Neuroskeptic graphs the flatline of Freud *

Jul 2nd, 2010 | Filed by

Proportionally speaking, psychoanalysis has gone out with a whimper, though not a bang.… Read the rest



BMA: gay ‘conversion therapy’ is harmful *

Jul 2nd, 2010 | Filed by

Calls for mental health standards bodies to reject such treatments and ban their use in their codes of practice.… Read the rest



Bishop Mixa could be allowed to return to work *

Jul 2nd, 2010 | Filed by

He appears to have received much more lenient treatment from the Pope than has been proposed by church authorities elsewhere.… Read the rest



Can the Vatican survive without immunity? *

Jul 2nd, 2010 | Filed by

US supreme court decision paves the way for other suits against priests accused of child rape, which will in turn involve the Vatican.… Read the rest



BioLogos is going increasingly Biblical literalist *

Jul 2nd, 2010 | Filed by

BioLogos is about reconciling faith and science, so you’d think the idea of Genesis as inspirational fiction would be non-negotiable.Read the rest



Simon Jenkins blotted his homework

Jul 1st, 2010 6:23 pm | By

Simon Jenkins wrote the stupidest article I’ve seen in some time for Comment is Free. I’m sure he’s not stupid, but the article is.

A “mammoth of research” is about to rise behind London’s St Pancras station, a biomedical centre costing £600m and housing about 1,250 “cutting-edge” scientists. Ask not its value. Science jeers at the idea. The UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation has already been dubbed a “cathedral of science”, justified by faith, not reason.

That’s just the first paragraph. Look how stupid it is. What are those quotation marks for? Who is being quoted? Who “dubbed” the biomedical centre a “cathedral of science”? Anyone? Apart from Simon Jenkins? What on earth does he mean “justified by … Read the rest



BMJ on how cognitive biases affect political judgment *

Jul 1st, 2010 | Filed by

The inclusion of Fox News in cable packages was associated with a shift in voting preferences to the right.… Read the rest



Simon Jenkins says ew science *

Jul 1st, 2010 | Filed by

Cathedral of science, faith not reason, a Soviet academy, airwaves are crammed, all reverential, new orthodoxy.… Read the rest



Science is not a religion *

Jul 1st, 2010 | Filed by

And Simon Jenkins is a bozo.… Read the rest



Pope gives top job to misogynist thug *

Jul 1st, 2010 | Filed by

Cardinal Marc Ouellet thinks a raped woman must be forced to bear her rapist’s baby.… Read the rest



Professor charged in ‘holy water’ fraud *

Jul 1st, 2010 | Filed by

Guy sold digital whatsits that he said could change tap water into holy water from Lourdes.… Read the rest



Bishop who?

Jul 1st, 2010 12:32 pm | By

Now that the Desmond Tutu moment is in the past, let me say, on the other hand, notice that Josh Rosenau linked to YNH just last Saturday – long after it should have been blindingly obvious to any reasonable person that it was not a truth-telling or fair or decent blog. He did partially admit that, but he linked anyway.

You’re Not Helping has been on a roll lately about that latter point, rightly criticizing various folks who criticize such calls for prayer without offering any alternative. While I think YNH has lately become less helpful than they used to be, their highlighting of the work being done by Mississippi Atheists, and of opportunities to donate to ongoing

Read the rest


Christopher Hitchens

Jul 1st, 2010 11:12 am | By

I wrote this about eight years ago for “In the Library.” It hints at why I hope Christopher Hitchens stays around.

Christopher Hitchens is a standing reproach to people who write the odd essay now and then. He is like some sort of crazed writing machine, he seems to average three or four longish essays a day, along with reading everything ever written and remembering all of it, knowing everyone worth knowing on most continents, visiting war zones and trouble spots around the globe, going on television and overbearing even noisy Chris Matthews’ efforts to interrupt him, and irritating people. And what’s even more painful is that this torrent of prose is nothing like the torrents of people like Joyce … Read the rest



I’m all Desmond Tutu this morning

Jul 1st, 2010 10:59 am | By

The story partly told in Flaming Out was concluded yesterday.  The “Will” who did a truculent notpology on Sunday evening, and then spent the next three days reading the reactions of the people he had targeted, gave it up and did a real apology, and answered questions, and explained without trying to explain away or evade or blame. He feels extremely crappy about it, crappy enough to abandon all the defensive self-justifying other-blaming nonsense he did before.

So that’s over. And he’s obviously nothing to do with Kees/Bernie Ranson. And he’s not “Signal,” either, so I got that wrong, so I apologized to Signal. I apologize to Ben Nelson, too, for interrupting his conversation with Signal … Read the rest



Gillard tells it as she sees it on the god issue *

Jul 1st, 2010 | Filed by

The Christian lobby claims a large constituency and makes no bones about requiring political leaders to take heed.… Read the rest



Science journalists don’t know the obstacles *

Jul 1st, 2010 | Filed by

Scientists would love to do more outreach, but they don’t have the resources.… Read the rest



Jerry Coyne on why evolution of eyespots *

Jun 30th, 2010 | Filed by

The evolution of “eye avoidance” (which generalizes to eyespot avoidance) is likely to be innate rather than learned.… Read the rest



Christopher Hitchens to undergo chemotherapy *

Jun 30th, 2010 | Filed by

Double-plus ungood.… Read the rest



The pope’s plans

Jun 30th, 2010 5:43 pm | By

The pope has plans to fight the good fight against secularization and re-impose Catholic theocracy in developed countries where it has lost a lot of popularity lately.

Pope Benedict XVI announced the new Vatican department dedicated to tackling what he called “a grave crisis in the sense of the Christian faith and the role of the church”…

The new department, to be called The Pontifical Council for New Evangelisation, will try to reinvigorate belief among Catholics in rich, developed countries — or, in the Pontiff’s words, “find the right means to repropose the perennial truth of the Gospel”.

Do we detect a note of sarcasm? Anyway, one wonders how this pontifical council will go about the reinvigorating. Posters on … Read the rest



Belgium sets the Vatican straight

Jun 30th, 2010 5:00 pm | By

Belgium isn’t having it. Very good.

Belgium and the Vatican are on a collision course after the Holy See accused the Belgian police of using communist tactics in their paedophilia raids on Catholic bishops last week…

The Belgian Foreign Minister, Steven Vanackere, underlined the Belgian judiciary’s independence from the Church and its freedom to investigate.

“It’s good to [keep in mind] very important principles of the state of law. [There are] very elementary principles of having a separation of powers and accepting that the judiciary has to do its work,” Mr Vanackere told RNW. “That’s crucial for every democratic state.”

And that’s all there is to it. The Belgian government is the right body to investigate crimes by priests; … Read the rest