Link
There hasn't been many videos to post lately, so here is a new Horizon.
Aired: February 26, 2008
Probiotic, superfood, organic: what do all these labels on food mean, apart from making a product more expensive? Professor Lesley Regan, who tested beauty products in a previous episode, tests a variety of supermarket products for their supposed health benefits.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Leaving the Faith | BigThink
Ayaan Hirsi Ali went from political Islam to apostasy. How has her attitude toward the religion changed?(via RichardDawkins.net)
Religious segregation on road signs in Saudi Arabia
God forbids non-Muslims from entering Makkah
Update: Previous Picture was fake, this is the real one. Thanks Diagoras!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Ayaan Hirsi Ali to get EU protection
From Guardian:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born Dutch activist facing death threats for her outspoken criticism of Islam, is to come under national police protection anywhere in the European Union, the top justice official in Brussels said tonight.
Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice and home affairs, told the Guardian that Hirsi Ali and any other persons facing threats to their lives because of their opinions or writings, would be guaranteed protection wherever they went in Europe and that the host country would bear the expense. Read more
Christian fundamentalists start MuhammadTube.com
From MuhammadTube (emphasis mine):
Mission StatementUpdate: The webmaster at muhammadtube.com has posted a reply in the comments.
MuhammadTube.com/.org/.net, is a video-driven social network that enables people to connect and share with friends, family, co-workers and ministries in an unfiltered medium where it concerns the wickedness and filth that is Islam. The community of Christians use Muhammadtube to upload, imbed and share videos, upload and share photos, create their own blogs and forums, seek answers and explore their faith.
Muhammadtube Vision
Jesus Christ is the foundation and cornerstone of Christianity. Because of His love demonstrated on the cross by dying for our sins, we now have reason to fellowship with one another and proclaim salvation through His life and resurrection. We place great emphasis on teaching the Bible in public, studying it in private and using it as a guide for our daily lives. We encourage Christian growth by abiding in Jesus Christ through His Word, prayer, fellowship and by yielding our lives to the Holy Spirit. Our endeavor is to show a Christ-like love to all men, and we feel it should be exhibited in our lives by our words as well as our actions. Our goal is to develop the ministry of every member to the benefit of all. We feel we are held accountable to help people connect with Jesus Christ and experience the gift of eternal life.
Interview With Richard Dawkins | WPR
Wisconsin Public Radio (48 min)
From RichardDawkins.net
Requires QuickTime Player
UK: Muslim medics refuse to comply with new hygiene rules
From Daily Mail:
Muslim medics refuse to roll up their sleeves in hygiene crackdown - because it's against their religion
Health officials are having crisis talks with Muslim medical staff who have objected to hospital hygiene rules because of religious beliefs.
Medics in hospitals in at least three major English cities have refused to follow the regulations aimed at helping tackle superbugs because of their faith, it has been revealed.
Women medical students at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool objected to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands and removing arm coverings in theatre, claiming it is regarded as immodest.
Similar concerns were raised at Leicester University -and Sheffield University reported a case of a Muslim medic refusing to "scrub" because it left her forearms exposed.
Some students have said that they would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms, but hygiene experts said no exceptions should be made on religious grounds. Read more
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sabbath conflict may end playoff run
From SI.com:
Thanks to Jon for the linkDENVER (AP) -- State senators have taken up the cause of a Jewish boys basketball team whose playoff run may be halted because its players can't play on the Jewish Sabbath.
The Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy team could be headed for a regional championship on Saturday, March 8, if it wins one more game. But the Denver team's religious beliefs prohibit students from playing on the Jewish Sabbath between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.
If Herzl/RMHA makes it to the regional championship and refuses to play a Saturday game, another school would be chosen to take its place, CHSAA commissioner Bill Reader said. Read more
Icelandic Commercial
When this commercial was first shown, the church found it offensive "degrading blasphemy" and asked for it to be banned.
Thanks to J. Sörensen for the link
Where did Hubbard steal Scientology from?
