Brown’s site’s description: With the cameras in hot pursuit, Derren faces his toughest project yet, going in search of an unsuspecting member of the British public prepared to adopt the guise of a pastor and miracle worker. His chosen one then has six months to learn the trade and flourish across the pond as a [...]
There is a lot of commotion in the atheist blogosphere about how and/or whether atheists should participate in so-called “interfaith” organizations in which (if I understand correctly) members of different religions cooperate on shared service projects, aim at shared goals together, and (possibly?) dialogue about where they might find philosophical, ethical, and political common ground [...]
Sila Sahin’s appearance in the German version of Playboy has symbolic connotations: the 25-year-old Sahin, who plays Ayala in the RTL German soap opera Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (Good Times, Bad Times), managed to link her public exposure to the debate over a central sociopolitical issue: that young Muslim — in this case, Turkish — women [...]
Idea by Rob Lewis, visual realization by United Atheist Front.
Hilarious (angry) stand up. He essentially starts at 0:50: via Godless Girl. Your Thoughts?
A nice set of quotes setting the record straight: I’m not crazy about his NOMA-like tacit approval of religion having a say in values. Your Thoughts?
A cathartic remix of so many of the most memorable demonizations of atheists from the last few years: Your Thoughts?
Ophelia Benson, PZ Myers, and Jerry Coyne are dismissing the bizarre notion that lacking the New Atheists somehow lack credibility for lacking martyrs. On this topic, Nietzsche has already far more eloquently said far more than I ever could: Zealously and with much shouting they drove their herd over their bridge: as if to the [...]
Tracie Harris does an exemplary job of getting a caller to focus on, and eventually concede, a key philosophical distinction. Take notes because this is how you make a point: Debate isn’t futile, you just need to be good at it. Your Thoughts?
Singularitarianism is religious. Specifically, it is a kind of millenarian movement. It will therefore develop according to millenarian patterns. Millenarian movements can develop in several ways. The first way is good: the movement turns into a positive mature religion. The second way is bad: the movement turns into a self-destructive cult. The third way is [...]
On Facebook, Bruce S. Springsteen (third cousin of the Boss) coined the term “Jukebox Christian” to describe a certain kind of Christians, who he characterized as follows: They don’t consider questions and think about the answers. They just play back whatever automated tune goes with the button you pushed. Finally one phrase that expresses this [...]
What does the alleged source of true and absolute morals teach us about rape? Thanks to Dwight for the find. Your Thoughts?
Illuminating: Your Thoughts?
SUPERB: Your Thoughts?
In this post I just want to jot down some thoughts about a knotty issue. I probably will not make much progress in untangling all its strands but hopefully will stimulate a discussion that straightens things out at least a bit. Is political secularism inherently neutral or antagonistic to religiosity? There are a couple of [...]
A really nice rundown from Neil deGrasse Tyson: Your Thoughts?
Edward Tarte says everything that shouldn’t need to be said on the topic, but sadly does: The word poison is a bit unnecessarily strong, but the rest is spot on. Your Thoughts?
Okay, it’s another installment of our series wherein we try to determine whether religious craziness is either genuine or a spoof which is so hard to distinguish from the real thing because the real thing is so insane to begin with already. So, is this real morally bankrupt, self-absorbed superstitiousness or just satire of it? [...]
Grove City College, my alma mater from which I graduated with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Religion in 2000, is an Evangelical Christian college which ranks among America’s most religiously and politically conservative colleges. Princeton Review ranks Grove City among the “Best Northeastern Colleges” and among the 373 best colleges in the [...]
As Ellis on Facebook put it, the Bible was “written by and for men like this guy”: It’s not a divinely inspired book any more than this jackass is a prophet. Your Thoughts?
All design arguments reason from the organization in our universe to the existence of some divine designer. What does this designer do? Design implies deliberate selection from a plurality of alternative possibilities. It cannot be selection from one possibility nor can it be random selection. It has to be rational selection. According to Leibniz, God [...]