religion
pharyngula | August 26, 2010The ol' innocuous bus ads weren't enough for New Zealand, I guess — an advertising company has fired up a wonderfully rude and outrageous anti-religion campaign, with some rather unsubtle posters that are being plastered all around Auckland.
Very rude. I approve.
gregladen | August 25, 2010From Military.com via the TFN:
The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band's concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up.
jrosenhouse | August 22, 2010For the past few days I have been intending to do a big post about the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque,” in which I would gather up and comment on what various other people had said. Alas, I have not had time for that. So let me instead just do a quick post.
I have no problem whatsoever with the proposed cultural center (it's not a mosque for heaven's sake, though it would not change my opinion if it was). They have an absolute right to build it, and if they decide to exercise that right it will be a complete non-story as far as I am concerned. Of course, as an anti-religion kind of guy I do…
pharyngula | August 21, 2010This is revoltingly narrow-minded and stupid behavior by our military. We've got a Christian kook, a Major General James Chambers, who has mistaken morale and discipline for indoctrination in the Christian faith. He's running a program called the Spiritual Fitness (whatever the hell that means) Concert Series at army posts in Virginia. This program brought in a Christian rock group to perform, which is annoying enough, but then attendance was optional in name only. At least one company was marched to the doors of the event, and then told they had a choice: attend or be disciplined.
Those of…
pharyngula | August 18, 2010When last we visited Barney Zwartz, he was whining about those arrogant atheists having a conference in Australia. Now he's reduced to filtering and interpreting another anti-atheist, Mark Helprin, who has an essay in a book titled New Threats to Freedom. Apparently, people who are free of religion are a New Threat to Freedom. I haven't read Helprin's essay, but I think he ought to bill Zwartz for the price of the book, because after reading Zwartz's take I'm not at all interested in buying it. (Not that I was before; maybe the bill should be prorated, and Zwartz should give Helprin a nickel…
pharyngula | August 18, 2010A couple of days ago, I showed you that video of a proud Catholic theocrat who believes that democracy is bad for us, and ought to be replaced with a benevolent dictatorship. Zeno has discovered that he noticed all the attention he was given, and his latest video is all about…us!
First, a correction: he didn't really mean that he wanted a dictatorship…he wants the American republic replaced with a Catholic monarchy, instead. Huge difference, I'm sure.
But almost all of his "dialogue" (that's what he calls this, a "dialogue" in quotes) is a whine about how rudely atheists, that is, us,…
jrosenhouse | August 17, 2010And speaking of evidence for God, here's Matt Rossano putting forth an interesting idea:
Now this may seem too whimsical to be taken seriously, but the important point is this: however one envisions convincing scientific evidence of God, let's suppose we've got it. Let's further suppose that this god is pretty much the god we all expected to find -- not Aristotle's reclusive thought-contemplating-itself god or Plato's disappointingly limited Demiurge, but the “golden rule,” Ten Commandments kind of god with whom we are all pretty familiar. This God is now on the same footing as gravity,…
pharyngula | August 17, 2010Why do horrible things happen to faithful people?
The religious run a protection racket. The key thing about that is that no actual protection is offered, only threats.
Warning: anyone who tells that really, really stupid story about a man in a flood praying for rescue will be disemvoweled. It's a stupid story that makes excuses for the inaction of their deity, and I've heard it a few hundred times too often.
(via Joe.My.God)
jrosenhouse | August 16, 2010Monday Math is off this week. School starts in just two more weeks, and I have been making a last push to have as much of my books done as I can before it does. Cuts into my blogging time, alas.
Which is a shame, since there is plenty of fodder. For example, Peter Enns has a new essay up over at Huff Po. It's title is “Atheists Are Believers, Too” I suspect that everyone reading this could reconstruct Enns' argument from that title alone.. Still, let's consider the specifics.
Things start off well with this:
Christians sometimes claim to be certain about spiritual matters. This can be…
gregladen | August 16, 2010Therefore, we should teach that as fact in schools, right?
