suggestions for KCPW - August 6, 2013

Today I sent the following letter to KCPW:

With the recent changes by NPR, the turn over, and the changes they've made - all of that translates into dropping them being less of a problem. May I suggest further that you consider dropping "To The Best of Our Knowledge." When I review their schedule at
http://www.ttbook.org/shows-by-year
...if you dig a little deeper you'll find that they select for and push for interviewing what are essentially "Templeton chumps" who portray the real world as essentially ineffable, so as to leave room for Templeton's God (the god of a rich man with enough money to get a camel's nose under the secular tent of "public radio" and science education). More info: http://goo.gl/DEpuXT

The key agenda of "To The Best of Our Knowledge" is to blow smoke, softly, smoothly, so that the naive secular advocate doesn't know what's happening. The woo passes slowly over the nose of the science advocate, leading him slowly to Gould's non-overlapping magisteria and rich man Templeton's God.

Oh, and KUER already has this one, and they love the show. So why duplicate, right?

KCPW was first on MANY fronts, and KUER is the moocher. But they've been a successful moocher and copycat. Show after show, year after year. "Just copy KCPW" is what they've done. Is there some way you can block all their staff from listening to KCPW? Seriously.

A for having "Q" front and center, and so prominent, there's problems with that also: http://goo.gl/Jd3DOm

Jian has his problems:
http://zorgreport.blogspot.com/2011/09/ever-incredibly-depressing-jian.html

Maybe you can find better stuff out there than Jian.

So, the suggestions are, drop "To The Best of Our Knowledge" and lessen your reliance on Jian's Q. And somehow block KUER from copying your stuff moving forward.

Response to Sam Harris's 'Science on the Brink of Death'

In Sam Harris's recent blog post "Science on the Brink of Death" it's worth noting that Steve Paulson is interviewing the guy in question. Paulson is a "Templeton wonder boy," and host of the Wisconsin Public Radio program "To the best of our knowledge."

Paulson's connection to Templeton:
http://www.templeton-cambridge.org/fellows/showfellow.php?fellow=6

Paulson's got a lot of smoke to help blow, everywhere he can. But mention of Paulson & public radio reminds me of another public radio host with a Templeton connection, Templeton wondergirl Krista Tippett.
http://www.templeton.org/what-we-fund/grants/krista-tippett-on-being-pursues-the-big-questions

My current responses:
http://jonathanshome.blogspot.com/2012/11/nobel-prize-winner-harry-kroto-michael.html

And a response video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nj4KIix2vI

Steve Paulson is very interested indeed in blowing smoke about "spiritual realities" and Templeton loves him for it.

Here is a great website I just found on the whole issue:

http://www.skepdic.com/essays/templeton.html

"...The subtext is clear: secular science alone can’t solve our problems. We must seek our answers in a realm that includes the non-secular..."

"...The TF’s anti-secularism is also evident from the fact that Taylor was nominated for the Templeton prize by the Rev. David A. Martin, Ph.D., emeritus professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and author of A General Theory of Secularization, which, among other things, laments the way religion has been marginalized by sociology and pushed to the periphery of significance in some quarters. (Taylor wrote a blurb for the back cover of Martin’s follow-up: On Secularization: Towards A Revised General Theory, published in 2005.) Taylor’s latest work, A Secular Age, was published last September by Belknap Press. It is being promoted as “the definitive examination of secularization and the modern world.” At 896 pages, it is certainly the heftiest examination of religion in a secular world..."

"...Those who argue that our only hope for peace on earth is to become purely secular will never win the Templeton prize. To win the Templeton Prize, one must be selective and focus on those aspects of 'spirituality' that don’t involve bigotry, hatred, ignorance, or superstition. If you ignore many religions, many religious beliefs, and many religious practices, you can come up with a fine set of ideas showing how spirituality must move back to the center from the periphery if we wish to live free in a new golden age. I look at it a little differently than Charles Taylor does. In my opinion, secularism is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for peace on earth and for understanding the things of this universe. Religion, on the other hand, is a sufficient but not a necessary condition for continued misery and obfuscation of even the simplest truths..."

