Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Ted Kennedy at Liberty Baptist College
On October 3, 1983 the late Senator Ted Kennedy addressed Liberty Baptist College on faith, truth and tolerance in America. This is an excerpt of that speech.(via David Brody, thanks Michael)
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Demystifying Adventures of the Amazing Randi
From "The God of Skeptics" by Michael J Mooney:
On stage in a spacious Las Vegas banquet hall sits a nervous-looking, dark-haired Danish woman named Connie Sonne. The 46-year-old retired police officer has made a name for herself as a psychic in Europe, claiming she knows the whereabouts of famous missing British toddler Madeleine McCann. Sonne also says she can read playing cards through sealed envelopes using only a crystal. If she can successfully demonstrate her skills in this controlled experiment at the South Point Hotel Casino & Spa, she'll receive $1 million.(via RichardDawkins.net)
A broad-shouldered security guard enters dressed in a standard-issue black polyester uniform. He walks toward the stage, carrying the precious cargo he's been hired to protect: a large manila envelope sealed with duct tape.
The 700 people in the audience — famous magicians, television personalities, mind readers, scientists, and garden-variety nerds — sit in silence, their eyes fixed on the package. The guard passes VIPs: magicians Penn and Teller, astronomer Phil Plait, psychologist Dr. Ray Hyman — and there, at the end of the first row, with a bald head and a beard as long and white as Darwin's, James Randi. For more than 60 years, "The Amazing Randi" has been performing magic, debunking psychics, and discussing the perils of all things paranormal. Now 81 years old, he heads the Fort Lauderdale-based James Randi Educational Foundation.
Read more
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong: Morality Without God
From Philosophy Bites:
Download MP3
Morality is a human creation. We don't need God to have morality. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, author of a recent book on the topic, argues forcefully for this position in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.(via Derren Brown Blog)
Penn and Teller - Bullshit - The Vatican
Aired August 27, 2009 on Showtime
Penn & Teller discuss the Catholic Church and their involvement in anti-homosexuality efforts, condom use, and the cover up of the priest abuse sex scandal. They talk with an Italian comedian that was punished for criticizing Pope Benedict the XVI.*Updated with new video (Thanks to Glenn and SI)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Armed Man at Obama Event Attended Pastor Steven Anderson's Sermon
August 28, 2009 on CNN
See also: Baptist Pastor Prays for President Obama to Die & Go to Hell [August 24]
Thursday, August 27, 2009
RDF TV - Distribution of Life: The Iguanas of Galápagos
Richard Dawkins explains how the distribution of life on Earth's continents and islands is exactly as we should expect if life evolved, and exactly how we should NOT expect if it had been created.From RichardDawkins.net
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Christopher Hitchens and Derek Araujo
by Center for Inquiry
This was an interview recorded for the 2007 Center for Inquiry conference, Secular Society and its Enemies.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Baptist Pastor Prays for President Obama to Die & Go to Hell
August 24, 2009 on CNN
See also: Gospel of Hate: Arizona pastor Steve Anderson spews bile toward Obama, Frank, and gays (with audio)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Debate Over 'Homeopathic Swine Flu Vaccine' on Australian TV
UPDATE: Video removed due to a copyright complaint by Network Ten
August 2009 on Channel Ten with Professor Nikolai Petrovsky and Dr. Isaac Golden
(via The Skeptic Zone)
August 2009 on Channel Ten with Professor Nikolai Petrovsky and Dr. Isaac Golden
(via The Skeptic Zone)
Malaysian Model, Mother to be Caned & Improsined for Drinking Beer in Public
August 23, 2009 on CNN
A Malaysian model, who is set to become the first woman in the Southeast Asian country to be caned for drinking alcohol in public, wants her punishment carried out in public.UPDATE From Al Jazeera:
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno says that if a caning is meant to teach a lesson, then it should be in public.
[...] An Islamic court in the eastern state of Pahang fined Kartika $1,400 (5,000 Malaysian ringgit) and sentenced her to six strokes with a rattan cane for drinking beer at a hotel bar two years ago.
Kartika, a 32-year-old part-time model, was visiting Malaysia from Singapore, where she lives with her husband and two children.
Read more
A Malaysian Muslim woman who had been sentenced to be caned for drinking beer in a hotel has been granted a reprieve until after Ramadan, religious official have said. Read more
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Bill Moyers Journal: Robert Wright
July 17, 2009 on PBS
Robert Wright's new book, The Evolution of God, has performed an unusual feat — it is a book about religion with the capacity to make both believers and non-believers uncomfortable.
