Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Judge Wants Ten Commandments Monument in Tennessee Courthouse
July 27, 2010 on 6 News
A Hawkins County judge wants to have a "Foundations of American Law and Government" display put up at the justice center that opened in January, but there's controversy.
The suggested plan is to put up several framed historic documents and the Ten Commandments up on a bare wall in the building.
Read more
Mike Huckabee and Tim LaHaye on Obama and the End Times
*Re-queued with full interview
Who is Tim LaHaye?
In 1979, he helped to establish the Institute for Creation Research, along with Henry Morris, in Santee, California. The same year he encouraged Jerry Falwell to found the Moral Majority, whose board of directors he sat on. In the 1980s, LaHaye founded the American Coalition for Traditional Values and the Coalition for Religious Freedom. He founded the Pre-Tribulation Research Center along with Thomas Ice in 1998. The center is dedicated to producing material that supports a dispensationalist, pre-tribulation interpretation of the Bible.(via Right Wing Watch)
From Wikipedia
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Australian Liberal Candidate Sacked Over Anti-Islam Comments
July 25, 2010 on ABC News (Australia)
Today Mr Barker stood by his statements, telling the ABC there should not be a Muslim in parliament and questioning whether the country was ready for an atheist prime minister. “...I don’t know if we want at this stage in Australian politics a Muslim in the parliament and an atheist running the government.”(via Project Reason)
Read more
Mitchell and Webb - Jesus' Love
Mitchell and Webb satirise door to door christians spreading the word and love of jesus. Another great clip from their radio 4 series "that mitchell and webb sound".(via Unreasonable Faith)
Arguing with Non-Skeptics, Part 1 of 2
Posted July 27, 2010 on Scientific American
Download MP3
A panel discussion on arguing with non-skeptics at the recent Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism in New York City featured James Randi, George Hrab, D. J. Grothe and podcast host Steve Mirsky. Julia Galef moderated.
Is God Great? - Christopher Hitchens vs. John Lennox
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Leading atheist and acclaimed journalist Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons EverythingAlso available on DVD and iTunes, debates Christian apologist and Oxford Professor John Lennox over the question of God's greatness.
(via Daily Hitchens)
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Bad Universe - Sneak Peek | New Series
Coming soon, it's all NEW on Discovery! Take a sneak peek at Bad Universe, a new series starring Phil Plait, an astronomer on a mission to debunk all the the junk myths about the universe(via Pharyngula)
*Reposted with fixed video
A.C. Grayling: The Link Between Religion and Education
A.C. Grayling talks at the British Humanist Association's 2010 Annual General Meeting on children's education and the links between religion and education.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Catholic Sex Scandal: Undercover Reporter Films Priests At Gay Clubs (NSFW)
Posted July 22, 2010 on Panorama.it (Translated from Italian)
Another gay scandal has hit the Catholic Church in Italy after three priests were allegedly filmed having casual sex and visiting gay nightclubs.
Italian weekly news magazine Panorama said its undercover reporter filmed the three with the help of a gay accomplice.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
British Girls Undergo Horror of Genital Mutilation Despite Tough Laws
From The Guardian:
Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice(via RichardDawkins.net)
Read more
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Trouble in Amish Paradise
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Originally Aired February 18, 2009 on BBC Two
An extraordinary insight into the secretive world of the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. When two radical Amish men, Ephraim and Jesse Stoltzfus, start to question some of the most fundamental aspects of their Amish culture, they face excommunication from their church and total rejection by their friends and family.
Breast Ironing of Young Girls in Cameroon
*Warning: Graphic Content
From HuffPost:
Affecting one out of every four girls, the brutal practice of "breast ironing" is on the rise in the African country of Cameroon. The procedure -- which involves the flattening of a young girl's growing breasts with hot stones, coconut shells and other objects -- is considered a way to curb the country's staggering number of teenage pregnancies, particularly high in rural areas, as well as limit the risk of sexual assault.
According to a new report by CurrentTV, Cameroonian mothers believe breast ironing will protect their daughters from becoming pregnant and being assaulted in that it will postpone their development and men will not be enticed by their breasts. With dietary habits in the country improving, girls are beginning to hit puberty as young as 9, and are subject to the practice around at the same age.
Though only limited medical research has been done on the practice, Cameroonian women say breast ironing can lead to numerous physical issues, such as burns and deformations, not to mention psychological problems. The procedure has been compared to the custom of female circumcision/genital mutilation.
