- Return to the Desert
The Loft • October 31, 2010
The sun beat down, hot and harsh, from a lead-colored sky. I stood at the end of a dusty, winding trail. Behind me lay gray marsh and scrubland, grassy plains, forest and woodland, and finally the rivers and gardens of my home. But before me was a harsh, arid land, parched and withered and hostile, [...]
- Report from the 2010 FFRF Convention
The Foyer • October 31, 2010
Hey, folks - I'm typing this from the airport in Madison, Wisconsin, waiting for my flight home from the 33rd annual convention of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which I attended this weekend. I've had a fantastic time, and I still feel happy, relaxed and full of energy. I need to go to these events [...]
- How to Think Critically XI: The Null Hypothesis
The Observatory • October 29, 2010
So, you may have heard that Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, has a new book on the same subject, called The Power. Personally, I'm bewildered. Her first book promised to tell you how to get everything you've ever wanted. What possible room could there be for a sequel?
You might also have heard of the [...]
- Answering More Questions for Atheists
The Library • October 27, 2010
Michael Egnor, a creationist working for the Discovery Institute, has posted a list of questions for atheists (HT: Sandwalk). Ironically, the post which contains the questions has comments disabled, so it's impossible to answer Egnor directly. This is probably another piece of evidence for whether whether creationists actually want answers to the questions they ask. [...]
- Is There Life on Mars and Venus?
The Observatory • October 25, 2010
You may have heard that the scientific community is buzzing with excitement over the discovery of Gliese 581g, an Earth-sized planet circling the red dwarf star Gliese 581, 20 light-years from Earth in the constellation Libra. Five other planets orbiting this star were already known, but what's exciting is that the new one is smack [...]
- Photo Sunday: Fall Bridge
The Foyer • October 24, 2010
Bridge in autumn, Iowa, October 2010. Photo credit: Peter Nothnagle. Click for larger version.
- Weekend Link Miscellany
The Foyer • October 23, 2010
I've got a couple of links this weekend, some atheism-related, some not:
• Lost a digital camera lately? It made me smile to find out about I Found Your Camera, a website helping to reunite lost cameras with their owners.
• After the terrible and entirely preventable deaths of three people during a "sweat lodge" ceremony last [...]
- Quick Note on Facebook
The Foyer • October 22, 2010
Just an FYI: The Daylight Atheism site page on Facebook will no longer be updated. I tried it out for a few months, but I wasn't happy with the results: the administrator controls were poorly designed and hard to use, Facebook's staff was unresponsive when I had issues, and the page didn't send much traffic [...]
- Sam Harris' Moral Landscape and Universal Utilitarianism
The Library • October 22, 2010
I've heard that Sam Harris has a new book, The Moral Landscape, coming out soon. In it, he argues that there is an objectively best way for us to live together in a way that produces the greatest well-being for all - i.e., an objective morality - and that we can discover what it is [...]
- Thursday Transcendence
The Observatory • October 21, 2010
I'll post another update tomorrow, but in the meantime, I came across two videos that were too wonderful not to share:
• First, this montage of stunning moments from the documentary series Planet Earth, with music by the band Sigur Ros;
• and then, this video: a recording of Carl Sagan reading his immortal "Reflections on a [...]
- Tinkerbell the Accommodationist
The Garden • October 20, 2010
Because we New Atheists haven't been told to shut up nearly often enough, Matt Nisbet has an editorial on BigThink this week. I was so glad to read it, because it had been a disturbingly long time - possibly as long as a whole day - since we'd last heard from someone saying we need [...]
- Thoughts on CfI and Paul Kurtz
The Garden • October 18, 2010
The New York Times reported this month on a rift at the Center for Inquiry, whose founder Paul Kurtz claims he's been unjustly expelled by the board of directors and the president, Ronald Lindsay. Kurtz was also interviewed by my friend Erich Vieth at Dangerous Intersection.
It's very unfortunate the way this turned out. It clearly [...]
