Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm

Now, I’ve had this in my drafts box for ages.

The zoo/farm is near Bristol and I’ve been kicking around the idea of a field trip for some time – the lack of desire to give them any money being one deterrent.

What is it? It’s a tourist attraction, specialising in school trips, pushing a creationist agenda. It’s the kind of thing I’d expect to see in the Bible Belt of the States but it’s been nestled in South West England for some time now.

You could be forgiven for thinking “that’s a bit harsh” and that they are in fact a decent, educational establishment. The website is fairly innocuous until you reach the far-right tab ‘Evolution and Creation‘, which links to a ‘sister website’, Earth History: A New Approach.

Some gems:

We believe the fossil record does not show one evolutionary tree of life but rather genetically controlled diversification from a number of original forms

As the currently measured value of an element’s decay rate (or half-life) has no theoretical basis, the only way we can test which is true is to compare the results against the primary evidence.

ORLY?!

They keep winning awards – including this year’s Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge – and this hasn’t gone unnoticed, at least by the BHA.

Edit: Righteous Indignation ran a report on the zoo back in August from Dr*T (from around 19:00), in which he explores the whole of the bible passage about Noah & the flood; it’s, um, interesting…

James Gray hits the nail on the head (emphasis mine):

‘This is an appalling decision. It is entirely inappropriate that the Council should support an establishment that advances creationism and seeks to discredit a wide variety of established scientific facts that challenge their religious views, such as radio carbon dating, the fossil record and the speed of light.’

‘Teachers and parents look to the Council for assurance that children will experience high quality educational visits that meet the relevant government guidelines. Awarding this particular zoo a Quality Badge risks exposing hundreds of children to anti-scientific dogma.’

‘This is not a freedom of speech or freedom of religion issue. The question is whether the information displayed by this zoo meets the tests of accuracy and truth that parents, teachers and other educational professionals expect.’

I was first made aware of the Zoo through Facebook as some people from one of the Atheist Bus Campaign/Richard Dawkins groups (I forget which) had visited and posted their photos, which included T-Rex models in the ark and shots of the merchandise in the gift shop; mostly books about Christianity’s creation myth. Marketed at school trips, remember.

Do have a look at Paul Sims‘ write-up and particularly the photos at the end. You can see the kind of things they put in their ‘educational’ material; why apes aren’t related to man, proof the ark was real and so on.

Welfare Worries

Aside from its religious fundamentalism and anti-scientific propaganda, the zoo has animal welfare issues too. Last year they had their BIAZA membership revoked because of a failure to disclose information about their acquisition of tigers from circuses. The RSPCA also criticised their plans for an elephant enclosure.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMLeqmvxiaM]

There have been (and probably still are) protests there because of alleged animal cruelty. If you look around reviews* of the place, they range from enthusiastic thumbs-up, through it’s-ok-if-you-ignore-the-crazy, all the way to outrage both at the ‘educational’ content and animal welfare.

*…The giraffe had one pole in a field with a empty twig to chew on. One of the tigers looked a little crazy as he just walked around the same route in his little house bashing his head on the glass each time. Most of the animals had cuts on their legs, is this normal?!

They were also accused of killing some of the animals to reduce Winter spending; however, it is difficult to pick out the substantial accusations as there are always plenty brought by ARE groups, which are likely to be full of twisted-truths and exaggerations. There are a few legitimate reasons why this may have happened; to feed the carnivores, to maintain healthy stocks, etc.

Reality Check

This is the 21st century; genetics tells us more every day about our evolutionary past and place in the gigantic web of life on this planet. In an increasingly secular state, why does a place such as this exist? Claiming to be educational yet ignoring much of what we already know.

This is not an alternative theory; it’s ridiculous denialism, likely permitted because religious belief is a handy excuse to push agendas whilst avoiding a lot of the controls placed on non-religiously-motivated activity.

Why is it still open after all this? How much more exposure is necessary?

Shall we go?

 

Homophobia politika

Hellos, trust everyone is having a merry christmas-time, or at least surviving it!

Today I’m just going to have a quick rant about some fundamentalist religious antics. Yay! ..?

I was going to combine this with another thing but it’s getting longer and longer so I’ll just keep it separate. Back with that later!

Edit: Here’s a great article (thanks, Dawn) by a child raised by a gay couple – do read it, it’s not long!

