religion
pharyngula | November 27, 2009I think I like this woman. Nell McCafferty rips into representatives of the Catholic church, asking, "What's holy about the Vatican?" and insisting that they ought to set aside the titles of "Father" and "Grace" and so forth, because they've betrayed them. I love the Irish when they get that fire in their eye!
pharyngula | November 27, 2009In March, there's going to be a massive atheist conference in Melbourne, Australia. It's going to be excellent, with speakers being brought in from around the world, and with mobs of delighted godless Aussies gathering to celebrate and discuss secularism (I know some of my readers here will be there!) Reasonably enough, the Atheist Organization of Australia has asked the government to chip in and help them do it right with a request for about a quarter million dollars. The government has been dragging its feet, though, punting the request about and making no promises.
Now you might say that…
pharyngula | November 26, 2009I know, it's Thanksgiving in America, and I've already been curmudgeonly enough for you—but I have to do you the favor now of ruining your appetite with this tale of institutionalized child abuse in Ireland. It involves the Catholic Church, of course (and isn't that unsurprising ennui just another indication of Catholicism unsavory reputation?).
Authorities enjoyed a cosy relationship with the Church and did not enforce the law as four archbishops, obsessed with secrecy and avoiding scandal, protected abusers and reputations at all costs, the report said..
Hundreds of crimes against children…
emjohnson | November 23, 2009The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a quiz to test your understanding of religion and politics in American history. I got 19 out of 21. How'd you do?
pharyngula | November 23, 2009Representative Patrick Kennedy has been barred from taking communion by the Catholic church. This is a politically motivated action to intimidate a politician into supporting a position on a political issue opposed by the church, abortion rights. Hmmm…using religion to commit extortion. How unusual.
I feel for him. I have a few consecrated wafers somewhere around the house; I'd love to send him some so he could cannibalize Jesus, but unfortunately, I also got threats to send me poisoned wafers from a few good Catholics, and I haven't tested them. I'd rather not be responsible for murdering a…
gregladen | November 22, 2009This week is Thanksgiving in the United States. This means that over the coming weekend many Americans will be putting up Christmas decorations in and outside their houses. Many children will be putting finishing touches on their letters to Santa. The shopping malls will start to fill and while economists examine and measure the retail sales bump for signs that the world will not end, we, as a nation, will come together to incrementally crank up the material contents stored in our homes and the corresponding mass of our public landfills.
But what do Atheists do on Christmas?
We declare…
emjohnson | November 20, 2009Now that the Darwin Reclamation Project collage has been posted, I can confess that I have a few problems with the recent atheist action that sought to counter the dunderhead Ray Comfort and his Creationist propaganda ministry. I'm not sure who originally suggested this action, but I don't think it was well thought out. Having athiests systematically round up as many copies as they can of a work they disagree with (however ridiculous such a work may be) stinks of censorship and creates an impression in the broader public that Comfort's arguments are somehow threatening to evolutionary…
emjohnson | November 19, 2009
(To watch this as a music video click on the volume icon in the top left.)
Here you are, all your bright, shining faces with a brand new copy of On the Origin of Species. It's extremely generous of Ray Comfort and Living Waters Publications to distribute so many free copies of a book with no political agenda whatsoever. I noticed that some of you found an odd additional chapter to the book that never appeared in the original edition. But many of you reclaimed Darwin's intent by removing these unfortunate pages and now have an excellent copy for yourselves or to donate to a worthy…
gregladen | November 19, 2009According to an Australian Australian Senator Nick Zenophon.
Senator Xenophon [raised] allegations of widespread criminal conduct within the church, saying he had received letters from former followers detailing claims of abuse, false imprisonment and forced abortion.
He says he has passed on the letters to the police and is calling for a Senate inquiry into the religion and its tax-exempt status.
"I am deeply concerned about this organisation and the devastating impact it can have on its followers," he told the Senate.
