Paul Krugman on Right-wing Looniness *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

We need to have two reasonable, rational parties in this country, not just one.… Read the rest



Nick Cohen on UCL and Islamism *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

A culture that prides itself on anti-bigotry becomes feeble when it confronts bigots in the black robes of clerical reaction.… Read the rest



A Look at the Templeton Foundation *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

Some philosophers and scientists have serious reservations about TF’s use of its vast fortune to promote its goals.… Read the rest



Southern Poverty Law Report: Rage on the Right *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

In 2009 a dramatic resurgence in the Patriot movement and its paramilitary wing, the militias, began.… Read the rest



The Rise of Far-Right Hate Groups *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

20% of US adults say Obama is doing what Hitler did; 14% say he may be the Antichrist.… Read the rest



Scientists Write to NAS Head Cicerone *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

Harry Kroto and others are disturbed by the Templeton Foundation and the NAS’s involvement with it.… Read the rest



Templeton Winner Calls Dawkins a Fundamentalist *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

Ayala says science and religion cannot be in contradiction because they address different questions.… Read the rest



Vatican Fights Back *

Mar 26th, 2010 | Filed by

By reminding us that it’s not only the Catholic church that abuses children. Brilliant.… Read the rest



In a country plagued by ignorance and superstition

Mar 26th, 2010 9:12 am | By

I like what Jack Szostak, Nobel laureate, wrote to the NAS about its hosting of the Templeton prize party.

It is inappropriate and counter-productive for the NAS, a scientific organization, to interact in this way with an overtly religious group such as the Templeton Foundation.

We are not a faith-based organization – we ask questions and seek the answers in evidence. In a country plagued by ignorance and superstition, the NAS ought to be a beacon of coherent rational thinking and skeptical inquiry. If science is, as George Ellery Hale stated, our guide to truth, then religion is clearly incompatible with science, as should be apparent from considerations of faith versus inquiry.

But since it’s one of their own who Read the rest



No cigar

Mar 25th, 2010 12:35 pm | By

Religious belief thought experiment still stuck in the same place. The author isn’t dealing with the real objections.

…is it “reasonable” for the fella to believe in the monster (if it is then it shows that epistemic warrant is not a necessary condition of reasonable belief). Too right it is… You say that the perception is real, but it does not follow there’s a physical correlate to that perception. Well, of course, it doesn’t follow (how could it given the possibility of hallucination, etc). Our fella is well aware of this point (he is a good sceptic, after all). But the point is that it also doesn’t follow that something doesn’t exist simply because there is no epistemic warrant to

Read the rest


Pope Failed to Dismiss Child-molesting Priest *

Mar 25th, 2010 | Filed by

Priest was never disciplined by church, and got a pass from police and prosecutors who ignored victims’ reports.… Read the rest



A Prize for Reconciling Atheism and Science? *

Mar 25th, 2010 | Filed by

Superfluous. Anybody can do that; it takes a real genius to reconcile religion and science.… Read the rest



Nobel Laureate Protests NAS/Templeton Hookup *

Mar 25th, 2010 | Filed by

‘In a country plagued by ignorance and superstition, the NAS ought to be a beacon of coherent rational thinking.’… Read the rest



NAS Criticized for Hosting Templeton Award *

Mar 25th, 2010 | Filed by

The winner is an NAS member, nominated by the NAS president. … Read the rest



Francisco Ayala Wins Templeton Prize *

Mar 25th, 2010 | Filed by

His books ‘offer reassurance that there is no essential contradiction between religious faith and belief in science.’… Read the rest



And now – heeeere’s Spivak!

Mar 24th, 2010 5:19 pm | By

Aha – you’re in luck. I assumed the postcolonial article on (re)production of bullshit was unavailable online, but in fact it is, so you get to find out who the author is and you also get to read the whole dang thing if you want to.

So. Since a flood of people, which is to say, two people, have requested more extracts, I shall oblige.

At the heart of the relationship between feminism and imperialism is an
Orientalist logic that posits Western women as exemplary and emancipated in relation to
“Other” (Afro-Asian/colonized) women, thereby charging the former with the
responsibility of saving the latter from their backwards (i.e. Muslim), uncivilized
cultures.

Right. Tell that to the little girls in Ethiopia Read the rest



Say anything you like as long as it’s inoffensive

Mar 24th, 2010 12:05 pm | By

Once again, some people in the UK seem to have a shaky grasp on the concept of free speech.

A Tory MP was investigated by police after he said in Parliament that the niqab and the burqa is the ‘religious equivalent of going around with a paper bag over your head with two holes for the eyes.’ He was questioned over the telephone by officers and a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, but he was later told that no action would be taken.’ That’s nice, but how odd that he was questioned at all. It was the Northamptonshire Rights & Equality Council that thought he needed to be shopped.

Anjona Roy, the REC’s chief executive, said

Read the rest


NAS Hosts Announcement of Templeton Prize *

Mar 24th, 2010 | Filed by

The US National Academy of Sciences is hosting the Templeton Prize. Oy. … Read the rest



Police Investigate MP for Criticizing the Niqab *

Mar 24th, 2010 | Filed by

The head of the Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council reported the MP to the police.… Read the rest



Catholic Bishops Issue Statement Deploring *

Mar 24th, 2010 | Filed by

‘The tone of these articles which are offensive to Canadian Catholics.’… Read the rest