Oh, for fuck's sake!

In case anyone needs a reminder on why I'm an atheist and despise organized religion, here's a good one:

Evangelicals urge museum to hide man's ancestors

Powerful evangelical churches are pressing Kenya's national museum to sideline its world-famous collection of hominid bones pointing to man's evolution from ape to human.

Leaders of the country's six-million-strong Pentecostal congregation want Dr Richard Leakey's ground-breaking finds relegated to a back room instead of being given their usual prime billing.

The collection includes the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus, the 1.7 million-year-old Turkana Boy unearthed by Dr Leakey's team in 1984 at Nariokotome, near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.

The museum also holds bones from several specimens of Australopithecus anamensis, believed to be the first hominid to walk upright, four million years ago. Together the artifacts amount to the clearest record yet discovered of the origins of Homo sapiens.

They have cemented the global reputation of Kenya's Great Rift Valley as the cradle of mankind, and draw in tourists and locals to the museum's sprawling compound on a hill above Nairobi.

Permanent exhibitions cover Kenya's cultural and scientific history from pre-history to independence. A snake park was added in the early 1960s.

As part of an ongoing expansion funded by the EU, the National Museums of Kenya, which manages the country's cultural sites, is conducting a survey to determine what visitors to its Nairobi headquarters most want to see.

Church leaders aim to hijack that process. "The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact," said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, the head of Christ is the Answer Ministries, the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya.

"Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory."

Bishop Adoyo said all the country's churches would unite to force the museum to change its focus when it reopens after 18 months of renovations in June next year.

"We will write to them, we will call them, we will make sure our people know about this and we will see what we can do to make our voice known," he said.

Typical extremist Christian attitude. Inconvenient evidence for human evolution? Hide it.

My eyes!

The Worst Album Covers of All Time!

Notice the vast number of religious albums that make the cut.

Want to feel really creepy? Geraldine and Ricky are still touring! Evidently she's now billing herself as a Christian comedienne and doing these bizarre Christian cruises where they remove all the fun things in favor of turning the ship into a floating church.

I think my favorite is The Louvin Brothers - Satan is Real. Um, guys? Nice picture of flaming rocks, but could you have assigned the job of drawing Satan to someone other than your six-year-old nephew? Seriously, If I die and see that dude, I'm really not going to regret anything. Shit, steal something from H. R. Geiger or something.

Better than any old monolith

Courtesy of wcg

An article on the family photo Charlie Duke left on the Moon

Astronauts left many items of personal significance on the lunar surface. The pilot wings of the Apollo 1 crew, golf balls, other things.

This makes me wonder.. what would you take? Assume that for whatever reason you are on the surface team of a lunar mission. You have a personal weight allowance of a few pounds and some time in your EVA for a personal moment. What do you leave on the lunar surface and why?

For me? A copy of the original Traveller would be the first item. The second is a bit more complex. I'd need a vial of water taken from off the Santa Cruz coast and a shipping tag from an air tank. The poem Requiem would be written on the tag. Because Robert Heinlein deserves a lunar burial.