Busy week. To say the least. Class ends this weekend, and it gets busier as it progresses.
I had no idea that the piece I wrote yesterday on The Stream—The Scientific Pantheist Who Advises Pope Francis—would garner the attention it did. It made Drudge—“Pope’s key science advisor is atheist who believes in ‘Gaia, not God’…”—and Rush Limbaugh. I found out the latter when I started receiving texts in the noontime from excited friends.
You and I, dear Reader, are well accustomed to smelly science. The dissecting of rotten research is daily bread for us. So I thought not much of taking apart a paper or two more. But for the first time it was noticed on a larger scale. True, it was because this time it was political. So I expect interest to drop off after the next thing becomes important. Too bad, because the most of the science barrel is rotten, as we know.
And then came the radio shows. I did two yesterday (was it two or three?), two the day before, etc., and I have two scheduled for today:
TIME: 7:20 — 7:30AM (ET)
HOST/SHOW: Scott Voorhees / The Scott Voorhees Show
STATION: KFAB 1110AM — Omaha, NE
TIME: 9:35 — 10:00AM (ET)
HOST/SHOW: Bobby Gunther Walsh / Gunther
STATION: WAEB 790AM — Allentown, PA
and others scheduled later, mostly notably
DATE: Tuesday, June 30th
TIME: 4:30 — 4:45PM (ET)
HOST/SHOW: Mike Savage / The Savage Nation
STATION: Nationally Syndicated.
And others are in the works; perhaps, I’ve been told, even TV.
Yet this will soon fade and something else will become important and we can get back to discussing the nature of causality, and why realist epistemology is the only philosophy that kicks butt (the others only imagine they can).
Meanwhile, I’m about 500 emails behind, and more coming. So if you sent one and I haven’t got to it, please forgive me. Please also forgive the brevity of this post.
Here’s a quote from the Limbaugh transcript:
My friends, not one to let things go, I have dug deep, and I have found out practically everything there is to know about the science advisor to Pope Francis on this encyclical. And the main thing you need to know, the guy’s an atheist. The word for it in the story that I found, one of the most credible stories, is a pantheist, which is a variation of atheist. A pantheist is somebody that believes the earth is a living organism that has the equivalent of a brain and reacts to horrible things done to it by humans…
Yesterday, I was on the same Vicki McKenna show Father Z mentions. Not the same time as Bishop Morlino; different day. But McKenna’s show. There may be an eventual link to the recorded version here.
So if you sent one and I haven’t got to it, please forgive me.
If unanswered e-mail were a mortal sin, NONE of us would make it through the Pearly Gates.
…a pantheist, which is a variation of atheist…
We all worship something (an atheist is just a ‘DENIER’ of that fact)
B-T-W
Listening to Catholic radio in the car (so I missed a lot of the context), heard mention of Rush … long story short, even though I heard some less than positive reviews on the Pope’s encyclical in the beginning, I think EWTN is in full defense mode.
They were saying how very little of the encyclical is about “the science” and it’s all about “the theology”. They also reminded “the people” just how seriously “the people” have to take this. They are also pretty adamant that these words are coming from “the pope”.
Have you been in touch with EWTN? They seem to believe a good Catholic cannot willy-nilly eschew these words of “the pope”.
Keep it going. Become the go-to guy for criticism of bad science. Just remember us, your peeps, when you hit it big.
So, has your air time totaled more than 15 minutes?
Can’t wait to see your dapper visage on TV. Don’t worry, if the clothes are good enough, no one will notice the face. Think: bow tie and fedora.
What is it that Andy Warhol said–everyone has their 15 minutes of fame? Let’s hope yours lasts much longer!
ah, I didn’t get La Longue Carabine’s comment–too subtle!
HOST/SHOW: Bobby Gunther Walsh / Gunther
STATION: WAEB 790AM — Allentown, PA
Hah. Local boy. Ask him about the horse and the John Deere tractor.
Limbaugh has gotten better with the science behind global warming and how flawed it is. I no longer cringe when he addresses the issue. He’s catching on.
I can’t believe EWTN was foolish enough to think anything besides the Pope’s proclamation on how evil we are for using fossil fuels and how much more money the governments should be reapportioning to poorer nations would ever be picked up by the media. The media does not care nor like religion and only report on it when it serves their purpose. Otherwise, it’s irrelevent or maybe worth using as the reason America is mess so actual causes can be avoided.
Re Matt’s 15 minutes: Matt, remember: it doesn’t count until it’s a PAID 15 minutes.
Mr. Briggs. This is getting a lot of promotion on NewAdvent’s page. Did you see this yet?
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/
Mike in KC: Very cute. Looks like Gavin has become desperate and is playing with any nonsense he can muster to save his precious theory and grants.
I would suggest comparing grant money for studying climate change to the rate of increase in temperature. I’m thinking we can get a lot of correlation there and Gavin really isn’t interested in causality, it seems. Maybe a few other interesting correlations: increase in wages, increase in GDP (wait, that would cause cooling…), increase in the number of frogs found in the Amazon increase in the number of people living (humans are obviously overheating the planet, not CO2). It could fun!
Mike in KC,
Unfortunately, yes.
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