I am reposting this in response to the terror attacks in France last night, resulting in the deaths of over one hundred people. As ever, the internet is awash with right-wing shouts to “kill all Muslims” and refugees, to the left-wing shouts that it is the Imperial West to blame and not Islam or Muslims. Neither of these positions are correct. It is obviously thoroughly complex, indeed involving international politics. However, to deny the Qu’ran, Muhammad and the Hadith causal responsibility in these atrocities is to deny the self-determination of those very terrorists who claim that they are doing these actions in the name of Islam and their god.
This is still a fantastic debate, primarily because of the format. After 40 minutes, they sit down and thrash it…
For Hitchens and co, religion does little good and secularism hardly any evil. Never mind that tyrants devoid of religion such as Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao and Pol Pot perpetrated the worst atrocities in history. As H. Allen Orr, professor of biology at the University of Rochester, observed, the 20th century was an experiment in secularism that produced secular evil, responsible for the unprecedented murder of more than 100 million. (Abramovich, 2009)
Media group opts for self-censorship on terrorism after Taliban admits murder of three employees for critical reports on militants
When it was launched four years ago, the Express Tribune set out to become the house newspaper of liberal-minded Pakistanis.
The long-awaited debate (well, by me, anyway) is here, on You Tube: http://youtu.be/EcBQTKka1rs Having only listened to the…
Divine Command Theory (DCT) is the idea that morality is grounded in God or God’s nature such that what God commands is necessarily morally good. Historically speaking, the Euthyphro Dilemma has been used to combat such a position. DCT comes in several forms and is adhered to by a good many theologians and apologists.
A Ugandan tabloid has named the country’s “200 top homosexuals”, a day after President Yoweri Museveni signed into law a bill toughening penalties for gay people.
Red Pepper’s list appeared under the headline: “Exposed”, raising concerns of a witch-hunt against gay people.
Western governments have condemned Mr Museveni’s decision to approve the bill.
Soon, the Scottish people will be voting in a referendum as to whether they want an independent Scotland. Let’s put…
Kobo is an e-reader device as well as a publishing platform in the same way as Kindle (Direct Publishing) and iBooks. It apparently has up to 20% market share, though this is probably generous. That said, being originally a Canadian company taken over by a Japanese parent company, it does do well in these and other countries and has some good strategic partnerships which mean it IS a viable alternative to the monopolising Amazon (who are taking over the word – be warned). I think you can use the Kobo website to buy EPUB files for various devices, not just the Kobo.
Brighton Fringe is the largest arts festival in England and one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. It sets out to stimulate, educate and entertain a wide audience by providing a showcase for diverse art forms. Everyone can take part, in fact, whilst enjoying a friendly and supportive environment. And all this in an iconic city with unique cultural heritage.
Many people, particularly fundamentalists, still believe in a real and actual Satan. Of course, to everyone else, this is completely incomprehensible. And here’s one reason for why, as John Loftus sets out in his book The End of Christianity (p. 100):
So, God and cosmology will be debated tomorrow as cosmologist Sean Carroll takes on theologian William Lane Craig. I, for one, am…
Jonny Scaramanga came to do a talk about his experiences with Christian education at Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub recently. I was gutted to have missed it – I was really looking forward to that one. However, keeping a tab on his blog, it seems clear that he is embroiled in a right ding-dong with his arch nemeses, Accelerate Christian Education, or ACE. Here is his article ion the subject which he wrote for the Guardian.
Some of you the other side of the Atlantic may not know that the Gulf Stream which predominantly dictates weather as it pushes systems from North and Central America over to Europe, has been stuck. For months. This has meant the cold air from the North American weather issues has met warmer air from Southern Europe and Africa, swirling and causing muchos rain. A lot of rain. For two months. Britain has been in the throes of severe flooding, attacked from internal rain and mental seas and tides.
A few weeks back, theologian, author and blogger Randal Rauser had a pop at me. We have previously had a few cross-posts and whatnot, and even debated on US radio/Reasonable Doubts podcast on the subject of the Nativity, which can be found here. Luke, a theist who regularly comments here,, also comments at Rauser’s blog, and I got into a revived debate about libertarian free will and the Kalam.
Boko Haram at it again. Sheesh. Fundamentalism. BBC: Northern Nigeria is under emergency rule, but attacks have intensified Suspected Islamist…
http://youtu.be/mAeS0bCAmjE What a fantastic commentary here. Excellent. More of that, thanks. One point which I have made before is that…
OK, so most people of neutral, skeptical or commonsensical persuasion understand that the global flood claims of Genesis are nonsense. Yet the meme still persists amongst literalists and fundamentalists. I love GearHeadEd’s comment over on DC. It shows that that much water is truly a ridiculous concept. I wrote extensively once on why people believe such silly things. Here is Ed’s comment:
There has been a number of articles on this due, perhaps, to a Channel 4 Documentary on this due to be shown in August (that’s a long way off!). It seems that instructions for the Ark in the Bible were lifted from an earlier source (which is no surprise since the flood account is lifted from the Gilgamesh or both from an earlier ancestor).
Just thought this list of atheists in film and television, from wikipedia, was interesting: Douglas Adams (1952–2001): British radio and television…
Brilliant: The fundamental question here, is whether Yahweh explains things as they are better than the alternatives. I don´t see…