Paleontologists brought to tears, laughter by Creation Museum

PETERSBURG, Kentucky (AFP) — For a group of paleontologists, a tour of the Creation Museum seemed like a great tongue-in-cheek way to cap off a serious conference.

But while there were a few laughs and some clowning for the camera, most left more offended than amused by the frightening way in which evolution — and their life’s work — was attacked.

“It’s sort of a monument to scientific illiteracy, isn’t it?” said Jerry Lipps, professor of geology, paleontology and evolution at University of California, Berkeley.

“Like Sunday school with statues… this is a special brand of religion here. I don’t think even most mainstream Christians would believe in this interpretation of Earth’s history.”

The 27 million dollar, 70,000-square-foot (6,500-square-metre) museum which has been dubbed a “creationist Disneyland” has attracted 715,000 visitors since it opened in mid-2007 with a vow to “bring the pages of the Bible to life.”

Continue here…. http://tinyurl.com/nxa97t

‘I Quit the Evangelical Movement in Disgust’: Former Evangelist Fears Right-Wing Lunacy Will Lead to More Murder

What are the Republicans in Congress and the other “respectable” leaders on the far right — from Focus on the Family’s James Dobson to Rush Limbaugh, from Laura Ingraham to the leaders of the NRA — doing to stop the right-wing domestic wave of terrorism exploding in the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s election? I ask this as a former evangelical right-wing and “pro-life” leader who quit the right and the Republicans in disgust over their extremism.

In the wake of the election of our first black president, we’ve seen rage — an abortion doctor gunned down; three police officers in Pittsburgh shot by a man who feared “they” would take his guns; and a black security guard at the National Holocaust Museum slain.

Continue here…   http://www.alternet.org/story/141019?page=1

Medical journal says Pope distorting condom facts

In an editorial The Lancet says the Pope has “publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on the issue.”

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – A prestigious medical journal on Friday accused Pope Benedict of distorting scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine by saying that condoms increase the spread of AIDS.

The Lancet in an editorial called on the Pope to retract the comments made last week, saying anything less would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates fighting to contain the disease.

“When any influential person, be it a religious or political leader, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record,” the editorial said.

“By saying that condoms exacerbate the problem of HIV/AIDS, the Pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on the issue.”

During his first visit to Africa, the Pope told reporters that AIDS is a problem that “cannot be overcome by the distribution of condoms; on the contrary, they increase it.”

The comment ignited a firestorm of criticism from health officials, activists and politicians who criticised that view as unrealistic, unscientific and dangerous.

The Church teaches that fidelity within heterosexual marriage and abstinence are the best ways to stop AIDS. The Vatican also says condoms can lead to risky behaviour but many contest that view.

Health experts say there is no scientific evidence showing that condom use spurs people to take more sexual risks and in fact studies show that condom use reduces the risk of acquiring HIV infection.

The AIDS virus infects an estimated 33 million people globally, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, and has killed 25 million. There is no cure.

http://tinyurl.com/dzx6bu

Russia Doomsday Cult Prays For Sign To Leave Bunker

Leader doesn’t join his followers in the bunker, saying God had “different tasks” for him.

Fourteen members of a Russian doomsday cult on Tuesday abandoned the remote underground bunker where they had been hiding for nearly half a year awaiting the end of the world.

The local chief negotiator said 14 cult members who remained underground would spend the night in the bunker praying for a sign from God that it was time for them to come out.

“They understand this is a chance the Lord is giving them,” said Oleg Melnichenko, deputy governor of the Penza region where cult members have been holed up since October.

“They will pray all night in the hopes that a sign comes to them to leave their bunker,” he told reporters as the light faded after a day of negotiations with members of the cult.

The group that came out of the bunker early on Tuesday included two girls aged 8 and 12. The negotiator said they decided to leave after a section of their dugout collapsed, the latest in a series of cave-ins.

“All are in good health, considering they have spent half a year underground,” said Mr. Melnichenko.

“They have refused medical attention and are now in a house, praying, where they say they will stay until Orthodox Easter (on April 27) … They said that God had given them a signal to leave.”

The sect is an ultra-devout splinter group of the Russian Orthodox church. They reject processed food and say bar codes on products are the work of Satan.

They sealed themselves off on October 27 in an earthen bunker dug into a gulley near the village of Nikolskoe, 750 kilometres south east of Moscow.

Cult members had refused to come out of their bunker before the apocalypse, which their leader Pavel Kuznetsov — now undergoing psychiatric treatment — predicted would happen in April or May this year.

They had threatened to blow up gas canisters in their bunker if police tried to bring them out by force.

A Reuters reporter who crawled down into a now abandoned section of the bunker found a makeshift kitchen and a sleeping space hollowed out of the earth. Among the belongings left behind were a chess set and pages from a children’s book.

Someone had carved large images of flowers and plants on the walls and cardboard covered the floor.

Seven female cult members left the dugout at the weekend after meltwater caused part of the earth structure to collapse.

All the cult members who have emerged from the bunker were being kept in cottages in a nearby village. They brought with them supplies from the dugout, including jars of pickled mushrooms. Police were stopping reporters from speaking to them.