I think this might be old. But still relevant.
pharyngula | August 16, 2010I really don't, in any specific way—I have a general distrust of the waste of effort building temples anywhere, but I see nothing unusual or untoward about Muslims (who do live in New York, and may be citizens of this country) building a goofy ol' religious building in downtown Manhattan…except, of course, with property values being so high there it seems like a poor investment. When I first heard right-wingers yammering about prohibiting the construction of Islamic buildings anywhere near the crater of the 9/11 terrorist act, my first thought was that would only be acceptable if they…
pharyngula | August 15, 2010Australia is not a particularly religious nation, and they've got the same problems we all do—a sagging economy, and essential demands for social programs that ought to be met…but compromises have to be made. Here, though, is a compromise I can't understand: the Labor government has decided to throw away huge sums of money on something ridiculous.
That something else is school chaplaincy. Last week the Gillard government pre-empted its own review and increased the program's funding by more than a third. The total cost to the taxpayer now stands at $437 million.
What are these chaplains…
gregladen | August 15, 2010Genie Scott at Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence, Kansas, delving into the creationism/evolution controversy, how evolution is misunderstood, what evolution really is, and more. Event date: 9/8/1999
gregladen | August 12, 2010... can be found here, in this talk by William Phillips speaking at the AAAS:
at 1:08. The implication is that we will only see grief if we don't give religious people the origin of life and the origin of the universe. Presumably we fire the scientists working on these issues.
I found this in a post on related topics: Tact not entirely decided upon at Thinkers' Podium.
pharyngula | August 11, 2010I don't know why we should; he's a delusional old man who uses fear to demand obedience to archaic dogmas. But Carla Powell tries to make the case for the Pope, and fails. Here's her reason why we should be nice to the guy.
Though he has none of John Paul's film-star charisma [Wait, what?], Benedict is a man with a message. He was the late pontiff's closest friend, his intellectual soulmate and loyal colleague. In all his time in Rome as Pope, and on his travels around the world, he has argued against what he calls "the dictatorship of relativism".
Moral relativism has become a kind of…
pharyngula | August 11, 2010Muslims in Saudi Arabia are building a giant clock that resembles Big Ben, but is over six times larger. They want to replace Greenwich Mean Time with Mecca Time as the world standard.
As Mohammed al-Arkubi, manager of one of the hotels in the complex, put it: "Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time. This is the goal."
This is a beautiful example of cargo cult science. Big Ben has nothing to do with establishing GMT — it's just a big clock in London. GMT is entirely about establishing a uniform standard reference time. It was set rather arbitrarily to the time at an…
gregladen | August 9, 2010Yeah, I used to go to the Town Hall a lot, when I worked a couple of blocks away. I still stop there for lunch now and then when I've got something to do on the West Bank campus of The U or nearby downtown. But no longer. Recently, an atheist-linked event was scheduled there, and the owners of the brewery/restaurant canceled it because "they don't want you're kind 'round here."
Or so it seems. Details here.
I've booked events at the Town Hall, and on other occasions, the Town Hall was on my short list. Not any more. And I understand Ben's point about going back to the Town Hall (see…
pharyngula | August 8, 2010The latest Chick tract is a wonderful summary of modern fundamentalism. It's got all the totally non-Biblical dogma: the anti-christ will be appointed pope, the Rapture, the weirdly fabulous Wedding of Jesus with his Church (everyone gets crowns!), Armageddon, the mark of the beast…it's all in this one. Also, raging anti-Catholicism. Cute ending, too.
After reading everything that comes before, Delores' "He's nuts" is just perfect. If I were in a conversation with a fundy, and he suddenly vanished in a clap of thunder, I wouldn't freak out, though: I'd applaud.
pharyngula | August 7, 2010Harriet Baber is a philosopher, and I say that with the most sneeringly disparaging tone I can muster. I don't normally dislike philosophy, but there are a lot of philosophers I detest, and Baber exemplifies why. She has a remarkable article in The Guardian in which she says a series of astonishing things — which is often one of the good things philosophers do, surprising me with weird ideas that make me think. In this case, though, she makes some stupid pronouncements, doesn't explain why she thinks she's making a good argument, and then thoroughly undercuts her own credibility.
She starts…