LinkUpdate: Web version
From a German book written in 1934 he had read once. Now, through the miracle of the Internets you too can read it for the first time in ...well ...ever(via Cynical-C Blog)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Saudi tutor gets 180 lashes and jail time after being framed for meeting a student
From Telegraph:
A married university professor has been sentenced to 180 lashes and eight months in prison for having coffee with a female student.
The professor of psychology at Umm al-Qra University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, was caught in a "honey trap" operation after angering members of the religious police during a training course, his lawyer said.
The academic is said to have received a call from a supposed student, who asked to discuss a problem in person; he agreed, provided she brought along a brother as a chaperone.
When the man arrived at the meeting place, the girl was alone, and he was arrested for being in a state of khulwa - seclusion - with an unrelated female.
The professor, who has not been named, was reported to be a married man in his late 50s with children...
...Abdullah al-Sanousi, the professor's lawyer, said his client had upset some of the commission's trainees on a course that a number had failed.
The professor, who is said to have taped the girl admitting that she was sent by the police, is appealing against the sentence. Source
New Tag: Saudi Arabia
Richard Dawkins: The Giant Tortoise's Tale
This article was written while Richard Dawkins was on an earlier trip to Galapagos, and the footage seen here was shot on a later trip.Related:
The audio is Richard Dawkins reading the article, and video footage was then added over it.
Richard Dawkins: The Lava Lizard's Tale
Turkey to Perform Radical Revision of Islamic Texts
From BBC News:
Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.
The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.
The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad.
As such, it is the principal guide for Muslims in interpreting the Koran and the source of the vast majority of Islamic law, or Sharia.
But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam. Read more
Gong Idol: If Atheists Ruled the World
February 4, 2008
Performed by The Blood of Christ Repertory Players
Monday, February 25, 2008
Australia: Muslims want universities to fit prayer time
Muslim-only washrooms at La Trobe University, Australia
From The Australian:
MUSLIM university students want lectures to be rescheduled to fit in with prayer timetables and separate male and female eating and recreational areas established on Australian campuses.
But at least one institution has rejected their demands, arguing that the university is secular and it does not want to set a precedent for requests granted in the name of religious beliefs. Read more
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Richard Dawkins: The Salamander's Tale
This is a youtube video created by RodHullIAmHim for an actual section in The Ancestor's Tale, called "The Salamander's Tale". The audio is from the audiobook version, read by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward.(via RichardDawkins.net)
Richard Dawkins on five of his favorite books | BBC Radio
Link (Click on 'Listen again')February 24, 2007
Richard Dawkins joins Mariella Frostrup to reveal the part that fiction plays in his life, and chooses five of his favourite books.The Black Cloud: Fred Hoyle
Dark Universe: Daniel Galouye
Red Strangers: Elspeth Huxley
The Lion Children: Angus, Travers and Maisie MacNeice
The Sword of Honour: Evelyn Waugh
(via RichardDawkins.net)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Interview with Neil Shubin | CBC Radio
Link (Audio)As a species, humans owe fish a lot more respect than we give them. After all, just about every characteristic we consider as human really was invented by the fish. Take a look at your hand, for instance. It's really just a modified fin, right down to the bone structure. The jaw we use to talk? That's a slightly changed set of gills. Even the fact we have two arms and two legs is thanks to our fishy origins. More(via Pharyngula)
Pakistan: YouTube blocked for 'blasphemous' content
From Daily Times:
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has directed all the Internet service providers of the country to block access to the video-sharing website ‘Youtube’ for containing blasphemous content.
The order, issued by the director enforcement agency, says that the ratio of “non-Islamic objectionable video” has increased on the website. Following the order, all local ISPs have blocked the website from their servers. “The site would remain blocked till further orders from the PTA,” a local ISP worker said.
Daniel Dennett: Evolution, Culture and Truth
February 2008
Daniel C. Dennett, philosophy professor and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, offers a unique perspective on the role of philosophy in the cognitive and behavioral sciences. Dennett is known for his research on the mind and consciousness, relating philosophy to the scientific study of the brain, evolution and artificial intelligence.
