Are you all as exhausted from the festivities as I am? I partook a little too heavily of the traditional Driving-Long-Distances-In-The-Snow-To-Pick-Up-Returning-Progeny-Whose-Bus-Was-Over-An-Hour-Late part of the celebration, which means my brain is turning over a little slowly this morning. I'm going to sit and sip coffee for a while, and read some Science…expect something on the phosphatized embryos later!
Off topic, but I thought you and your readers would be interested in the results of this UK survey:
Religion does more harm than good
Encouraging, no?
Nice example of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy by the Right Rev. Bishop Dunn, too.
What is that fallacy?
The "No True Scotsman" fallacy goes something like this:
Andy says: All Scotsmen eat porridge in the morning.
Ben says: My uncle is a Scotsman, and he doesn't eat porridge.
Andy replies: Then he isn't a true Scotsman.
It is frequently used by the religious to disassociate themselves from someone who would seem to disprove an assertation they would like to make, such as "No Christian would ever swear." When you point out that your mother, who is a Christian, swears, they might respond with "No true Christian would swear." or "Then she isn't really a Christian." or something similar.
Wikipedia gives a better definition than I do. Now why didn't I think of looking it up there first?
What is that fallacy?