Via Jerry Coyne, I learned about a debate in 2006 in which Christopher Hitchens gave a full-throated defense of freedom of speech and on the evils of religion, and how religion survives by restricting or intimidating speech. His talk lasts about 20 minutes and is in four parts, the first of which is below, with the rest being prompted at the end.
I am becoming more and more of a First Amendment absolutist on free speech. I can [Read more…]
I have tried to read the Koran on several occasions but have never been able to make it all the way through. I keep getting stalled because the writing is so turgid that its meaning is hard to determine without great effort. The fact that I have strong suspicions that after all that effort I am not going to end up with anything useful also dampens any motivation.
Since it is supposed to have been directly dictated by god, this does not reflect [Read more…]
Yesterday a three judge panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision upheld the ruling of US District Court judge Vaughn Walker that Proposition 8 (that reversed the policy allowing same sex marriage in California) was unconstitutional. This ruling will likely be appealed to either the full Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court and until such time as they uphold the appeals court ruling or decline to hear it, the ban on gay marriage in California will continue.
One of the things that really puzzle me is [Read more…]
Some time ago I posted a link to an article about the growing emergence of open skepticism in the black community, traditionally viewed as one of the more religiously observant groups. Many famous black people of the past had been skeptics but they were often viewed as outliers and exceptions. It is now being realized [Read more…]
When Sgt. Justin Griffith’s efforts to gain formal recognition of atheists and organize the Rock Beyond Belief event reached the ears of Fox News, they naturally didn’t like it. They interviewed him and did their usual [Read more…]
It is always interesting to see religious people trying to find ways to reconcile modern science with their religious texts. For people who have a literal interpretation of the Bible, the task is much harder, with the Genesis story being a nightmare. This is not because the Genesis story is particularly crazier than the other miraculous stories in the Bible but because it is the most familiar and you cannot easily finesse it away. Everyone knows the general outlines of it, even if they are [Read more…]
Sgt. Justin Griffith is trying to get the US Army to provide to atheists the same kinds of support and services that they provide to religious groups. He is organizing on March 31, 2012 Rock Beyond Belief, that is advertised as “a day-long event on the military base Fort Bragg, North Carolina, complete with children’s activities, rock concerts and [Read more…]
Religious people like to claim that belief in god makes people happier and that this alone makes religion a good thing, worth preserving. There are many ways to respond to this, one of which is to echo George Bernard Shaw when he said “The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.”
But is it in fact true that believers are happier than unbelievers? Via Greta Christina, I read this report of a study that [Read more…]
I hear via Pharyngula that those provocateurs at American Atheists are going to fly an airplane banner over the stadium where the Super Bowl in being played on Sunday. It will fly from 9:30-11:30 am local time and will say “Football beats church anytime – atheists.org.”
What were they thinking? Don’t they realize that children may be among the tailgaters and see that message and be irredeemably harmed? Oh, these godless people can be so cruel.
I wonder if any of the interminable pre-game shows will broadcast the banner. If they do, you can cue the outrage from Fox News.