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Religion is about literal doctrines after all

Dec 12th, 2011 10:07 am | By

So after weeks of heavy breathing, Julian’s Heathen’s Progress arrives at what we already knew – that believers actually do believe the tenets of their religion.

So what is the headline finding? It is that whatever some might say about religion being more about practice than belief, more praxis than dogma, more about the moral insight of mythos than the factual claims of logos, the vast majority of churchgoing Christians appear to believe orthodox doctrine at pretty much face value. They believe that Jesus is divine, not simply an exceptional human being; that his resurrection was a real, bodily one; that he performed miracles no human being ever could; that he needed to die on the cross so that

… Read the rest

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Newsflash: Christians actually believe orthodox doctrine *

Dec 12th, 2011 | Filed by

No kidding.… Read the rest

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Saudi Arabia executes woman for ‘sorcery’ *

Dec 12th, 2011 | Filed by

She was convicted of practicing magic and sorcery.… Read the rest

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The Skeptic Magazine inaugurates The Skeptic Awards *

Dec 12th, 2011 | Filed by

Nominate best podcast, blog, event, science video, skepticism video. Awards will be presented at QEDCon in Machester in March 2012.… Read the rest

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Up a steep hill

Dec 11th, 2011 4:44 pm | By

Steve Jones wrote about denial of science in the Telegraph the other day.

Anyone, of course, is free to believe whatever they wish. But why train to become a biologist, or a doctor, when you deny the very foundations of your subject? For a biology student to refuse to accept the fact of evolution is equivalent to choosing to do a degree in English without believing in grammar, or in physics with a rooted objection to gravity: it makes no sense at all. The same is true for doctors. How can you put a body right with no idea as to why it is liable to go wrong?

I suppose the idea is that you do it by following … Read the rest

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We drift and dabble

Dec 11th, 2011 11:42 am | By

Oh goody, another more in sorrow than in anger rumination on Atheists Are As Bad As Theists And Vice Versa for a Sunday.

For a nation of talkers and self-confessors, we are terrible when it comes to talking about God. The discourse has been co-opted by the True Believers, on one hand, and Angry Atheists on the other. What about the rest of us?

What does he – Eric Weiner – mean “co-opted”? What does he even mean “what about the rest of us” – what about them? “Angry Atheists” haven’t “co-opted” anything, and the rest of us are just as able to speak up as the people Weiner is trying to portray as marginal.

It’s such a typical and … Read the rest

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Here he is, he’s all yours

Dec 11th, 2011 11:05 am | By

Some parents in Irvine California suspected their son, age 15, of smoking. So they sat him down and explained to him how useful it is to be able to breathe freely, how addictive tobacco is, how bad smoking makes you smell, right?

Not quite. They asked a guy to beat the kid up for them (authorities said).

 An Irvine couple who suspected their 15-year-old son of smoking turned to a man believed to be relied on in their church to violently discipline children, authorities said.

Ah in their church – relied on in their church. Uh…whut? So people who attend this church have a designated guy who beats their children, and this is understood and relied on? Funny kind of … Read the rest

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Parents ask a man to beat their child *

Dec 11th, 2011 | Filed by

They suspected their 15-year-old son of smoking, so turned to a man believed to be relied
on in their church to “discipline” children by beating them.… Read the rest

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Sirleaf, Gbowee, Karman accept Nobel Peace Prize *

Dec 11th, 2011 | Filed by

The Peace Prize was presented to three female activists and political leaders for “their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights” as peacemakers.… Read the rest

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An atheist talks cloying dreck about god *

Dec 11th, 2011 | Filed by

“We Nones may not believe in God, but we hope to one day.” The hell we do.… Read the rest

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Hitchens on Nietzsche on what makes us stronger *

Dec 11th, 2011 | Filed by

And what doesn’t. One thing that doesn’t is debilitating illness.… Read the rest

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Please confirm, please note, please stand, please sit

Dec 10th, 2011 3:39 pm | By

One of the beneficial side effects of the Burzynski uproar was finding Popehat (via Rhys Morgan, finding whom was another beneficial side effect). Popehat is funny.

