pharyngula

The biggest consumer of porn in the US is Utah, and hotels report increased viewing of porn during religious conventions. Could there be a relationship between religiosity and private viewing of porn? Here's another datum: use google to look at searches for pornographic terms world-wide. Google…

Barbara Ehrenreich critiques positive thinking — and blames some of our problems on it. There's a lot of truth here, and it's also entertaining to watch.

They exist, which is very good news in a country that is 85% Catholic…and the reality of a Croatian atheist community was acknowledged in a major newspaper (google translation, for those of us who don't know the language). The Enlightenment is busting out all over, it's good to see. Never mind the…

Schools often block access to parts of the internet, which is fine, if only to focus students' attention a little bit. It is not fine when they discriminate, like Indianapolis public schools, which block on religious views other than the Abrahamic religions. Their rules, though, mention something I…

Nope, I'm going to call this story debunked. A commenter has pointed out that Jhelum has several established Christian communities and is not the monolithic Islamic city the story implies, so it looks like this is a complete fabrication by Compass Direct News, a Christian propaganda outfit. The…

People are still going to the ghastly Creation "Museum" in Kentucky — it's actually doing a bang-up business. Fortunately, some of the people going are critics who can see its troubling flaws. When I went, what leapt out at me was the intellectual dishonesty of the place; it mimics a museum, but it…

Why has the government made it illegal to photograph the disaster on the gulf? Oh. that's why.

Warning: Country. Otherwise, good message.

Enough. David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer who wandered the streets of New York in the 1970s, killing people in their cars, has a lot of new friends now: born again Christians. And he has turned into a shill for Jesus. I think I'm feeling ill.

Molly Norris, the cartoonist who launched "Draw Mohammed Day" (and who later withdrew herself from the event, citing her fear of persecution) has just been put on a hit list, calling for Muslims to murder her. The man calling for her death is this Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, a pleasant looking…

At the AAI meeting in Copenhagen, the group formulated a Declaration on Religion in Public Life. It was a nice statement, a bit vague, the product of too little time and preparation, but still a useful expression of godless sentiment. To my amusement, Ken Ham read it and his head exploded. It's the…

The Australian Vaccination Network is an awful little organization that exists to spread fear and disinformation about vaccines, under the pretense of caring about children. They're getting an official comeuppance, though: the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission has put together a…

Jean Stevens was a lonely old lady with an unpleasant obsession. She dug up her dead twin sister and husband and kept the corpses in her house, dressing them up and offering them tea and talking to them. That's a little disturbing, but mostly harmless — except that you can't help but think that she…

Jeremy Messersmith gives the post con wrap-up of Convergence, the recent sf convention in Minneapolis. These things are wonderfully fun, you should go sometime! There is a picture of me in the article, but I think he just threw it in to reassure the readers that not all the attendees were freaky…

But the part where he gets in a sloppy threesome with the hydrogen twins is too racy!

We have such a reputation for destroying polls that this survey may not survive contact with us, but give it a shot anyway. It's asking what people know about other people's religious beliefs. 1) Which of the following best classifies your beliefs? Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hundu, Jainist,…

Harvey Pekar would have fit right into the undendingly discursive thread, and now it'll never happen. Just think what he would have said about PepsiCo. (Current totals: 10,597 entries with 1,053,074 comments.)

So don't call her Dr McKeith. She hasn't earned it. Also, it irks her something fierce when you question her title. If you're an American, you have something you can take real pride in: you've probably never heard of Gillian McKeith. I hadn't. Apparently, she's a prominent woo-peddler in the UK,…

That's some houseguest. The Pope invited himself to visit England, and asked the British government to pay for it — that takes some gall right there — and is now revealing that the bill for his visit will be at least £20 million. They're dropping all that cash to fête a ringleader for child rapists…

Vipera berus

He may have poured that flask down the drain! Also, the fun part is doing the succussations between dilutions.

Every story should occasionally take a break from the clumsy metazoan action to plunge into the biochemistry of gut bacteria. Every novel could be improved this way!

The Supreme Court recently decided that campus student groups do not have to be subsidized by the university if they discriminate — so, for instance, the campus Christian club can't refuse to admit gays and also collect university money. Perfectly reasonable, to my mind. It's driving flitterbrained…

…it's books about how our pets go to heaven. Author Ptolemy Tompkins tracks the history of the relationship between humans and animals in the new book, "The Divine Life of Animals." Prompted to write by the death of his pet rabbit, Angus, Tompkins looks to the ancient past for the best models of…

There's a time to take religion seriously, and a time to laugh at it. Sometimes we have to do both at the same time. When you read the works of apologists for religion, there's a common theme: they are all very serious. Religion is important. Faith is about a relationship with the greatest being in…

The well-endowed thread* respawns, and a new terror arises: a brutal threat to crackers everywhere. (Current totals: 10,588 entries with 1,051,004 comments.) *Don't blame me, that's the main topic right now.

The last time I was in Germany, I was surprised at the pharmacies — they all had big displays of homeopathic 'remedies' in the shop windows. I suppose it made some sense, since the profit margins on water have to be tremendous. There is some good news, though: Der Spiegel has a cover story on the…

Unfortunately, it's the administrators who shape the faculty, and they too often lose sight of the purpose of their institution. Here's Eva von Dassow trying to remind the UM regents of their job. Uh-oh. Von Dassow is in one of those liberal artsy departments, Classics and Near East Studies at…

The third of July was Bake Jesus Day, and many examples were sent in. All I can say is — most of that stuff looks nasty. Tortured bleeding guy on a stick is not the best key ingredient for a cook off, and not even Iron Chef could pull it off.

Oops, I'm late again. But here at last, I've tallied up the the votes and the Molly award for the month of May goes to Ol'Greg. I missed my chance — I should have announced it several days ago, so there'd be fireworks. Leave nominations/votes for the Molly for June in the comments below.