"...For a million dollars, I'll tell them why that’s so. For another million, I’ll do it in 900 pages..."

Additional links:

On this blog:

Watering down science: Templeton, KCPW & KUER

http://jonathanshome.blogspot.com/2012/11/watering-down-science-templeton-kcpw.html

On other blogs and sites:

On Templeton money
http://evolvingthoughts.net/2010/06/on-templeton-money/

Gledhill, Ruth. “Why do we believe in God? £2m study prays for answer,” Timesonline. February 19, 2008,

Horgan, John. “The Templeton Foundation: A Skeptic’s Take,” April 5, 2006,

Park, Robert L. (2008). Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science. Princeton University Press.

The 2009 (not prestigious) Templeton Prize Winner is....

The 2010 (not prestigious) Templeton Prize Winner is....

“Current Prize Winner,” March 14, 2007.

“Scientific study into religious belief launched,” The University of Oxford press release. February 19, 2008.

Mr. Muffbrain blows more smoke about consciousness and (hopefully to him & to Templeton) non-overlapping magisteria

Steve Paulson is by his own account "...a lapsed Christian who's not a strict materialist..."

One full hour of smoke blowing by Steve Paulson on consciousness:

My latest video response:

related info and articles:

http://jonathanshome.blogspot.com/2012/11/more-articles-found-on-kauffman.html

Mister Icky Poo himself William Lane Craig blowing a huge amount of very thick smoke - and brought to you by who? Templeton: 

Watering down science: Templeton, KCPW & KUER

Draft email to: esweeney@kcpw.org, eray@kcpw.org
cc: news@kuer.org, Mike.Crane@wpr.org

For the FCC comment files, regarding KCPW, KUER, and Wisconsin Public Radio:

Here's the most recent things we've learned about the Templeton sponsored show, To the Best of Our Knowledge:

1. On KCPW, they receive it for free. Presumably there's a similar situation over at KUER.

2. Popularity is more important than content at some public radio stations.

3. Stations receiving government funding refuse to cancel this religion-advocacy program.

Templeton is apparently enabling their flagship To the Best of Our Knowledge program to sneak under the radar, rather in a similar fashion to how "creation science" advocates try to sneak religion into science class. Same smoke & mirrors.

Remember when KCPW lost 1010 AM to a Catholic radio station? I would imagine that the current owners of 1010 AM in Utah would be more than willing to their programs also on 88.3 and 105.3 FM in Salt Lake - for free. And I bet KCPW could find an audience for this. Or how about: Rush. Howard Stern. Sports. Or some other radio equivalent of porn? As long as it's popular, that's the most important thing, right? But, here's a more accurate and rational response to this Templeton-connected snake oil being foisting upon us:

By Dr. Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago:

"...I know I bang on about Templeton and its prizes and huge grants, but I see the Templeton Foundation as the #1 force in America devoted to watering down science with religion, thereby confusing the two and eroding habits of rational thinking..."

as from http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/templeton-uses-its-wealth-to-debase-philosophy/

Steve Paulson, a "journalist" on To the Best of Our Knowledge, has been honored in a high profile way by the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Program in Science & Religion. http://www.templeton-cambridge.org/fellows/showfellow.php?fellow=6

So, what's the deal with the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Program?