The BBC’s Grass is Green

First, this morning’s cup of boiling anger was delivered by the BBC; you may or may not have heard that Elton and David have had a baby boy (via a surrogate, obviously). Now the Daily Mail delivers no surprises on this one, including the insinuation that men bringing up children aren’t even worthy of the title of father.

For some reason the BBC saw fit to get an ‘opinion‘ on this from one of our most conservative, fundamentalist christian voices – the utterly barmy and hate-filled man-shaped entity that is Stephen Green – someone far more suited to the odious pastures of the Mail.

What concerns me about this is not just the fact that they went to Green at all, but why - as the PinkNews article points out, Green has previously pitted himself against the BBC and lost:

On 8 January 2007, submissions were made on behalf of Stephen Green at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court to pursue private prosecutions for blasphemy against the Director General of the BBC Mark Thompson and the [Jerry Springer: The Opera] show’s producer, Jonathan Thoday

Green faced bankruptcy after this action and I find it impossible to believe that no one at the BBC realised who they were asking for an opinion here and I still can’t fathom why they did it.

They’ve a long-running problem of confusing the meaning and purpose of balance in reports and others have covered this with respect to their giving airtime to people like climate change (pseudo)skeptics (this is why that matters), quacks and religious commentators, where their opinions are irrelevant and/or extremely misguided, thus marginalising the real issue or putting it across inaccurately.

I liked this, from Alan Gibson:

… the link between the government and the BBC – one that has been central ever since the broadcaster’s establishment in the 1920s. To prove his own case, Aitken lists a string of Blairite journalists who moved from the BBC into politics during the 1990s. But he does not seem to see how this, and New Labour’s own almost manic need to control the news agenda, has made the BBC more a servant of the government than ever before.

It is obvious how the nature of BBC coverage of things like the student protests relates to its government links, but the point of getting Green’s views here evades me.

I’ve heard suggestions of religious homophobia permeating the ranks but is it that simple? Anyway, to move on from the liberal conspiracy a little, this on the CV site is amusing/irritating:

‘Will it be one with no respect for the Almighty or for other people? One with no sense of right or wrong? One with no limits? One with no acknowledgment of the sacred?

From those who have zero respect for people who do not conform to their particular view of ‘right’, who call for the death of such individuals and consider it just, who will go to alarming lengths to get their points across? Pot, kettle, CV.

Protesting the Pope

A fantastic day! Read the official campaign’s page for links to speeches etc.

from @toxicpath

The sun shone, the peace was kept and we all had a good sing & shout. Getting people to sing along to ‘Every Sperm is Sacred’ whilst we played our kazoos and wotnot was, so to speak, divine.

For a feel, have a look at this video diary, listen to some interesting PodDelusion audio (also the iPadio snippets at the end) and here’s my Flickr set.

What an amazing bunch of people – seriously, I don’t gush about the wonderful nature of human beings very often but having been surrounded by ~12,000 (according to the Met) lovely individuals, today I feel I have to.

Atheists, humanists, catholics, muslims, hindus, agnostics – just about all faiths and none, I reckon (mostly none, of course, but plenty of decent ‘believers’ also).

The only thing that shocked me was some of the pro-pope lot shortly after the march started. At first we couldn’t really hear what they were saying, it was just to the tune of various football chants. But then it became clear.

There the dead go! *clapclap clap clap clap* There the dead go!!

I really couldn’t believe that children and adults alike were standing there shouting that at us. It was truly horrible, many of us looked at each other with disbelief, but we didn’t have much to return except the peace-Vs and a bit of “use condoms!”.

from Leah van Zyl

That bit of unpleasantness aside, we had some chants – a few were amusing

from @edforchoice

Get your rosaries off my ovaries!

Hands off my eggs, Benedict!

And some more standard, to-the-point

Gay/trans/women’s/children’s rights are human rights!

No state visit!

We don’t want your homophobia, nope to the pope!

Faith schools indoctrinate!

See some (minimal) BBC coverage here – can’t believe I missed Ian McKellen!!

The speakers were excellent, when we finally arrived at Downing Street. All the unedited audio is here on PodDelusion.

BHA chief exec Andrew Copson was surprised and very pleased with the turnout (rightly so!).

Also from Leah – brilliant!

