice as likely. 100 percent more dying. Double-death. Thanks, alt-med.
The Episcopal Church will revise the Book of Common Prayer…eventually…at some undetermined point. Primarily the revision is to introduce language that does not presume God to be male. Rev. Ruth Meyers told the Post:
It’s an impediment to the mission and evangelism. We miss this opportunity to proclaim the gospel, and a gospel of equal love and compassion for all. . . . When we use solely masculine imagery for God, we make it difficult for women to really, truly understand themselves as created in the image and likeness of God, which is what the Bible says in Genesis.
Idaho Followers of Christ church member Lester Kester (yes, that is his name) sexually abused several younger family members. His wife Sarah didn’t report it, and decided instead to pray the problem away. Both have been arrested. I think we can all agree it’s best’fer Lester Kester to fester in sequester. And Sarah, too.
CFI’s, let’s say, nausea over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is cited by The Daily Signal, which is an outlet run by…um…the Heritage Foundation…? Yep. It surely is:
Kavanaugh’s opinions have alarmed some on the left. The Center for Inquiry, a secularist advocacy group, argues that his joining the Supreme Court would mean more decisions such as the Hobby Lobby ruling. [. . .] The group also accused Kavanaugh, who is Catholic, of supporting “Christian privilege.”
Israel officially defines itself as a nation for the Jewish people with a bill that states, “The realization of the right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” Arab members of the Knesset protested by tearing up copies of the bill, and were then removed. Ayman Odeh called it a “law of Jewish supremacy.”
We’ve been hearing some rumbles of interest in a 2003 Free Inquiry op-ed by Laurence W. Britt (“Fascism, Anyone?”) so we’ve dropped the paywall on it so you can dig into his 14 characteristics of a fascist state. Enjoy!
Scott Wagner, GOP nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, tells an 18-year-old woman that she is “young and naive” for accepting the reality of climate change after he declares that human body heat and the Earth moving closer to the sun are the causes of warming temperatures. We are so utterly, deeply screwed.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute shows that American Christian groups think the country is on the wrong track…except for white evangelicals. They’re fine.
Rebecca Moore, sister to one of the victims of the Jonestown massacre in 1978 and a professor of religious studies, says the concept of “brainwashing” is pseudoscientific:
The brainwashing explanation ignores this social scientific research. It infantilises individuals by denying them personal agency and suggesting that they are not responsible for their actions. The courts don’t buy brainwashing.
GQ India profiles the Breakthrough Science Society, an organization with a mission like our own, to promote scientific thinking and expose pseudoscience. Referring to a politician’s claim that flying horses actually exist, physics professor Soumitro Banerjee says:
People see horses. People see birds. So it’s not hard to imagine flying horses. But the solution of the quadratic equation was in fact discovered here. Aryabhata said the Earth rotated on its axis. Zero was invented here. Eulogising fantasies undermines the real scientific work that has happened in India.
Jamie Hale, in his Wide World of Science column at Skeptical Inquirer online, tries to disambiguate “critical thinking” from less specific concepts such as “thinking,” “logic,” and “problem solving.”
The Trump administration wants to rescind protections for endangered species, because, you know, screw them, they had their chance. ADAPT OR DIE, NORTH AMERICAN WOLVERINE!!!!
Researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand say that the published findings concerning the “Atacama Mummy,” the skeletal remains that looked to many to be an “alien mummy,” were rife with errors and ethical breaches:
“We are experts in developmental human anatomy and archaeology, and the mummy looks normal for a fetus around 15-16 weeks gestation,” said Kristina Killgrove, a bioarchaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a co-author of the new study, in an interview with Gizmodo. “To the average person, I understand how Ata could look odd, but that’s because the average person doesn’t see developing fetuses or mummies.”
The Islamic Society of Tampa Bay volunteers to host every migrant child separated from their parents at the border. Their outreach director said, “Islam is a faith of action. And we don’t want to be complicit in what we see as a crime.”
Jenny McCarthy’s house is haunted by Google Assistant. (“Boo-gle?” I’m not sorry.) Don’t be scared, Jenny. Google loves you. Google will always be with you. Forever.
Quote of the Day
Katherine Stewart, author of the exposé about those creepy evangelical Good News Clubs, writes in the New York Times about alleged Russian agent Maria Butina, delving into Butina’s infiltration of “The Family” at the National Prayer Breakfast, and the myriad connections between Russia and the secretive Christianist group. Stewart writes:
Although the religious right’s affection for Mr. Putin appears to center on a shared disgust with “the homosexual agenda” and other so-called family issues, it is impossible to overlook the attraction that the Russian leader’s authoritarian style has for his American admirers. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mike Pence hailed Mr. Putin as “a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country.” [. . .] The religious right thinks that it’s using Mr. Putin to advance its aims. But a far more plausible interpretation is that he is using the religious right — to infiltrate, divide and weaken our country.
* * *
Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.
Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry
Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net!