Simpsons on Creationism

This week's Simpsons was about Creationism! What could be a better combination of jokes?

And it's moderately well-informed. When Flanders and Lovejoy demand the Skinner teach an "alternative to Darwinian evolution" he asks, "Like Lamarkian evolution?"!

The curriculum is introduced by a video titled So You're Calling God a Liar!, which doesn't have Troy McClure but does feature Darwin making out with Satan! The rest of the episode is basically just a bad version of the Scopes trial.

Jesusland

I often wonder why none of the Canadian colonies joined the USA rather than remain under British rule, particularly Quebec, which has no traditional loyalty to the British monarchs. (I hear that Canadian First Nations peoples consider their treaty to be with the crown, rather than the ever-changing government, which is interesting. But I assume they had little influence, if any, back then.) Surely at that stage it would have seemed like a good idea, they couldn't have even suspected what the USA would become.

Then the other day I saw this amusing map:

It's pretty simple really, the blue states join Canada.

This one is more complicated but probably more accurate:

Alberta (Canada's Texas) and Saskatchewan join Jesusland while Mexico takes back California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. (I guess they were all once part of Mexico. California still has a demographic that would warrant that return but I don't know how Utah and all the Mormons would fit in in Mexico.)

Maybe I'm taking this a little too seriously.

Perceptions of Other Religions

I've been watching Ben Hur tonight while I cooked dinner. (I forgot just how long it was. I was half way through cleaning up when the intemission hit!) It surprised me at just how differently the Arab horse-racer is portrayed -- he's almost black while the Jews are all white as snow! Didn't the director realise that they were all Semites back then? (It's not even as though the Arab was an evil character, just a little uncouth.)

That reminds me of a crazy episode of Wife Swap where a crazy woman who objects to having her children cared for by an atheist. Her husband tries to calm her down by suggesting that maybe her replacement was Jewish. Because at least Jews believe in God; that is to say, they're half way there!

But why then are Muslims so maligned? Aren't they closer to Christianity than Judaism is? They beleive that Jesus was one of the better prophets and that he will return, albeit to pave the way for the Mahdi. Is it perhaps that people fear more those who came after and believe more than themselves? (And, conversely, are relatively comfortable around their predecessors whom they perceive as having less knowledge.) If so, mainstream Christians should be more hostile towards Mormons (well, Bob Larson is).

I guess religion and culture are too entwined for those sorts of judgements to be objective, if ever it is right to care that much about others' beliefs.