Night at the Creation Museum

These guys are good. (Hat tip to Pharyngula.)

Clark Adams' memorial service

Until yesterday, I'd only attended funerals or memorial services for four people I've known; three of those have been in the last three years. All were at least nominally religious or spiritual funerals, and all (except the first, which I was too young to fully understand) struck a deep emotional chord in me. They were celebrations of the lives of these people, combined with grief for the loss of their presence. I wondered if a non-religious funeral would have the same emotional content.

Yesterday, I flew up to Las Vegas for Clark Adams' memorial service. Mel Lipman of HALVASON was the officiant--he said it was about the 50th such service he had done, but was the first for someone that he had been such a close friend to. He was followed by remarks from Clark's friends Rob and Raul, who shared personal memories of Clark and what he meant to them. Clark's mother was represented by a beautiful letter that closed with "THOUGHTfully yours, Clark's mom." There were photos and video of Clark. We laughed, we shed tears, we hugged. We shared memories of Clark and we made new friends. At dinner afterward, several people gave homage to Clark by ordering Diet Cokes with no ice (even though Matt said "I hate Diet Coke" and Brandon said "and I love ice!").

The emotional content was the same--a mix of joy for the positive contributions Clark made to all of our lives and sadness that he's gone. But I found it a better experience than the religious ceremonies in this regard, in that these are people like me, that I can genuinely connect with on a deeper and more honest way, despite the fact that I don't know many of them very well. We know that Clark is gone, and that our lives here are all we have, making every moment more precious.

Creation Ministries International sues Answers in Genesis

Creation Ministries International has filed a lawsuit against Answers in Genesis in Australia.

From The Australian:

A week after former Queensland science teacher Ken Ham opened the world's first Creation Museum - a $33 million facility in Petersburg, Kentucky - he is being sued by the Australian evangelical organisation he helped to set up and which served as a springboard for his leap into the US evangelical movement two decades ago.
...

The suit focuses on a dispute over the Australian organisation's production of a creationist magazine, sold in the US to more than 35,000 subscribers, and has led to revelations about the three-year battle between the two ministries.

A 40-page report, written by Mr Briese and obtained by The Australian, reveals a bitter power struggle across the Pacific that began with a challenge to the power Mr Ham allegedly wielded over the ministries.
...
A magistrate between 1982 and 90, Mr Briese found in his report that Mr Ham and his US organisation had launched a campaign after his leadership was challenged by his US deputy, Brandon Vallorani, who was then sacked, and Australian leader Carl Wieland, who was later allegedly the subject of innuendo about his private life.

According to Mr Briese's report, the campaign last year also involved John Mackay, a former associate of Mr Ham in Queensland, who was excommunicated in the 1980s after making allegations of witchcraft and necrophilia against a fellow member of the ministry.

The joint Australian-US push for reforms came amid concerns over Mr Ham's domination of the ministries, the amount of money being spent on his fellow executives and a shift away from delivering the creationist message to raising donations.

In his report, Mr Briese said Mr Ham and the US organisation responded with sackings, bullying and, in some instances, "unbiblical/unethical/unlawful behaviour" towards the Australian ministry that he suspected was intended to send it into bankruptcy.

"The report recommends that if CMI is to fulfil its fiduciary responsibilities to protect and safeguard the Australian ministry, CMI, and have a recalcitrant Answers in Genesis-USA brought to account for the serious wrongs it has committed," he said, "CMI has no option left except to bring AiG-USA before the secular courts, the 'powers that be ordained by God' under Romans 13."

I've previously reported on the details of CMI's complaints here, on the John McKay witchcraft and necrophilia accusations here, and on the CMI/AiG schism here.

UPDATE (June 4, 2007): P.Z. Myers gives his take, as does Bartholomew's notes on religion blog.

The Clarrie Briese report and related documents, including the text of the legal complaint, is online at the Creation Ministries International website.

UPDATE (June 5, 2007): Answers in Genesis has responded to the lawsuit with an email to supporters, and Creation Ministries International has commented on that email--I've got the full text on my blog, with some color commentary of my own.

Sen. Jon Kyl responsible for "secret hold" on Open Government Act

The Open Government Act, a bill which would require the government to provide justifications for refusal to answer Freedom of Information Act requests, has been blocked in the Senate by an anonymous, secret hold placed by one Senator. This is the same process by which Sen. Ted Stevens placed a secret hold last year on a bill to create a publicly searchable database of earmarks.

