quote re intelligent design

I would argue that faith and science are in some ways more complementary than contradictory. But it's telling that where they do conflict, as in the question of human origin, it's always people of faith who beg for validation. I mean, when has any scientist ever sued for equal time in the pulpit? There is an unbecoming neediness about these constant schemes to dress religion up as science. Why are some people of faith so desperate for approval from a discipline they reject?

It suggests an insecurity that belies the bellicose battle cry of Bible literalists: "God said it. I believe it. That settles it." Or in the words of a church sign as related to me last week by a minister in Maine: Reason is the enemy of faith.

That's a sad, troubling and even pathetic mindset.
- Leonard Pitts Jr column (text here)

Pitts also makes a lovely point about what "presenting both sides of an issue" can really mean. :)

*snerk*

Human beings didn't descend from monkeys. All you have to do is look around the average house and you'd realize, we came from squirrels. People like to collect nuts.
- Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large

meme from elfs

First paragraph of an unfinished book:

It really shouldn’t have mattered that I arrived 5 minutes late that morning. My phone shift isn’t scheduled to start until 10am. However – and this is a big however – my boss (All Hail the Clueless) had decreed that we all must work from 9 to 6 every day. Never mind that we’re all salaried employees. I kept meaning to look up the Fair Labor Standards Act.