godlessness
pharyngula | November 11, 2007I can't decide whether it's superfluous or appropriate for a Swede to host the Carnival of the Godless — aren't they all unchurched heathens in horned helmets over there?
pharyngula | November 10, 2007The Catholic League is afraid parents might see The Golden Compass…and then buy the books for a Christmas gift. Horrors! You can't give books by atheists on Christmas! Watch the video from Fox News to witness the outrage. Also, I have to love this quote from a Christian who opposes the movie fervently, despite never having seen it or even reading the books. But he has his reasons.
I don't have to read the book, I've never been bitten by a snake either, but I, you know, it's not something that I have to do to know that it's not going to, that it's not necessarily going to be a good thing for…
pharyngula | November 10, 2007Here's another provocative article from the New Humanist titled "Holy Communion", a critique of two of the "New Atheists". It has an incredibly offensive illustration to go with it, but the article isn't quite that bad. It's not that good, either.
First, I have to confess: I'm not a humanist. I'm just not that keen on defining myself by my species, and I'm not going to join a group that willfully excludes squid. Still, I sympathize with the aims of secular humanism and I'm willing to work alongside them, just as I'm willing to work with reasonable Christians and Muslims — I'm just not ever…
pharyngula | November 8, 2007Cool — Russell Blackford was noticed by the Dawkins site for this very nice article, "The New Atheism rocks". Russell is a commenter here, too, you know — give him a gold star. The article begins,
The New Atheism deserves our cheers.
This is not a time for hyper-scrupulous
misgivings about how robustly religion
should be criticised, even leaving aside the
relative mildness that the New Atheists actually display. Books like The God Delusionand
God is Not Great should give confidence to
anyone who embraces secularism and
deplores the political influence of religion.
These books will convince at…
pharyngula | November 7, 2007If you haven't had enough of the Antony Flew story, Richard Carrier fills in the background. It looks worse than it did before — Flew is being obliging, and allowing some loony fundagelicals to put words in his mouth.
In my opinion the book's arguments are so fallacious and cheaply composed I doubt Flew would have signed off on it in sound mind, and Oppenheimer comes to much the same conclusion. It seems Flew simply trusted Varghese and didn't even read the book being published in his name.And even if he had, he is clearly incapable now of even remembering what it said. The book's actual…
pharyngula | November 7, 2007
It's too bad that this is for the Secular Party of Australia. I'd like to see the Democrats run an ad like this here. Can you imagine the meltdown in the media?
pharyngula | November 5, 2007This is a darned good talk that addresses a lot of the bogus arguments against The God Delusion…and it's pretty darned funny, too. Watch the whole thing. He's very strident, shrill, and ranty. Right.
pharyngula | November 5, 2007I thought Beyond Belief II was an excellent, stimulating, provocative meeting, but I'm somewhat discouraged about writing it up in detail because everything was taped and will be available on the web very soon … so I don't want to be entirely superfluous. I've already described the first day, though, so I'll continue with the second and third days, trying to cue you in to what I thought was most interesting and what to look for in the videos.
Overall, let's get some of the negatives of the meeting out of the way. There were a few things that could be improved for Beyond Belief 3:
Time…
pharyngula | November 4, 2007If he isn't already on it, that is. Here he is interviewing Antony Flew.
Flew gives the impression of being a nice old man in a muddle. Strobel is a badger for Christ.
pharyngula | November 4, 2007It must come with the name that Revere has to sound the warning — we've got anti-god/anti-religion movies available now, and more on the way. I'm a little surprised that movies that preach moral responsibility (don't torture people, don't imprison them without trial, don't ship them off to countries that will torture them), sympathy and tolerance (gay people feel love and suffering, too) are considered anti-Christian, but if that's the way they want it, that's fine with me.