A spokeswoman for the church, Virginia Stewart, says she is shocked to…
razib | November 18, 2009
During the first few years of ScienceBlogs there was a lot of talk about religion. Yes, there's talk about religion now, but it's toned down in the wake of the ebbing of the publicity around The God Delusion. Naturally in the wake of the New Atheism a raft of conventional apologetics have been published, The Dawkins' Delusion being a typical example. More recently more nuanced books which wend the middle ground between militant atheism and conventional apologetics have taken center strage. Karen Armstrong's The Case for God approaches this from a philo-theistic angle, while Robert Wright's…
pharyngula | November 18, 2009Operation Save America has begun. Some of the fundagelicals are hoping to get militant, and I don't mean in that same sense that some atheists are called "militant", which generally means "atheists who say something". No, they are organizing and training kids to get out there and fight spiritual warfare. If you're wondering what they could be fighting for, we have som choice quotes from Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas, who wrote the manual for young Jesus warriors.
A patriarch is a family ruler. He is the man in charge. Biblical manhood demands men … defend and shield or cover women from injury, evil…
emjohnson | November 18, 2009 PZ has information that Ray Comfort and his merry band of misfits have changed their plans and are passing out their Origin of Species propaganda today. You should go and get a copy right away. They're most likely located at the busiest part of your college campus between 11 and 1pm (or whenever it's busiest).
Go and get your copy and send me a photograph with it and I will post it here. But hurry, supplies are limited.
E-mail me at primatediaries [at] gmail [dot] com or post the photo on your blog or twitpic and put the link in the comments below.
gregladen | November 16, 2009Bergman gave the argument FOR Intelligent Design, and Myers gave the argument AGAINST.
I have never seen an argument against Intelligent design so well made. It would seem that Intelligent Design is a point of view rather than a coherent theory, one that emerges as a socio political side-effect of the struggle between atheism and religion, one that has many proponents but no valid scientific published research to support it. Intelligent design, according to what I saw argued, makes little internal coherent sense. It is based on a two step process of reasoning: Irreducible complexity, which…
pharyngula | November 16, 2009The New Humanist hands out a yearly slap-in-the-face to the most deserving noisy believer of the year — last year's winner was Sarah Palin — and this year they have a full slate of worthy apologists for superstition. It's an internet poll, but who should win this one isn't at all obvious — they're all contemptible. Here are the results so far:
Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya
94 (8%)
Anjem Choudary
72 (6%)
Anthony Bush
22 (1%)
British Chiropractic Association
197 (16%)
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor
51 (4%)
Dermot Aherne
84 (7%)
Damian Thompson
66 (5%)
Pope…
pharyngula | November 16, 2009I am impressed with the discipline imposed by the traditional madrassas: students are expected to memorize the Koran, word for word, which requires that they spend day after day reading and reciting. I don't deny that it's hard work and is a kind of achievement, but it's not education — it doesn't teach people how to think for themselves.
So I find this story about kids memorizing the Bible rather dismaying. These are clearly kids with brains, discipline, and a kind of warped ambition, who have the potential to do interesting things, and our Christian leaders have apparently seen some virtue…
pharyngula | November 16, 2009That seems to be the idea behind forming a council of key policy advisors, whose qualifications seem to be the fervency of their obeisance to an invisible man in the sky.
The move has been criticised by secularists who warned that it represented a worrying development.
However, Mr Denham argued that Christians and Muslims can contribute significant insights on key issues, such as the economy, parenting and tackling climate change.
Oh, really? How? I suppose tithing and refusing to allow money to be lent at interest are a kind of economic strategy…just not a very productive one. And I don't…
grrlscientist | November 15, 2009tags: religion, fundamentalism, christianity, humor, satire, funny, evolution shmevolution, Edward Current, streaming video
Edward Current comments about all of the ignorant evilutionists (including me) who are contaminating the world with our crazy ideas. Nevermind that we have proof and the religious wingnuts do not.
grrlscientist | November 14, 2009tags: religion, fundamentalism, christianity, Why Do Atheists Care About Religion?, imrational, streaming video
How does religion impinge upon each American's rights? This video should open your eyes to the ridiculous, backwards and utterly nonsensical laws that control our lives because of someone's religious beliefs.
gregladen | November 13, 2009I'm just hearing that on the news. Here's a link to the story about the hearing.