religion
laelaps | February 20, 2008I would assume that most people who go out to the movie theater now and then have at least one experience similar to my own. You're sitting there, already halfway through your bag of popcorn, and the lights dim for the trailers. Some of the upcoming movies look good, others are just eye-candy (but you know you're going to see it no matter how vapid the premise), and some make you wonder who the hell put up millions of dollars to film such absolute dreck. The last reaction most closely approximates my thoughts when I found out that Oxford is going to get $4,000,000 from the Templeton…
pharyngula | February 20, 2008Oxford University is getting $4 million from — who else? — the Templeton Foundation to study "why mankind embraces god". I hope that what I'm seeing is mere journalistic sloppy truncation, but knowing the Templeton Foundation and the usual crap I read from theologians, I fear that this does reflect their starting premise:
He [Roger Trigg, director of the program] said anthropological and philosophical research suggests that faith in God is a universal human impulse found in most cultures around the world, even though it has been waning in Britain and western Europe.
"One implication that…
pharyngula | February 20, 2008What should me make of this ugly story from Turkey?
A high school senior and an elementary school student were attacked in the Mediterranean town of Mersin with strong acid spray. In two separate incidents within the same hour both girls were approached from behind by a group of young men who commented on the length of their skirts and told them it was too short. The girls were sprayed with acidic substance that burnt and melted their stockings and caused deep lacerations on the back of their legs. The girls were treated in the hospital. The police is searching for the culprits that are…
pharyngula | February 18, 2008Perhaps you thought that glossolalic freak I highlighted the other day is unrepresentative of religious attitudes in America. How about these people, though?
They're probably good, decent people who care about their families, but listen to what they are saying — they are picking a president on the basis of his dedication to the Bible. They are advocating a foreign policy based on biblical prophecy. They measure patriotism by whether someone "worships" (interesting slip, there) the flag and Jesus. They parrot lies, such as that Obama is planning to be sworn in on the Koran.
Like I said,…
razib | February 17, 2008'I don't hate Muslims. I hate Islam,' says Holland's rising political star:
A TV addict with bleached hair who adores Maggie Thatcher and prefers kebabs to hamburgers, Geert Wilders has got nothing against Muslims. He just hates Islam. Or so he says. 'Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology,' says Wilders, a lanky Roman Catholic right-winger, 'the ideology of a retarded culture.
...
He shrugs off anxieties that his film will trigger a fresh bout of violence of the kind that left Van Gogh stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street and his estranged colleague Ayaan Hirsi Ali in hiding, or the…
clock | February 17, 2008A guide to hiring women.
Obsolete technical skills (I have them all except #11!)
The social source of religion.
Charles Barkley for President!
pharyngula | February 17, 2008One of the most common arguments against the New Atheists is to claim that they're railing against a straw man — that religion is benign and thoughful and rational. I'll agree that some individuals within religion are like that, but religion itself is a poisonous nest that encourages lunacy. Here's one example: take a look at Steve Foss Ministries. In particular, watch the video titled "I-55 Revival explostion of POWER ", which has it all. Babbling idiots talking in tongues, people spazzing out in a frenzy, and worst of all, the minister and parents urging children to join in the insanity.…
terrasig | February 17, 2008Yes, this is a science-related post, just a little off topic. We don't talk about religion much around these parts because my Catholic school upbringing and torture by nuns gives me PTSD. But I grew up in a place where your family was either Catholic or Jewish - equal-opportunity guilt.
So it is with painful nostalgia that I received the following missive from my mechanical engineer/grease monkey Catholic school classmate - (hey Tom, get off the computer; shouldn't you be in church anyway?). Enjoy!:
Subject: Church Bulletins
They're Back! Church Bulletins: God bless the church ladies who…
gregladen | February 16, 2008Two fun things to do on Sunday:
1) Listen to Atheist Talk at 9: AM on KTNF, with Minnesota Atheists.
Then, when you are done with that, stop over at Har Mar Mall in Roseville Minnesota for the Twin Cities Creation Science Association Home school Science Fair. Details here.
I'm not sure if I can make it, so if you go and get a photograph or two (and don't have your own blog), send them on to me and I'll put them up. I'm sure people would love to see them.
Here's the photos from last year. Sort of.
oracknows | February 16, 2008I don't know about you, but I find Mr. Deity to be hilarious. This time around, with the most recent episode, he takes on fundamentalism of all stripes and whether there should be an afterlife or not. (For a commercial-free direct link to the iTunes version, go here.)
