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Fri 25 Mar, 2005 03:57 pm
One more step on the road to a Christian Theocracy in the US
Subject: Creationists take their fight to the really big screen (or the
lunies have taken over the asylum!!!!). Sent to my usual list plus some
others
> Dear Family and Friends With the rise of George Bush and his being
> beholden
> to the religious right, this is the kind of nonsense we are encountering
> Just wait until they finally get their judges in place and force this
> crap
> on school children. The Scopes trial has not ended. You may think it has
> But it hasn't This is an ongoing war between religiously based
> nonsensical
> beliefs and scientific knowledge Forget the fact that their are millions
> of
> people who are not Bible based or who do not believe in a god Forget the
> fact that every culture ever known had its own creation story. We have
> crazies who insist that they have the truth and everyone must accept it
> as
> such What happens if one rejects their world view? Besides going to
> hell,
> from their perspective, you no longer deserve to live. If you think I am
> kidding just watch. There is nothing so vile, hateful and destructive as
> a
> religious war.. And, this issue is war.
>
> Creationists take their fight to the really big screen (or the lunies have
> taken over the asylum!!!!)
>
> US row forces southern Imax cinemas to shun films on evolution
>
> Robin McKie, science editor, The Observer Sunday March 20, 2005
>
> They are the epitome of safe family entertainment, renowned for lavish
> animations, exquisitely filmed scenes of natural grandeur and utterly
> tame
> scripts. But Imax films have suddenly found themselves catapulted into
> controversy, thanks to their occasional use of the dreaded E-word:
> evolution. In several US states, Imax cinemas - including some at
> science
> museums - are refusing to show movies that mention the subject or suggest
> that Earth's origins do not conform with biblical descriptions. Films
> include Cosmic Voyage, an animated journey through the universe;
> Galapagos, a documentary about the islands where Darwin made some of his
> most important observations; and Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, an
> underwater epic about the bizarre creatures that flourish near ocean
> vents. In most southern states, theatre officials found recent test
> screenings of several of these films triggered accusations from viewers
> that the films were blasphemous.
>
> Carol Murray, marketing director of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and
> History in Texas, said audience members who had watched Volcanoes had
> commented 'I really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as
> fact', or 'I don't agree with their presentation of human existence.' As a
> result, the science museum had decided not to screen the film. 'If it is
> not going to draw a crowd and it is going to create controversy, from a
> marketing point of view, I cannot make a recommendation,' Murray told the
> New York Times yesterday. Superficially, the decision affects only a
> dozen
> or so cinemas. But it could have a profound knock-on effect across the
> world because of the high cost of producing Imax films. They require
> special cameras and expensive projectors. The economics of Imax
> film-making are therefore very tight, and the actions of these southern
> Imax cinemas will only exacerbate the problem.
>
> It is expected that producers will be far less likely to make films that
> could offend fundamentalists, as the loss of venues in the southern states
> could be enough to turn profit to loss. 'It is going to be hard for our
> film-makers to continue to make unfettered documentaries when they know
> that 10 per cent of the market will reject them,' said Joe DeAmicis,
> vice-president of the California Science Centre in Los Angeles.
>
> This point was emphasised by Bayley Silleck, who wrote and directed Cosmic
> Voyage. Many institutions across America were coming under pressure
> about
> issues relating to natural selection. 'They have to be extremely careful
> as
> to how they present anything relating to evolution,' he said. A spokesman
> for the Science Museum in London described the development as worrying:
> 'It is a very tight market in the Imax business and we would be extremely
> disappointed if this sort of pressure led to a narrowing of the market for
> popular Imax films.
>
> These films are very popular with families.' The decision has also
> dismayed
> James Cameron, the Hollywood director who made the Imax film Aliens of
> the
> Deep and who was one of the producers of Volcanoes. He said he was
> 'surprised and somewhat offended' that people were sensitive to the
> references to evolution in Volcanoes.
>
> He also revealed that objections had been made to parts of Aliens of the
> Deep, but these had remained in the final cut. 'It seems to be a new
> phenomenon, obviously symptomatic of our shift away from empiricism in
> science to faith-based science,' he said.