Robert Wright believes that "God," the human concept, can evolve — indeed that it already has. And though Wright personally believes this concept is an illusion, he thinks that the illusion might just be evolving in a way that reveals some underlying truth, that comes ever-closer to describing the divine. He unfolds his argument while charting thousands of years of the history of belief, from the stone age to the modern era.
Read more
Friday, August 21, 2009
Father Morris: Obama's Health Care Policy Does Not Reflect God's Will
August 20, 2009 on FOX Business Channel
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Mystical Brain
by Isabelle Raynauld
Mystical Brain reveals the exploratory work of a team from the University of Montreal who seek to understand the states of grace experienced by mystics and those who meditate. Filmmaker Isabelle Raynauld offers up scientific research, which proposes that mystical ecstasy is a transformative experience and could to contribute to people's psychic and physical health, treat depression and speed up the healing process when combined with conventional medicine. In French with English subtitles.See also: BBC Horizon: God on the Brain
(Thanks Stephen)
Robert Wright: The Evolution of God
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Robert Wright | ||||
| ||||
August 18, 2009 on The Colbert Report
Robert Wright believes that the three major religions can help God move toward a level of tolerance and compassion.Amazon: The Evolution of God
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Newly Discovered Rat-Eating Plant Named After Sir David Attenborough
From Telegraph:
A carnivorous pitcher plant that eats rats and insects has been discovered in the Philippines and named after Sir David Attenborough.(via RichardDawkins.net)
The plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is believed to be the largest meat-eating shrub, dissolving rats with acid-like enzymes.
The team of botanists, led by British experts Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson, found the plant on Mount Victoria in the Philippines.
They were inspired to search for the plant after word that it is existed came from two Christian missionaries who described seeing a large carnivorous pitcher in 2000 after they climbed the mountain.
Mr McPherson, of Poole Dorset, said: "The plant produces spectacular traps which catch not only insects, but also rodents. It is remarkable that it remained undiscovered until the 21st century." Read more
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
You Have Been Watching: Bibleman, Angels, and Banana Man
(2)
Aired August 18, 2009 on Channel 4
From Charlie Brooker's new show 'You Have Been Watching'
(via TroisVitesse)
Mr. Deity and the Really Unique Gift
Season 3, Episode 5
Lucy finds out what Mr. Deity is giving his chosen people
Monday, August 17, 2009
Campaign of Torture & Murder of Gay Men in Iraq
August 17, 2009 on CNN
From BBC News:
Gay Iraqi men are being murdered in what appears to be a co-ordinated campaign involving militia forces, the group Human Rights Watch says.
It says hundreds of gay men have been targeted and killed in Iraq since 2004.
So-called honour killings also account for deaths where families punish their own kin in order to avoid public shame.
The report says members of the Mehdi Army militia group are spearheading the campaign, but police are also accused - even though homosexuality is legal.
Witnesses say vigilante groups break into homes and pick people up in the street, interrogating them to extract the names of other potential victims, before murdering them.
Read more
Sharia Courts Conquer UK
August 17, 2009 on Russia Today
A recent study by think tank Civitas concluded there are around 85 Sharia courts currently operating in Britain, of which merely a dozen work within the British legal system.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Brad Pitt: No Chance for 'Gay Marriage, No Religion' Platform
August 13, 2009 on NBC Today - Extended clip
From Advocate News:
Brad Pitt sat down with the Today show's Ann Curry to talk about a local push in New Orleans to have him elected mayor.*Updated
"I'm running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform," Pitt jokingly told Curry. "I don't have a chance."
Pitt has previously said that he and Angelina Jolie won't get marriage until it's legal for same-sex couples to tie the knot. Recently, he jokingly told reporters they won't get married until "George Clooney and his partner can."