Some very moving speeches from survivors of childhood abuse at the hands of the clergy (Sue Cox for example – see/hear us ‘singing’ at the beginning too!). They expressed their thanks for everyone showing up and making them realise how many people do care about them, having been told for so many years that they should keep quiet, then that they were lying.

Peter Tatchell did his thing and spelled out why we were all there.

Richard Dawkins got big cheers from the crowd and was actually rather amusing! Link to best Youtube vid so far.

Hear Johann Hari’s speech here.

Ben Goldacre’s usual sobering AIDS-kills-2 million-every-year stat had all the blown-up condoms bobbing around above the crowd. Listen to a bit  o’ Ben here.

Also on the stage was Geoffrey Robertson, author of The Case of the Pope – an exposé of all the monstrous activity he’s uncovered in the Catholic church.

One of the most horrific things was to hear of  the many women in Brazil and other countries turned straight to the authorities when they arrive at hospitals seriously injured after enduring a backstreet abortion out of desperation. Instantly criminalised due to draconian laws based on religious beliefs, stripping them of their rights; reproductive rights and basic human rights.

Father Bernard Lynch told of his anguish, witnissing fellow gay Catholics losing hope and dying from AIDS following Benedict’s vile words and policies.

Maryam Namazie spoke for the One Law For All campaign and the crowd voiced their support for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who may be stoned due to Iran’s oppressive islamic regime.

After it all finished, the crowds dispersed quickly and quietly, the roadsweepers did a great job clearing up (but most people I saw were carefully keeping their litter to themselves or finding a bin – not easy in London!) after us and we went to sit in a pub.

from @brumplum

It was fantastic to meet some Facebook friends in person, to sing with the BHA choir (thanks to everyone who joined in!!), bump into old friends and make new ones.

I had a great day and I hope we’ve made a bit of a difference somehow.

——————————————————————————–

Audio

Here are the PodDelusion snippets from James & Liz:

Belivers And Protesters http://ipad.io/OUQ (and James’ experience of trying to get some interviews from pope tourists – not too good)

Speakin To John, Who’s Going To See The Pope http://ipad.io/OUT

Finally Found Some Protesters At #protestthepope http://ipad.io/OUY (featuring yours truly! Eating my breakfast/lunch)

Chanting http://ipad.io/OUt

Another Interview http://ipad.io/OV1

Signs And Banners http://ipad.io/OV9

Shame On The Pope! http://ipad.io/OVO

Aftermath (recorded Saturday) http://ipad.io/OaE

Video

My recordings:

My new favourite video here.

Also search ‘pope’ on John’s youtube channel for a few excellent videos http://www.youtube.com/user/johnjrp01

Media

Honestly we’re all quite pissed off about this, I think. The estimates for attending are consistently under-reported, many of the interviews and footage taken seem not to have materialised… it’s all a bit fishy, but also unsurprising I suppose.

Here’s a good riposte to tall the people saying the protest was anti-catholic (who have missed the point entirely). The NSS has done a nice write-up with photos.

Video from ITN, not sure what actually made it on the TV news though. Press Association coverage.

New York Times article isn’t too bad. The BBC coverage has been fairly predictably rubbish so far.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11358115

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11355258

Photos

Buzzfeed’s funniest signs!

See my friend Delia’s blog, Tanya’s photo blog, Hampshire Skeptics, Jonathan Warren‘s site and the BHA’s facebook album for some great pics.

The BHA has also set up a Flickr pool for the event!

On Flickr, fab pics from: Joe, Colin Grey, maddington, Stormy little teacup, pug50, Cat Burton, Stephen Darlington, Loz, Zeitgeist images, Greg Gerrard, Andrew Brown.

The lady doth protest too much

from @Danatkinson

Hey, the Pope has landed!

I am off around central London on Saturday with a merry band of people – catholic, protestant, atheist, agnostic, humanist, probably muslim, hindu, sikh and just about everything besides – to Protest the Pope. There are many, many reasons to do so…

I’ve had people, frankly, have a go at me about it but I’d have thought it’s obvious why I feel the need to join in. I can understand if people just aren’t that bothered and don’t want to show up but surprised if it’s not clear why people are angry at the man and the fact that the UK is paying for his visit.