BBC Horizon: God on the Brain
Play all videos (6)
Aired April 17, 2003 on BBC Two
Rudi Affolter and Gwen Tighe have both experienced strong religious visions. He is an atheist; she a Christian. He thought he had died; she thought she had given birth to Jesus. Both have temporal lobe epilepsy.
Like other forms of epilepsy, the condition causes fitting but it is also associated with religious hallucinations. Research into why people like Rudi and Gwen saw what they did has opened up a whole field of brain science: neurotheology.
The connection between the temporal lobes of the brain and religious feeling has led one Canadian scientist to try stimulating them. (They are near your ears.) 80% of Dr Michael Persinger's experimental subjects report that an artificial magnetic field focused on those brain areas gives them a feeling of 'not being alone'. Some of them describe it as a religious sensation.
"...a high probability [Ellen White] had temporal lobe epilepsy"
Prof Gregory Holmes, Dartmouth Medical School
His work raises the prospect that we are programmed to believe in god, that faith is a mental ability humans have developed or been given. And temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) could help unlock the mystery.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Science Conflict: Should a 21st Century Scientist Believe in God? | Debate
Link
A recent debate held at the University of Waterloo, sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ and the Atheists, Agnostics and Free Thinkers Society of Waterloo.(via ExChristian.net)
Links | Feb 21
Adam Curtis: The Rise and Fall of
the Television Journalist as Hero
Note: featured video in the links post may not always be related
Videos:
the Television Journalist as Hero
Note: featured video in the links post may not always be related
Videos:
- New BBC Horizon: How To Live To 101
- Pharyngula: Two tales of whale evolution
- CNN: Dr. Marlene Winell on the Colorado church shooting
- Derren Brown challenges the beliefs of a New Age believer with a Voodoo Doll
- Henry Rollins on Evolution
- Smart rubber promises self-mending products (with video) - New Scientist
- British officials paid a psychic to evict council house ghost - Reuters
- Iranian Man Sentenced to 4 Months in Jail, 30 Lashes for Walking Dog - Fox News
- Saudi Virtue Commission defends arrest of American businesswoman - Arab News
- Scientology, Anonymous - by Michael Shermer
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Ape Genius | PBS Nova
Watch the full program online at PBS Nova
Update: Only available for viewers in the US. Read the comments if you live somewhere else. (Thanks Mavaddat!)
Aired: February 19, 2008
Experts zero in on what separates humans from our closest living relatives
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Interview with Dr. Bart Ehrman | NPR
Link (Audio)Fresh Air, February 19, 2008
It's one of the oldest faith questions: If there's an all-powerful and loving God, why do human beings suffer?Related:
Dr. Bart Ehrman: Misquoting Jesus (Video)
Monday, February 18, 2008
God and Politics in Lynchburg, Tennessee
Rocketboom field correspondent and The Uptake producer Chuck Olsen talks to Christian Fundamentalists about Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama, and the End Times in Lynchburg, Tennessee.(via The Sword & The Pen)
Iraqi TV Debate: Is the Earth Flat?
Update: Thanks to Mavaddat for the video. Alternative link from MEMRI TV
Iraqi Researcher Defies Scientific Axioms: The Earth Is Flat and Much Larger than the Sun (Which Is Also Flat)From Transcript:
Interviewer: Lunar and solar eclipses, sunset and sunrise, and the changing of seasons – how would you explain all these phenomena, if the Earth is not round, as you claim?
Fadhel Al-Sa'd: The sun circles the Earth because it is smaller than the Earth, as is evident in Koranic verses.
Have you ever seen how the sun moves? I have seen the sun moving. The sun makes one move every 24 hours.
What I say is based on Koranic science. He bases his arguments on the kind of science that I reject categorically – the modern science that they teach in schools. This science is a heretic innovation that has no confirmation in the Koran. No verse in the Koran indicates that the Earth is round or that it rotates. Anything that has no indication in the Koran is false.