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Caged Virgin
LinkDownload MP3
From Point of Inquiry:
In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Ayaan Hirsi Ali recounts opportunities that have allowed her to become emancipated from Islam, emphasizing that every woman in Islamic societies can likewise work against oppression and "have faith in reason." She talks about how 9-11 was a turning point in her "gradual process of enlightenment" to renounce Islam. She explains why she rejects Islam and all religions, even while recognizing that religion has some positive characteristics. She draws distinctions between favorable concepts of God in Judaism or Christianity versus destructive concepts of God within Islam. She argues that Islam, unlike Christianity and Judaism, is not a just a religion, but is a political ideology at its core, and that it is fundamentally incompatible with liberal democracies. She contends that anyone who cares about the freedom of individuals should work to "defeat Islam." She recounts how gay rights figured prominently in her initial decision to speak out and write as a Muslim apostate. Read more
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Interview with Sudanese Journalist Facing 40 Lashes for Wearing Trousers
August 13, 2009 on France 24
Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed Al-Hussain was arrested for wearing trousers, an outift considered indecent by the authorities in Khartoum. If convicted by a Sudanese court, Lubna faces 40 lashes with a whip.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Airborne Rabbis Blow Horns to Fight off Swine Flu
August 12, 2009 on BBC News:
A group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial trumpets to ward off swine flu.(via Pharyngula)
About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing the horns called "shofars".
The flight's aim was "to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it," Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Aharanot newspaper.
The flu is often referred to as H1N1 in Israel, where pigs are seen as unclean.
Read more
What Have The Noughties Done for God?
Play all videos (2)
August 10, 2009 on Newsnight BBC One
Featuring the first film in a season about 'The Noughties' - assessing the changes in big areas of our lives in the past decade. In this show, it's all about religion and the changing attitudes to it.
The Noughties has been a controversial decade for religion. With secularism on the rise, churches closing down and religion finding itself increasingly at odds with artistic expression, atheists have seized the chance to promote their message of a godless universe. Has God's century got off to a bad start?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Atheists Visit the Creation Museum
Play all videos (3)
On August 7, 2009, over 300 Atheists traveled to the Bible Belt of America to visit the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.(via Pharyngula)
Five religious skeptics document their adventures through the museum as they learn that not everyone believes in modern science.
The Creation Museum promotes the existence of a 6,000 year old Earth, in which dinosaurs and humans once lived together.
Christopher Hitchens vs. John Lennox: Can Atheism Save Europe?
UPDATE: The video is no longer available
From Amazon:
Should atheism replace Christianity in Europe? A new Europe is emerging from the old order and with it, a modern version of an old philosophy. Christopher Hitchens and Professor John Lennox debate whether or not Europe should jettison its religious past and welcome the 'New Atheism' at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland in August 2008. Dubbed the 'New Atheism' advocates are calling for the abandonment of Europe's religious heritage and the adoption of an aggressive secularism. Religion is detrimental to society, they argue. Indeed, in the words of Christopher Hitchens, it 'poisons everything.' Some, such as Professor John Lennox, strongly disagree. They maintain that, far from undermining society, the preservation of religious thought, and Christianity in particular, is vital to the survival of Western civilization. All this leads to the inevitable questions: Should atheism replace Christianity in Europe? Does atheism have a better record that Christianity? And finally: Where would the New Atheism lead the New Europe? More(Thanks Ivan)
Monday, August 10, 2009
Richard Dawkins: What have The Noughties done for God?
Aired August 10, 2009 on BBC Newsnight
Richard Dawkins interviewed for a Newsnight piece titled 'What have the noughties done for god?'
Sister Wendy Beckett: Atheism 'based on a fear of God'
Aired August 10, 2009 on BBC Newsnight
Sister Wendy Beckett interviewed for a Newsnight piece titled 'What have the noughties done for god?'
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Ben Goldacre on The Now Show
Ben Goldacre of BadScience.net talks about the bad reporting of science in the popular press.(via RichardDawkins.net)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Colbert: Yahweh or No Way - Dinosaur Adventure Land & Black Market Kidneys
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Yahweh or No Way - Dinosaur Adventure Land & Black Market Kidneys | ||||
| ||||
August 6, 2009 on The Colbert Report
The founder of a creationist dinosaur theme park refuses to pay taxes, President Obama may be a secret Mormon, and a Jewish man trades kidneys on the black market. (06:00)
Friday, August 7, 2009
Gallup Poll: Oregon, Vermont Most Non-Religious States
August 7, 2009 on Gallup News
Gallup Poll Editor in Chief Frank Newport reveals the most Catholic, most Mormon, most Jewish, and most non-religious states in the union.UPDATE: Full report here
Most "no religion" states: Oregon, Vermont, Washington, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Alaska.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Religious Fanatics Invade Nigerian Humanist Conference
July 29, 2009 at a conference on witchraft and child's rights
From CFI Newsroom:
The Center for Inquiry’s anti-superstition campaign has turned dangerous.(via Unreasonable Faith)
During a passive Nigerian conference meant to explore ways of combating the abuse, expulsion and murder of children wrongly accused of witchcraft, more than 150 members of the Christian witch-hunter Helen Ukpabio’s Liberty Gospel Church reportedly overpowered the non-combative participants, invading the conference and subjecting attendees to threats, violence and physical attacks. During the July 29 incident, the mob attacked conference speaker Leo Igwe, the Center for Inquiry’s Nigerian representative and secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement. Igwe said disruptive individuals broke his glasses and stole his bag, camera, cell phone and other items in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the discussion. A transcript of Igwe’s talk—copies of which he reported were stolen with his bag—is available upon request.
