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.
I posted a Guardian article about ACE (Christian fundamentalist) schooling. I have found the website of the author (Jonny Scaramanga) and came across this interesting post. See what you think:
What is frustrating about this article is the fact that Science Daily produced it and I saw it just as I returned from giving a talk on free will to the Dorset Humanists. Grr. I talked about similar predicitve pieces of research, such as lack of fear conditioning in toddlers and criminal records, as in Gao et al, whose research concluded:
Here is another counter-apologetics segment on the Skepticule podcast. My segment starts at 53.30. This one is on the idea…
Biased political statements in Accelerated Christian Education schools’ curriculum may be incompatible with new standardsAn Ace English test question. The ‘correct’ answer is b.
The Accelerated Christian Education (Ace) group of fundamentalist schools has gone largely unnoticed by academic researchers and the mainstream media. Recent changes to legislation could mean the education they provide does not meet new standards.
H/T to Mike D. at The A-Unicornist.
I wonder what our very own Andy Schueler thinks of this, as an molecular evolutionary biologist! The Guardian reports:
Creator of Literal Genesis Trial believes people who argue in favor of evolution are at a scientific disadvantage
So a recent Skepticule podcast has become available. In episode 42 I give a segment on doxastic voluntarism, something…
Recent measurements of the rate at which children show DNA changes not seen in their parents — the “mutation rate” — have challenged views about major dates in human evolution.
The excellent Russell Blackford, over at The Hellfire Club, here at SIN, has recently linked a fascinating account of post-genocide analysis.…
Here is another account in my series of real-life deconversion stories. They are often painful, psychological affairs. Counter Apologist has an excellent blog, with some superb posts. Please check it out. Happy reading. The previous accounts can be found here:
So I posted this meme to my facebook profile:
Now I thought that was pretty funny. Prayer is notoriously ineffective. But a Catholic friend posted this reply:
Hmm…and space exploration has benefited humanity so much!
So meteorites aren’t the sole culprits. I guess the question is, how do Creationists rationalise this entire gamut of evidence…
I have run a few articles on Scouts, Girlguides and air cadets, with regard to religious oaths and what have you. The Boy Scouts of america are going through rather an important period, as there is a potential movement to allow gays into their troops, changing their existing exclusionary policy. In advance of putting this to the vote, they have sent out a questionnaire to members.
Here is a decent essay from author and philosopher Stephen Cave, twinned with his book Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization (Crown, 2012).
Theists, the world over, claim that God is omniscient. However, this is not an easy claim to make for a whole host of reasons, one of which is worth looking into here. I want to look at the idea that in many instances, you cannot know that you don’t know something. If there is a situation where you cannot know something, then if it is claimed that you are omniscient, this would invalidate that claim.
Another fascinating Guardian article. It seems like Egypt is imploding in Islamic-led idiocy. Such a shame, with a wonderful opportunity to progress the country in starting with what could have been a blank slate. Instead, the country has largely regressed under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood:
Didn’t take her long (Guardian):
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner says she requested pontiff’s intervention in dispute with UK over South Atlantic islands
This picture has been doing the facebook rounds. It made me chortle, but also made me think about the devil, and hell. Much of my thoughts on hell have been expressed in the video below, but there are few interesting points that have come up recently which have made me think, aha, that’s interesting.
I know self-promoting has an air of conceit, and I know it’s all ‘blah blah blah’, but for someone in my position, it is a necessary evil. One of my books has just received another great review. Apart from my internet stalker, the ordained father whom I have banned, and who has not read the book, I have unanimous 5 star reviews for The Little Book Of Unholy Questions. Here they are so far:
My fellow SINner, blogger and clinical psychologist, Dr Caleb Lack of the Great Plains Skeptic blog has been producing a series analysing data and theories concerning correlations between intelligence and religiosity in people. There have been a number of studies, and many people have highlighted and lauded these studies. But the nature of psychological studies is that one has to analyse them very closely in order to decipher when control measures have been carefully put in place, and where researchers have mitigated against issues of, say, self-selection.