Officials had for weeks been trying to persuade members to come out, negotiating through a ventilation shaft. They brought self-declared prophet Mr. Kuznetsov, and an Orthodox priest, to help with negotiations.

Mr. Kuznetsov did not join his followers in the bunker, saying God had different tasks for him.
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…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Alexander Neil, after an April 1st, 2008 article by Chris Baldwin over Reuters

Inconvenient Truths: Fill ‘er Up! – Unprecedented Profits for Shell ($27.6B) and Exxon ($40.6B)

Royal Dutch Shell posted the biggest profit —$27.6 billion U.S. — of any European company in 2007, but lower production and indications of disappointing reserves suggest future earnings growth will rely on oil price rises.

The world’s second-largest non- government-controlled oil company by market value yesterday said its fourth-quarter current cost of supply (CCS) net income rose 11 per cent to $6.7 billion. Excluding one-off items, the result was in the lower end of analysts’ range of forecasts.

CCS earnings strip out the impact from changes in the value of fuel inventories, and the figure is comparable to U.S. oil companies’ net income.

The rise in Shell’s profits was driven by its core upstream oil and gas production division.

Following a trend seen at Shell and peers such as BP PLC in recent years, the Anglo-Dutch company needed the big jump in oil prices to make up for a six-per-cent drop in oil and gas production and a rise of more than 10 per cent in costs.

“(The results) will do little to assuage concerns that large integrateds are unable to capture record prices,” Peter Hutton at NCB brokers said in a note to clients.

Analysts at JP Morgan said earlier this month that the oil majors need prices above $85 per barrel to sustain earnings growth.

U.S. crude prices averaged more than $90 per barrel in the final quarter of 2007, before hitting a record $100-plus in January.

Shell’s production was hit by the reduction of its stake in the Sakhalin gas project in Russia following government pressure, and technical problems at a unit in Canada that squeezes crude from bitumen-drenched sands.

Shell retreated from targets to expand production in coming years, with chief financial officer Peter Voser refusing to restate a plan for one- to two per-cent growth to 2010 and saying output was likely to fall “slightly” in 2008.

Shell will have to pay more to achieve even this modest aim, with capital expenditure for 2008 now seen growing around seven per cent to $28 billion-to-$29 billion after a 15 per-cent rise in 2007.

Although analysts had expected a capex rise, James Neale, oil analyst at Citgroup, said investors may wonder what they are getting in return for the higher spending.

Shell’s London-listed ‘A’ shares closed up 0.11 per cent $35.66, lagging a 0.7-per-cent rise in the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index.
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…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Alexander Neil, after a February 2, 2008 article by Tom Bergin in Reuters

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The three biggest U.S. oil companies netted almost $10 million an hour combined in the fourth quarter.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., the two biggest U.S. oil companies, reported gains in fourth-quarter earnings after record crude prices more than made up for declining output.

Net income at Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil climbed 14 per cent to $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, the company said yesterday. San Ramon, California-based Chevron said its profit rose 29 per cent to $4.88 billion, or $2.32 a share.Both companies set records for full-year profit, and Exxon Mobil broke its own record for net income by any U.S. corporation, at $40.6 billion. The companies also topped analyst earnings estimates, which were tempered by contracts that give oil-rich nations bigger shares of output as crude prices rise.“The story all over oil land is one of declining production that has been more than offset by record oil prices,” said Robbert Van Batenburg, head of research at Louis Capital Markets in New York.

The three biggest U.S. oil companies netted almost $10 million an hour combined in the fourth quarter. Houston-based Conoco-Phillips, the No. 3 U.S. producer, last week said its profit climbed by 37 per cent to $4.37 billion.

Chevron said additions to reserves last year replaced only about 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the oil and natural gas it produced. The impact of high crude prices on productionsharing contracts with host countries cut Chevron’s reserve-replacement ratio by about 30 percentage points, Chief Financial Officer Steve Crowe told investors on a conference call.

“Exxon and all of the integrated oil companies are growth-challenged,” said Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones in Des Peres, Missouri. “The rise of nationalism means countries are saying, ‘Maybe we don’t need to share as much with the major oil companies.’ ”

Exxon Mobil said about 20 per cent of its output is governed by production-sharing agreements with countries.

Soaring profits for oil companies amid growing concern about an economic slowdown may revive efforts in the U.S. Congress to strip the industry of some of its earning power, said Douglas Ober at Adams Express Co. in Baltimore. Democratic lawmakers seized on today’s profit reports to criticize President George W. Bush and his Republican allies.

“While the oil companies are turning the American consumer upside down at the pump, shaking out every last cent, the White House is defending unnecessary giveaways and tax breaks to big oil,” Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House select committee on energy independence and global warming, said in an e-mailed statement.

Fourth-quarter earnings rose even as gasoline and diesel failed to keep pace with the surge in oil prices, narrowing profit margins on fuels made from crude.

Analysts are predicting slower profit growth this year for major oil producers. Oil futures have fallen almost 10 per cent from their record high of $100.09 a barrel reached on Jan. 3, dropping amid concern over a possible U.S. recession.

“Oil is due for a correction in a slowing economy,” Mr. Goodof said.
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…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Alexander Neil, after a February 2, 2008 article by Joe Carroll in Bloomberg