CBS 2 News: The Atheist Next Door
February 17, 2008
CHICAGO (CBS) ― In this presidential campaign season, Democrats and Republicans alike have declared their religious faith. They do it, in part, because they believe it wins political points. After all, the latest Harris polls show somewhere between 73 and 80 percent of Americans believe in God. But what about the rest?(via Friendly Atheist)
Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby | PBS
VideoBill Moyers interviews author Susan Jacoby on the separation of church and state in America today, and why she believes preserving the sanctity of American secularism is fundamental to democracy and to the benefit of both religion and government.
Buy the book: The Age of American Unreason (Hardcover)
(via RichardDawkins.net. Thanks to Edward for the link)
Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers | Channel 4
Play all videos
Aired: February 14, 2008
BAFTA award-winning director Amelia Hann uncovers the unsettling and often disturbing world of child evangelism, following pint-sized preachers Samuel Boutwell from Mississippi, crowd-pleasing Terry Durham from Florida and Brazilian sensation Ana Carolina Dias who began preaching at just three years old and regularly commands TV audiences of millions.
Wikipedia's fair solution to the 'Muhammad pictures' controversy
From Wikipedia:
How can I hide the images using my personal Wikipedia settings?Related:
If you are offended by the images (and you have an account), you can change your personal settings so that you don't have to see them, without affecting other users. This is done by modifying your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) page, which is individual to each user.
To do this:
* Click on this link to modify your monobook.css page
o If no page is there already, just go ahead and create a page
* Add the following line to your css page:
body.page-Muhammad img {display: none;}
This will permanently hide the images on the article for you as long as you are logged in.
Muslims enraged at Wikipedia
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Links | Documentaries only
Thanks to the original uploader for uploading over - Horizon: Most of our universe is missing
- Horizon: Dr. Money and the boy with no penis
- Horizon: Mad but glad
- Horizon: The Genius Sperm Bank
- Horizon: The woman who thinks like a cow
- Sir David Attenborough: First contact with a Tribe
- Adam Curtis: The Trap | Part 2 | Part 3
- Terry Jones: Barbarians | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Riots linked to cartoon row | Reuters
Feb 16 - Gangs of rioters set fire to cars and trucks in northern Copenhagen during a sixth night of rioting that has now spread to other Danish cities.
Social workers said the reprinting of a two-year-old cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish newspapers "might" have fuelled the riots.
Jon Ronson: Tottenham Ayatollah Revisited
Link
Aired: September 5, 2005 on Channel 4
Aired: September 5, 2005 on Channel 4
In 1997, when Islamist extremism was still somebody else’s problem, Jon Ronson spent a year profiling cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed. In a post-7/7 world, the resulting film gets a re-screening with a new introduction from Ronson. The government says Bakri won’t be allowed to return to the UK and certainly his anti-Semitic, anti-homosexual views are distasteful; but Ronson (himself Jewish) also manages to convey, via mundane details, the absurdities of Bakri’s mission to turn Britain into an Islamist state — jihad training in a Crawley scout hut etc.
Friday, February 15, 2008
France 24 TV: Bringing God back
Violent riots in Denmark. No one knows why?
FROM AFP:
COPENHAGEN (AFP) — Six youths were arrested in Copenhagen for setting cars and dumpsters ablaze and throwing stones at police in a fifth night of riots in a predominantly immigrant area of the Danish capital, police said Friday.Related:
"We've had six arrests so far. They've been charged with throwing stones at police and setting fires to cars and waste containers," Chief Inspector Henrik Olesen of the Copenhagen police told AFP.
At least 11 cars were torched in various neighbourhoods of Copenhagen, and 10 others in the nearby town of Kokkedal.
On Thursday, 17 youths were arrested for rioting the previous night.
"We don't know why they're rioting. I think it's because they're bored. Some people say it's because of the cartoons but that's not my opinion," Olesen said. WHAT?
[...]
Protests have flared up again in several Muslim countries including Kuwait and Pakistan following the reprinting. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas also condemned the publication. Read more
Danish imams urge calm as cartoon protests mount - Reuters
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Richard Dawkins Debates Madeline Bunting | Guardian
Stephen Moss introduces a debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting.
