Sky News: Church Tells HIV Patients To Stop Treatment

November 25, 2011 on Sky News:

At least six people have died in Britain after being told they had been healed of HIV and could stop taking their medication, Sky News has discovered.

There is evidence evangelical churches in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow are claiming to cure HIV through God.

Sky sent three undercover reporters to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), which is based in Southwark, south London.

All of them told the pastors they were HIV positive - all were told they could be healed.

Once a month, the church has a prayer line, where people from across Europe come to be cured of all kinds of illness.
Read more

Stephen Fry & friends on the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens - IQ2 talks

From Intelligence Squared:

IMPORTANT: This video will not be available to users in the UK and Ireland until February 20. Thank you for your patience.

In this historic event, Stephen Fry and other friends of Christopher Hitchens came together to celebrate the life and work of this great writer, iconoclast and debater. Fry was joined on stage at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall by Richard Dawkins and the two discussed Hitch's unflinching commitment to the truth. Hollywood actor Sean Penn was beamed in from LA by Google+ and, between cigarette puffs, read from Hitch's acclaimed work, The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Five friends of Hitch spoke via satellite in New York: satirist Christopher Buckley and editor Lewis Lapham mused on Hitch's prowess as a journalist. 'Like a pot of gold', said Lapham. Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and James Fenton delighted the audience with stories of Hitchens as a young man. Rushdie drew roars of laughter when he recounted a word game invented by Amis and Hitchens where the word 'love' is replaced with 'hysterical sex'. Particular favourites included Hysterical Sex in the Time of Cholera and Hysterical Sex Is All You Need.

Watching the event with Hitch at his bedside in Texas, Hitch's wife Carol and novelist Ian McEwan provided an email commentary. 'His Rolls Royce mind is still purring beautifully', typed McEwan.

The event was watched live by 2500 at the venue, and by thousands more in UK cinemas and online.

http://hitchfry.intelligencesquared.com/

"Is There Anybody There?" - Nicholas Humphrey

Nicholas Humphrey's devastating study of religious miracles and other paranormal phenomena. Featuring the apparition at Knock, the Enfield poltergeist, the Woodbridge UFO, the moving virgin of Ballinspittle, and much more. A one and a half hour "special" for Channel Four, 1987.

(via RichardDawkins.net)

The Pale Blue Dot - A Tribute to Carl Sagan

by The Thinking Atheist
(via RichardDawkins.net)

Robin Ince: Science versus wonder? -TED 2011

Does science ruin the magic of life? In this grumpy but charming monologue, Robin Ince makes the argument against. The more we learn about the astonishing behavior of the universe -- the more we stand in awe.

Sunday Morning Live: Does Reincarnation Exist?

November 20, 2011 on BBC One

Phil Plait: How to defend Earth from asteroids - TED

What's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid - and there are lots of them out there. With humor and great visuals, Phil Plait enthralls the TEDxBoulder audience with all the ways asteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them.

Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins at the Texas Freethought Convention 2011

From Chron.com:

Atheist superstar and public intellectual Christopher Hitchens appeared in public for the first time in months tonight at the Texas Freethought Convention in Houston. Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and most recently of Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens, was presented with the Richard Dawkins Freethinker of the Year Award by Dawkins himself. Dawkins is the bestselling author of The God Delusion and The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True. 

Though Hitchens suffers from esophageal cancer, he and Dawkins spoke and took questions for about an hour in front of a crowd of what appeared to be well over a thousand people. Read more

Fox News: Atheists Seek Chaplain Role

November 13, 2011 on Fox News

Richard Dawkins: 'Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist'

From The Guardian:

In the latest in John Harris's National Conversations series of interviews, Richard Dawkins is invited to defend his atheism. What about the comfort, community, and moral education offered by religion?

Relic to Promote Motherhood in Russia

November 12, 2011 on Al-Jazeera english:

A sacred relic, believed by some Orthodox Christians to be the belt of the Virgin Mary, is drawing thousands of Russian pilgrims in search of a cure for a myriad of ailments including infertility. But the treasure -- a 2,000 year old cincture woven from camel fur - is also having political resonance.

Russian leaders have called the country's shrinking population a matter of national security and now the influential Orthodox church has joined the fight.

It wants to take the relic to pregnancy centres to discourage women from having abortions and save mother Russia by promoting motherhood.

Happy Birthday, Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan gave his last interview with Charlie rose on May 27th 1996. He discussed pseudo-science, religion, unfounded claims, his personal love affair with science and his struggle with myelodysplasia as well as other elements of his last book: The Demon-Haunted World.

"Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts are more comforting than the fantasy."

The Tribute "To Hitch"

People from around the world raise a glass in tribute to Christopher Hitchens.

(via Reddit)

SBS Dateline - Obedient Wives Club

Aired October 30, 2011 on SBS Dateline:

A growing number of brides are members of the Obedient Wives Club, and when they vow to obey their husbands, they really mean it.

Wives should be ready to satisfy their husbands at any time, according to the club’s female president, and if one wife isn’t enough, three more are not just permitted, but encouraged.

Adrian Brown meets one man, who has a roster for spending time with each of his four wives, and struggles to remember the names of his 23 children.

But women’s rights groups are appalled, and there are concerns about links to the founder’s radical Islamist movement.
More

(via DoctorE)

Science and Religion: Are They Compatible? - Jerry Coyne vs. John Haught

Q&A After the debate
October 12, 2011 at the UK College of Arts & Sciences
(via Why Evolution Is True)

French Satirical Weekly Firebombed After Portraying Prophet Mohammad

November 2, 2011 on ITV News:

The offices of a French satirical newspaper that "invited" the Prophet Muhammad as a guest editor, has been seriously damaged after it was petrol bombed.

The front-page of the Charlie Hebdo weekly showed a cartoon-like man with a turban, white robe and beard smiling broadly and saying, in an accompanying bubble "100 lashes if you don't die laughing".

Deepak Chopra and Bill O'Reilly: Believers vs. Non-Believers Discussion

November 2, 2011 on Fox News

Unreported World: Nigeria's Millionaire Preachers

Aired October 28, 2011 on Channel 4

Miracles, expensive cars, exorcisms and bodyguards: religion is big business in Nigeria. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Matt Haan travel to Lagos to reveal the extraordinary world of the millionaire preachers.

By promoting the dream of escaping poverty, they have turned their churches into corporations, which are changing the face of Christianity.

Every Sunday millions of Nigerians crowd into thousands of competing churches. The team visits one church in Lagos run by Dr Sign Fireman, an up-and-coming preacher who is attempting to break into the big time.

Paul Zak: Trust, morality - and oxytocin

Filmed Jul 2011; Posted Nov 2011 on TED

Where does morality come from -- physically, in the brain? In this talk neuroeconomist Paul Zak shows why he believes oxytocin (he calls it "the moral molecule") is responsible for trust, empathy, and other feelings that help build a stable society.

SBS Dateline - Fighting Faith

From SBS Dateline:

Dateline heads to the United States' Bible Belt, as hundreds gather to celebrate their non-belief in God.

The annual Texas Freethought Convention draws atheists, agnostics and humanists from around the world, and this year Christopher Hitchens is the star attraction.

David Brill meets the renowned writer and thinker, as he battles cancer and uses the last of his strength to denounce religion as immoral.

And outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins tells David he only cares about facts and is standing up against ‘outdated and rather unimaginative ideas about the world’.
Transcript

(via RichardDawkins.net)