Just How Fundamentalist are Mormons Anyway?

On this week’s Penn’s Sunday School podcast, Penn Jillette and Bill Nye (the Science Guy) were having an interesting conversation about creationism and belief and the like. Penn asked Bill a question about the last time he (Bill) had had an in-person conversation with somebody who truly believed in the inerrancy of the Bible and in creationism. Bill’s answer was that his most recent experience in this regard was when a couple of Mormon missionaries knocked on his door a few years earlier.

They didn’t pursue the conversation very far, and Bill didn’t offer any specifics but the answer he gave struck me as very odd.  Having grown up Mormon and served as a missionary myself, I would never think of lumping Mormons into the fundamentalist camp when it comes to Biblical accuracy. Certainly I was never raised to believe that the Earth was only six or ten thousand years old - yes, Mormons believe in creation as an act of God, but they don’t believe the Bible is any sort of inerrant history text (in fact, that's part of the reason the Book of Mormon was necessary, to correct the errors that had crept into the Bible over the centuries). 

In my experience, Mormons have a healthy respect for, and invest a huge amount of money in, modern science. Certainly many paleontologists are Mormons (lots of dinosaur bones out there in Utah).  I remember being taught evolution in science classes at BYU, and, when some students complained about it, the professor calmly explained that, whatever anyone’s religious beliefs, evolution was the state of modern science, and it was the University’s obligation to teach it. That’s maybe not the most ringing endorsement of evolution one could hear, but it’s a far cry from what you’d get at a fundamentalist Christian college.

So the conversation made me curious. In the 25 or so years since I've been to church, have things changed in this regard? Are missionaries now out there extolling the virtues of young Earth creationism?  

Certainly Mormons have made common cause with fundamentalists in the political arena in recent decades, so maybe they’ve changed the way they look at and teach these doctrines as well. My hunch, though, is that the very fact that Mormons and conservative Christians have been so publicly supportive of each other politically has led people to lump them into that same category. But I'm definitely curious.

I’ll have to check it out.

What Are They Teaching (in Alabama)?

If there's one thing I really don't understand, it's Biblical literalism. The idea that the Bible -- as important as it is -- can be taken as some sort of actual historical text just boggles my mind, and always has. I would consider it just an odd bit of religious flotsam, and add it to the long list of strange things that people accept on faith and talk about amongst themselves on Sunday, if said people weren't so insistent about pushing the concept of creationism on our kids. In a world where we need the smartest, most well educated citizens to help keep pushing the boundaries of science and knowledge, saddling them with the archaic idea that the planet is only 6,000 years old because some holy book says so is unconscionable.

And, as usual, the best way for me to express my feelings on this was through music, so here's a song about what I think we ought, and ought not, to be teaching in schools.

You can find all of my skepticism-themed songs and music videos at The Skeptic's Songbook.

New Page Launched: The Skeptic's Songbook

So, even though I post all of my songs on this blog, I also tend to ramble on about other topics at some length, and the songs can get lost. I decided to make it easy for anyone who actually wants to check out my catalogue of skepticism-themed or inspired videos by creating a new blog:  The Skeptic's Songbook.

I'll still post new songs here as I finish them, but the other site will simply exist for the music.

A New Song: The Universe is Awesome!

I was thinking recently about some of the amazing scientific advances we’ve been privileged to witness over the last few months - the potential discovery of the Higgs Bosun, the discovery of huge numbers of planets that could harbor life and, most recently and impactful, the landing of Curiosity on Mars. 

If you pay attention, the advances of science are mind-boggling. And for those of us who have adopted a science and critical thinking-based view of life it is, well, worldview-affirming.  It’s almost enough to make you think that the woo and magical thinking we encounter around us every day will finally, inevitably, fade away amidst an onslaught of new knowledge and, you know, facts.

It won’t, of course. But one can hope.

Anyway, these kinds of discoveries do continue to convince me that the world and the universe we live in are, in fact, awesome. Far more awesome than any myths or magic or fables that we creative humans can come up with.

So I wrote a song with that theme - and the not-at-all-subtle title “The Universe is Awesome!”

Enjoy! 

PS. I want to thank my son James, a far better musician than I will ever be, for contributing the guitar solo to this recording.

The American Atheists' Counterproductive Billboards

This week the American Atheists unveiled two billboards that the organization will post in Charlotte, NC during the Democratic National Convention.  The billboards, the group proudly proclaims, expose “the foolishness of religion in the political landscape.”

Except they don’t do that. They don’t even try to do that.

