[irrelig]Podcast #28 has us discussing a wide variety of topics with anthropology guru and University of Utah professor Ewa Wasilewska. We cover some topics we’ve touched on in previous podcasts, such as the Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh, and some things we haven’t — Leighton and I even learn some new stuff about Adam and Eve, as well as that wily serpent. We also discover a seething hatred Professor Wasilewska holds for all things Greek and Roman. Good times!

[chuck]By way of Pharyngula, we have this lovely article by creationist moron Peter Heck. Heck is that all-too-common breed of creationist whose ignorance about science is only matched by his arrogance about that ignorance. Read the article and see how many misconceptions, errors, and fallacies you can find. Me, I lost count.

Give a listen to our take on the article here.

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[chuck]Since no Mormons were man enough to talk to us, we decided to round up some news of interest to atheists. We found plenty.

For reference purposes, here are the articles we discuss in the podcast:

Special Olympics takes on use of the “R word”
Texas School Board members really, really stupid
ICR wants to award advanced degrees in science
Religious dying patients most likely to delay their trip to Heaven

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[chuck]The board members got together and made an executive decision: we’re going to hold off on this week’s A.N.N. because there’s so much to talk about. Instead, we’re going to do another Atheist News Roundup where we spend a whole hour tearing apart the stupidity in this week’s news.

And there is a lot of it. Texas wants to grant the Institution for Creation Research the ability to award graduate level degrees in science. Vermont’s legislature has granted homosexuals the legal rights to marry, but the bill may be vetoed by the state’s Republican governor. The Texas school board, led by a creationist dentist who believes the earth is 6,000 years old, is set to change their science standards so that “weaknesses” of evolutionary theory have to be discussed. As usual, nothing is included about the “weaknesses” of, say, quantum mechanics or linguistics — no, curiously enough, only the “weaknesses” of a theory that directly contradicts the Texan simple-minded reading of Bronze-age mythology has to be discussed.

That, and a lot more, this Friday!

[chuck]So … we’ve had some technical difficulties with the Wakefield podcast. I’m not sure who’s responsible, gremlins, demons, or angels, but the file was corrupted and appears to be unrecoverable. So we’re going to have to record it again, Matt willing. To fill the gap, we have a podcast we recorded a few weeks ago about a recent Christopher Hitchens debate.

I’m a big fan of Hitchens, especially when he’s drunk (which is most of the time). Hitchens has been debating religionists ever since he went on a book tour promoting “God Is Not Great.” One of the more recent debates was against Frank Turek, author of yet another book about “proofs” for the existence of God, and who apparently holds a doctorate in Christian Apologetics (they’ll give out phD’s for just about anything these days). Hitchens, as usual, was pretty hammered and didn’t adequately respond to a few of Turek’s assertions. So we thought we’d help Hitchens out while he sobers up and take on a few of these assertions ourselves.

The podcast is available here, and for context, the debate itself can be viewed here.

[leighton]

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Podcast Summary, Episode #7: Evolution and Intelligent Design, Part 2