Jesse Helms is dead. Finally acceding to the plea made in the marvellous MC Hawking ditty.
Good fucking riddance. Tip of the hat to Pharyngula.
Tag Archives | Atheism
The world is explicable by purely natural means!
Anglican church in meltdown
Apparently some of the idiots don’t think the church is discriminating enough against homosexuals and women. But really: Yawn. Irrelevant fools.
“Science is a way of life”
Brian Green has an opinion piece in the New York Times outlining why science is important. It’s well worth reading. The following quote is a good summary:
Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations — for everything from why the sky is blue to how life formed on earth — not because they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by experiment and observation, is one of the most precious of human experiences.
Russell Blackford on “framing”
The has been a bit of a kerfuffle in the science blog and science communication communities recently about how to deal with creationists, and their apologists. Basically there is a camp that thinks that those of us who are outspoken in our anti-religion rhetoric, should shut up and let those with a gentler message more amenable to those who are religious, frame the arguments in a way that doesn’t offend or frighten off the moderate religious types.
I’m in the camp that says that we need to have people of all views, expressing said views in any way they feel like. If this offends some people then that might be unfortunate but its not a reason to silence those with strong views. I advocated this position when I was a member of the DebunkCreation mailing list.
Russell Blackford has written a very interesting blog post on this topic. It’s well worth a read.
Priest Off!
🙂 Tip of the hat to Gary Paterson for the pointer.
Rehearsals
I wonder if this is how it really happened?
From Crackle:
Creationists are IDiots
Complete and utter IDiots. This is not news of course. But more evidence comes via PZ Myers.
What a twat
Good grief. I wonder what it feels like to be a liar for the lord? He’s either lying or he is ignorant of what the research being proposed will allow. Either way why does he get a platform to promulgate his crap. We so need religion to go away. It’s a parasite on the arse hole of humanity.
Two forthcoming books
These 2 books from Martin Rowson look like they’ll be good when they are published over the next few months:
1) The Dog Allusion: Pets, Gods and How to be Human
From the Amazon page:
As with dogs, so with gods – by and large, you should blame the owners.’ A particular trait, common to all human civilisations, is the worship of non-human entities with followings of devotees who claim that their reverence can transport them to transcendental heights of complete and unfettered love. Do I mean God? No – I mean Dog. Dogs and other pets we’ve been keeping and loving since we began walking on two feet. But why do we love God – and pets – so much when their capriciousness sometimes suggests that they don’t love us back? In this wise, witty and highly topical book, celebrated cartoonist and novelist Martin Rowson argues that rationally, the whole enterprise of religion is a monumental and faintly ridiculous waste of time and money. But then again, so is pet-keeping. What both do, however, is tell us a lot about who we are, which is perhaps a more important question than whether God exists and if so, if he is indeed great.
From the Amazon page:
Award-winning cartoonist Martin Rowson tells the story of Earth, from the Big Bang, the emergence of life, the death of the dinosaurs, the dawn of civilization, the invention of the wheel, the Trojan War, the Crucifixion, the Fall of Rome, the Black Death, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, World War One, Nazism, consumerism, the Cold War, 9/11 and beyond to the End of the World, in sixty-seven beautiful, savage, splendidly satirical images, all with only one word in the captions.
Thanks to the Richard Dawkins site for The Dog Allusion pointer.
The Archbishop
The furore over the radio interview and speech given by the Archbishop of Canterbury last week are well documented in all media channels. I won’t reiterate them here. For what its worth I don’t think that the Archbishop’s use of Sharia as his example to illustrate his point was all that controversial. Rather it was the bigger point he was making that I take issue with. I haven’t read his speech, but reporting of it and synopses from trusted sources, seems to indicate that the Archbishop was saying that individuals religious beliefs or world view based on religious teaching should be a valid principle that is taken into account when Parliament is defining the scope of legislation and law. A recent example of what he seems to have been alluding to are the Roman Catholic adoption agencies who wanted to have the right not to place children with same sex couples.
It seems to me that the Archbishop is making a bigger play to get more influence for religion, of all types, back into the public policy arena. As such his speech is much more insidious than simply saying some part of Sharia is inevitable in the UK. He wants to roll back the gains we have made towards an enlightened, secular society in which everyone is the same under the law and is free from the tyranny of religious leaders.
He, and his fellow travellers, should be resisted with all the vigour we can muster. Joining the National Secular Society would be a good start. If you are reading this and are not a member then please consider joining. The more numbers the Society has the stronger its voice will be to resist the people who want to move our society backwards in time.
For the record: Anyone else can believe in whatever religion they like. As long as it doesn’t effect the choices I, or anyone else who doesn’t share their belief, want to make. Giving favour under law to any interest group, whether religious or not, is not the way to go. The argument that some groups have such favour now isn’t an argument for extending it to other groups, rather I’d say it highlights that it needs to be taken away from the ones that currently have such privilege.