Ursus Pacificus

HR 888, a.k.a. “America’s Spiritual Heritage” resolution, must be stopped! Call and/or write your representative now!

Here’s my email to Rep. Jim Langevin:

Dear Rep. Langevin,

HR 888 (also known as the “America’s Spiritual Heritage” resolution) is a threat to one of the most cherished and fundamental liberties guaranteed by the US Constitution.

As my Representative, sworn to support and protect the Constitution, you must vote to strike down HR 888 (also known as the “America’s Spiritual Heritage” resolution), as it seeks to codify a respect for religion (a single religion, no less) in Federal Law. This is so offensive as to be viscerally sick-making.

With all due respect to you and your beliefs, whatever they may be, please recognize that the founding documents of this country do not establish it as a Christian nation, but as a secular nation, with some vague nods to an unspecified deity.

Strict literal interpretation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and your oath to support and defend it compel you to vote with prejudice against this heinous travesty of worthwhile legislation.

Thank you for your time, and best wishes,

Paul Tourville

More info here and here

This story, presented by WHDH-HDTV, which, from what I’ve heard, is one of the largest and most respected TV news organizations in the region… What do I know? I haven’t watched any appreciable terrestrial broadcast TV in over 10 years…. anyway… that story raises a pet peeve of mine. The story starts with the following sentence:

A man who never thought he would walk again is walking proof that miracles really do happen.

Are you kidding me?! I mean the article gets much, much worse… grammatically, factually… real-world-ily.

If you were not already hip… this blog post I wrote back in 2006 should give you an idea of my feelings on the reporting of miracles in the media, and miracles in general. This one may also shed some light on my feelings.

I decided to write the TV station:

To whom it may concern:

Your piece about the Marshfield man, whose recovery may be ruled a miracle, troubles me.

The story talks about miracles as if they were common, matter-of-fact elements of reality, like death, taxes, and baseball.

There is a significant discrepancy between the web story, and the “related video”, in that the web story states flatly that John Sullivan is “walking proof that miracles really do happen.” That is, to put it mildly, a wildly extraordinary claim, made by WHDH. The video story says that he “… says he is living proof that miracles happen.” That is also a wildly extraordinary claim, but one made by the subject of the story, not your writers. The video is not without its flaws, however. The graphic that shares the screen with the anchor during the story’s lead-in says “MIRACLES HAPPEN”. Do you have any evidence to back up this wildly extraordinary claim?

I refer you to this blog post of mine for my position on miracles:
http://www.ursuspacificus.net/blog/index.php/2008/04/20/its-a-miracle/

You may also find this enlightening:
http://www.ursuspacificus.net/blog/index.php/2009/01/17/miracle-on-the-hudson-my-foot/

This also touches, tangentially, on miracles and the news media:
http://www.ursuspacificus.net/blog/index.php/2008/04/20/taking-cartoons-too-seriously/

Your story is chock full of undefined references and rhetorical dead ends. It is nearly unreadable, and certainly unbelievable. Here are some examples:

“A man who never thought he would walk again is walking proof that miracles really do happen.” — There is no effort made to validate this claim.

“Several of John Sullivan’s vertebrae were squeezing his spinal cord and discs, bulging out and causing debilitating pain.” — Vertebrae are bone, and do not bulge.

Who is/was Cardinal John Henry Newman, and why pray to him? Why not pray to Joe Pesce?

“Sullivan eventually did go through with the operation, but it yielded major complications.” — Complications, such as… success?

“He has never felt the pain again.” — Objection: Hearsay.

“Sullivan sent a petition to England - notifying the postulator of a divine favor …” A petition?… like canvassing door to door, getting signatures? …and England? How does England play into this? Did he send it to … Parliament? Michael Palin? Richard Branson?

…and this, the last “sentence” of the piece, I have to say, is the capper (and I QUOTE): “The Pope is now expected to say Sullivan a miracle, after his severe spinal trouble healed in a way that mystified his doctor” OK, first, let’s wedge the word, “that” between “say” and “Sullivan”. Then, let’s make “Sullivan” possessive… “Sullivan’s”… better… now, insert “recovery is” between “Sullivan’s” and “a miracle”. Oh-kaaayyy… replace “after” with “given that”. After “doctor”, put “,whom we didn’t bother to interview for this story”. Finally, put a PERIOD. This makes the last sentence:

“The Pope is now expected to say that Sullivan’s recovery is a miracle, given that his severe spinal trouble healed in a way that mystified his doctor, whom we didn’t bother to interview for this story.”

…Wow.

Sincerely,

Paul Tourville
Warwick, RI

http://www.ursuspacificus.net/

… I don’t know if it’ll do any good… but… one can hope, can one not?

Just in time for NoThanksGiving, 2009, the Church of No, Thanks has made available a collection of groovy commemorative stuff, like shirts, thongs, and, of course, BBQ Aprons. Check it all out here: http://www.cafepress.com/urspax/6642856

I know… A large chunk of the US population is Christian in one way or another, and most of them dig Easter… I haven’t been watching TV, so I don’t know for certain, but I’m guessing that those of you who do watch television have been inundated by ads for candy, spring and summer clothing, patio sets and yard maintenance equipment, because nothing commemorates the resurrection of the one true Messiah… the Christ… like a new patio set and riding lawn mower.