And, of course, who doesn't want third party apps on their iPhones?
gregladen | February 15, 2008A survey conducted by the St. Petersburg Times shows that half of the respondents want "only faith-based theories such as creationism or intelligent design" taught in public school classrooms, and only 22 percent want evolution-only life science curriculum.
The Florida State Board of Education will decide next Tuesday to adopt ... or not ... new standards that would make a subtle but important change in the wording of life science standards. The change would place evolutionary biology (also known as "evolutionary theory") clearly at the center of the life science curriculum.
The survey…
pharyngula | February 15, 2008One thing I worry about that is a potential major barrier to secularism is this: a "pernicious pattern and practice" of infringement of religious liberties in the military.
I'm not the violent sort, and I think we need to achieve an enlightened society through reason and education … but that's all futile when the other side is busily gathering the guns.
pharyngula | February 14, 2008Saudi Arabia is one screwed up, vile little backwater of a barbarous craphole. You have to read the case of Fawza Falih.
She has been condemned to death. By beheading.
She has been beaten to the point of hospitalization during her incarceration.
The authorities have a signed confession, which she has not had read to her.
She didn't read what she signed, either, because she's illiterate.
She and her representatives were not allowed to attend much of the trial.
And the crime for which she is to be executed? Witchcraft. She is accused of casting a spell that caused a man to become impotent, and…
gregladen | February 14, 2008The woman or or representatives were not allowed to attend the trial. Her conviction is based on a written confession to which her fingerprints are attached. She is illiterate and could not read the confession. There are indications that this "conviction" is actually a crime of retribution by a man who is impotent, and who blames his impotence on this woman. A higher court has overturned the conviction, but other courts have intervened and re-sentenced her to death on the grounds that it is in the public interest that she be killed, presumably, beheaded, which is the usual way in Saudi…
pharyngula | February 14, 2008Down there in Weird Kansas, there was a minor incident that is symptomatic of an ugly way of thinking. A high school basketball team refused to allow a woman to referee.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary's Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.
The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs.
It's also quite possible that her…
gregladen | February 13, 2008As Raleane (Rae) Kupferschmidt lay motionless in her hospital bed, family and friends said their final goodbyes and the funeral home was called.
But just as the grieving began in her Lake Elmo home, Kupferschmidt woke up from her coma.
"There's no medical explanation for what happened to my mother,'' said Kupferschmidt's daughter, Lisa Sturm, who is a surgical technician at Regions Hospital. "It's a miracle."
I'm sure Mrs Kupferschmidt's daughter is totally correct. She has ruled out any naturalistic, medical explanation based on her years of experience in related research fields and…
pontiff | February 13, 2008A website dedicated to chronicling the lives, injuries, and money lost due to a lack of critical thinking. Woah. Is it just me or is there is somethink kind of creepy about assembling this kind of website?
pharyngula | February 13, 2008The Danish cartoonists vs. Muslims conflict is flaring up again, with the discovery of a conspiracy by Muslims to kill a cartoonist. There are many levels of irony here; it's simply stupid to try and protest accusations that you are violent by committing acts of violence. I've also noticed an interesting pattern of escalation.
The aggrieved Muslims are saying, "Mock our god and we will kill you." They have the goal of suppressing images they consider blasphemous.
The cartoonists are saying, "Threaten to kill us and we will mock your god." Obviously, they'd like to stay alive, but their goal…
evolvingthoughts | February 12, 2008
Language Log recently took apart the speech and interview by the Archbishop of Canterbury that the media are, inaccurately, reporting as advocating the introduction of Sharia law into British and by implication other common law jurisdictions. Its conclusion was that Abp Rowan Williams did not advocate Sharia law, but instead suggested that secular law should not have a monopoly on regulating human behavior.
As someone once said, of course they would say that. Williams is a religious leader, and wants to have a role in regulating his adherents' behaviour. Tu quoque, he must accept the same…
tqa | February 11, 2008
When fellow ScienceBlogger Matt Nisbet announced that he had put a panel together to talk about "Communicating Science in a Religious America" at this weekend's AAAS conference, he was greeted with what I'll generously call widespread skepticism among many of the bloggers here (including me). Nisbet, you see, is a well-known opponent of what's sometimes referred to as the "New Atheism". His own talk will focus on the "New Atheism". And he included nobody on his panel who is actually a "New Atheist".
A little while ago, he posted a copy of a press release describing another one of the…