Shout, shout, let it all out

On the PtP site is a ‘Rap Sheet‘ for the Pope that concisely summarises the main disagreements with his policies and views but also goes into them in a bit more detail, with supporting quotations.

These can be crudely summarised as child rape, homophobia, misogyny, racism, and the spreading of HIV.

There is a lot of abuse of women in the church, which tends to get less publicity than the young victims. 14 of 22 convicted child abusers remain in the chuch even now. The Murphy Report exposed some of the abuse in the Irish catholic church. Bill Carney’s case is notable, his words here are quite chilling – also see the Newsnight footage.

The Pope does not stand up for the human rights of women, homosexuals or children, opposing abortion in all cases, and contraception even within marriage. So, no one should have a physical relationship with their lover should they be of the same sex or if one of them is known to be HIV-positive; the church spreads misinformation about STDs and barrier contraception, contributing to the spread of HIV and deaths due to AIDS. Women should carry any child to term, whatever her situation, since the potential lives of embryos and foetuses are apparently more important than hers – yet the church has not condemned capital punishment so the ‘all life is sacred’ thing doesn’t seem to apply universally. These are not the views of most sensible catholics, but are the will and word of the head of their church.

This article in the Independent is a plea to catholics to disassociate themselves from the Pope’s views, as they are also damaging to members of the religion. However, a quick look at #papalvisit on Twitter clearly shows that most people feel the need to stand up for him regardless of what comes out of his mouth.

This New Statesman piece is essential reading, detailing why the recognition of the Vatican City as a state, the Holy See, should not be ignored and the activity it has permitted. No other religion is afforded this ‘honour’, given this power. People underestimate the influence of the Catholic church in Europe because of it. We need separation of church and state, to allow both freedom of and from religion. This is important for religious and non-religious alike. It is vital for the upholding of human rights.

Hilariously, yesterday cardinal Kasper pulled out of the visit because we have ‘aggressive atheism’ and we’re apparently a ‘Third-world country‘ due to our ‘multiculturalism’. The hypocrisy here is fantastic – ‘we want to show our faith publically’ – yet people of all faiths and none should not be free to voice their concerns because they’re at odds with his ideas?

Let’s not forget Ratzinger’s lifting of Richard Williams‘ excommunication – a man who denies the gas chambers operated in WW2 and says only about 300,000 Jews were killed, no genocide involved, the attribution of ‘miracle‘ to the results of Jack Sullivan‘s fairly routine back operation or the suspect treatment of the soon-to-be-saint Cardinal Newman.

Why protest?

Well, why is the UK’s money being spent on an official visit for the head of a religion? When he opposes our ‘liberal laws’ and compares the problem of institutionalised child rape to the “grave crime” of allowing women to hold official positions in his organisation.

Protest against  his outdated, offensive views. Protest in support of all the victims, against spending money on an unelected preacher afforded too much power and recognition, against his words and actions.

Tim Minchin’s Pope Song perfectly demonstrates why people should find the pope offensive (moreso than the language in the song btw; not for work/headphones required!)

Also see the PodDelusion live at Skeptics in the Pub London for some BHA commentary (from 3:14).

Apathy

I’ve heard “well there are paedophiles everywhere, mostly within families”, for example. So what? The pope is the head of a powerful organisation, who can affect law and many, many lives. He commands a lot of respect, people listen to what he says. He has (and uses) the power to protect known paedophiles and did so because he considers the reputation and integrity of his institution more important than the human rights of children – as a result he has caused many thousands of lives to be affected.

The fact that other crimes exist does not absolve others. There is a greater rape culture in many African countries but that does not mean we should ignore our own. If you know of crimes, if you have the power to stop them, you should be using it – people need protecting and turning a blind eye helps no one.

I have not covered everything, I’m sure others have made more eloquent points. But I know I do not believe these kinds of views and actions should be sanctioned by our government, paid for with our money or allowed to pass without comment. Also, the protest itself is going to be fun, and I need some of that.

You know it makes sense.

Shocking bleachgate stuff from @fibularis

Edit:

Well, within a few hours of landing, the Pope has already practically Godwinned himself. See the transcript of his first speech.

we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many

Um, Pope is clearly unfamiliar with Hitler’s own reasons for his actions. For example, from Mein Kampf:

The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God’s will, and actually fulfill God’s will, and not let God’s word be desecrated. For God’s will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord’s creation, the divine will.

