Wednesday, August 31, 2011

College Student Schools Rick Santorum on His Ludicrous Gay Marriage Position


From Gawker:
Sure, Dan Savage rebranded Rick Santorum's name to mean a piece of shit, but here is the right-wing candidate for the Republican presidential nomination behaving like one while discussing his stance on gay marriage at Penn State. His argument against gays getting married is painfully easy to debunk, but you have to give credit to someone who can do it to his face.

Santorum starts off this clip all worked up that Piers Morgan called him a "bigot." Well, a "bigot" is "a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion." If the poo-smeared condom fits...

Anyway, he goes on to say that he's not a bigot because he believes the dogma of the Catholic church and the part of the Bible that says that gay marriage is wrong. When the student pipes up to say that the American Psychological Association, among other scientific groups, would disagree, he says their opinion can't be trusted because it's not proof. Yea, because a bunch of centuries old bullshit from withered old men in robes and a magic book that was written by God knows who (seriously, God does know who) is unassailable fact about the evils of homosexuality, but scientific finding about it are just so much silliness. He makes this way too easy, and is way too infuriating.

Supercomputers Allow First Detailed Milky Way Simulation


From International Business Times:
After months of number crunching on powerful supercomputers, researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Zurich have come up with a beautiful computer simulation of the physics involved in the formation of the Milky Way.

While it may at first bring to mind images you've seen on your iTunes Visualizer - and it is set to futuristic electronic music - the project took the group nearly eight months to create at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre in Manno, Switzerland. The group claims it would have taken 570 years to build the simulation on a personal computer.

The simulation, called "Eris," solves a long-standing problem that led some to question the prevailing cosmological model of our universe.
Read more
(via RDnet)

Michele Bachmann: Hurricane Irene Is God's Warning To Washington; Campaign Says She Was Joking


August 29, 2011 on ABC News:
As Hurricane Irene ravaged the East Coast this weekend, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said the storm and last week's earthquake were God's way of trying to get politicians in Washington to deal with soaring federal deficits.

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending," Bachmann said in Sarasota on Sunday, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

On Monday, Bachmann's campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart said the Minnesota congresswoman was just joking.
Read more

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Bang Goes the Theory: Evolution Made Simple

August 22, 2011 on BBC Two
Dr Yan attempts to demonstrate evolution by drawing a couple of lines. 
"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" --Theodosius Dobzhansky (the above phrase is the title of his 1973 essay.) 
Dobzhansky was a prominent geneticist, evolutionary biologist and critic of anti-evolution creationism. He was also a Russian Orthodox Christian.

Pat Robertson: Crack In Washington Monument A Sign From God


August 24, 2011 on CBN
From HuffPo:
Televangelist Pat Robertson suggested Wednesday that cracks in the Washington Monument caused by the August 23 earthquake could be a sign from God, and the natural disaster “means that we’re closer to the coming of the Lord.”

To explain the rare east coast quake, Robertson pointed to the Biblical prophecy of the end of the world, which claims there could be potential devastation from natural disasters leading up to Jesus' return to Earth.
(Thanks Brooke)

Friday, August 12, 2011

20 Christian Academics Speaking About God


It is easy to find examples of how religious thinking among lay or fundamentalist Christians can result in profoundly irrational ideas. But the evidence that reason is abandoned in Christianity equally comes from the mouths of "sophisticated" theologians, leaders, scholars and spokespersons practising it.
See also: 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God
(via RDnet)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ask Sam Harris Anything #2


From SamHaris.org
The full video is an hour long. Links to specific topics/questions are provided below:

1. Eternity and the meaning of life 0:42
2. Do we have free will? 4:43
3. How can we convince religious people to abandon their beliefs? 14:52
4. How can atheists live among the faithful? 19:09
5. How should we talk to children about death? 21:52
6. Does human life have intrinsic value? 26:01
7. Why should we be confident in the authority of science? 30:36
8. How can one criticize Islam after the terrorism in Norway? 35:43
9. Should atheists join with Christians against Islam? 41:50
10. What does it mean to speak about the human mind objectively? 45:17
11. How can spiritual claims be scientifically justified? 50:14
12. Why can't religion remain a private matter? 54:52
13. What do you like to speak about at public events? 58:09


See also:
Ask Sam Haris Anything #1

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Fox News: Cancer Patient 'Cured By God's Voice'


August 7, 2011 on Fox News

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny: The Truth About the Vatican


(via Sam Harris)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Richard Dawkins: Should Doctors be Darwinian? - Science World 2011


Play all videos (4)
Professor Richard Dawkins visited Science World 2011 and presented some challenging new ideas about medicine and evolution to a packed out audience. Famous for his popular science books The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion; Dawkins changed track in this lecture and discussed the need for doctors and medical researchers to be mindful of evolution when treating and studying disease.
(Thanks Laurens)

ABC Nightline: The Atheist and Her Brain


August 3, 2011 on ABC Nightline with Margaret Downey

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

iq2 Shorts - Stephen Fry vs. Ann Widdecombe


From Intelligence Squared:
In this, our first ever iq2 Short, Ann Widdecombe and Stephen Fry lock horns over the motion 'The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world'.

The animation is adapted from a debate we staged in 2009 which also included Christopher Hitchens and John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja.
(via RDnet)

Tool Time: Good Christians Threaten Atheist


August 2, 2011 on Russia Today:
FOX News was covering the story of the legal battle over a large cross being placed at the Ground Zero Memorial in New York. After Blair Scott, the communications director for American Atheists appeared on air he started getting death threats. He was quoted on the American Atheist blog saying he can always tell when someone from the group is on FOX News because his inbox explodes with hate e-mail. Over at the Fox News Facebook Page irate "Christians" didn't like the interview either.