Catholicism is on the ropes in Belgium *

Sep 20th, 2010 | Filed by

It’s not just the child-rape and the concealment, it’s all that from people who claim to uphold the highest moral standards.… Read the rest



Joan Smith says no thanks to papal ethics *

Sep 20th, 2010 | Filed by

She’d be happy to ignore all religions “if their leaders didn’t keep telling me that their ethics are better than mine.”… Read the rest



Guardian rebukes the pope’s “militant opponents” *

Sep 20th, 2010 | Filed by

They “failed to afford sincere faith the respect it is due.”… Read the rest



Dawkins: Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity *

Sep 20th, 2010 | Filed by

“Original sin means that, from the moment we are born, we are wicked, corrupt, damned. Unless we believe in their God.”… Read the rest



This fine radar

Sep 19th, 2010 6:03 pm | By

There’s another thing that frets me (for want of a better term) about Julian’s “why I didn’t sign the anti-pope letter” article. I mention this again because it seems to me symptomatic of a particular school of anti-atheist tut-tuttery.

It is that it seems kind of frivolous, at bottom. I think that’s probably why the arguments seem unconvincing…it’s because they are! Maybe he didn’t actually have any real reasons, maybe the letter just got on his nerves, and he had to reach for reasons, and it was a big stretch, and the reasons aren’t up to much.

And that makes the whole thing a bit self-regarding. He certainly wasn’t required to sign the letter, but for actually arguing that … Read the rest



Sweden narrowly re-elects centre-right alliance *

Sep 19th, 2010 | Filed by

PM Fredrik Reinfeldt says he will not make a deal with the far-right Sweden Democrats.… Read the rest



Full text of the pope’s Westminster Hall speech *

Sep 19th, 2010 | Filed by

He tells the piously listening government boffins that religion is marginalized, thus performing an oxymoron.… Read the rest



What the pope said

Sep 19th, 2010 5:23 pm | By

I watched part of the pope’s speech at Westminster Hall on C-Span yesterday evening. He’s sure as hell not what you’d call charismatic, or even tolerable to listen to – fast, whispery, monotone – not fun. But the substance is what counts. The point is what he said.

Britain has emerged as a pluralist democracy which places great value on freedom of speech, freedom of political affiliation and respect for the rule of law, with a strong sense of the individual’s rights and duties, and of the equality of all citizens before the law.While couched in different language, Catholic social teaching has much in common with this approach, in its overriding concern to safeguard the unique dignity of every human

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Better video of Dawkins’s speech at pope protest *

Sep 19th, 2010 | Filed by

That’s Peter Tatchell behind him, and Maryam Namazie on his right, with Johann Hari next to Maryam.… Read the rest



Maryam Namazie at protest the pope rally *

Sep 19th, 2010 | Filed by

“Isn’t it racism to say that billions of people deserve nothing better than to live under sharia law?” [cheers]… Read the rest



Informational question

Sep 19th, 2010 11:45 am | By

Is anyone else unable to get to Talking Philosophy? I’ve been getting a page that says “Forbidden” for almost a week; is it just me or is it some kind of magnetic disturbance over the US?… Read the rest



Miranda Hale on the permanence of Catholic guilt *

Sep 19th, 2010 | Filed by

“I still catch myself wondering what I need to do in order to rid myself of the guilt, shame, and feeling of dirtiness that, in one form or another, is almost always my companion.”Read the rest



Nick Cohen on the Paul Chambers case *

Sep 19th, 2010 | Filed by

He has a criminal record and has been fired from two jobs because of a jokey remark on Twitter.… Read the rest



Paula Kirby on the pope’s pastoral visit *

Sep 19th, 2010 | Filed by

When people are persuaded that real human suffering counts for less than the religious concepts of sin and purity, then greater human suffering is the inevitable result.… Read the rest



Idea and Violence

Sep 18th, 2010 | By Shaker B. Srinivasan

The insistence, if only implicitly, on a choiceless singularity of human identity not only diminishes us all, it also makes the world much more flammable. The alternative to the divisiveness of one pre-eminent categorization is not any unreal claim that we are all much the same. Rather, the main hope of harmony in our troubled world lies in the plurality of our identities, which cut across each other and work against sharp divisions around one single hardened line of vehement division that allegedly cannot be resisted. Our shared humanity gets savagely challenged when our differences are narrowed into one devised system of uniquely powerful categorization.

— Amartya Sen. What Clash of Civilizations? Why religious identity isn’t destiny. Slate, March

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The lyrics

Sep 18th, 2010 4:50 pm | By

In case you want the lyrics to the pope song, here they are.

This is my favorite stanza, because it’s what I’m always thinking and what I keep saying and what was a big part of the argument of Does God Hate Women?

But if you build a church on claims of fucking moral authority
And with threats of hell impose it on others in society
Then you, you motherfuckers, could expect some fucking wrath
When it turns out you’ve been fucking us in our motherfucking asses.

That’s exactly it. Here’s the pope telling us we can’t be good without his god, but he and his priests aren’t good with his god, so I don’t think he knows a … Read the rest



Dawkins at the anti-pope demonstration *

Sep 18th, 2010 | Filed by

How dare Ratzinger suggest that atheism had anything to do with the Nazis’ wicked deeds.… Read the rest



Zainab Bangura is Sierra Leone’s foreign minister *

Sep 18th, 2010 | Filed by

Her father was a strict Muslim cleric who did not believe in educating women. Her mother – though illiterate – fought for Zainab to go to school.… Read the rest



Andrew Copson’s speech to protest the pope rally *

Sep 18th, 2010 | Filed by

We support equality, human rights, secular and liberal democracy. And we support justice, even if that justice is inconvenient for the power and reputation of churches and clergy.… Read the rest



Siding with the already strong

Sep 18th, 2010 12:26 pm | By

There’s another thing about Julian Baggini’s rebuke of atheists for ganging up on the pope. It is the fact that it overlooks the gang on the other side. There was the gang that toddled obligingly along to Westminster Hall yesterday to listen deferentially to the pope telling them what’s what.

Pope Benedict tonight used the keynote address of his visit to Britain to protest at “the increasing marginalisation of religion” in public life, maintaining that even the celebration of Christmas was at risk.

In a dense, closely argued speech to an audience that included four former prime ministers, the pope said social consensus alone could not be left to decide policies…

Below him, seated in neat rows that

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