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Barbara Ehrenreich had breast cancer, and ugly and frightening as that disease is, she found something else that was almost as horrible: the 'positive thinking' approach to health care. People are stigmatized if they fail to regard their illness as anything other than an uplifting, positive life…

I told you yesterday that it was amazing that a religious crank could serve an adoring audience with 55 radio stations, all pumping out Grade A Prime lunacy. It was a bit depressing that all an old fool needs to do is babble about God and the Bible and people will throw money at him. But then I'd…

Next Saturday, 9 January, I'll be driving up to Winnipeg to talk with the local humanists. You can come, too! There's a bit of a warning there, though: Myers will speak at 7 p.m. at the CanadInns Club Regent Casino Hotel in Ambassador Room B. Admission is free but because seating is limited,…

I sicced you on this poll to identify the most vocal atheist of 2009: don't be surprised, I won. Of course, the real problem there was that the winner was determined in an open online poll — if it had been a poll to determine the most vocal Christian of the year, I also would have smashed into it…

(via Digital Cuttlefish, who also has a poem for Kurt Westergaard)

Oh, yeah, but they screwed up. Probably the best known of the inflammatory anti-Islam Danish cartoons was the work of Kurt Westergaard, who drew the prophet Mohammed with a bomb for a turban. It was a very misleading portrayal of a Muslim, which was demonstrated lately when a Somali fanatic tried…

Deepak Chopra recently gave a talk in which he rattled off all of the amazing assertions below. The essential nature of the material world is not material; the essential nature of the physical world is not physical; the essential stuff of the universe is non-stuff. Western science is still frozen…

The world will not end in 2012. Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012. Yeah, it's ridiculous, but you knew that all along. This nonsensical 2012 date for an apocalypse is pure numerology: one of the great cycles of the Mayan…

I've been hearing a few complaints lately that there has been a shortage of creationist cretins around here — you all need an occasional fool to gnaw on to keep your fangs sniny and your pelts glossy, I know. Well, aren't you lucky: Carl Wieland, head of the Australian contingent of global…

The Foundation Beyond Belief is a new humanist charitable and educational organization that can be the focus of your godless giving. They've got an interesting approach: they set up 10 categories (education, the environment, poverty, human rights, etc.), and you pick what percentage of your…

I don't usually post videos for the Friday Cephalopod, but you've got to see it in motion to appreciate the cuddliness.

We just rolled the calendar over here in Minnesota, and are drinking root beer floats, our traditional New Year's beverage. Happy Monkey to everyone!

On the first of January, that is, right now, the Irish blasphemy law goes into effect. In February, I'll be giving some talks in Ireland. Just to warm up the officials there, Atheist Ireland has just published 25 blasphemous quotes…including one from me. Oh, boy. This trip could be interesting.

Oooh, baby. That's a Nu-Life Communion Host Dispenser, equipped with a rapid reload system for fast wafer loading and quad-rotator technology that allows up to 400 wafers to be fired without reloading. If you need to shovel Jesus into people's mouths at a high rate of speed, this is the gadget for…

Rick Warren's Saddleback Church is bleeding money. He just sent out a letter begging for almost a million dollars from his followers. With 10% of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated. Still…

I keep hearing people telling me this, but at the same time I keep seeing more and more out atheists, and atheism becoming more and more popular. The refrain is sounding more desperate than accurate — but then, among people for whom wishful thinking is tantamount to a mathematical proof, I suppose…

Two distressing news stories out of that wealthy western state: Berkeley High School has a serious problem: it's a good, relatively well-funded school, but black and latino students aren't doing as well as white students. Their solution: kill those expensive science labs and redirect the money to…

Since every one of these undying threads turns into something about geology, including the last one, it is only fitting that we reveal the truth here: rocks are evil. They want to turn everything into stone. Now watch: no one will talk geology at all in this open thread.

I saw the most awesome tech demo reel tonight — a little show called Avatar. It was well worth the admission cost, but you should be prepared with reasonable expectations. There isn't a plot. Well, actually, there is…but it's so predictable that they might as well have left it out. It's a wish-…

Zeno has posted the complete text of a long creationist screed published in the Sacramento Bee. It's got everything: the second law of thermodynamics, the fallacy of the excluded middle, the 'law' of biogenesis, mysterious barriers between species, and of course, the Imminent Death of Darwinism. It…

Several people expressed surprise at Alaska's high position on the list of non-religious states. We can't have people's expectations shattered, so here's something to reassure you all that the world has not turned inside out: an Alaskan scientist castigates the state's attitude on science. Alaska's…

Here's another of Casey Dunn's Creature Casts, this time on shifting color spots in marine snails. CreatureCast - Flamingo Tongue Snails from Casey Dunn on Vimeo. Pigment cells are always very, very cool. I've been intrigued by them for a long time — they show up in my time-lapse recordings of…

I've had a few run-ins with this wacky retired chemist and obsessive creationist, and recently pestered Jeffrey Shallit. There's a good tip in that account; Shallit just mentioned my name, and Skell fled. I guess I've become an anti-creationist talisman now.

How does your state rank? Check out the ranking of states by religiosity. Mississippi wins with the unfortunate #1 spot; 82% of the residents of that state say religion is very important in their lives. New Hampshire and Vermont (sorry, you two, you got lumped together) are at the bottom, but 36%…

An English professor at Indiana University, Don Belton, has been stabbed to death. The fact that he was gay is going to be an unfortunate issue here, since the accused killer is offering as an excuse the claim that Belton had assaulted him. Of course, Belton was killed in his own home. With a ten-…

The Jews have been waiting for a messiah for a few thousand years. What's the hold-up? It seems that abortions have been causing a "delay [of] the messianic redemption". This sounds like a fine idea to me — thank you, ladies, for your efforts to scare away the boogeyman.

Don't miss it! Tonight at 8pmET/7pm Central, NOVA is showing What Darwin Never Knew, a documentary about evo-devo. I shall be glued to my TV tonight! I just started watching it. So far, it's a nice little history of Darwin and his ideas; Sean Carroll is a good person to have talking up the story…

These religious conservatives are certifiably nuts. Rep. Henry Brown of South Carolina and 74 Republican co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives actually wants Congress to pass a resolution condemning people for saying "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas." Seriously? Yeah,…

Here's another odd pink phenomenon. This is a page from a Toys 'R Us catalog, illustrating some science toys, and note the odd distinctions being made. Both the telescope and the microscope come in special pink versions, just for the girl who is apparently more interested in getting an instrument…