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 a fascinating article. It amazes me that parents can torture their children with AIG inspired textbooks. This is an albeit small step in the right direction:
In doing the philpapers inspired Philosophy 101 series (found here and here, so far), touching on the questions asked in the largest ever…
Last week, I posted this:
TEDx, Pseudoscience and the Rupert Sheldrake controversy
TED has reacted to a considerable amount of pressure from posts similar to mine. They have pulled the videos from their usual places. The TED blog explained the move, claiming they were not censoring the videos, but placing them on their blog where they can be viewed in a proper context:
In important scientific news that may answer crucial questions about existence:
GENEVA — The search is all but over for a subatomic particle that is a crucial building block of the universe.
Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in the universe size and shape.
So, yesterday’s offering was terrible. This is even more terrible. This is indoctrination of the highest order. It is so…
No need to write a commentary about this. Just read it. Shit me.
The Guardian reports:
Leading doctor and politician John Crown says secret Catholic sect is trying to prevent limited abortion being made legal
Public support for abortion reform has grown in Ireland since Savita Halappanavar died from blood poisoning after a Galway hospital refused to terminate her pregnancy. Photograph: Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images
The secret ultra-conservative Catholic sect Opus Dei is mobilising within the Irish professions to stop the republic reforming its abortion laws, one of the country’s most prominent doctors has warned.
John Crown, a leading cancer specialist and member of parliament, accused the powerful organisation of trying to exercise influence on the medical profession and politicians to prevent limited abortion being made legal for the first time in Ireland.
As the Guardian so poignantly reports:
In failing to accept that women own their own bodies, religious groups risk reversing progress on the status of women
How is it possible, in 2013, that violence against women is still tolerated? That was a question I heard several times at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) last week.
As the blog HumanistLife states:
TEDx has been on the receiving end of criticism, for promoting bad science and pseudoscience, and recently, Rupert Sheldrake’s talk (below) has been on the receiving end of a lot of comment.
For those of you who are not aware of Rupert Sheldrake, he is a pretty famous investigator and ‘scientist’ looking into parapsychology and supposedly giving the best evidence (or arguing from other research evidence) for the existence of psychic powers and whatnot. His specialist area concerns Ganzfeld experiments.
In evolutionary biology, there is a deeply rooted supposition that you can’t go home again: Once an organism has evolved specialized traits, it can’t return to the lifestyle of its ancestors.There’s even a name for this pervasive idea. Dollo’s law states that evolution is unidirectional and irreversible. But this “law” is not universally accepted and is the topic of heated debate among biologists.
A scanning electron microscope image of an American house dust mite. (Credit: G. Bauchan and R. Ochoa)
Now a research team led by
WARNING. Watch this video will disturb you. It is horrific. But I ask that you do so, Christian, Muslim, atheist or other. You will never watch it again, and it will scar you. But remember, this activity was divinely decreed by an all-loving God. Yes, all-loving. And for what? For all of the actions below.
The religious affiliation question in the 2011 (June-September) Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) Survey reveals that the majority (53%) of Scottish…
Can’t believe I missed this one. Interesting, and something I will bring up in my talk tonight on free will at Southampton University to the Atheist Society. Research into prosocial (kind) behaviour is always interesting, and something I have documented here, here and here. there is a mix of genetic and environmental influences with this one. It seems that talking to children about giving, about kindness, is more important than role-modeling when measuring children’s kindness. Of course, children who do not have these environmental influences will be at a disadvantage to others who have, and these are variables outside of their control.
From the website Answers in Genesis (AiG), we have learned that one of the most influential Young Earth Creationists (YEC) of the…
Science Daily – Mar. 6, 2013 — University of Georgia researchers discovered important genetic clues about the history of microorganisms called archaea and the origins of life itself in the first ever study of its kind. Results of their study shed light on one of Earth’s oldest life forms.
Here are some videos of mine outlining the problems with this cornerstone of theology. Let…
Recently, I posted about a certain gentleman, no person, who had taken to negatively attacking my books without having read them, and certainly without understanding their content. This man has wound many up. He has posted literally hundreds of times on my books, and has written financially damaging reviews.
The BBC reports:
Campaigners say Google are encouraging the poaching of elephants by running advertisements promoting ivory products.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) says more than 10,000 ads about ivory were running on Google’s Japanese shopping site.
They have written to the internet giant asking for their removal.
Podcasts are a really useful medium for learning about or engaging with topics because you can listen to them on the fly. In the last week, I have mowed the lawn, sharpened garden tools, walked to the shops, driven in my car, washed carpets and so on, all the while listening to counter-apologetics and biblical exegesis. My exciting life! Life, with only 24 hours in a day, has been, for many years, a series of opportunities to multi-task, to kill two birds with one stone.
I will soon be compiling a webpage here for the menu above linking to a superb list of podcasts and what have you.