pharyngula

At least, that's the outcome of a court decision in France, where Scientology was guilty of fraud and got slapped with a few fines, which they'll scrape out of the pockets of their gullible followers. It's nice, I'm not going to complain, but I'll be more impressed when they apply the same…

This story strikes a little close to home, because I've faced exactly the same kinds of complaints from some of my students — except that these are Religious Studies students. They are very upset because they consider one of the questions on a standard exam to be "unfair". Here's the question:…

Apparently, the Sunday brunch-after-church crowd has an awful reputation for being bad tippers. Somehow, I'm not surprised. But even fellow Christians have noticed and find fault with them. Take, for example, how Christians tip and behave in restaurants. If you have ever worked in the restaurant…

As I mentioned yesterday, Christopher Hitchens is touring the country with a pastor, Doug Wilson, doing public debates. A reader wrote in to inform me of who Wilson is, and I was appalled. He has a ministry in Idaho which has ties to the white supremacy movement! Doug Wilson has an entry at the…

Poe's Law gets invoked a lot here, and of course we all know Godwin's Law, but did you know the other eight laws in this list of internet rules and laws? I understand that if you violate them, the internet police will slap you with internet fines, and if you're a very bad person, you can even be…

Paul Haggis, a Hollywood bigwig, has publicly renounced and rebuked $cientology. His reasons: they lie, they disregard basic ethical concerns, they smear their critics. Hasn't everyone known this all along? The anti-reality field at those scientology centers must be very strong. Now let's see a few…

Oh, look. A homeopath explains physics to us all. I'm sorry. Did I break your brain? Here's a non-homeopathic cure. It takes an hour of Lawrence Krauss to counter 8 minutes of that kind of lunacy, I'm afraid.

At last, we have a simple definition of an atheist. (via GrrlScientist)

Gosh. I put out a call to vote for Biofortified in a blog contest, and you guys all did your part and registered and voted honestly, and now what happens? I'm accused of fixing the competition. This group has been putting out the following messsage on Twitter: "Vote for Biofortified in Ashoka…

Christopher Hitchens has been debating a Christian pastor named Douglas Wilson on the subject of whether Christianity has been a force for good in the world. These debates were recorded, and assembled into a film called Collision. I haven't seen it, and I doubt that it will be showing in my small…

Here's a good science blog you can help: Biofortified, a group blog on plant genetics and genetic engineering (and, by the way, Sb's recent addition, Pamela Ronald, is part of the team). They are in a contest to win a small cash grant and an interview with Michael Pollan, and this group is…

Reader Lindsay sent along this pair of photos of a moose taking a stroll along a dirt road near Elliot Lake, near Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan 's Upper Peninsula. That's not a footpath, by the way. It's a single lane dirt road for cars, just to give some sense of how big this beast is.

I was captured on the Good Atheist earlier today. It's more of a conversation than an interview, so just sit back and listen to a couple of guys blather.

As you've already heard, the Atheist Foundation of Australia was hit with a denial-of-service attack earlier this week (you can learn more about it in this interview of Jason Ball by Catherine Deveny). I rather like their planned unofficial response. This is a call to all non-believers and…

Somehow, this story is just too cliched. Pastor Marc Grizzard claims the King James version of the Bible is the only true word of God, and that all other versions are "satanic" and "perversions" of God's word. On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church…

As I mentioned before, the Coalition of Reason is putting some positive, pro-atheism ads in the NY subways. As expected, of course, some Christians are upset about this. Their reaction is no surprise. The inanity of their reaction is also no surprise. For a beautiful example of a truly stupid…

A few weeks ago, Nicholas Wade wrote a terrible review of Dawkins' latest book (it wasn't a negative review, but it just weirdly spun off into some half-baked philosophy of science). Now the poor guy has been publicly spanked. The NY Times published short letters of rebuttal from Dan Dennett and…

The web of lies was working away yesterday: apparently, some bored wankers created some twitter accounts and started injecting rumors into the internet that Hawking had been killed by a Christian fundamentalist, and they've been spreading everywhere — I'm getting all kinds of email from people…

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, who some of us will recall from the 1980s, when her survivalist, apocalyptic cult, the Church Universal and Triumphant, was digging in in Montana, has died. Another end-of-the-world weirdo bites the dust before the world does. There was one odd comment in her obituary.…

Why do we even have to ask this question? And at a university? Should Auburn University and the University of Alabama follow UAB's lead and offer domestic partner benefits?   Yes  49%   No  45%   I'm not sure  6% Get over there. This is a question for which the…

What a useful way to look at it: Vatican, Inc is hoping to improve their bottom line by acquiring a competitor, Church of England, Ltd. About 600 Anglican middle-managers are in talks with the Catholic Church to rip up their theological roots (which, it turns out, aren't all that important) and…

Especially since the designer turned the description into a humanist manifesto!

When I picked up my mail this afternoon, I was surprised to find several large boxes waiting for me. I was surprised when I opened them, both by the nature of their contents and by the fact that there was no note to say who sent them. Whoever it was, thank you! I don't think anyone has ever given…

I almost forgot — in 1658, Archbishop Ussher determined that the world was created precisely at 9am, 23 October, 4004 BC, making today the official creation day, and the earth 6012 years old. Stop laughing, people. There are some who still seriously believe that: I just got spam from Whirled Nut…

He must be the warm-up act for the global atheism convention this spring.

This is Ali, a six month old baby in Southern Russia. It's a miracle! Every Monday and Thursday, fresh quotations from the Quran 'magically' appear on his legs, belly, or arms when he's home alone with his mommy and daddy, and then the pilgrims show up in the thousands to give the happy family…

David Sloan Wilson certainly got a warm and appropriate welcome here. His first post was titled Science as a Religion that Worships Truth as its God, a phrase that purées together both "religion" and "science" with "truth" as a wickedly wielded whisk, and immediately set a number of people on edge…

Nautilus pompilius Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

It's disgraceful. During some football game, our mascot, Goldy the Gopher, mocked a player on the opposing team who thought it was appropriate to ostentatiously kneel down and publicly pray. Now Goldy wasn't the disgrace (I have a new-found respect for our goofy guy in a costume), nor was the…

Karen Armstrong has once again published a pile of meaningless twaddle in defense of religion. In this mess, she takes a series of statements about god that she says need rethinking…but as always, her "rethinking" is merely a reworking of apologetics for maintaining the status quo. It's almost as…