Also we have, of course, the failure of Pius XII to condemn the Nazi regime at the time, as RD comments.

Moving on to more gems from the Pope’s attack on secularism:

As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny”

Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society. In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate. Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms

So apparently atheism and secularism breed intolerance. Former member of the Hitler Youth (sorry to keep bringing it up but it’s probably important in this context) says it was christianity that stood up against Nazism (implying while not plainly stating that atheism caused and tolerates it). The hypocrisy is beyond my words and I expect we’ll see some heavy backlash to this quite swiftly; for example the BHA has already made a statement.

Edit II: see the fantastic Konnolsky‘s commentary on these remarks and Stephen Fry’s response to the Daily Fail’s latest spewings.

Edit III: Brilliant! (I might stop this eventually) By CaptainMandate

I don’t know if hitler was a catholic, atheist, astrologist or wiccan (depends on your source) but I do know he was a german head of a totalitarian state endorsed by mussolini

glass houses

Bleachgate link roundup: 2nd and last

Sorry for the radio silence, I was off jumping around in muddy fields to awesome folk bands down in Devon! Might do a little summary of that later on for anyone who’s interested.

For now here are some more links around the ongoing MMS/Jim Humble story. Topsy is a great way of keeping up with the topic, especially if you’re not on Twitter.

I don’t know if this is meant to say the ‘truth’ or not.

it acts like a water filter for your internals, makes perfect sence to me. [sic]

Yeah… me too.

The list of things people will claim this stuff cures is endless and ever more absurd.

What’s Humble up to?

Well their church is really up and running now- note the usual two-faced approach; science and the medical establishment are wrong, but look! What the scientists say proves our point (*cough whenweselectivelyquotefromitandtwistallfactsoutofrecognition cough*)!!

He wrote an utterly astounding response to the FDA warning, which Ben Goldacre has posted.

He’s also been doling out his tasty bleach in Haiti. This newsletter is a scary read, e.g.:

There will be a week of theory where I cover the details on what MMS is, how it works, the basic chemistry for anyone coming off the street, how it is made, labeled and bottled,  how to treat Cancer, Hep C, HIV, colds, H1N1 flu, and dozens of other diseases. I try to tell you everything I know.

When people leave here they really know how to use MMS for all things, skin diseases of all kinds, colon problems, how to regenerate the liver, how to treat brain cancers, how to treat babies and pregnant women, and how to treat animals from mice to elephants. You will be personally taking MMS while here, spraying your skin with powerful solutions of MMS (but won’t hurt you), spraying others’ skin and hair.

You will learn to use sprays, baths, IV solutions, MMS gas, soak the feet, and most importantly, the new protocols that in the country of Malawi have cured more than 800 people of HIV plus 40 cancer cases, 50 of feet and leg numbness, 3 heart disease cases, 13 diabetes cases, and many other diseases and problems.

Regarding a conference you pay $750 for for the first week alone.

Supporters are sometimes so vehement that they’re using his wanted status as further proof of his genius; this guy practically worships him as a god, denouncing everyone (chemist, doctor, random person alike) who says otherwise, however much evidence they present.

There’s also this guy called Christian Pankhurst, a chiropractor, championing MMS in the UK.

Fortunately not everyone is sucked in by the hype as catlin, noBSpleaze and SilverFox in this forum show.

Dr*T makes the important point that dose is often everything when it comes to those dastardly ‘chemicals’, bleach included.

So I’ll leave it there for now unless there’s another revelation; people have been putting ASA complaints together but as it seems this stuff has been doing the rounds for some time, I expect people will keep using it. However, people buying it on the internet isn’t the scariest thing, as ever – gold-digging nutters pretending they can cure citizens of developing countries and propagating distrust of real medicine is far more damaging.

These people are murderers and I look forward to seeing them get their come-uppance, even if they’ll be replaced by another quack; hopefully they’ll be found out in turn.

Edit:

Newer coverage in the mainstream media thanks to Martin Robbins – his Guardian article has a bit of a raging comments section due to the forum admins and users getting extremely defensive.

Perhaps finally there is also some recognition of the damage Humble is doing in developing countries, too.

Edit II: Looks like some excellent progress is being made, as reported by Martin again and CENtral Science/PLoS Blogs.