Who will win this year’s bad faith award?
The New Humanist’s annual vote to discover who people think deserves a bad faith award is still open. If you haven’t cast your vote yet, do pop along to the site and see if anyone merits your selection.
Last year Sarah Palin romped home to victory for her statements belittling basic science. This years shortlist of 10 includes:
Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya: The Islamic world’s leading creationist charlatan will be looking to go one better than last year’s second place finish, when he polled a staggering 1,091 votes on the back of his attempt to have Richard Dawkins’ website banned in Turkey. Oktar must fancy his chances this year though – back in 2008, he was mostly known as the producer of slapdash creationist literature, but in 2009 the stakes have surely been raised by his exposure in the New Humanist pages as the leader of what essentially amounts to a creationist sex cult. If you’re looking for a good reason to vote Oktar, look no further than the many comments left by his minions on this blog post.
Anthony Bush: Proprietor of Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, the creationist zoo on the outskirts of Bristol which was investigated in the September/October issue of New Humanist. Has grand designs for “Creation + Evolution”, his very own theory for how life on earth developed, telling New Humanist: “Our paradigm is radical, but may, as Galileo’s did, take many years for people to take seriously.” But it’s not just creationism that has put Anthony in the media spotlight – it was alleged in October that Noah’s Ark breeds animals for Britain’s last live-animal circus, and that the head of a tiger which died in childbirth was stored in a freezer at the zoo. Noah’s Ark has just been suspended from the British zoo association, pending an investigation into the allegations.
The British Chiropractic Association: An unusual candidate, since the Bad Faith Award is generally aimed at individuals, but there was no way we could leave out the organisation which has arguably done more than any other to put the problem of Britain’s illiberal libel laws in the public eye. Unintentionally, of course – the BCA are currently trying to sue science writer Simon Singh for libel, after he described as “bogus” their claims that chiropractic can treat childhood conditions like colic and asthma. Extra credit must surely go to them too foraccidentally appearing to libel Singh back via a foolishly premature press release.
Cormac Murphy O’Connor: As he prepared to make way for Vincent Nichols as Archbishop of Westminster, the former head of the Catholic Church in England bid us all farewell by branding atheists as “not fully human”.
Is there anyone you would want to nominate who isn’t on the New Humanist’s list?
Oh I think I have to vote for dear Cormac (or Caramac as I always say by mistake - not that I have occasion to call his name often I hasten to add). Not “fully human”? Tee hee. I think that being fully human involves following your own mind, heart and desires and I don’t think anyone who belongs to a prescriptive religion like Catholicism does that.
Reluctant Blogger
As a passionate humanist I don’t particularly like the phrase “not fully human” being applied to anyone, however, I am tempted to argue that if Roman Catholic clerics are going to apply it to anyone, they might apply it closer to home!
Wow - that’s quite a competitive field. I may have to pray about it.