godlessness
pharyngula | March 4, 2009He just got here, and already Richard Dawkins is stirring things up in Minnesota. He was interviewed on MPR this morning — unfortunately, I had to miss it as I was scrambling to get ready for class — and it sounds like the interviewer was offended. The station live-blogged the interview, and it looks like some of the listeners were offended, too, while others are invigorated.
Get online quick and you might be able to hear the tag-end of the interview.
pharyngula | March 4, 2009Mark it on your calendar: 30 September is going to be Blasphemy Day. Join the Facebook group, if that is your kind of thing.
Blasphemy Day International is an international campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a national day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to mock and insult religion without fear of murder, violence, and reprisal. It is the obligation of the world's nations to safeguard dissent and the dissenters, not to side with the brutal interests of thugs who demand "respect" for their beliefs (i.e., immunity to being criticized or…
pharyngula | February 28, 2009Sunday morning at 9am, tune in to Atheist Talk radio to listen to Massimo Pigliucci. This should be very good — Massimo is an evolutionary biologist and an atheist, and is also full of interesting ideas.
pharyngula | February 28, 2009Who knew that all you had to do is change the definition of "atheist"? Put on your sunglasses and visit this site—the color scheme is classic fluorescent kook—and you will discover that atheists are people who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. Period. Which means…
James van Praagh, loopy psychic medium and newager, is an atheist!
All Jews…atheists!
Muslims…atheists!
Martin Luther King…atheist! (Wait, what?)
I like this game. Atheists also deny the divinity of Thor, which means…Christians are atheists!
There. Now that we've taken over the world, I think I deserve to go have some ice cream.
pharyngula | February 27, 2009All you Minnesotans should know by now that Richard Dawkins will be speaking at UMTC, in Northrup Auditorium, at 7pm on Wednesday, 4 March…next week! If you haven't got your tickets yet, you can join Minnesota Atheists and get one for free — so act fast.
As an additional inducement, guess who is going to introduce Dawkins at the lecture? Me! Now you might be saying, "Bleh, who wants to listen to Myers babble?", but you'd be missing the important point: I'm only going to talk for 30 seconds to a minute, and then get out of the way. More Dawkins, less annoying functionary!
In fact, if we can…
pharyngula | February 25, 2009I don't understand people who say they're spiritual but not religious. Isn't that just being superstitious without the benefits of community and ritual?
pharyngula | February 25, 2009I might as well recommend this excellent rebuttal to Weiss and Nisbet. Weiss wrote an op-ed which was basically a baseless argument that these uppity New Atheists should sit down and shut up because Charles Darwin "knew there is plenty of room for God at the top". It's a stupid argument on many levels, and not just because we are none of us worshippers of Darwinian infallibility…but also because it misrepresents Darwin's ideas about religion.
Weiss and Nisbet are trying to use Darwin as a positive example to contrast with their presumed negative example of the New Atheists. If they did this…
pharyngula | February 24, 2009I don't know how he can abide them, but August Berkshire of Minnesota Atheists will be appearing on KKMS talk radio, the Twin Cities refuge for fundagelical reality-deniers. Listen in at 5pm Central (in about two hours), if you can bear it. I can't.
pharyngula | February 24, 2009We atheists are immoral.
Your morality is 0% in line with that of the bible.
Damn you heathen! Your book learnin' has done warped your mind. You shall not be invited next time I sacrifice a goat.Do You Have Biblical Morals?Take More Quizzes
pharyngula | February 21, 20099am Central. Sunday morning. The evil atheists of the upper midwest will continue their nefarious plan to disseminate propaganda internationally by means of the radio waves, which will vibrate even within the walls of Minneapolis's churches, synagogues, and temples, and also via the godless intertubes. This week, they will once again spread the infidel lie that atheists can "lead rich, ethical and fulfilling lives without appealing to gods or religious authority", when every Christian knows deep in their heart that they want to murder, maim, rape, and steal, and only God's holy extortion can…
pharyngula | February 19, 2009While Arkansas takes a small step forward, a few people in my home state of Washington want to take a great leap backwards. Some crank named Kimberlie Struiksma, who is apparently associated with education, has proposed to put a remarkably clueless measure onto the ballot. Behold Initiative Measure No. 1040:
Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. 1040 concerns a supreme ruler of the universe.
