Pat Robertson on Young Earth Creationism

I didn’t bother covering the “Ham on Nye” debate because I thought it was just dumb. A children’s TV show host debating a quack fundie? What next, a debate about Thetans between Dora the Explorer and Tom Cruise?

When I kept seeing “Who will win?!” comments on Twitter, my only thought was: Can’t they both lose?

Young Earth Creationism is science for idiots. Ken Ham’s theories are a joke, and in debating him Bill Nye is just squishing the low-hanging fruit of theism. It’s shooting fish in a barrel. This wasn’t a debate about “creationism.” It was a debate about the intellectual bankruptcy of fundamentalist Christianity.

And you know who agrees we me? Pat Freakin’ Robertson: the man who puts the fun back into fundamentalist extremism:

I’m marking this day down in my calendar because it was the day I agreed with Pat Robertson.

Oh, and Ken? My friend wants to have a word with you:

CRS Rice Bowl [App o the Mornin’]

Remember getting your little cardstock rice bowls each year at CCD class, folding them into shape, and dropping in change to support Operation Rice Bowl?

You can still do that (and you should) but you can also bring the practice into the 21st century with Catholic Relief Service’s Rice Bowl app (iPhone/Android: free).

CRS has created a series of daily meditations for Lent–some original, some from the writings of Pope Francis–with a focus on Catholic social teaching. All of the meditations come with the app, so it works offline as well as online, and you can sent daily reminders for a particular time.

The app also allows you to create a daily “sacrifice” for Lent, and tracks the things you’re giving up with a suggested value: $1.75 for a cup of coffee, $4.69 for a fast food combo meal, or any custom sacrifice with its name and cost. The idea, of course, is to give up things and allocate the money as a donation to CRS. This donation can be done from within the app, and it’s a pretty clever way of measuring the things we give up for Lent and turning them into a practical good through CRS, which does great work around the world.

A number of meat-free recipes and “Stories of Hope” (video and text) from people helped by CRS are included as well.

It’s a very effective use of technology to combine prayer, Lenten observance, and action. CRS has done a great job on this.