Free Maziar Bahari *

Aug 14th, 2009 | Filed by

Canadian/Iranian filmmaker and Newsweek correspondent detained in Iran since June 21.… Read the rest



Ottawa Should Do More About Maziar Bahari *

Aug 14th, 2009 | Filed by

The Canadian journalist is one of many charged with inciting a ‘velvet revolution.’… Read the rest



Confronting Tehran’s Vicious Misogyny *

Aug 14th, 2009 | Filed by

Tarek Fatah notes not even the Saudis have used rape as a tool of subjugation as the ayatollahs have.… Read the rest



Youngest Adults Are the Least Creationist. *

Aug 14th, 2009 | Filed by

Even religious youth are less Creationist than older age cohorts.… Read the rest



Kenan Malik Asks: Are All Muslims the Same? *

Aug 13th, 2009 | Filed by

Malik explores how perceptions of Islam have been shaped by the media.… Read the rest



Flying Rabbis Fight Swine Flu *

Aug 13th, 2009 | Filed by

A group of rabbis and mystics circled Israel in a plane, praying and blowing horns to ward off H1N1.… Read the rest



Greg Fish on Losing Touch With the Real World *

Aug 13th, 2009 | Filed by

Are people who think science is a gateway to atheism going to change their minds if you sweet talk them?… Read the rest



Jason Rosenhouse on Scapegoating *

Aug 13th, 2009 | Filed by

Christianity and theism tend to be opposed to freedom of thought.… Read the rest



Palestinian Women’s Attitudes to Wife Beating *

Aug 13th, 2009 | Filed by

Justified if a wife insults her husband (59%), disobeys husband (49%), goes out without telling husband (25%).… Read the rest



Reading Darwin in the Divinity School

Aug 13th, 2009 | By Michael Clegg

The Cambridge Darwin Festival was an ambitious attempt to mark the great man’s (and his great book’s) anniversary year. In setting up a Festival, not an academic conference, the organisers made a bold move to combine lectures and seminars with exhibitions and artistic responses, and gave attention to the man and the history as well as current scientific and philosophical work underpinned by the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Big names from the neo-Darwinian vanguard (Dennett, Dawkins) received star billing. But quite a lot of time was given over to theologians (not to mention one or two non-tenured god-botherers cashing in on the margins) and the core message from them has been the same: not just the compatibility of … Read the rest



Are we hating atheists enough yet?

Aug 13th, 2009 11:42 am | By

Jason Rosenhouse points out another way of looking at the matter:

What is so significant about the New Atheist books is the sheer volume of books that they sold. They have revealed that to a far greater extent than was previously realized, there is a hunger in America for books written from a non-religious perspective. That is a momentous accomplishment, and one that should warm the hearts of anyone who cares about promoting science and reason.

Quite; and in doing that, they have also made it easier for atheists to be frankly as opposed to covertly atheists. That too is a momentous accomplishment, and a useful one. That is one reason it is irritating to have reactionaries telling us … Read the rest



Using highly abrasive language

Aug 12th, 2009 12:13 pm | By

The twins are back with a vengeance. They are worse than ever. It is as if they have swallowed some terrible slow-acting Kool-aid that is dissolving their brains in tiny increments. Where will they be by October?! Curled on the floor drooling?

It’s the same old thing, only worse – the sequiturs more non, the rhetoric more cranked up and deceptive, the petulance and finger-pointing more brazen.

…assault on their faith…straight into a world of moral depravity and meaninglessness…in-your-face atheist touting evolution…unending polarization around evolution and religion…

Pause to note that Mooney and Kirshenbaum themselves are working energetically and overtime to foster and increase the very ‘unending polarization’ they complain of.

…no tolerating nonscientific beliefs…attack and belittle religious believers,

Read the rest


Crunchy Con Agrees with Mooney/Kirshenbaum *

Aug 12th, 2009 | Filed by

Conservative politics and religion; well there you go.… Read the rest



Christian ‘Clinic’ Promises to Cure Cancer *

Aug 12th, 2009 | Filed by

Faith-healing clinic in Christchurch NZ offers to cure cancer and broken bones through prayer. … Read the rest



Dilemma in Iran: How to Execute a Virgin? *

Aug 12th, 2009 | Filed by

Guards rape them the night before they are executed so that they will spend eternity in hell.… Read the rest



Jerry Coyne on Mooney and Kirshenbaum *

Aug 12th, 2009 | Filed by

We’ve been making nice with religion for decades, and America remains as ‘unscientific’ as ever.… Read the rest



Myers on Mooney/Kirshenbaum *

Aug 12th, 2009 | Filed by

Is this a plea for Dawkins to stop writing books of any kind, or to convert to some conventional piety? … Read the rest



Mooney and Kirshenbaum Reach a New Low *

Aug 12th, 2009 | Filed by

Petulant finger-pointing disguised as a think piece.… Read the rest



How dare you

Aug 11th, 2009 3:39 pm | By

I wouldn’t want you to think I’ve forgotten the twins. Chris popped his head around the door the other day to say ‘Here’s another favorable review’ (funny how both of them either ignore the bad reviews or pretend they were good reviews). While he was at it he also said ‘and here’s someone who thinks what we think – no actually he said her comment was ‘revealing’ and then said ‘It seems to me that Hannah is our ally in the cause of better public acceptance of science–and I for one, am glad for it.’ In other words, same old thing: keep ignoring what critics say and keep doggedly repeating what the twins say in the hopes that sheer repetition … Read the rest



Simon Singh Applies for Further Appeal *

Aug 11th, 2009 | Filed by

The case has prompted a campaign for defamation law to be kept out of scientific disputes.… Read the rest