Tan Le: A Headset That Reads Your Brainwaves
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
BBC Panorama: Can Condoms Kill? (Clip)
Panorama explores HIV prevention in Uganda, where HIV rates have actually gone down - an unusual occurance in Africa. Many Catholics believe that abstinence and a return to monogamy, not condoms, are beating HIV. Are they right?
Arab Guilty of Rape After Consensual Sex with Jew
July 21, 2010 on Al-Jazeera English
From The Guardian:
A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.See also: Israeli Arab who 'raped' a woman says verdict 'racist'
Sabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after the court ruled that he was guilty of rape by deception. According to the complaint filed by the woman with the Jerusalem district court, the two met in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008 where Kashur, an Arab from East Jerusalem, introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The two then had consensual sex in a nearby building before Kashur left.
When she later found out that he was not Jewish but an Arab, she filed a criminal complaint for rape and indecent assault.
Read more
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Congress Debates Biblical Stance on Immigration
July 21, 2010 on Fox News
From Texas Insider:
A congressional hearing last week featuring religious leaders turned into a debate about the Bible and whether it provides more backing to reform advocates or to those who favor tougher enforcement of existing laws.
“The Bible contains numerous passages that support the rule of law. The Scriptures clearly indicate that God charges civil authorities with preserving order, protecting citizens and punishing wrongdoers,” declared Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a critic of immigration reform legislation.
“Ezekiel 47 details the promised land’s boundaries,” noted Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), another immigration reform opponent.
“I’m not a theologian,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) chimed in. “I didn’t come here with my Bible. I’m a good Catholic, you know. But I’ll tell you, I learned two things: to love God above everything else and to love my neighbor as I love myself.”
For supporters of strict church-state separation, the debate crossed a line but also demonstrated the perils of trying to use the Bible to set public policy.
Read more
Dimitar Sasselov: How We Found Hundreds of Earth-Like Planets | TED2010
Filmed and Posted July 2010 on TED
Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov and his colleagues search for Earth-like planets that may, someday, help us answer centuries-old questions about the origin and existence of biological life elsewhere (and on Earth). How many such planets have they found already? Several hundreds.
Councillor Faces Inquiry Over ‘Stupid’ Scientologists Tweet
July 20, 2010 on BBC Newsnight
Concillor John Dixon's tweet:
I didn't know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off.Read more at Wales Online
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes Inspired by Islam
Filmed and Posted July 2010 on Ted
In "THE 99," Naif Al-Mutawa's new generation of comic book heroes fight more than crime -- they smash stereotypes and battle extremism. Named after the 99 attributes of Allah, his characters reinforce positive messages of Islam and cross cultures to create a new moral framework for confronting evil, even teaming up with the Justice League of America.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Through The Wormhole – Is There A Creator? (2010)
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It’s perhaps the biggest, most controversial mystery in the cosmos. Did our Universe just come into being by random chance, or was it created by a God who nurtures and sustains all life?Related: Ayn Rand on the Fine-Tuning Argument
The latest science is showing that the four forces governing our universe are phenomenally finely tuned. So finely that it had led many to the conclusion that someone, or something, must have calibrated them; a belief further backed up by evidence that everything in our universe may emanate from one extraordinarily elegant and beautiful design known as the E8 Lie Group.
While skeptics hold that these findings are neither conclusive nor evidence of a divine creator, some cutting edge physicists are already positing who this God is: an alien gamester who’s created our world as the ultimate SIM game for his own amusement. It’s an answer as compelling as it is disconcerting.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
BBC Storyville: Leaving the Cult
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Aired July 5, 2010 on BBC 4
Documentary which tells the story of three teenage boys who manage to escape a polygamist Mormon cult in Utah. As they struggle to come to terms with life in the real world, we learn about the extraordinary lives they used to live - in houses with many mothers, where their sisters may be married off at 14 and, surprisingly, where no-one can wear red in case it offends the Second Coming. Powerfully emotional and compelling, a fascinating insight to a community it's hard to believe exists.(Thanks to TreVelocita)
Friday, July 16, 2010
Vatican Makes Attempted Ordination Of Women A Grave Crime
July 15, 2010 on BBC News
From The Guardian:
The Vatican today made the "attempted ordination" of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism.
The new rules, which have been sent to bishops around the world, apply equally to Catholic women who agree to a ceremony of ordination and to the bishop who conducts it. Both would be excommunicated. Since the Vatican does not accept that women can become priests, it does not recognise the outcome of any such ceremony.
The latest move, which appeared to bar and bolt the door to Catholic women priests, came at a time when the Church of England moved in the opposite direction, to a step closer to the ordination of female bishops.
