The Catholic church wants to arrest him in India for exposing the hokum behind a ‘miraculous’ bleeding statue (it was a leaky pipe), so Sanal Edamaruku has been traveling through Europe. His next appearance: Ireland! He’ll be in Galway, Cork, Belfast, and Dublin over the next week, lobbying the people to support the separation of church and state.
Also, he’ll be in London first!
While it’s lovely that he’s making do, this still needs fixing. And I’ll consider it fixed when it’s people like the shits who hounded him out of his homeland who find themselves homeless, as payment for their efforts to intimidate and silence skepticism and criticism of their creed.
I’m actually encouraged by this. I just heard on the Skeptics Guide to the Universe that there is a shifting attitude among UFO proponents that after decades of flying objects being easily explainable, there just might not be something out there. The theory is the internet makes sharing the info easier and gets debunked faster. If we can do the same thing with miracles/leaky pipes it would go a long way to debunking absurd religious claims.
Is he in effective exile right now? Is there any chance he will ever be allowed to return home?
Considering recent events in Ireland, I think his stance on religions interfering with the lives of people will be *quite* welcome. I’m only surprised that some kind of civil action isn’t pending against the hospital, or church.
@sigh@ Prof. Myers, don’t you understand that God can create a leaky pipe? And don’t you know that the sewage from that pipe can be transubstantiated into the blood of Christ that only the faithful can see? Duh!
That should be interesting, especially since the dentist who died in Ireland because they used “this is a Catholic country” reason for not properly dealing with her miscarry was from India. Somehow I think her Indian family might be allies with him and not the Catholic church.
PZ, please read this !!!
“His next appearance: Ireland! He’ll be in Galway, Cork, Belfast, and Dublin over the next week, lobbying the people to support the separation of church and state.”
– Belfast is the capital of NORTHERN IRELAND, a part of the UNITED KINGDOM. So “lobbying the people to support the separation of church and state” in Belfast, is not the best strategy for the government of another country, over the border…
Nurnord – We have an established church in the UK too, and it also meddles in secular lawmaking.
A leaky pipe is so much more mundane than the old biological explanation of the meconia from Nymphaline butterflies being responsible for ‘red rain’ and blood on statuary rather than saintly blood.
Wait… should we really be telling the vatican hitmen where Sanal is going to be?
slowdjinn – you missed the boat, even though you had the timetable in hand…in large, clear print.