Home-schoolers Respond to Jerry Coyne *

Mar 7th, 2010 | Filed by

Thou shalt not say that creationist textbooks are garbage.… Read the rest



Home-school Textbooks Dismiss Evolution *

Mar 7th, 2010 | Filed by

‘If this is the way kids are home-schooled then they’re being shortchanged, both rationally and in terms of biology.’… Read the rest



Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse *

Mar 7th, 2010 | Filed by

The church says defectors are ‘apostates.’… Read the rest



Letters for March, 2010

Mar 7th, 2010 | By

Letters for March, 2010.… Read the rest



Another vituperative demand for civility

Mar 6th, 2010 12:35 pm | By

Josh Rosenau has an unpleasant and in places inaccurate post about Mooney and his critics. In places it’s also just badly thought through, like here:

…we’ve had Chris Mooney winning a grant so he can write a book. In this day and age, any science writer or journalist of any stripe who can stay employed and be funded to do research deserves praise and congratulations. But because Mooney’s funding comes from the John Templeton Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting a particular view on the compatibility of science and religion, that praiseworthy achievement has won opprobrium.

What, any science writer or journalist of any stripe who can stay employed and be funded to do research deserves praise and congratulations … Read the rest



Liverpool Post on Airportoons Trial *

Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Chaplain was ‘insulted, deeply offended, alarmed, concerned.’ Oh well then, there’s no more to say!… Read the rest



Academic Challenges Priest’s Homophbic Rant *

Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by

‘To justify its persecution of homosexual people the Catholic Church draws on just three brief texts.’… Read the rest



Hitchens on the Ten Commandments *

Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by

When you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed, always ask which set.… Read the rest



Catholic School Expels Toddler: Parents are Gay *

Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Denver Archdiocese posted a statement: the parents are ‘living in open discord with Catholic teaching.’… Read the rest



Russell Blackford on Gary Bouma on Secularists *

Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Contrary to Bouma, attempts to use political power to impose religious views are highly divisive.… Read the rest



Pesky pointy-headed pencil-neck geeks

Mar 5th, 2010 6:03 pm | By

It’s a funny thing, but there are people who think it’s worth pointing out that ‘atheists are no more rational than anybody else.’ Gosh, really? And here I was thinking that just by being an atheist, I automatically and indisputably occupied an Upper Level of humankind where the air is thinner and the rationality flows like wine.

No actually I don’t think anything so stupid, and I never have. I do think something much more limited and carefully phrased than that…but of course that wouldn’t be exciting to contradict, because if you make limited carefully-phrased claims then you’re probably not saying anything as obviously and risibly stupid as ‘atheists are more rational than anybody else.’ What would I say? That … Read the rest



Atheists Are the Source of Conflict in Society *

Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by

Monash University Professor Gary Bouma says people without a specific faith fuel sectarian conflict.… Read the rest



George Carey Says Politicians Bully Christians *

Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by

It’s the other way around.… Read the rest



No Freedom of Expression for UK, Thank You *

Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by

Atheist convicted of ‘religiously aggravated intentional harassment’ for cartoons; maximum sentence 7 years in prison.… Read the rest



No Venus de Milo for Rahway NJ, Thank You *

Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by

Neighbor complained of naked snow statue, police told sculptor to cover it up.… Read the rest



Atheism is Illegitimate and Evil, Act LXXXVII *

Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by

Ken Miller is good. Atheists are bad.… Read the rest



I’m offended, call the cops!

Mar 5th, 2010 11:14 am | By

The BBC is tipping its hand again. Check out this bizarre subhead:

Anti-religious campaigners have condemned the conviction of a “militant atheist” who left rude images in Liverpool Airport’s prayer room.

‘Anti-religious campaigners’ being their hand-tipping tendentious hostile ill-mannered term for secularists and, you know, people who believe in freedom of speech – otherwise known as liberals. And what is up with that ‘militant atheists’ and what are the scare-quotes for? Who, exactly, is being quoted there? Anyone? Or is that just a very underhanded way of throwing more mud at atheists while pretending it’s someone else doing it. That’s what it looks like to me.

Anyway – what it’s reporting on is jaw-dropping to a Yank.

[Harry] Taylor,

Read the rest


Please donate to clerical rapists’ defense fund

Mar 4th, 2010 5:10 pm | By

What was that I was just saying about the Catholic church presuming to lecture everyone on how to be good and what a flesh-crawlingly bad joke that is? Well spare a thought for the bishop of Ferns.

Dr Denis Brennan, the Bishop of Ferns, was inviting parishioners (and any individual priests who felt so inclined) to donate money to assist the church in footing a bill, the tally for which comes to more than €10m, to meet the legal costs of defending civil cases brought against the diocese in relation to clerical sexual abuse. In other words the Roman Catholic Church in Ferns is asking the victims of its own bitter failings to pay the price for the crime.

Read the rest


What We Celebrate When We Mark March 8th *

Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by

Feminism has a compelling lens through which to understand marginalisation, as women have long occupied the margins.… Read the rest



Meera Nanda on ‘The God Market’ *

Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by

Markets are said to be exorcising the demons of religiously inspired fanaticism, patriarchy and oppression.… Read the rest