After the Society for Professional Journalists began a search for the responsible Senator who wants the government to continue to be able to stonewall FOIA requests without justification, he came forward--and it's Arizona Senator Jon Kyl.

Maricopa County Trustee's Sale Notices for May 2007

May's total was 2009. The graph needs little comment this month, I think.

M.C. N/TR Descriptive Stats
Mean	939.6912752
Median	822
Mode	746
Standard Deviation	323.391527
Range	1527
Minimum	482
Maximum	2009
Sum	140014
Count	149

How conservative opposition to gay marriage has undermined straight marriage

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars reports on how gay parents have relied on the development of new methods to ensure their ability to adopt and serve as guardians of children. Second-parent adoption and visitation rights to adopted children by non-custodial parents (the two examples Ed provides) are also available to unmarried straights. The result is that unmarried couples who previously married solely to obtain such legal protections don't need to do so.

Origin of the term "enhanced interrogation techniques"

Andrew Sullivan reports on the origin of the term "enhanced interrogation techniques," as well as justification for their use that directly parallels those of the Bush administration.

Answers in Genesis Creationism Museum

P.Z. Myers at Pharyngula has put together a carnival of blog responses to the Answers in Genesis Creationism Museum, which includes a photographic tour of the museum. The museum's content is as bad as you might expect.

Contrasting Christian responses to Clark Adams' death

When I wrote my tribute to Clark Adams, I included this paragraph:

Suicide always provokes questions about the cause. Given Clark's activism in support of atheism, I won't be surprised to see opportunistic speculation on the part of some advocates of religion that Clark's atheism was why he killed himself, but there's no evidence to support that.

Patrick Trotter has now commented on Clark's death, exemplifying exactly what I was referring to, under the heading "When One has no Hope...":

This is what happens when someone has no hope or faith. Nothing to Believe in...Nothing or No one to turn to. It's a shame that a life this young was wasted. It's also a shame that he spent his whole life, dedicated to waging war against God.

I hope he found peace and salvation before he went.....but with his resume, I doubt it.

Patrick, who I'm sure never met Clark, is making a number of erroneous assumptions--that Clark believed in nothing, that Clark had no support, that his life was "wasted," and that he was "waging war against God." He's made no attempt to find out anything about Clark, what his life was like, what he thought, what he did, or the effects he's had on other people. Patrick Trotter here demonstrates the offensiveness of a religious bigot who has no interest in understanding, and who can't resist making the suggestion that Clark is now burning in hell for his disbelief, an argumentum ad baculum to try to keep his fellow believers in line.

Clark believed in many things--he was a fan of science, of magic, of comedy, of music, of a good argument and a good joke. He was a funny man who had many friends. He lived a productive life that had positive impact on everyone around him. And he didn't believe God existed--he no more waged war on God than on Santa Claus. He opposed religion and didn't care for religious ritual (even in secular form)--his statement that has been most repeatedly quoted is "If atheism is a religion, then health is a disease."

A contrasting Christian commentary on Clark's death comes from Anne Jackson, who ponders the extent to which Christian stigmatization of atheists helps reinforce their negative impressions of Christianity:

Aside from the extreme “turn or burn” preachers in our day, we “modern, contemporary” Christians probably do an equal part of stigmatizing those of different (or no) faiths. The “unchurched”…the “lost souls we must save!!”…I have far too often encountered the almost immediate and disapproving looks and attitude that so many of us habitually carry around when discussing someone who is a “wayward child” or “bless his heart, he’s just so lost.”

I am ashamed that I have not made it a bigger priority in my own life to be more sensitive and less prideful in my faith. And as the title of this post says, I pray for mercy and forgiveness because we know not what we do.

The only thing is…we should.

We should know. And we should love.

Anne shows herself to be a more thoughtful and open-minded person than Patrick--somebody that an atheist could possibly even productively interact with, to gain mutual understanding.

Foul smell at elementary school turns out to be dead body in air duct

It's not often that an event right in my neighborhood makes the front page of CNN's website, but it did today when a foul smell at Sierra Vista Elementary School in Phoenix turned out to be a dead body in the cafeteria air conditioning ductwork. Classes were dismissed for the day.

Apparently the guy was trying to break into the school and became trapped and died (presumably of thirst).

I've submitted this one to Fortean Times, which regularly prints accounts of stupid criminals and strange deaths.

The Arizona Republic covered the story earlier today.