‘Rationality is useless if it is not sound. This is what Martin Luther meant when he called reason a “whore”. Pick the wrong premises, and rationality is utterly screwed. Therefore, merely that someone is “rational” means absolutely nothing about whether that person is well-connected to reality.’
Come along if you are around!
Mwah! This made me laugh: To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen…
I am a big advocate of the state education sector in Britain. I hate Michael Gove, the Conservative Education Minister,…
This may be an oxymoron because a phobia is often, though not always, seen as an irrational or disproportionate fear of something, I contest that my fear of Islam is either disproportionate or irrational. I have a fear which is, I argue, perfectly rational; empirical, even.
The Derby Telegraph has reported that Al-Madinah School, a Muslim Free School that opened in Derby in September 2012, is forcing all female members of staff to wear a hijab (whether Muslim or not), and is requiring girls to sit at the back of classrooms. The Sunday Times is further reporting that reading fairy tales, singing and stringed instruments are banned due to being ‘forbidden in Islam’, and the school’s (non-Muslim) head and deputy head were bullied into resignation by the governing body due to the latter being belittled and sidelined as a result of her lack of faith – leading to both lodging official complaints of bullying with the Department for Education (DfE).
The results of the 30th British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) released last week show almost half of the population say that they do not belong to a religion. The increase in the non religious is almost entirely mirrored by a decline in the proportion of people who describe themselves as belonging to the Church of England, down from 40% in 1983 to just 20% now. Results show that religious identity in Britain has been in stark decline over the past three decades.
Tim Minchin is a genius. Everyone knows this. But to add to his vast plethora of achievements, the acceptance of…
Nearly two millennia ago, a story was told of a wondrous star in the heavens, beaming forth to proclaim the birth of an infant, destined to rule. Coaxing priests from an eastern kingdom to travel in search of this infant, the object led them to their destination and allow for the worship of the savior of the world.
Or so the story goes. But did it really happen, and if so, what was this magnificent star? A comet? An exploding star? An astrological portent? Something more bizarre?
The Independent reports: Scientists ‘95 per cent certain’ that climate change is man-made
But this article is from Science Daily:
The Independent reports: Scientists ‘95 per cent certain’ that climate change is man-made. I wonder whether science denialists will ever concede.
But this article is from Science Daily:
Sep. 27, 2013 — Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident in most regions of the globe, a new assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes.
This week the next big book in Jesus scholarship hit the stores. Well, I guess it’s big in the sense that it is attached to a well-known name, Fox News’ host/anchor/pundit Bill O’Reilly. Earlier I had heard about his book, Killing Jesus, which was a bit easy to make fun with since the artwork for the cover suggested who the murder was, and his previous major book with a similar title, Killing Lincoln, was considered so riddled with factual errors that Lincoln-connected museums were not willing to sell it.
I did my Nativity talk at the Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub (nice boutique beer pub with a menu of…
Our brains give us the remarkable ability to make sense of situations we’ve never encountered before — a familiar person in an unfamiliar place, for example, or a coworker in a different job role — but the mechanism our brains use to accomplish this has been a longstanding mystery of neuroscience.
So there was an interesting comment on another one of my posts the other day that was entirely, every word, inane, insane, irrational nonsense. It was so good (bad) that I thought I would post it.
Of course, atheism, as a lack of belief in God or a positive belief that God does not exist, MUST cause these characteristics necessarily. Drivel. Enjoy:
I have been researching an awful lot with regard to feminism and gender theory. My partner’s daughter is studying Gender…
Oh deary me. Not only are women deemed worthy in their appeal to men, but now they are deemed worthy on account of their most useful trait: their knowledge of the Qu’ran (whilst wearing a headscarf and high heels). Can this world get any more fucked up on account of religion?
Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola wins contest where participants are judged on their knowledge of Islam
I have a couple of talks organised for the next few weeks, starting with a talk on the Nativity at High Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub on Wednesday 25th of September, details of which can be found here.
So I came across this debate between Dr Michael Tooley, a philosopher, and William Lane Craig, which can be seen here:
This was a cracking debate based on the fact that Tooley was a philosopher, and prepared. Let me say that again. He was prepared. He had done his homework.
Over my head like a large marquee, but genius nonetheless: And while you are at it: [H/T Neil Webber]
It’s been a good, long time since I have seen a bright, naked-eye comet in the sky. The last I remember was Hale-Bopp back in 1996, and that was a remarkable sight. But there is a lot of hope now for Comet ISON (aka C/2012 S1), which was discovered only a matter of months ago. Not only it is slated to be a very bright object, but what is more interesting to me is its orbit.
The Guardian has run a few articles lately on face veiling as it has hit the news again in the UK. I have detailed before my frustration with veiling (primarily on communication grounds, but also on the more complex and debatable grounds of being undergirded by sexism). Here are some interesting views of some Guardian readers:
Imagine that I am sitting outside a cafe in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, dressed in full crusader costume, my red pectoral cross prominently displayed, pouring whisky into my coffee. What message does this send to passersby?