Source | Original mp3 link
(via RichardDawkins.net)
Interview with a Saudi beheader
This is the long version (10 min)
From Transcript:
Recorded from the Lebanese Broadcasting Channel.Dr. Turki Al-Atyan, Saudi Interior Ministry psychologist: The rulings of the Shari'a – executions or other punishments decreed by Allah – are carried out by the sword, not by hanging or by gunfire. In the past, gunfire was used, and the victim's guardian was allowed to do the shooting, but out of the fear of possible injustice, Saudi Arabia decided that executions would be carried out by the sword
[...]
First TV host: Do you cut off hands, or do you just do beheadings?
Abdallah Al-Bishi: Yes, yes. I carry out the punishment of cutting off thieves' hands, as well as the cutting off of a hand and a leg on alternate sides, as is written in the Koran.
[...]First TV host: Are you training your eldest son Badr or one of his brothers to do the same job in the future, especially since you inherited this profession from your father?
Abdallah Al-Bishi: Allah be praised, Badr is about to be appointed to the position in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia to execute woman for 'witchcraft'
A beheading in Saudi Arabia
From Belfast Telegraph:
A leading international human rights organisation is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to halt the planned execution of a woman accused of "witchcraft".
The woman is due to be put to death on foot of a coerced confession and the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them.
One man claimed she had made him impotent. In another case, a divorced woman reportedly returned to her ex-husband during the month predicted by the witch said to have cast the spell. The court failed to probe alternative explanations for these incidents.
Human Rights Watch has described the charges against her as "absurd" and says they have no basis in law. Read more
Update: Video of the trial (via Cynical-C):
A Conversation: The Question of God | PBS
Play all videos
A round-table discussion on religious belief chaired by Dr Armand Nicholi.
Actors are playing the roles of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Glenn Beck: Ugly Women are Progressives
"If you believed in God, you'd know that there's going to be another chance for you. You don't have to be ugly in heaven. You're going to be your perfect self, and there will be another perfect somebody waiting for you on the other side."
France 24 TV: Islam and its Taboos
Debate on Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Link
February 11, 2007
Note: Interesting debate, watch it till the end.
Link
February 11, 2007
In nations that fiercely protect freedom of speech, is there an obligation to pay to protect those who brazenly criticize Islam? As outspoken Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali visits France, this is the question citizens are asking.With Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch
Note: Interesting debate, watch it till the end.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Links | Feb 12
Happy Darwin Day!
Videos:
Today is Charles Darwin's 199th birthday.
Read about Darwin Day
Videos:
- Inside Hamas - New Channel 4 Documentary (Worth watching)
- Exposed: The New Uri Geller - Geller's trainee
- New Miracle, Jesus found on a log - Fox News
- News report about Anon's protests against Scientology - CBC News
- To Hell With the Archbishop of Canterbury - by Christopher Hitchens
- Dutch MP says anti-Islamic film 'Fitna' set for broadcast in March - New details
- Jesus 2.0 Has Arrived - The story of GodTube.com
- Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop - Time
Saudi Arabia bans red roses for Valentine's Day
From Yahoo! News:RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine's Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.Related:
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items coloured scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolising love, newspapers said. Read more
Kuwait Hardliners Take Aim at Valentine's Day - Fox News
France 24 TV on Ayaan Hirsi Ali
February 11, 2008
Today in Top Story: Somali-born former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, threatened with death for her outspoken criticism of Islam, sought European protection and possible French citizenship on Sunday.Related:
French star philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy has spearheaded a campaign for Hirsi Ali to receive honorary French citizenship -- and financial aid to cover her security costs -- and Sunday night saw several hundred sympathizers attend a support meeting in the French capital.
Islamist target Hirsi Ali seeks French protection - AFP
Political Correctness Gone Awry | Parody
The Onion: New Iraqi Law Requires Waiting Period For Suicide Vest Purchases
Link
Link
Saudi preachers blame sinners for lack of rain
From AFP:RIYADH- Saudi preachers on Saturday conducted prayers for rain in their desert kingdom and blamed the empty skies on sinfulness, the official Spa news agency reported.
“Misfortune does not befall (a country) unless sins have been committed there,” said the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abderrahman bin Abdel Aziz al-Sudeiss.