…and speaking of candy…

Have you noticed the way supermarkets and big-box general stores bow to the candy companies… at least three times a year, they devote full aisles or sections to seasonal candy that priced $X the day before the “holiday” and $(X/4) the day after.

Lets face it, candy is not generally a necessity… I mean, sure… refined sugar can give one an energy boost…but… unless you’re engaging in some activity which requires high-order compaction of supplies and heavy expenditure of energy, candy is a luxury, really… So if you look at what they sell the “seasonal candy” for the day after the “season” , that should give you an idea of what the “regular candy” in the non-seasonal aisle is really worth, because I have serious doubts they’re taking a loss on the “post-season seasonal candy”.

So if you need candy to tide you over till Halloween, I’d say buy it tomorrow!

I’m not going to the American Atheists convention in Atlanta.

…however, there’s a shinding in LA that looks positively dreamy! Richard Dawkins AND Bill Maher are confirmed speakers (among a raft of others). It’s in October, which gives time to plan, and it’s in LA (well, Burbank) which means there’s little if any reason to leave the convention center (except to come home when it’s over)!

I’m so tempted to GO!!!

Do you know Ray Comfort? Do you know his publicist? Do you know his publicist’s dog groomer?

Somehow, I need you to get word to Ray Comfort that I want to review his book. This one:

You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can’t Make Him Think: Answers to Questions from Angry Skeptics

There’s no way I can, in good conscience, contribute to the sales figures of this book, but I cannot debate it intelligently without reading it.

If you can get me a promo copy of this book (or have a copy you bought for your own consumption and no longer want) please let me know. I can be emailed at pault@ursuspacificus.net

Well, the fist major holiday in the history of the new religion I founded is coming up (details here), and I’m getting ready. The movie viewings are pretty straight-forward, but the barbecue requires more planning effort than I usually expend

Still, I’m working on it. I’ve got a grill…

…and that’s a good start, I guess

I have Bill Maher’s “Religulous” on DVD, finally, and have viewed it a couple times. During viewing #1, with the GF, the part of the movie that focuses on
The Creation Museum left her slack-jawed. I was a little less surprised, knowing as I have for most of my life that, generally speaking, in this country, the average level of credulity seems to be inversely proportional to latitude and directly proportional to longitude. Since the Creation Museum is located in Kentucky, it seems safe to guess it’s banking on some fairly credulous patronage. Put another way, such a project would likely not have been so enthusiastically supported in, say, Vermont. This is supported by my highly scientific calculation (at least as scientific as the “science” you’ll likely find at The Creation Museum):

Given the hypothesis:
“The further South and West within the Continental United States one goes, the more credulous the average person seems to be.”

Let us first establish the 4 extreme points of the Continental United States. I chose Wikipedia as my source. My formula will allow the use of other values, but for the purposes of demonstration, let’s use the values I have at hand:

Continental US:
Northernmost: Lake of the Woods, MN (49.38N)
Easternmost: West Quoddy Head, Maine (66.95W)
Westernmost: Cape Alva, WA (124.71W)
Southernmost: Cape Sable, FL (25.12N)

Note: I have converted the “minutes” value to decimal (M/60) and discarded “seconds”. You can recalculate to higher precision if you like. I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

If one was to create a “box” on the surface of the Earth, whose northern edge ran coincident with 49.38 degreed North latitude, whose Eastern edge ran coincident with 66.95 degrees West longitude, and so on (per the values above), one would create the region in which this calculation can be valid.

Given the values above, the Partial Relative Credulity (Latitude) (Crpa) of any location can be established with the following formula:

Crpa = ( 24.23 / (A - 25.12 ) ) - 1

Where A is the Latitude of the point in question.

Similarly, the Partial Relative Credulity (Longitude) (Crpo) can be found thusly:

Crpo = ( O - 66.95 ) / 57.76

Where O is the Longitude of the point in question.

Thus, the full Relative Credulity of a region’s population can be given as:

Cr = Crpa * Crpo

OR

Cr = ( ( 24.23 / ( A - 25.12 ) ) - 1 ) * ( ( O - 66.95 ) / 57.76 ) )


I live in Rhode Island, which, by some accounts, is populated by a fairly credulous lot. The lat and long of RI is (roughly) 41.7N 71.44W.

The “Creation Museum” (according to its website) is in, roughly, Idlewild, KY, positioned at 39.07N 84.79W

If we plug these values into the formula above, we find that Rhode Island has a Relative Credulity of .035, and Idlewild, KY has a Relative Credulity of .226. Not the most credulous people in the country, but certainly six-and-change times more credulous than the folks in RI.

Does this follow? You tell me.

I can tell you that when I lived in San Diego (the Southwestern-most major city in the continental US, Cr = 1.118) (1992-1998), the Promise Keepers filled what was then Jack Murphy Stadium, a Mormon Temple was completed, we had the Heaven’s Gate mass cult suicide and Dave Shelly and Chainsaw convinced the bulk of their listening audience that 1) The Space Shuttle would be landing at Montgomery Field in town AND 2) a truck carrying an orca (either to or from Sea World) had jackknifed on I8 in Mission Valley, and listeners were instructed to bring water to wet-down the whale until authorities to figure out what to do (both April Fools’ Day pranks).

What’s the Relative Credulity of YOUR home town?