“The Liberty Gospel Church’s disruptions show just how important this anti-superstition campaign is,” said Norm R. Allen Jr., executive director of African Americans for Humanism and CFI’s Transnational Programs. “Religious fanatics are running scared and becoming desperate.” Read Allen’s CFI blog posting on this incident.
Stewart V Armando: Religion
From BBC Comedy Extra
Executive producer Armando Iannucci interrogates Stewart Lee about his BBC2 series in a Frost/Nixon style face off. This week Armando and Stewart discuss the 'hot potato' topic of religion - what filling should you put on that potato? And how can you turn atheism into a commercial enterprise?
Test Your Faith-Vision
by Edward Current
Among all the horrible things in the world, how quickly can you pick out our loving Creator's blessings? Find out with this simple quiz.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Las Vegas Woman Sees Jesus on Toilet Seat Sticker - UPDATED
August 4, 2009 on KTNV
A Las Vegas woman says she's seeing a sign from above when she answers nature's call. Magdalena Nelson's guest bathroom screams "I love Las Vegas." But while she was cleaning last week, she says an image of Jesus appeared on the bumper sticker on the toilet lid.(via Cynical-C Blog)
Her boyfriend now says he sees the image and it's given them a positive feeling after they almost lost their home to foreclosure. Nelson says she's even willing to let visitors come see it, if it might help them as well.
Read more
UPDATE: Magdalena sent us an email:
Hey is is Magdalena the girl with Jesus in her toilet. Just cheking videos and wanted to say hi and thank you for piking up story.UPDATE II: Another one!
So, Im the crazy Vegas chick with Jesus sighting in my toilet. First of all thanks for airing it and second thanks for the getting the sillyness of it. You guys understand my humor and I love your show!! Been watching your clips on other issues and laughing my ass off.
-Magdalena
Positive Thinking and Alternative Medicine: Placebos and Beyond
July 28, 2009
Chris Maute speaks at the 2009 Center for Inquiry (CFI) Institute Summer Session on "Positive Thinking and Alternative Medicine: Placebos and Beyond."
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
TV Debates on Bahais and Freedom of Religion in Egypt
Aired on Egypt's Dream 2 TV (2006-2008)
From transcript:
Presenter: We have with us the MP who demanded that Bahais be killed, Sheik Maher 'Aql. Welcome, Sheik Maher.
Sheik Maher 'Aql: Hello.
Presenter: Still determined about killing the Bahais?
Sheik Maher 'Aql: Allah willing.
[...]
Islamist lawyer Ahmad Dhiya Al-Din: It is just like in the case of bird flu. Then, the solution was a thorough one – the birds were taken and put to death. We do not kill human beings.
Read more
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Father Jonathan on Faith-Healing Convict and Pro-Israel Christian Event in DC
August 2, 2009 on FOX News
Father Guilty in Prayer Death Case
August 1, 2009 on AP
From CBS News:
(AP) A Wisconsin man accused of killing his 11-year-old daughter by praying instead of seeking medical care was found guilty Saturday of second-degree reckless homicide.
Dale Neumann, 47, was convicted in the March 23, 2003, death of his daughter, Madeline, from undiagnosed diabetes. Prosecutors contended he should have rushed the girl to a hospital because she couldn't walk, talk, eat or speak. Instead, Madeline died on the floor of the family's rural Weston home as people surrounded her and prayed. Someone called 911 when she stopped breathing.
Neumann's 41-year-old wife, Leilani, was convicted on the same charge in the spring and is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 6. Both face up to 25 years in prison.
Read more
Bill Maher interviews Jeff Sharlet on "The Family"
July 31, 2009 on Real Time with Bill Maher
Jeff Sharlet's book: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Thanks to Camels with Hammers for the tip
(via Pharyngula)
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