- The Language of God: Cosmology and the God Hypothesis
The Library • October 17, 2010
The Language of God, Chapter 3
By B.J. Marshall
Collins concludes this chapter by tying his overview of cosmology to the god hypothesis. He states that "[c]learly, the scientific view is not entirely sufficient to answer all of the interesting questions about the origin of the universe, and there is nothing inherently in conflict between the idea [...]
- Open Thread: Shameless Self-Promotion Day
The Foyer • October 16, 2010
The last time I did one of these was some time ago, so I think it's about time for another.
This is an open thread for the purposes of self-promotion. If you maintain a blog or other site that you want to tell us about, now's the time! Feel free to post a comment telling us [...]
- Book Review: The Heathen's Guide to World Religions
The Library • October 14, 2010
(Editor's Note: This review was solicited and is written in accordance with this site's policy for such reviews.)
Summary: Entertaining but plagued with inaccuracy.
William Hopper's The Heathen's Guide to World Religions is intended as a satirical survey of the world's major faiths, written from an atheist perspective with sarcasm, humor and irreverence aplenty. I hadn't heard [...]
- A Not-So-Complicated Moral
The Garden • October 12, 2010
This week in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof has a column titled Test Your Savvy on Religion, discussing the American religious knowledge survey which found that atheists were better informed about faith than believers. Kristof has a pop quiz of his own, and I'm guessing that regular readers of this blog will know the [...]
- Spotlighting Atheism in Greece
The Garden • October 11, 2010
Since Greece was the birthplace of Western philosophy, as well as the home of some of history's first freethinkers, it seems only fitting that it should have a lively atheist movement. And what do you know, it does! (HT: EvanT of On the Way to Ithaca)
This is a Greek version of the song "Godless and [...]
- The Language of God: Quantum Quote-Mining
The Library • October 10, 2010
The Language of God, Chapter 3
By B.J. Marshall
Collins spends only a few pages discussing quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. He starts with a sentence that has nothing to do with anything, really. He mentions that "Newton was a believer who wrote more about biblical interpretation than he did about mathematics and physics" (p.78). I [...]
- In Praise of Human Diversity
The Loft • October 7, 2010
The Nobel committee has awarded this year's prize in physiology or medicine to Dr. Robert Edwards, a pioneer of in vitro fertilization. Given how long ago this achievement took place, this decision is surely meant to be read partially as a political statement - an implicit rebuke of the right-wing churches that want to deny [...]
- Free Speech on Trial, Continued
The Rotunda • October 6, 2010
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Russia's increasingly hostile and repressive attitude toward speech which criticizes the state-sponsored church. Now another Russian artist is facing persecution:
Mavromatti, 45, fled to Bulgaria in 2000 after the Russian Orthodox Church complained about a movie he was shooting in which he is crucified. He was accused of violating [...]
- How Much Comfort Does Religion Really Provide?
The Observatory • October 5, 2010
In past posts, I've argued that we shouldn't specifically target the beliefs of people in dire straits who rely on their religion for comfort. But there's an underlying assumption that at the very least deserves examination: Does religion actually comfort people in desperate circumstances? Does it make them feel better than they otherwise would?
This seems [...]
- The Language of God: In the Beginning...
The Observatory • October 4, 2010
The Language of God, Chapter 3
By B.J. Marshall
After his prelude, Collins begins at the beginning: The Big Bang. He talks about what it is, asks what came before it, and argues that it cries out for a divine explanation. The Big Bang doesn't just cry out for an explanation - no, no, no - it [...]
- Reminder: Find Me at the FFRF Convention
The Foyer • October 2, 2010
As I mentioned previously, I'll be attending the 33rd annual convention of the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin on the weekend of October 29-31. Yes, I know that's also the date of the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rallies; I made my hotel reservation and booked my flight long before those were [...]
- Naming Activist Fallacies: The Separatist Paradise
The Loft • October 1, 2010
By Scotlyn
Apologies, folks, this post took a bit longer than promised. I have been struggling for two weeks or so to write a post on the activist fallacy of the "Righteous Victim," but it seems that the post which wants to be written first is the fallacy of the "Separatist Paradise." This concept, the concept [...]
