In the spirit of learning from the sciencey knowings of Todd Akin, the artist Kit Cameo created an artistic yet medical bottle in which women can collect and store their Magical Vaginal Death Venom.
It was for sale on ebay, and the subject of funny Q&A, but then ebay decided whoops, venom, two people complained (about “vagina”?) and ebay whisked it all away. Details pending.
So that’s crappy.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Michael Nugent has a draft manifesto to promote ethical atheism. I see this as a companion to atheism+ – as the same kind of thing, and compatible, and equally reasonable and unthreatening. I also see both as companions to other related campaigns and organizations and platforms and statements. I’ve seen a good deal of panic and hair-clutching about atheism+, which seems bizarre. There are no gulags.
… Read the restThe ideas in this draft manifesto are not new. Many atheist activists already promote many or all of them. This manifesto tries to combine the best of our existing ideas into a set of principles and aims that all ethical atheists can promote, regardless of our policy differences on how best to implement
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Yulia Latinina, who hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio, explains the religious views of many Orthodox Christians, whom she calls Homo Orthodoxus. They sound quite similar to fanatics in the US, Pakistan, Rome, northern Nigeria – you get the idea.
First, this belief holds that God does not forgive. A typical example: During a recent demonstration against Pussy Riot, an Orthodox activist screamed “God does not forgive, and to claim otherwise is blasphemy,” while beating a female supporter of the punk group.
And notice one other thing about that – it clearly includes the belief that the Self is authorized to assume it knows exactly what God does not forgive, and to punish people for that … Read the rest
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This God does not make any moral demands on his chosen followers but gives them full authority to make such demands on everybody else.… Read the rest
Michael Nugent offers an attempt to combine the best of our existing ideas into a set of principles and aims that all ethical atheists can promote.… Read the rest
Where did he go?… Read the rest
Hey, the Staggers blog is onto Atheism+.
Let me introduce you to Atheism+, the nascent movement that might be the most exciting thing to hit the world of unbelief since Richard Dawkins teamed up with Christopher Hitchens to tell the world that God was a Delusion and, worse than that, Not Great.
Less than a week old in its current form, Atheism+ is the brainchild of Jen McCreight, a Seattle-based biology postgrad and blogger at the secularist Freethought network. She has called for a “new wave” of atheism on that “cares about how religion affects everyone and that applies skepticism to everything, including social issues like sexism, racism, politics, poverty, and crime.”
Nelson Jones (for it is he) got … Read the rest
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The nascent movement that might be the most exciting thing to hit the world of unbelief since Dawkins teamed up with Hitchens to diss god.… Read the rest
Seen on Frans de Waal’s Facebook page – a problem is solved.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman says there’s research that seems to indicate that social rejection fuels creativity.
I’ve always thought so. (Also that it works the other way too. Dreamy imaginative kids probably aren’t great at social skills, so they get social rejection, so they do even more fantasizing and pretending and nerding out. Loop loopy loop.)
By definition, creative solutions are unusual, involving the recombination of ideas. Unusual, divergent ideas and access to distant, remote associations are hallmarks of creative thinking. Perhaps those who like to distance themselves from others are more likely to also recruit associations from unusual places and think beyond conventional ideas.
Plus they have more time alone, plus they have brain space freed … Read the rest
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Research supports this idea. The need to be seen as separate from others within a group enhances both nonconformity and creativity.… Read the rest
Another great post in Amy’s series, this one from Phil Plait.
… Read the restWhat the hell is going on in the online community?
If you’ve been reading or paying attention at all to any of the online cultures like skepticism or general geekery (scifi, gaming, convention-going, and so on), you’ll have seen astonishing and depressing displays of sexism. That’s been true for a long time. But recently some sort of sea change has occurred, and what we’re seeing now is a marked increase in outright misogyny and thuggery.
The examples are so distressingly ubiquitous I hardly need point them out. A woman gamer wants to make a documentary showing misogyny in video games, and she gets rape and death threats. Rebecca
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Richard Carvath, a “Conservative political activist” in the UK who hopes to be an MP, has written a rebarbative piece on Tony Nicklinson.
Tony Nicklinson shouldn’t have done it, you see. He was being a selfish baby doing it. Carvath knows, because he once fell off a mountain and spent weeks feeling like crap – and then got better. That’s totally comparable to Nicklinson’s life being locked in without the ability to talk and with no prospect of getting better.
… Read the restPoor old Tony Nicklinson. His wife wants to kill him, his family want to kill him, his barrister wants to kill him, the mainstream media want to kill him, the euthanasia lobby want to kill him and a
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Laurie Penny, motivated by the Assange-Akin confluence of the past few days, has written a long, wrenching piece about being raped. It was a “nice guy” liked by everyone, including her; it was at a party, where she felt ill and went to sleep. She woke up to find him raping her (although she didn’t call it that at the time).
… Read the restI asked him if he had used a condom. He told me that he ‘wasn’t into latex’, and asked if I was on the pill. I don’t remember thinking ‘I have just been raped’. After all, this guy wasn’t behaving in the manner I had learned to associate with rapists. Rapists are evil people. They’re not nice blokes
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Well here is something I did not know – that in 31 states in the US, rapists have parental rights.
Shauna Prewitt was raped and got pregnant (pipe down there in the back, Mr Akin), and had a daughter, and then found out something she did not know.
… Read the restYou could say she was conceived in rape; she was. But she is also so much more than her beginnings. I blissfully believed that after I finally had decided to give birth to and to raise my daughter, life would be all roses and endless days at the playground. I was wrong again.
It would not be long before I would learn firsthand that in the vast majority of states —
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Men who father through rape are able to assert the same custody and visitation rights to their children that other fathers enjoy.… Read the rest
He means the Republicans who are telling him to drop his Senate campaign.… Read the rest
What a horror.
Tony Nicklinson last week lost his court case to be allowed to have help in ending his life. He had a stroke in 2005 left him paralysed from the neck down.
So he stopped eating, and died. That’s a nasty way to die. If the court had ruled in his favor, he would have been able to relax, knowing he could have a less nasty way to die at a time of his choosing.
He explained this for the BBC in June.
… Read the restI have locked-in syndrome and it makes my life a living nightmare.
I cannot speak and I am also paralysed below the neck, which means I need someone to do everything for me.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
He lost his High Court case to allow doctors to end his life last week, so he refused food. A horrible way to die.… Read the rest
It’s not just the Catholic church that is more concerned to protect its own sweet self than it is to prevent child sexual abuse or help the victims of child sexual abuse.
An evangelist Christian preacher from East Sussex urged a victim of sexual abuse not to report the man responsible to the police, the BBC has learned.
Ian Jackson told Lina Barnes he would not support her if she reported that Gospel Hall Brethren preacher Allan Cundick assaulted her at the age of 12.
Mr Jackson, from Eastbourne, said he was only concerned for her progress.
But Ms Barnes, 33, who sought advice from him last year, said he wanted to protect the Church.
“Only concerned for her progress” … Read the rest
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