Ahead of the NSW State election, both leaders are fronting a panel convened by the Australian Christian Lobby. Would they feel obliged to front a meeting convened by a lobby of ethicists or scientists, or atheists (or muslims or jews – yeah, probably that one 🙂 ) Of course, one of the topics to be discussed is the ethics classes…. Read more →
The herald is reporting that the Sydney Anglican Diocese is worried that ethics classes are decimating scripture class (aka special religious education, or SRE) attendence. Wow, I thought.. there’s only 1 in 10 students stilll attending of those who were in class prior to the trials. It turns out that they’ve lost 30 to 47% and perhaps up to 60%… Read more →
…but pass the holy hand grenade 🙂
Bing has a scathing summary of Kent Hovind‘s dissertation – the one Kent tried to keep secret. The summary is as full of win as Kent is full of fail (warning – NSFW language). No wonder Kent didn’t want anyone to see it! I downloaded the dissertation of Wikileaks, myself but got disgusted after a paragraph or two into it,… Read more →
This is an interesting article about some research pointing to religion being a mechanism for coping with high levels of stress. The argument is that religion is not a deep-seated or inherited tendency. It is a crutch to which people turn when they are under extreme stress, “a natural invention of human minds in response to a defective habitat”. Americans,… Read more →
Not when they actively threaten to withdraw social programs when they realise that they might have to abide by anti-discrimination laws. Of course, this comes on top of the devastating debate on the BBC, in response to which the Scottish Catholics had their own tame debate which they naturally declared they won. Of course, their poll on the topic was… Read more →
There’s a cute article in the Herald today (reprinted from The Guardian), that is a rant against apple and its evangelists but which also admits that Windows is only used by those who believe that they deserve punishment for some terrible evil they’ve committed. I guess this verges on the old “if OSs were religions (cars, planes…)” meme. In this… Read more →
An American named John Brown is reportedly digging for oil in Israel using the Bible as a reference; his goal is to “ensure energy independence for the state of Israel” and has purportedly spent 26 years trying to find out where God hid the oil. A pity he can’t just rung him up and ask 🙂 “I’m already writing the… Read more →
When it’s run by a stupid christian. Pharyngula has a nice summary of the visit by PZ Myers and friends to the Creation “Museum”. He says that the layout is more like a theme park ride where you’re led through a sequence of “creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, and consummation” – no exploring “exhibits” at random. This was not… Read more →
Here’s a graphic report from an ABC reporter in Jerusalem about what happened when she went to cover a protest by orthodox jews about a car park that’s open on the sabbath. It’s not that people were driving on the sabbath, but that having the carpark open made it easier for them to do so. never mind that a large… Read more →
Paul Sheehan has an article in today’s SMH that asserts that Islamophobia is a fabrication, in response to an approach from a graduate student doing a thesis on the topic. In a statement of the bleedingly obvious, Paul states that Islamophobia is a fear of Islam, or a fear of Muslims, and he states that the “prevailing orthodoxy” – some… Read more →
While Wilson Tuckey and other conservative voices played politics by claiming that the policy of assuaging greens played a part in making bushfires worse (arguable), Christians seem to be sure that policies on abortion are to blame! Here’s an extract from a media release from an evangelical christian mob called Catch The Fire: CTFM leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah said he… Read more →
Last night, I watched Tsipi Livni explaining to an ABC correspondent that Israel would not show restraint in pursuit of Hamas. I was hoping for Matt Brown to seek elucidation – does that mean that the deaths of all Palestinian civilians would not serve as a restraint on Israel’s actions? the deaths of all Egyptian civilians near the border as… Read more →
One can only hope that the power of Catholic Church is being weakened by a better educated society. The quote comes from the Bishop of Lancaster, who complains that educated Catholics in high public office aren’t as likely to fall for the same old lines that suckered in the people back in the Dark Ages. From the article: The bishop… Read more →
Julian Morrow, from The Chaser – obviously one of the main targets of the new law, along with Broken Rites and similar groups, has an opinion piece in the SMH, today. It’s a funny read, and spot on: One easy way to identify a bad law, other than simply reading it, is to think about what types of conduct might… Read more →
I’ve sent a couple of letters to the SMH, but they probably won’t get published in the flood of correspondence they’re getting on the topic, so it’s good I have a blog to toot my own horn 🙂 For starters: Dear Sir, If the Catholic Church is not behind the legislation, and is not concerned with “annoying behaviour”, perhaps it… Read more →
Now that the NSW government has promulgated a new law to punish people for annoying Catholics during World Youth Day, I suggest that we all create and circulate the best put-downs we can think up. here’s one to start: If I said that Catholics were in good taste, I’d be lion. So far, I’ve not seen a list of exact… Read more →
From the nation that appears to lead the rest of the world in stupidity, here is another example… Ignoring any shred of common sense, a person described as “a community organizer, church choir director and public relations consultant” has staged pray-ins at a petrol station in Washington DC, in San Francisco and Oakland, asking God for lower petrol prices. Hey!… Read more →
