And hopefully.. after encountering enough people who SURELY must be joking, you start to get a little perspective about how it feels to be atheist.

That’s pretty cool.

And with a name like Nightingale, its very probable she was of high society. Back in those days, your last name said a lot about your station in life. Oftentimes your last name was your occupation.

So Nightingale makes me think her family just really liked birds, and didn’t actually work for a living.

Clarifications:

I don’t agree with ID being bad because it is a threat to Monolithig Science. If nothing else, in my perception, evolution advocates and scientists have sharpened up their game considerable since the advent of ID, and that really is a service. People without opposition can become very lazy and self-serving.

I should’ve said Florence Nightingale, a woman of high society who demanded cleanliness and more efficient care. I mention her being of high society because I’d imagine it was one of the reasons she fixated on cleanliness. Regardless of my guesses, as the book puts it–”Florence Nightingale … is also a towering figure in the conquest of infection.”

And I appreciate being called an intellectual, let alone a member of a pantheon.

I never know what to think about Intelligent Design. I mean, if you compare a ‘evolution needed help’ type with a ‘the earth is 6,000 years old and all the the geologists, astronomers, biologists, etc are all LIARS’ type, then obviously you’re looking at a much more well-balanced and educated person. But the movement has a lot of cranks (or, as some suspect, is all cranks and some can hide it), so there you go.

I don’t agree with the concept of ID as a threat to Monolithic Science–it’s worth noting that Monolithic Science can be just as dangerous as the religion-based version… death in childbirth actually skyrocketed with the advent of the modern hospital because doctors didn’t want to bother to wash their hands and the science of the time believed in self-generating diseases and organisms and didn’t know about germs.

Thus, even when the ocassional reformer tried to clean up the place, Science said not to bother (much like Science continually drew upon the very innacurate writings of Greeks like Galen, even when rogue surgeons were diproving them). It wasn’t until Florence Nightingale, a high society woman, founded nursing that this began to change.

Whew. Those anecdotes are from a book that I’m reading called A Brief History of Disease, Science and Medicine, by Michael T. Kennnedy (Mike K to us Cathyites), a retured Surgeon and USC Professor. It’s not what you would call an easy read, being part of the USC Medical curriculum, but it sure is interesting.

The FSM was an absolutely deadly retort to the logic being used by IDers to change a particular school curriculum. I think as a a great refutation of all things theological it falls rather short, though. The whole ‘I’ll describe something you believe in a way that makes it sound stupid’ argument already gets enough play with the godless, appeasing liberals and fascist, theocratic neocons, if you ask me.

Pastafarianism frustrates me sometimes because you have people that advocate it so much on message boards and the like. I suppose they’re giggling on the other side of the screen and just being deadpan, but some are really insistent on it.

Of course, on only need look at the Church of the Subgenius for a “spoof” religion that has believers more fervent and involved and a stronger sense of community than many mainline denominations/churches do.