Read more
Through The Wormhole – Is Time Travel Possible? (2010)
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Einstein's Theory of Relativity says that time travel is perfectly possible — if you're going forward. Finding a way to travel backwards requires breaking the speed of light, which so far seems impossible. But now, strange-but-true phenomena such as quantum nonlocality, where particles instantly teleport across vast distances, may give us a way to make the dream of traveling back and forth through time a reality.(via Derren Brown Blog)
Step into a time machine and rewrite history, bring loved ones back to life, control our destinies. But if we succeed, what are the consequences of such freedom? Will we get trapped in a plethora of paradoxes and multiple universes that will destroy the fabric of the universe?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Matt Ridley: When Ideas Have Sex | TED2010
Filmed and Posted July 2010 on TED
At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt RidleyBooks by Matt Ridley:shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.
More
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Mayor Prays Despite Warning From FFRF
From The Woodruff City Bulletin:
The June 2010 Woodruff City Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Brad Burnett at 7:00pm and lasted only a little more than 20 minutes but likely the most notable minutes in recent Woodruff history.See also:
Immediately after opening of the meeting, Mayor Brad Burnett stood to address the Woodruff Citizens in attendance. Burnett began by stating he was a little convicted and wanted to make sure people understood something. Mayor Burnett then very passionately stated that “as long as I am here and I think as long as these people who are elected sitting in front of you”, referring to city council members, “we’re going to open every meeting with prayer”. As amens were heard from citizens around the room and council members James Smith, Tony Kennedy and Toni Sloan, Mayor Burnett continued… “It doesn’t make any difference if you appreciate that or you don’t appreciate that we’re going to open our meetings with prayer”.
Read more
(Thanks JR)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Muslim Cleric Puts ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed’ Cartoonist Molly Norris on Execution Hitlist
July 12, 2010 on FOX
From NY Daily News:
A CHARISMATIC terror leader linked to the botched Times Square car bomb has placed the Seattle cartoonist who launched “Everybody Draw Muhammed Day” on an execution hit list.(via Cynical-C Blog)
Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki – the radical who has also been cited as inspiring the Fort Hood, Tex., massacre and the plot by two New Jersey men to kill U.S. soldiers – singled out artist Molly Norris as a “prime target,” saying her “proper abode is hellfire.”
FBI officials have notified Norris and warned her they consider it a “very serious threat.”
In an English-language Al Qaeda magazine that calls itself "Inspire," Awlaki damns Norris and eight others for “blasphemous caricatures” of the Prophet Muhammed. The other cartoonists, authors and journalists in Awlaki’s cross hairs are Swedish, Dutch and British citizens.
Read more + Poll (Majority against cartoonist)
Jennifer Byrne Presents: Christopher Hitchens
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Journalist and publisher Jennifer Byrne interviewed Christopher Hitchens during his Australia trip in May 2010 on ABC 1.(via Daily Hitchens)
Anti-Vaccination Group Accused of Harassing Parents
July 12, 2010 on ABC Lateline (Australia)
The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has compiled a damning report into Australia's most prominent anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).(via Pharyngula)
The HCCC accuses the AVN of providing inaccurate and misleading information and selectively quoting research out of context to argue against vaccination.
The report has also noted accusations that the AVN harassed the parents of a child who died of whooping cough last year, after the parents advocated the importance of childhood vaccination.
Read more
Monday, July 12, 2010
Dispatches: Africa's Last Taboo (Clip)
Clips from the Channel 4 documentary 'Dispatches: Africa's Last Taboo'
Aired July 12, 2010 and still available on 4oD (UK Only)
Gay people in Africa are facing increased persecution in a continent where two thirds of countries retain laws against homosexuals.(via TreVelocita)
Award-winning filmmaker Sorious Samura investigates for Dispatches what it is like to be a gay person in Africa, discovering shocking levels of prejudice and hate, driven by governments, religious organisations and communities.
Blasphemy Trial in Moscow - 'Forbidden Art' Show Organizers Convicted of "Fueling Religious Hatred"
July 12, 2010 on Russia Today
The organisers of a Russian exhibition called 'Forbidden art' have been found guilty of sparking religious hatred. The show was an explosive mix of works considered too outrageous to show elsewhere.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Christopher Hitchens reviews 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'
From NY Times Book Review Podcast:
Belief in the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth and belief in the virtue of his teachings are not at all the same thing. Writing to John Adams in 1813, having taken his razor blade to the books of the New Testament and removed all “the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests,” Thomas Jefferson said the 46-page residue contained “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” Ernest Renan, in his pathbreaking “Life of Jesus” in 1863, also repudiated the idea that Jesus was the son of God while affirming the beauty of his teachings. In rather striking contrast, C. S. Lewis maintained in his classic statement “Mere Christianity”: “That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.”