"The Templeton Foundation organizes an annual meeting in Cambridge where science journalists are invited (and paid very handsomely, not to speak but to listen! When were you last paid to go and be a part of the audience at a conference?). A few years ago, when I was more naive than I am now (and not knowing that the audience were being paid to listen) I agreed to speak (unpaid) at one of these meetings (I described the experience in The God Delusion.) If I were invited again, I would decline – indeed I did decline when I was invited the following year. One of this year's paid journalists, Edwin Cartlidge, wrote a letter to Anthony Grayling and Daniel Dennett, soliciting their cooperation. These two distinguished philosophers shared their correspondence with a group of people, including me. Dan's and Anthony's reasons for not cooperating with Templeton seemed to me so good, and so well expressed, that I suggested that they should be more widely publicized. All three gentlemen gave their permission. In Mr Cartlidge's case it was especially gracious of him because he is obviously vulnerable to being tarred with the Templeton brush. I hope that commenters on this thread will reserve their fire for the Templeton organization rather than Edwin Cartlidge himself. I see him as in much the same position I was in when I agreed to go, a victim of exactly the kind of subversion of science that Templeton is making its specialty.

Richard Dawkins"

as from http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/3973

So, presumably this letter I am sending is reaching people who claim to be "journalists," right? Can you follow the money?

Dawkins claims that journalists get paid to go to Templeton sponsored conferences?!? And, their camel's-nose-under-the-tent radio program To the Best of Our Knowledge gets carried for free on KCPW & presumably on other so-called public radio stations? What's going on here?

From Gil Gaudia:

"The Camel Is Heading for Your Tent
...
In October 2007, the Bible Literacy Project (BLP) reported that their glitzy textbook The Bible and Its Influence had been adopted by the Alabama State Board of Education, which unanimously approved it for statewide use as a comprehensive program. "This is major news in the field of education," said Bible Literacy Project Chairman Chuck Stetson. "While academic study of the Bible is legal in all 50 states, this decision means that any school in the state of Alabama can purchase our textbook with state-provided funds until 2013."
BLP is a study that was funded by the John Templeton Foundation, an organization that attempts to appear ideologically neutral, but nevertheless appears to be behind many efforts to "Christianize" American politics and education, indeed the country. A typical example of the type of funding The Templeton Foundation provides is one announced recently by the Baylor University News, "the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) has received a $378,862 grant from the John Templeton Foundation to fund ISR's Initiative on the Economics of Religion ... (F)our scholars [will use the funds] to investigate the connection between religion and economic growth and the effects of government intervention in religious markets on the practice of religion."
According to Media Transparency, an organization that tracks funding for conservative causes, a few of the recent top recipients of Templeton dough (and how much dough), are self-evidently connected to religion. They include "Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences" ($23,122,319); "Philadelphia Center for Religion and Science" ($4,811,892); "Science and Spirit Resources, Inc." ($4,632,933);  "Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science" ($4,762,514); and the  "Association of Unity Churches" ($3,509,971)..."

as from http://www.infidels.org/kiosk/article782.html

On a recent To the Best of our Knowledge program KCPW and KUER listeners were subjected to hearing a woman bemoan the fact that her son no longer believed in God.

Who's god?

Which god?

It's not up to my public radio stations to ask that I believe in any gods or any religion. That's what the Catholic station on 1010 AM here is for. It's what the other Bible beater stations are for.

Enough is enough. The religions have their channel he Bible Beaters have their channels. Rush has his. The sports freaks have theirs. And, the little spaces taken up by public radio are supposed to be for the rest of us - those of us who are children of the Enlightenment. Your taking on this program is a betrayal of that and of our trust.

----end of draft message

Further details via past blog posts:


Steve Paulson & Stuart Kauffman - god & religion apologists get angry at Dawkins - my response

Confirmation that KCPW receives a Templeton supported program for free: To the Best of Our Knowledge

more articles found on Kauffman, Templeton, and (ick!) William Lane Craig

Mr. Muffbrain blows more smoke about consciousness and (hopefully to him & to Templeton) non-overlapping magisteria

Krista Tippett, Templeton, and the denial of basic human rights

The Templeton Bribe to journalists & scientists who whitewash the problems of religion, and who conflate science and religion

University of Utah & KUER promotes rich conservative sugar daddy's god & his religion

The distortion of science via Templeton's chumps

Related videos:

More videos at: Mr. Muffbrain blows more smoke about consciousness and (hopefully to him & to Templeton) non-overlapping magisteria