This measure would prohibit state use of public money or lands for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including textbooks, instruction or research…
pharyngula | February 18, 2009It's an ugly little open secret that Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have constitutions that explicitly forbid atheists from holding state office. These laws are archaic and unenforceable in principle — they were all ruled unconstitutional in 1961 — but of course they're still in effect across all 50 states in practice, since public opinion makes it almost impossible for an atheist to get elected to high office.
Now, though, a representative in Arkansas has submitted a bill to amend the Arkansas constitution and remove the prohibition of…
pharyngula | February 17, 2009For Darwin Day, Roger Ebert wrote an article on Darwin and evolution. Most of it is pretty darned good; he's writing as "an intelligent, curious person who years ago became fascinated by the Theory of Evolution because of its magnificence, its beauty, and its self-evident truth", not as a biologist, and I think that is an important perspective. You don't have to have a Ph.D. in Abstract Biological Esoterica to appreciate evidence and reason and the elegance of evolution! This is one of the reasons I oppose religion so vehemently: I am optimistic that most people are entirely capable of…
pharyngula | February 15, 2009I swore off reading Simon Conway Morris long ago, after reading his awful, incoherent book, Life's Solution, which I peevishly reviewed. He's the go-to guy for Cambrian paleontology, and he's definitely qualified and smart, but he's got two strikes against him: he's a terrible writer, making most of his output well-nigh unreadable, and he's one of those scientists with a serious god infection, which means much of what he writes collapses into babbling theology at some point.
He's done it again. Simon Conway Morris has an opinion piece in the Guardian, and it's his usual tirade: atheists are…
pharyngula | February 14, 2009Another Sunday, another Atheist talk radio at 9am. Tune in and learn all about the new leadership of the organization.
I'll be in the air at that time, but I'll be landing about 10am — maybe I'll have to pop over to Q Cumbers for lunch.
pharyngula | February 11, 2009I put out a call for some donations to a family with a young cancer victim a few days ago: you good godless people came through and donated several thousand dollars. We have received a thank you note, too — go read it and feel good about yourselves, you charitable atheists.
pharyngula | February 7, 2009Sunday morning at 9am Central, tune in to Atheist talk radio for a pre-Darwin Day discussion. This week, they've got that wild man, Greg Laden, talking evolution, and Don Luce of the Bell Museum talking about their special Darwin Day events.
pharyngula | February 7, 2009I got a request to mention this, and how can I not? A young boy is battling leukemia, and his family is struggling with the costs. They've had to put up an online donation box in the hope of some relief.
If you've got a little to spare (I know, this is not a good time in the history of our economy to expect that), think about giving a little to a family in need…or at the very least, donate to the Children's Cancer Research Fund. And also think about this if our representatives ever get moving on health care reform.
pharyngula | February 5, 2009Just ask Richard Mullens, who has not said he is an atheist, but was suspected of being one…and lost his job as a teacher for that reason.
Then on January 7th, a student in my classroom in second period left my class, went to the Principal's office, and told him that there was an inappropriate discussion in my classroom. I was informed by the principal, Richard Turner, that I needed to talk to her mother because she was very upset. Her mother came to class on January 7th, came to the school January 7th, very upset. She made some threats to me in the hallway. And then on January 8th, Mr.…
pharyngula | February 5, 2009Here's a subjective list of the top 30 atheist/agnostic blogs. There are a few oddities in there, though: Fred Clark is going to be surprised to learn that he has left the Christian faith, and The Panda's Thumb tries to avoid the theist/atheist wars altogether.
Still, the list can't be all bad since it puts me at #1.
Pharyngula
Friendly Atheist
Cynical-C
Debunking Christianity
Atheist Media Blog
Atheist Eve
Atheist Movies
Atheist Revolution
Bad Astronomy
Bad Science
By the Book Comics
Daylight Atheism
Derren Brown’s Blog
Dwindling in Unbelief
Edward Current
Evangelical Realism
Greta…