Continue reading
(via Daily Hitchens)
Friday, July 9, 2010
Iranian Government Unveils List of Approved Hairstyles, Bans "Immoral" Mullets
July 8, 2010 on Al-Jazeera English
Islamic republic cracks down on Western haircuts, spelling trouble for the country's coiffured footballers.
Penn Jillette: Reading the Bible (Or the Koran, Or the Torah) Will Make You an Atheist
Posted July 8, 2010 on Big Think
Question: Why would reading the Bible make you an atheist?(via RichardDawkins.net)
Penn Jillette: I think because what we get told about the Bible is a lot of picking and choosing, when you see, you know, Lot's daughter gang raped and beaten, and the Lord being okay with that; when you actually read about Abraham being willing to kill his son, when you actually read that; when you read the insanity of the talking snake; when you read the hostility towards homosexuals, towards women, the celebration of slavery; when you read in context, that "thou shalt not kill" means only in your own tribe—I mean, there's no hint that it means humanity in general; that there's no sense of a shared humanity, it's all tribal; when you see a God that is jealous and insecure; when you see that there's contradictions that show that it was clearly written hundreds of years after the supposed fact and full of contradictions. I think that anybody... you know, it's like reading The Constitution of the United States of America. It's been... it's in English. You know, you don't need someone to hold your hand. Just pick it up and read it. Just read what the First Amendment says and then read what the Bible says. Going back to the source material is always the best.
Read more
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Mark Twain's Secret Memories to be Unveiled
July 7, 2010 on PBS NewsHour
Mark Twain's autobiography is set to be published for the first time, 100 years after the famous author and humorist's death.Twain on Christianity:
"There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory. The invention of hell measured by our Christianity of today, bad as it is, hypocritical as it is, empty and hollow as it is, neither the deity nor his son is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place. Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled."
Transcript
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Connecticut Priest Stole $1M for Male Escorts
July 6, 2010 on AP
A Roman Catholic priest was charged Tuesday with stealing $1.3 million in church money over seven years to use for male escorts, expensive clothing and luxury hotels and restaurants.
Iranian Woman Sentenced to Death by Stoning
July 5, 2010 on CNN
An international campaign has been launched on behalf of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's family says she has already been punished with a flogging of 99 lashes, The Guardian reports. Her 22-year-old son, Sajad, and 17-year-old daughter, Farideh, told the newspaper she committed no crime.
"She's innocent, she's been there for five years for doing nothing," Sajad said. "Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years."
Read more
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
BBC: Muslim Parents 'Banning Children From Music Lessons'
July 1, 2010 on BBC News:
Hundreds of Muslim parents are withdrawing children from music lessons because their beliefs forbid them from learning an instrument.(via Cynical-C Blog)
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said music lessons were potentially unacceptable to about 10% of Muslims.
This could equate to hundreds of Muslim children being withdrawn from the lessons, the MCB said.
It said passages from a collection of the Prophet Mohammed's teachings banned instruments.
Read more
Monday, July 5, 2010
A Conversation Between Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking
A clip from the Channel 4 documentary 'Genius of Britain'
Last aired June 3, 2010 and still available on 4oD (UK Only)
(via Atheist Planet)
Nation's Worst Church Lady
From HuffPo:
Every now and then, a regular American who has fought the good fight to keep our nation's moral fiber in tact, emerges into the spotlight. Meet Yvonne Moore - a Washington, DC woman who sued her church because they began to perform gay marriages. She asked the church for $250,000 in donations she'd made over the past 37 years. That's a lot of loose change in that basket.(Thanks '1984')
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Kenya Evangelists Exploit the Sick
July 3, 2010 on Al-Jazeera English
The HIV/Aids epidemic is a huge problem in Africa and it is one that some appear to be taking advantage of.
Growing and unregulated Christian evangelical movements are preaching unconventional ways to get rid of numerous terminal illnesses including HIV and cancer.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Televangelism Sweeping Across Kenya
July 2, 2010 on Al-Jazeera English
Televangelism is growing across Africa, but especially in Kenya where religious programmes are led by powerful and charismatic pastors who often preach unconventional ideas, like miracle cures for HIV and Aids.
For many pastors, it is a lucrative business, prompting concerns that they might be exploiting the commitment of their followers.
Friday, July 2, 2010
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