AAI: Russell Blackford

I've been very, very busy today, so I'm bringing you a few belated comments about the Atheist Alliance International convention. I have to be brief, unfortunately; tomorrow is another busy day, which will be starting with a session with Mr Deity, so I need to get some sleep sometime.

I met Russell Blackford! He's a very nice fellow, especially since he gave a talk I could agree with 100%. He was discussing the virtues of blasphemy; he actually made an argument that we have a kind of moral responsibility to blaspheme. He addressed a couple of ideas, actually; one was the issue of how we know whether religious beliefs aren't true (quickly dismissed; religion is incompatible with the results of rational inquiry), and spent more time with the question of why we atheists should regard it as urgent to loudly say that religious beliefs aren't true. He discussed the recent attempts by the UN to add special protections to religious belief, which actually contradict personal liberties, and also showed that existing UN guidelines already compromise free speech.

You people should be reading his blog, you know. Good stuff.

More like this

Remember Melinda Barton and that awful piece on the Raw Story? It was taken down, and now it's back up with a few changes, I think. The editors asked me to submit a rebuttal. It's online at the Raw Story now, along with that lovely icon to the right ("Secular Horror"?). You can read it there, or…
The Paul Kurtz I remember was the serious, scholarly fellow at the forefront of the atheist movement, who wasn't shy about saying it the way it was. The New Kurtz is a more timid observer, who wants to criticize religion mildly without giving offense, and is more concerned about policing his fellow…
Amanda Marcotte on Pandagon discusses Sam Harris on Alternet, and they've both got smart things to say…but you have got to read the comments. Sam Harris says things like this: On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area…
One of the outcomes of the Copenhagen gathering of atheists was the formulation of a set of principles. It has now been posted on the web, so it's time for everyone to discuss, comment, and criticize…have at it! The recent Gods and Politics conference in Copenhagen adopted the following Declaration…