All entries by this author

Ben Goldacre on why cigarette packs matter *

Mar 12th, 2011 | Filed by

Cigarette packaging has been used for many decades to sell the crucial lie that cigarettes which are “light”, “mild”, “silver”, and the rest, are somehow “safer”.… Read the rest



Tudge reviews Flannery on Darwin *

Mar 12th, 2011 | Filed by

And recycles every dreary cliché there is.… Read the rest



His elbow slipped

Mar 11th, 2011 3:43 pm | By

I was inspired by the new levels of Wallyism we dug up yesterday so I thought I would dig up a little more.

Am I rubbing it in? Yes, I am. But when you look at the newly-dug levels, I think you will see why. I think nose-rubbing is just the right thing to do about this degree of mendacious bullying. I mean, in particular, the place where Wally is caught lying by one “Sean” and uses four sock puppets posting right on top of each other to bully Sean and then congratulate himself on the bullying. What could be more suitable than to make this contemptible behavior public?

It wasn’t about gnu atheists this time, December 2009; it was … Read the rest



Why are atheists so angry?

Mar 11th, 2011 11:28 am | By

Rabbi David Wolpe pretends to be mystified that atheists find theism irritating.

How harmless is it to post an article about why people should read the bible on a site devoted to religion? I did on this very page, and it evoked more than 2,000 responses, most of them angry…

It is curious that a religion site draws responses mostly from atheists, and that the atheists are very unhappy…Only the untutored assume that religious people predominate on websites (Huffington Post Religion page, On Faith in the Washington Post, Beliefnet.com) devoted to religion.

He thinks a section of a website is itself a website, or he pretends to think that so that he can claim that the religion section of … Read the rest



HRW report *

Mar 11th, 2011 | Filed by

On Islamic dress code for women in Chechnya.… Read the rest



Rosenhouse reviews Collins and Giberson *

Mar 11th, 2011 | Filed by

Their book is not a good defense of theistic evolution.… Read the rest



A more hopeful view of women and Egypt *

Mar 11th, 2011 | Filed by

But she wrote just before going to Tahrir Square for the March 8 Million Woman March…… Read the rest



Why are atheists so angry? *

Mar 11th, 2011 | Filed by

Because theists keep asking why they’re so angry.… Read the rest



Daily Mail: did “supermoon” cause earthquake? *

Mar 11th, 2011 | Filed by

Ben Goldacre finds this question tasteless. Extremely fucking tasteless, actually.… Read the rest



Chechnya: women bullied into dressing “modestly” *

Mar 11th, 2011 | Filed by

Chechen authorities are enforcing a compulsory Islamic dress code for women and condoning violent attacks on women deemed to dress immodestly.… Read the rest



Rahila Gupta on feminism and secularism *

Mar 10th, 2011 | Filed by

Some on the left have developed an anti-racist politics that gives succour to religious extremism rather than challenging it.… Read the rest



A memo from Fred Halliday to LSE *

Mar 10th, 2011 | Filed by

Halliday wrote this memo to LSE’s governing body in October 2009 to try to convince them not to accept a grant from the Qaddafi Foundation.… Read the rest



The Holy See was tired and emotional

Mar 10th, 2011 3:38 pm | By

The “Holy See,” not for the first time, had nothing to say. Not a peep. About?

about reports that the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali, this week suspended 21 priests pending investigation into allegations of child sex abuse.

Oh that. Well…what can it say? “We didn’t tell them to.” “It wasn’t our idea.” “Don’t look at us.” “It’s the parents we blame.” “Philadelphia is a very secular place.”

No doubt it will say all of those in good time, but it doesn’t like to be rushed.

The suspension of the priests on Tuesday follows on from the findings of a Philadelphia grand jury which last month indicted three priests and one lay teacher on charges of rape, assault

Read the rest


Philadelphia: 21 priests suspended *

Mar 10th, 2011 | Filed by

A grand jury last month indicted three priests and one lay teacher on charges of rape, assault and other felonies related to minors, mainly in the late 1990s.… Read the rest



Newt Gingrich considers secularism “elitist” *

Mar 10th, 2011 | Filed by

“In America, religious belief is being challenged by a cultural elite trying to create a secularized America, in which God is driven out of public life.”… Read the rest



Governor of Illinois repeals death penalty *

Mar 10th, 2011 | Filed by

“We cannot have a death penalty system in our state that kills innocent people.”… Read the rest



A scary theocrat *

Mar 10th, 2011 | Filed by

But can the tension between religion and state always and at any time be resolved with a bias in favour of the law?… Read the rest



Sean Carroll on modal logic and the ontological proof *

Mar 10th, 2011 | Filed by

The OP is perfectly logical — that is, the conclusions follow inevitably from the premises. It’s the premises that are a bit loopy.… Read the rest



CFI’s Living Without Religion campaign *

Mar 9th, 2011 | Filed by

Too many people think atheists are miserable or savage or both.… Read the rest



The opposite of engaging

Mar 9th, 2011 3:43 pm | By

Paul Sims did an interview for the Catholic Herald, and wants to know what people think. (At least he did; the post is a couple of weeks old now.)

Ed West sets the scene for Herald readers.

Last month two groups of people met in a church in central London to discuss gay adoption, abortion and religious schools. On one side were representatives of Catholic Voices, on the other a group from the Central London Humanist Group.

The point, says Paul Sims of New Humanist magazine, was “to experiment with the idea of Humanists and Catholics sitting down and engaging with each other on contentious issues in a cordial manner”.

Yes but (I’ve said this before, … Read the rest