Forgive me for tramping over the same old ground, but I’m delighted that my old friend from the Conservatives in Northern Ireland, David Timson, has written an open letter to the Trustees of the National Museums of Northern Ireland. He makes a noble point about the need for equality for noodly fans.
David has also drawn my attention to a new Facebook Group called No Creationist Exhibition at the Museum of Ulster. It already has 412 members. I encourage readers to join.
Here’s David’s letter to the Trustees:
An Open letter to the Trustees of the National Museums of Northern Ireland
I hear some chap called McCausland wrote to you recently asking you to present “alternative views of creation” in your museums. While the ensuing debate has largely been between those favouring a scientific view and those preferring the six day biblical creation myth, I am sure you will want to represent other alternatives.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has grown from humble origins in rural Kansas to a global movement with tens of thousands of followers. Its adherents, known as pastafarians, believe that the Universe and life on earth were created by a giant spaghetti monster. While science teaches that the earth is billions of years old, pastafarians hold that the Flying Spaghetti Monster can alter scientific measurements with a single touch of His Noodly Appendage. They have also noted a correlation between the number of pirates and global temperatures (Sammy Wilson, take note!)
As a scientist, I believe that all of this is utter nonsense put forward by people who spend too much time dreaming about being touched by the aforementioned noodly appendage. Nevertheless, in the name of diversity, I look forward to you giving equal space to pastafarian and creationist theories.
Yours faithfully
Dr David J Timson
Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry
Queen’s University, Belfast
Excellent! A direct hit.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your praising my response to your McCausland posting. I fear it was undeserved – I only lost my temper!
Anyway, for some sheer scumbagginess, check this out.
The mighty (tsk-tsk) Caleb Foundation has wheeled out some spokespeople on the museum issue, and come off with a lot of guff about how the representation of “alternative theories” is an “equality issue”.
Its website: http://www.calebfoundation.org/ goes on and on about the “equality” issue in regard to the museum exhibit.
For reasons unconnected I happen to have a past page of the Caleb website from a few months ago saved on my PC.
At that time, Caleb was going hammer and thongs with homophobic nonsense. Some really nasty old stuff. They didn’t like Gay Pride. There was oodles of homophobia, with links to yet more which lay deeper within the site on their sidebar.
Now? POOF! (Scuse the pun.) It’s all gone.
It seems some genius had the gumption, since they were shamelessly playing the equality card in the press on the museum, to remove the stuff which sets out in no uncertain terms what they really think about equality, that being that they don’t care much for it at all.
I’ve got some research by a Queen’s sociologist from 2004, before the equality legislation came in, where some members of Caleb, including Mervyn Storey – although he was one of three respondants to the questions put by her, so we can’t attribute the following to him specifically – were kind of going harrumph about the fact the introduction of equality law was inevitable.
They’d done all they could to oppose it, but since they’d failed, their tactic now would be, and I quote, to “use their weapons against them”.
Equality legislation = weaponry? Yes, if you’re a mad evangelical.
Storey’s been on record before threatening legal action under equality law over matters creationist.
So not only has Caleb deeply cynically attempted to exploit equality legislation for its own ends, despite the favour religious groups already get in the law, unlike any other interest group at all, it has also shown itself to be completely unprincipled in terms of its position on homosexuality, not to mention cowardly, dishonest and about as interested in “equality” as I am in boiling my own balls.
I’ve uploaded the old page I saved here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ktzk03rmntw Not sure how long it will remain there before it expires though.
It really is quite something. What a thoroughly nasty, mean-spirited, awful bunch these people are.
I realise I look like a one-trick pony with this stuff. I’m finding the entries and discussion of a new party very exciting too for what it’s worth.
Best,
Lew
Lew…as usual, excellent. Although you’ve done Caleb some service by linking to them. According to Alexa they only have 4 links from external sites so next to no-one visits the site. Hardly surprising given the standard of the prose. As for Mervyn, he popped along to the fringe meeting I organised (with Richard Dawkins) at the Conservative Party conference year before last. I think he wanted to disrupt the meeting but was bit a bit outnumbered – the room was packed with libertarian Tory atheists to the rafters. I suspect Storey didn’t realise there were so many Atheists in existence – never mind in the Conservative Party! Oh and quite a few were gay and very out. It was a pleasure to behold.
I do agree, though, that there is a sinister aspect to all of this. The Creationist nut-squad is getting louder.
What was your reaction on hearing that Ian Paisley Junior had been elected as MP in his dad’s old seat bearing in mind he viewed same sex relationships as offensive,obnoxious and immoral and would turn the stomachs of decent people!