religion

The Toronto star carries an edited version of a Financial Times editorial on the threat of Creationism:TheStar.com - Creationism's assault on science The article points out a valid analogy. There is overwhelming evidence that the Holocaust was real, yet a minority of ideologically driven historians still deny it. The consensus amongst historians as to the reality of the Holocaust is statistically equivalent to the consensus amongst scientists in support of evolution, yet a particular sect of militant protestant Christianity, which is popular in the US and Brazil is enforcing the irrational belief of the minority on the majority. Sure, it can be argued that it is part of the scientific process to encourage debate and look at alternate theories, but some theories are better than others. Suspicion should be aroused when theories are in fact hypotheses masking as theories and when those hypotheses are things that are driven not by...

A leader: who was not elected democratically, but by a group of unelected barons who was elected for life with no need for re-election of a country where : there is no separation of church and state, where the state is the church dies. And most politicians of modern democracies eulogise him, because the idolizing of this leader is such that many citizens of these modern democracies will do whatever this foreign, undemocratically elected leader says, despite the fact that idolitary is forbidden for the followers of this leader. Because people will naturally worship stars like the Pope and Britney Spears emotions may run wild when we criticise them, but exactly because the Pope was a leader, and particularly because he wasn't democratically elected then his actions should not be above scrutiny or criticism . The late pope was objectively damn good at what he did, but despite the images...

I have nothing against the notion of pro-life, I am an atheist liberal who is pro-choice, who admired Mother Theresa. Mother Theresa practiced what she preached. She said that she would personally look after any child brought to her that would have been aborted. I would not ask everyone who is anti-abortion to become Mother Theresa, however I would say that they are immoral if they do not also support raised taxes and a larger welfare budget. You cannot be a Republican and pro-life. Sadly, issues promoted by most pro-lifers cause more people to die. Pro-life means 'erring on the side of life', unless it means killing people guilty of pre-meditated killing - by means of pre-meditated killing. Pro-life means no abortion, but it does not mean raising taxes and providing welfare to keep abandoned or neglected children alive. Pro-life means spending money to keep people alive using a feeding...

"Even if we expanded our domain at the speed of light - a pretty safe theoretical upper limit - and managed to colonize all available stars and planets within a sphere expanding at light speed, then, increasing our population at 2 percent per year, we will still run out of room and perish in our own wastes within the next millennium." I was watching a Christian debate an atheist on TV recently. The Christian was against contraception on the grounds that it says in the bible 'that we should fill the earth with all God's glory'. Unfortunately the result of the attempt would either be an extinct earth filled with filth, or continuous war. Perhaps that's what a glory hole is. Make love with condoms, not war. From Lonely Planets : The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life

An eloquent argument for US style free speech over European style regulation from Blackadder comedian, Rowan Atkinson. Current laws prevent 'Incitement of Racial Hatred' it is proposed that they be extended to prevent 'Incitement of Racial or Religious Hatred' Rowan Atkinson says: "race and religion are fundamentally different concepts, requiring completely different treatment under the law. To criticise people for their race is manifestly irrational but to criticise their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticise ideas - any ideas" Atheism Central for Secondary Schools - Rowan Atkinson speaks to the House of Lords on proposed Incitement of Religious hatred legislation: "I question the inarguable nature of the phrase "religious hatred", afforded by the use of the highly emotive word "hatred". So I thought I would modify the name of the proposed measure, by changing the terminology but retaining the meaning and use the...

Officials at Catholic University are allowing Newt Gingrich to speak. Gingrich is a strong proponent of the death penalty, which is opposed by the Vatican. Actor-director, Stanley Tucci, on the other hand, was turned down because he supported family planning. It constantly amazes me that many people who purport to be part of a religion centered around someone who faced the death penalty, have more compassion for semen than human beings facing the same punishment as the person they worship. Gingrich Speech at CU Opposed (washingtonpost.com)

Reuters: "A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered a Georgia school district to remove stickers challenging the theory of evolution from its textbooks on the grounds that they violated the U.S. Constitution." The creationist/ID folks will be up in arms about this, however to defend their case they would have had to show that their agenda is not religious. How many non-religious creationists are there. None.

Slate:

I believe that the sun will rise tomorrow, that my fianc

I am currently mulling over the sheer generosity and heartfelt sentiment from the goose-stepping Ayn Rand Institute: U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims The argument being that all money should come from individual donations. Only there is no donation box for Tsunami victims on the Rand website. Tsunami victims are presumably from 'primitive nations' where 'the mere fact that they needed help should not have created a claim 'as simultaneously Isolationist and Jingoist Ed Locke says of Vietnam, in another classic muddle headed Rand Institute Op Ed. By extension, should all Iraq rebuilding money come from donations from those who were in favor of invasion? Should the invasion itself have been funded from donations? It's a nice thought, perhaps the Iraq war would have never happened if people had to put their money where their mouth is. But democracy ain't like that, you can't hold a referendum for everything. Society...

BBC - BBC Four Documentaries - Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief "In this first ever television history of disbelief, Jonathan Miller leads viewers on a personal journey exploring the origins of his own lack of belief and uncovering the hidden story of atheism." via Blackbeltjones' delicious

I am going to be using this blog to collect notes for a book, so postings may sometimes seem a bit random. The book will be about faith - a defense of atheism and an attack on ideology and blind faith, from religion to secular political doctrine and cults. This comes at a time when the US has suffered terribly from attacks justified entirely by faith, while at the same time becoming more religious than any other developed nation. The book will not beat about the bush, I aim to put forward the argument that faith is necessarily bad, something to be tolerated where it is itself tolerant but not to be respected. The aim is still to write something positive, something that contains not just an argument for science over superstition, but also argues for a richer culture based upon appreciating art without having to literally believe it.