I'm also a little puzzled why they would find a documentary like Jesus Camp anti-Christian. It simply describes the…
pharyngula | November 1, 2007I'm having a lovely time here at Beyond Belief 2 — you should all be here (and of course, you will be; as they did last year, everything will be available after the meeting on the web.) It's an eclectic mix of all kinds of interesting stuff outside of my usual range: yesterday, we had terrific sessions on the history of the Enlightenment, evolutionary economics, evolution of religion, and some speculation and cosmology. It was vastly entertaining, and lest you think this was a bunch of thugly atheists preaching to the choir, let me reassure you that I disagreed with about a third of what I…
pharyngula | October 31, 2007How peculiar — I've gotten several requests in email to comment on this plaint from Theodore Dalrymple, a fellow who doesn't like those "New Atheists" like Sam Harris and Dan Dennett. It's peculiar because I'm here at a conference with Sam Harris and Dan Dennett (and others who do not consider themselves "New Atheists")— should I just ask them what they think? Actually, if anyone wants to pass along any brilliant questions that I can use to dazzle the luminaries with my insight, go ahead, toss them into the comments.
It's one of those annoying opinion pieces by an unbeliever who wants to make…
pharyngula | October 25, 2007How strange that I haven't heard anything about this new movie coming out this Spring — I guess I need to watch more TV.
It's a heretical documentary/comedy by Bill Maher called Religulous, combining "religious" and "ridiculous". I'm not seeing much of a buzz for it on the web just yet — a brief mention by Chris Hallquist, placeholders at IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, a quick blurb on RD.net, and this short interview with the ever-annoying Larry King.
I'm so disappointed, though. They didn't contact me through a proxy and interview me for a movie with a different name. Don't they understand…
pharyngula | October 21, 2007Last night, in my talk, I said that I didn't think religion was necessarily a force for evil. Then, this morning, I was sent a link to some convoluted religious sophistry that made my lip curl in revulsion. Maybe I was wrong.
The link will take you to an article by Orson Scott Card in which he complains about homosexuals. That probably tells you all you need to know; Card has this reputation for letting his mormonism hang out in the ugliest ways possible.
Look at these horrible rationalizations for oppression.
One thing is certain: one cannot serve two masters. And when one's life is given…
pharyngula | October 21, 2007We had a good time at St Olaf tonight — it was a small group, I gave a short talk, and we had lots and lots of stimulating conversation afterwards, along with my favorite pizza (jalapeno and pineapple). I've tucked what I sort of said below the fold.
I am here to bring you some good news.
The universe is about 13.7 billion years old, plus or minus a few hundred million, and the earth itself is about 4.6 billion years old. How do we know this? The work of astronomers in measuring cosmological constants, in calculating the age of stars and the size of our universe; the work of physicists on…
pharyngula | October 20, 2007It's another weekend of travel for me. Tonight, I'm off to St Olaf, that fine Lutheran institute of higher learning, to rail against the corruption of science by religion. I'll be speaking at 6 at the Lion's Lair, Buntrock Commons, out there in Northfield, MN (wait…"lion's lair"? Do they mean that literally?)
The really exciting news, though, is that the Minnesota Atheists are hosting a talk by Hector Avalos tomorrow afternoon. This is extremely convenient for me — drive in to give a talk, stay and get to listen to another — so yes, I'll be there, too! It's just fun, fun, fun for this lovely…
pharyngula | October 16, 2007The debate between Hitchens and McGrath is well worth listening to. Hitchens is cogent and sharp; he makes exactly the same points about the fundamental immorality of religion that he made at the FFRF convention, but in less time, and with fewer distracting digressions. He's on fire. Of course, he also doesn't get sucked into anti-Islamic fervor, but addresses the deplorable universal qualities of religion.
McGrath is simply awful. This is his argument in summary:
I was an atheist once, but I got better
Being religious has health benefits
It's the fringe fanatics that give religion a…
pharyngula | October 15, 2007Great Christina explains why there's nothing with atheists being angry. We've got cause.
pharyngula | October 15, 2007Oh, yeah…"because my daddy told me not to." Darn kids. No respect for the dogma of their elders any more.