A few days ago he got a “friendly note” from Marc Stephens.

The note contained what I would characterize as a decent effort, given his apparent abilities, to intimidate me. He sent it to my Popehat address and to my real-world big-boy-pants Ken’s-sekrit-identity law firm address.

The note is classic Marc Stephens. (Which is odd, because the Observer reported a week ago, on December 3, that Stephens was no longer working for the Burzynski clinic, but Popehat says Stephens sent him this note on December 6.) Very very bossy, as if … Read the rest

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Popehat replies to Marc Stephens *

Dec 10th, 2011 | Filed by

“Marc, kindly take this post — the link to which I will email to you — as a formal, legally binding, 100% certified style invitation to snort my taint.”… Read the rest

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Tenets of Islam are not subject to change

Dec 10th, 2011 11:21 am | By

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay went to the Maldives, and there she said some things. She said some things relevant to human rights.

In an address delivered in parliament last Thursday, Pillay said the practice of flogging women found guilty of extra-marital sex “constitutes one of the most inhumane and degrading forms of violence against women, and should have no place in the legal framework of a democratic country.”

The UN human rights chief called for a public debate “on this issue of major concern.” In a press conference later in the day, Pillay called on the judiciary and the executive to issue a moratorium on flogging.

Well yes. Commissioners for human rights can be expected … Read the rest

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Outrage at Pillay was a “missed opportunity” *

Dec 10th, 2011 | Filed by

To show the noblity of sharia, says President Mohamed Nasheed. “That the punishments and rulings of Islamic Sharia are not inhumane is very clear to us.”… Read the rest

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Maldives: officials condemn call to end flogging *

Dec 10th, 2011 | Filed by

UN HR High Commissioner Navi Pillay called for a moratorium on flogging as a punishment for fornication; outrage ensued.… Read the rest

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On religious grounds

Dec 9th, 2011 12:30 pm | By

Human Rights Watch on child (meaning girl) marriage in Yemen.

Fourteen-year-old Reem, from Sanaa, was 11 years old when her father married her to her cousin, a man almost 21 years her senior. One day, Reem’s father dressed her in a niqab (the Islamic veil that covers the face, exposing only the eyes), and took her by car to Radda,150 kilometers southeast of Sanaa, to meet her soon-to-be husband. Against Reem’s will, a quick religious marriage ensued. Three days after she was married, her husband raped her. Reem attempted suicide by cutting her wrists with a razor. Her husband took her back to her father in Sanaa, and Reem then ran away to her mother (her parents are divorced).

… Read the rest

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BioLogos snares an MIT physicist

Dec 9th, 2011 9:59 am | By

Via Sigmund at WEIT, an MIT physicist offers part 1 of a series on “scientism.” Yes really, an MIT physicist. I know, I know.

He (Ian Hutchinson) gives the gist in the first para.

One of the most visible conflicts in current culture is between  “scientism” and religion. Because religious knowledge differs from scientific knowledge, scientism claims (or at least assumes) that it must therefore be inferior. However, there are many other important beliefs, secular as well as religious, which are justified and rational, but not scientific, and therefore marginalized by scientism. And if that is so, then scientism is a ghastly intellectual mistake.

Notice that he carefully leaves out the “true” in “justified true beliefs” – the standard … Read the rest

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Ian Hutchinson at BioLogos on “scientism” *

Dec 9th, 2011 | Filed by

Scientism is a philosophy of knowledge which expands to an all-encompassing world-view. “In other words, it is essentially a religious position.”… Read the rest

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Sigmund on BioLogos on “scientism” *

Dec 9th, 2011 | Filed by

The aim seems to be to portray those committed to methodological naturalism as devoid of emotion or feeling.… Read the rest

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