One of the boards mocks Mormons for their, um, unorthodox beliefs about baptisms for the dead and their wearing of “magic underwear.” The other takes broader shots at Christianity in general, mocking Jesus as a “Sadistic God,” and “Useless Savior.”  Neither of the billboards mentions politics, the influence of religion on politics, any particular concerns about the separation of church and state or anything about why people should be concerned about Democrats or Republicans of faith.

In what would be considered ripe irony if only it were meant ironically, the billboards also tout atheists as “simply reasonable,” an image of atheists the billboards do just about everything they possibly can to subvert.

On a personal level, I was raised Mormon and came later in life to a worldview that does not include belief in the supernatural (or, in short, atheism). In my dealings with friends and families, I’ve tried to use reason and science to illustrate why I can no longer believe what I used to believe. A billboard that holds what my friends believe to be sacred up to public ridicule just makes my job that much more difficult. If that’s what atheists are, why the hell would they want to consider joining us!?

The funny thing is, mocking Mormons is probably a great way to entertain fundamentalist Christians, but the second billboard ensures that that larger group is also going to hate us.

On a less personal level, and speaking as someone whose career has been spent in marketing, advertising and public relations (I know, evil, right?), I’m at a total loss to understand what the American Atheists are trying to accomplish from a communications standpoint. I assume the goal here is not to win friends or influence people, but rather to engage in a PETA-style “engage-in-the- most-outrageous-stunt-imaginable-so-that-the-media-covers-us” PR effort.

But at least PETA, despite their overboard tactics, is promoting a cause to which most people, at some level, are going to be sympathetic. American Atheists can’t draw on any base of support among the general population. So a campaign like this just further defines us as cruel, sanctimonious and full of hate. Sure, let’s reinforce the worst things that most people already believe about us! That'll show 'em!

Yes, the media is covering and will continue to cover these billboards, providing advertising “value” that massively dwarfs the actual costs of the campaign. In PR, that’s always the goal. But in this case, what’s the point? They’re not making any case for separation of church and state. They can’t seriously be saying we shouldn’t vote for someone who is either Christian or Mormon or both, ‘cause who’s left?

And they’re making it that much harder for those of us who are atheists but who aren’t interested in being dicks to talk to our friends and families about our worldviews.

So thanks American Atheists.  

Download an mp3 of "The Skeptic in the Room"

Every now and then someone encounters my song The Skeptic in the Room on YouTube and asks for an mp3. It was available on OpenDrive, but that doesn't seem to be working very well. So, as of now, it's available on Soundcloud.com.  If you'd like a copy, you can download it here:  http://soundcloud.com/eddiescott/the-skeptic-in-the-room

Curiosity Wins; Science Takes Silver; Mankind Takes Bronze!

I will be, I'm sure, only one of thousands who will take to the Internet today to heap praise on the brilliant scientists and determined bureaucrats (yes, even them!) who made last night's apparently flawless landing of the Curiosity Rover on the planet Mars a reality.

As a non-scientist myself I have nothing to add to the technical musings of those are in a position to explain these things.  But, precisely as a non-scientist I stand in awe of those who could make this happen.  Dropping a one-ton Rover onto the surface of a planet that is over 100 million miles away? Doing it precisely on time and exactly where they wanted to? Capturing photographs of the landing by maneuvering another already-in-place Orbiter into exactly the right position in space? All of it boggles the mind! Who can imagine such things, let alone carry them out?

I can't really comprehend what all of this means for science. Sure I understand the goal of searching for past signs of life on Mars, and I really can't wait to see what they find (although, really, I just can't wait to see more high definition color photographs from freakin' Mars!). But knowing they were able to pull this off just makes me believe that much more in the power of man's ingenuity, creatively and, yes, curiosity.

As I surfed the web today and read what people were saying about last night's accomplishments I came across this bit from the "Bad Astronomer" himself, Phil Plait. I found it totally compelling and poetic:

"When we reach, when we explore, when we’re curious – that’s when we’re at our best. We can learn about the world around us, the Universe around us. It doesn’t divide us, or separate us, or create artificial and wholly made-up barriers between us. As we saw on Twitter, at New York Times Square where hundreds of people watched the landing live, and all over the world: science and exploration bind us together. Science makes the world a better place, and it makes us better people."

I love the movie Apollo 13, and always get teary-eyed in that scene when the capsule finally reappears and the room full of exhausted scientists erupts in jubilation. And last night, watching the live NASA feed, I got teary-eyed again seeing that moment reenacted in real life and in real time. Truly awesome!