Two Good News Items: Methodists and Muslims
I'm about knee-deep in a Synoptic classification of the world Tenebrionidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) with a review of family group names today, but there have been two items of religion-related good news that deserve a break in the "action."
First, Wesley Elsberry reports in The Austringer that the General Conference of the United Methodist Church has made a statement that it recommends that acceptance of the principles of evolutionary biology be incorporated into their Book of Discipline. Furthermore, they're willing t go on record as being opposed to the introduction of faith-based ideas into science education. The resolution still has to be acted on by the plenary (whatever that is...), but nonetheless it's nice to have something positive to say about a religious organization. Way to go, United Methodists.
How long will it be until some fundamentalist declares that Methodists aren't true Christians should this resolution get all the way through the UMC's process?
Second good news item: The ban on Wordpress in Turkey instigated last September by convicted felon Adnan Oktar (alias Harun Yaya) has been lifted. Jim Gibbon, who is currently in Turkey, reports that
The ban on Wordpress blogs in Turkey is over. I realized this when I saw my feedreader automatically updating the Wordpress blogs I read. For the last seven months I've had to connect to Princeton servers first in order to get around the ban, all because the nutty creationist Adnan Oktar convinced a civil court to block access in Turkey to all sites hosted on Wordpress.com.Hyphal tip to Millard Fillmore's Bathtub for that story.
Now it's time for me to go back to the beetles.