The sheikh, a critic of what he calls the “goodly number of people who chase after forbidden pleasures,” singled out as particularly responsible for the lack of rain “corruption, bribery and the search for ill-gotten gain.”
In the capital, Riyadh, prayers were conducted by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdelaziz al-Sheikh, who heads the highest religious authority in the kingdom.
He also exhorted the faithful to “avoid the forbidden and the illicit,” before calling on God to “shower the country with beneficial rains, for the good of the land and of men.”
In a ritual practised since the time of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), the prayers for rain consist of a procession in which the faithful seek the generosity of heaven.
Saudi Arabia is one of the most arid countries in the world and must routinely resort to desalination plants to provide enough drinking water.
Martin Amis: Islam and Islamism | BBC Radio
February 9, 2008
Martin Amis is one of Britain's best-known novelists but recently he has been more in the news for his views on Islam and Islamism than his fiction.
Amis was profoundly shaken by the events of September 11th 2001 and he felt compelled to engage with contemporary politics. In the last few years he has written several essays on Islamism and argues that all religious belief is without reason or dignity.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
17,000 women in Britain are victims of 'honour' crime every year
London - June 07: Banaz Mahmod, 20, was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a back garden by her father.
From The Independent:
Ministers are stepping up the fight against so-called 'honour' crime and forced marriages. Detectives say official statistics are 'merely the tip of the iceberg' of this phenomenon. Brian Brady investigates
Up to 17,000 women in Britain are being subjected to "honour" related violence, including murder, every year, according to police chiefs.
And official figures on forced marriages are the tip of the iceberg, says the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
It warns that the number of girls falling victim to forced marriages, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and even murder by relatives intent on upholding the "honour" of their family is up to 35 times higher than official figures suggest. Read more
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Unreported World: Egypt's Rubbish People
Link
Aired: February 8, 2007 on Channel 4
Aired: February 8, 2007 on Channel 4
Unreported World exposes a dark side to Egypt that the authorities don't want foreigners to see: a secretive society of around 40,000 people literally living in rubbish in a Cairo ghetto overrun by rats and disease.Extended info in the video's description box
...The team highlights one the most sensitive issues faced by some of those in Egypt - their decision to convert to Christianity - a decision that some Muslims believe should be punishable by death under a strict interpretation of sharia religious law.
One convert, "Christine", tearfully claims that officers from the government's State Security Intelligence have threatened to torture those trying to convert, rape their daughters in front of them and jail them on false charges of prostitution.
"We are abused in the street, spat at, cigarettes are thrown at us, my young daughter who is eleven is hit by the teacher and told to wear the veil and taken to the Mosque to pray even though she doesn't know anything about the Islamic faith," she tells Williams.
Mike Huckabee on Kenneth Copeland's Show
Bible lesson from Huckabee:Now I hear people say it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere, work real hard, and your intentions are honorable. But the truth is it matters. The difference between eternity in heaven and eternity in hell.
Links | Feb 9
Videos:
- This week's New Scientist video round-up - New Scientist
- Archbishop faces harsh criticism over Sharia row - BBC News
- Michael Shermer: The Free Market Philosophy of Adam Smith - Fora TV
- BBC Horizon: How to Kill a Human Being - New documentary
- Michael Pollan: The omnivore's next dilemma - TED Talks
News:
- Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Found, 100 Million Years Old - Science Daily
- Yahoo! is banning the use of "Allah" in email names - The Register
- Westboro Baptist Church Pickets Mike Huckabee In Kansas - Pictures from C&L
- First church in Qatar since coming of Islam 14 centuries ago - Radio Netherlands News
Friday, February 8, 2008
Question Time: Sharia Law in the UK
Link
Aired: Febrary 7, 2008
Is Archbishop Rowan Williams right to say that the introduction of Sharia Law in the UK is unavoidable and would aid social cohesion?
Aired: Febrary 7, 2008
Is Archbishop Rowan Williams right to say that the introduction of Sharia Law in the UK is unavoidable and would aid social cohesion?