What's Going On?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 29, 2005
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Democratic societies have a hard time dealing with extremists in their midst. The desire to show respect for other people's beliefs all too easily turns into denial: nobody wants to talk about the threat posed by those whose beliefs include contempt for democracy itself.
We can see this failing clearly in other countries. In the Netherlands, for example, a culture of tolerance led the nation to ignore the growing influence of Islamic extremists until they turned murderous.
But it's also true of the United States, where dangerous extremists belong to the majority religion and the majority ethnic group, and wield great political influence.
Before he saw the polls, Tom DeLay declared that "one thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America." Now he and his party, shocked by the public's negative reaction to their meddling, want to move on. But we shouldn't let them. The Schiavo case is, indeed, a chance to highlight what's going on in America.
One thing that's going on is a climate of fear for those who try to enforce laws that religious extremists oppose. Randall Terry, a spokesman for Terri Schiavo's parents, hasn't killed anyone, but one of his former close associates in the anti-abortion movement is serving time for murdering a doctor. George Greer, the judge in the Schiavo case, needs armed bodyguards.
Another thing that's going on is the rise of politicians willing to violate the spirit of the law, if not yet the letter, to cater to the religious right.
Everyone knows about the attempt to circumvent the courts through "Terri's law." But there has been little national exposure for a Miami Herald report that Jeb Bush sent state law enforcement agents to seize Terri Schiavo from the hospice - a plan called off when local police said they would enforce the judge's order that she remain there.
And the future seems all too likely to bring more intimidation in the name of God and more political intervention that undermines the rule of law.
The religious right is already having a big impact on education: 31 percent of teachers surveyed by the National Science Teachers Association feel pressured to present creationism-related material in the classroom.
But medical care is the cutting edge of extremism.
Yesterday The Washington Post reported on the growing number of pharmacists who, on religious grounds, refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control or morning-after pills. These pharmacists talk of personal belief; but the effect is to undermine laws that make these drugs available. And let me make a prediction: soon, wherever the religious right is strong, many pharmacists will be pressured into denying women legal drugs.
And it won't stop there. There is a nationwide trend toward "conscience" or "refusal" legislation. Laws in Illinois and Mississippi already allow doctors and other health providers to deny virtually any procedure to any patient. Again, think of how such laws expose doctors to pressure and intimidation.
But the big step by extremists will be an attempt to eliminate the filibuster, so that the courts can be packed with judges less committed to upholding the law than Mr. Greer.
We can't count on restraint from people like Mr. DeLay, who believes that he's on a mission to bring a "biblical worldview" to American politics, and that God brought him a brain-damaged patient to help him with that mission.
What we need - and we aren't seeing - is a firm stand by moderates against religious extremism. Some people ask, with justification, Where are the Democrats? But an even better question is, Where are the doctors fiercely defending their professional integrity? I think the American Medical Association disapproves of politicians who second-guess medical diagnoses based on video images - but the association's statement on the Schiavo case is so timid that it's hard to be sure.
The closest parallel I can think of to current American politics is Israel. There was a time, not that long ago, when moderate Israelis downplayed the rise of religious extremists. But no more: extremists have already killed one prime minister, and everyone realizes that Ariel Sharon is at risk.
America isn't yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren't sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here.
As I've said before.
We claim to be fighting religious extremists, but are allowing our country to fall under the same thing, just in a different guise.
The funniest thing is the minorities who sign on to these tyrannical philosophies, somehow thinking that if they push these people into power because they agree with one or two positions, they will be part of the power structure when the takeover occurs.
What a joke.
The other day, I heard on the radio for the first time, Michael Savage. It is obvious he is Jewish. Yet he rails and rails on against liberals. When he talks of the Holocaust, he spends most of his time congratulating the few Christians who protected the Jews from the Nazis, neglecting the fact that the Christian tradition produced the hate which the Nazis fed on. Which enabled the Nazis to come to power.
Yes, other Christian countries did not do the Jews what the Germans did, but the fact remains that Christians have been persecuting Jews for many, many hundreds of years. The Germans just took it a few steps further.
Yet Savage ignores all this and rails against liberals and aligns himself with the Christian right, which at it's extremes has ties to the Nazi movement.
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