godlessness
grrlscientist | May 18, 2009tags: religion, creationism, bananas, pineapples, masturbation, streaming video
This informative video discusses the banana and why it is a creationist's nightmare. Conclusion: gawd wishes humans to masturbate, so get beating, everybody! [10:16]
grrlscientist | May 17, 2009tags: religion, fundamentalist nonsense, poison, humor, satire, comedy, streaming video
In this video, we are reminded about Mark 16:17-18, which tells us that drinking poison will do no harm to those who believe in god. Edward Current celebrates this amazing gift from our loving Father by drinking a bottle of cyanide that is so potent that it can kill an adult atheist in less than ten seconds [3:50]
pharyngula | May 16, 2009Sunday's episode of Atheists Talk radio may just annoy me — they're going to be talking about a local joint Bible study between atheists and a Methodist church. There are some atheists who like to dig into the Bible, but I'm not one of them — been there, done that, found it to be worthless drivel. Maybe you'll find it more interesting than I do.
The second half is more promising, with an interview with a board member of the UM student group, Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists. Yay students!
Also tomorrow, I'm getting rid of my daughter — we have to drive in to the Minneapolis airport…
pharyngula | May 16, 2009This is a nice little interview, with the curious restriction that it was specifically limited to only 5 minutes.
Abby will be pleased that when the interviewer brings up his reputation as "Darwin's Rottweiler", he points out that Rottweilers are quite nice dogs…which is also a good metaphor for the interview!
pharyngula | May 11, 2009The Irish are looking for ideas and assistance in stopping the imposition of blasphemy laws. Got something to say, or want to volunteer? Leave them a comment.
pharyngula | May 10, 2009Once upon a time, four blind men were walking in the forest, and they bumped into an elephant.
Moe was in front, and found himself holding the trunk. "It has a tentacle," he said. "I think we have found a giant squid!"
Larry bumped into the side of the elephant. "It's a wall," he said, "A big, bristly wall."
Curly, at the back, touched the tail. "It's nothing to worry about, nothing but a piece of rope dangling in the trail."
Eagletosh saw the interruption as an opportunity to sit in the shade beneath a tree and relax. "It is my considered opinion," he said, "that whatever it is has feathers…
pharyngula | May 10, 2009This morning at 9am, Chris Hallquist will be on Atheists Talk radio to discuss skepticism of Christian apologetics. In addition, it's that time of year — find out about godless summer camp, Camp Quest.
pharyngula | May 6, 2009Look at what's happening to the opinion on religion in our country:
Historically, the percentage of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation (pollsters refer to this group as the "nones") has been very small -- hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent.
However, Putnam says the percentage of "nones" has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans.
Putnam calls this a "stunning development." He gave reporters a first glimpse of his data Tuesday at a conference on religion organized by the Pew Forum on Faith in Public Life.
It's a poll, so it…
pharyngula | May 5, 2009Best read of the day: Roger Ebert muses on mortality.
I don't expect to die anytime soon. But it could happen this moment, while I am writing. I was talking the other day with Jim Toback, a friend of 35 years, and the conversation turned to our deaths, as it always does. "Ask someone how they feel about death," he said, "and they'll tell you everyone's gonna die. Ask them, In the next 30 seconds? No, no, no, that's not gonna happen. How about this afternoon? No. What you're really asking them to admit is, Oh my God, I don't really exist and I might be gone at any given second."
Me too, but…
pharyngula | May 5, 2009The other day, I read this fawning review by Andrew O'Hehir of Terry Eagleton's new book, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, and was a little surprised. I've read a smattering of Eagleton before, and the words "brisk, funny and challenging" or "witty" never came to mind, and the review actually gave no evidence that these adjectives were applicable in this case. I felt like ripping into O'Hehir, but was held up by one awkward lack: I hadn't read Eagleton's book. Who knows? Maybe he had found some grain of sense and some literary imperative to write cleanly and…
pharyngula | May 2, 2009It could be a very interesting morning on Sunday at 9am on Atheists Talk radio. Eugenie Scott will be on, and she's always interesting…and Greg Laden will be interviewing her, and he threatens to bring up the recent accusations of truckling to the theistic evolutionists. I will be looking forward to hearing Genie's take on the subject. Call in! (I'm still going to be on the road, so I won't be able to…but I will definitely catch the podcast later.)
pharyngula | May 2, 2009They are there, and they are trying to organize. If you're a godless Nebraskan, look into Omaha Atheists — they're looking for you, too.
pharyngula | April 30, 2009There's a funny Cat and Girl comic that makes fun of our success as atheists, saying that we've gone mainstream. Read it, I got a chuckle…but one of the panels listing factors in our loss of indie cred says, "We have our own Jonas Brothers." Now I'm stuck. I can't figure out who our equivalent would be.
In case you don't know, the Jonas Brothers are a band that plays a kind of Christian pop — they're on the Disney Channel and appeal to prepubescent girls like David Cassidy did to my generation, only they are even more wholesome and extremely overt in their religiosity.
I'm pondering this,…
pharyngula | April 28, 2009Allow me to recap. Jerry Coyne set a few people on fire with a post arguing that national science organizations have gone to far in blithely conceding the compatibility of science and religion. He strongly suggests that they stick to complete neutrality on the topic, something they all promise to do, but then ignore what they say to tout a philosophical accommodation that doesn't really exist. He does not argue that they should go the other way and advance an atheistic position (even though we know that that is the only correct stance), but wants them to back off on the misleading happy…
pharyngula | April 27, 2009Ah, well. If only I could be in two places at once, and could also afford to fly to Europe on a whim. I'm going to be in Arizona in early June, and the British Humanists are meeting at the same time in London, with what looks like a very interesting schedule bracketed by talks by Dawkins and Grayling. It will be a fine event, and you should all go…if you can't make the one in Arizona, anyway.
pharyngula | April 27, 2009See, this is the problem with the godless liberal media: they can sometimes treat the rise of atheism as something newsworthy, and in a good way, instead of simply slapping us down. The NYT actually has a reassuring story, More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops, that talks about the sudden surge of assertive atheism all over the country, from rural and traditionally conservative regions of the country to college campuses.
This is the kind of article that should cause the religious to worry. It's not their common hysteria about the vicious atheists coming to eat their puppies…it's about the…
pharyngula | April 26, 2009The Telegraph has a lovely article on how The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies is going to brainwash children. Here's the kind of mud they're slinging:
Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: "Atheists are becoming increasingly militant in their desperate attempts to stamp out faith. It is deeply worrying that they now want to use children to attack the Christian ethos of their schools.
"Many parents will also be anxious at the thought of militant atheists targeting their children."
Oh, lordy, lordy. "Attack the Christian ethos"? He says that like…
pharyngula | April 26, 2009The NCSE is an excellent organization, and I've frequently urged people at my talks to join it. However, it's also a limited organization, and this post by Richard Hoppe at the Panda's Thumb exposes their flaws. It's blind. It's locked in to one strategy. It's response to people who try to branch out in new directions is to discourage them, often in a rather patronizing way. This is not a good approach to take when we've been deadlocked for years and they offer no prospects for future victory.
I've been making the argument for some time that the NCSE is our defensive line, and they are great…
grrlscientist | April 26, 2009tags: Edward Current, christianity, pray for armageddon, vibrations of devotion, satire, humor, streaming video
Edward Current is depressed: our once great country is now an Islamic communistic atheocracy where children are forced to learn things like math and science. This video is dated, but it still is worth watching. [3:40]