Human Ancestry Made Easy
Traces our migration out of Africa and explains, through DNA evidence, how humans colonized the world. Part of the Made Easy series of videos that show the evidence of our origins, from the Big Bang onwards.
Related:
Human Evolution Made Easy
by potholer54
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Mormon Bigfoot Genesis Theory
From 10ZenMonkeys:
The Journal of Mormon History recently published a new investigation into stories suggesting that the giant Sasquatch monster is really Cain, the murderous second son of Adam and Eve.
It may not be the first controversy tackled by new Mormon President, Thomas S. Monson. But the article's author, Matthew Bowman cites a 1919 manuscript describing Hawaiian missionary E. Wesley Smith "being attacked by a huge, hairy creature, whom Smith drives off in the name of Christ" the night before the mission was dedicated. His brother tells him the attacker must've been Cain ...Read more
Religious police in Saudi Arabia arrest an American businesswoman for sitting with a man at Starbucks
From Times Online:
A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh.
Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's “Mutaween” police. Read more
Links | Feb 7
Nembrotha Cristata Nudibranch
Link
Videos:
Update: Hover over links for more details
Link
Videos:
- Horizon: Britain's Most Dangerous Drug - New BBC Horizon documentary
- American Atheists Update - Elections, Super Tuesday
- Child abuse in the name of God - Al Qaeda training video
- Evangelical leader James Dobson on McCain - Laura Ingram
- Fundamental Islam in Australia - Australian TV
- The Reason Project - SamHarris.com
- Afghan government official says that student will not be executed - The Independent
- Atheist Sees Image of Big Bang in Slice of Toast - The Specious Report
Update: Hover over links for more details
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Ted Haggard prematurely ends his "spiritual restoration" process
From The Gazette:
New Life Church said Tuesday that former pastor Ted Haggard has prematurely ended a "spiritual restoration" process begun when he was fired for sexual misconduct.(via C&L)
Haggard was fired from New Life Church and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals in November 2006 after a former male prostitute alleged they had a cash-for-sex relationship. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine.
Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and said he bought meth but didn't use it.
New Life said in a written statement that "the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and (New Life) maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry." Read more
'Adultery' sisters to be stoned to death in Iran
This is how a woman would be prepared for stonning.
From Telegraph.co.uk:
Two Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the supreme court upheld death sentences against them, Iranian media have reported.
The two sisters were found guilty of adultery - a capital crime in Iran - after the husband of one of the pair presented a video showing them in the company of other men while he was away.
The penal court of Teheran province had already sentenced the sisters, identified only as Zohreh, 27, and Azar, to stoning, the newspaper said.
The Etemad newspaper quoted Jabbar Solati, their lawyer, as saying that the sisters had initially been tried for "illegal relations" and had received 99 lashes. However, they were convicted of "adultery" in a second trial for the same incident.The pair admitted they were in the video but argued there was no adultery as no scene on the video showed them engaged in a sexual act.
Light Fantastic: Let There Be Light | BBC
Light Fantastic explores the phenomenon that surrounds and affects nearly every aspect of our lives but one which we take for granted - light.
(via Berto)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Fatwa Against Bollywood Actor For Having Wax Replica Of Himself Made
From MEMRI Blog:
A Sunni cleric at the Islamic institute Darul Ifta has issued a fatwa against Bollywood actor Salman Khan for having a wax replica of himself unveiled at Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London. The cleric, Mufti Saleem Ahmad Qasmi, said that Islam does not permit statues of any living being.
The fatwa noted that ‘‘if the Bollywood actor does not re-affirm Kalima-e-Tayyeba, he will not be considered a Muslim’’. [Kalima-e-Tayyeba is the shahadah:, the affirmation of faith: La Ilaha Illa Ahhah: Wa Muhammad Rasool Allah.]
Dispatches: Holy Offensive | Channel 4
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First shown in February 2005
A documentary that examines two highly publicised clashes between artistic freedom and religious belief in today's Britain. Both are from the world of theatre, an art form usually thought of as old-fashioned, but which keeps finding itself at the cutting edge of contemporary culture wars.
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