30 Oct 2014
30 Sept 2014
Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children
Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. According to Bill Nye, aka "the science guy," if grownups want to "deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it because we need them."
22 Apr 2014
Creationist Saying Dinosaurs Were On Noah's Ark
One of the founding border members of the Creationist organization Answers in Genesis believes that dinosaurs accompanied Noah on his Ark as the entire world was flooded by God. Speaking to Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association on Thursday, Carl Kerby insisted it wasn't infeasible for the giant reptilian creatures to have been on Noah's Ark...
18 Feb 2014
9 Jan 2014
America's First Openly Pastafarian Politician Sworn Into Office
A small-town council member from New York is making national headlines this week after becoming the first openly Pastafarian politician to be sworn into public office.
Christopher Schaeffer, the newest member of the Pomfret Town Council, isn't just an ordinary member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster — he's a full-fledged minister.
For those who have yet to be touched by His noodly appendage, Pastafarianism, it is a satirical movement with a serious mission: Keeping the teaching of intelligent design and creationism out of public classrooms.
22 Jan 2013
Conspiracy Road Trip: Creationism
Comedian Andrew Maxwell takes five British creationists to the west coast of America to try to convince them that evolution rather than creationism explains how we all got here. Stuck on a bus across 2,000 miles of dustbowl roads with these passionate believers, Maxwell tackles some firmly held beliefs - could the Earth be only 6,000 years old, and did humans and T-Rex really live side by side? It's a bumpy ride as he's confronted with some lively debates along the way, but by the end could he possibly win over any of these believers with what he regards as hard scientific fact?
3 Oct 2012
The Ten Commandments
Christopher Hitchens revises the Ten Commandments. "The Ten Commandments were set in stone, but it may be time for a re-chisel. With all due humility, the author takes on the job, pruning the ethically dubious, challenging the impossible, and rectifying some serious omissions."
Hitch's article on the subject on vanityfair.com.
18 Sept 2012
23 Aug 2012
Why I'm Not a Christian
Bertrand Russell 1872-1970
British philosopher, logican, mathematician, historian, and social critic.
1 Jul 2012
Richard Dawkins on CNN
Richard Dawkins featured on CNN's "Out In The Open" panel, a part of Paula Zahn Now on Monday, February 12, 2007.
2 Nov 2011
23 Oct 2011
The world system we inhabit came about by a mistake
In a Collector's Edition entitled "Secrets of the Da Vinci Code," published by US News and World Report, there is a brief interview with James Robinson, general editor of the Nag Hammadi Library. In response to Dan Brown’s reference to the Nag Hammadi texts as scrolls, Robinson points out: “They are codices – books with individual pages. They are actually the oldest example we have of leather-bound books.” Amazingly, whatever the significance of their content (and we have just barely begun to comprehend what that might be), the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC) are rare original artifacts, the earliest surviving examples of bound books.
A close reading of these arcane materials shows that Gnostics were deeply concerned with alien intrusion into human affairs. The entities they called Archons appear to be identical to the ET’s of modern Ufology. Both Grey and Reptilian types are explicitly described in the codices. I would estimate that up to one-fifth of the core material in the NHC concerns the Archons, their origin, methods and motives. 'The Sophia Mythos,' the Gnostic creation story, explains that the Archons arise due to an anomaly in the cosmic order. “The world system we inhabit came about by a mistake.” (The Gospel of Philip)
Read further on Red Ice - John Lash - The Archons (download Red Ice Radio Podcast)
4 Oct 2011
If intelligent aliens exist, what about God?
The discovery of intelligent aliens would be mind-blowing in many respects, but it could present a special dilemma for the world's religions, theologians pondering interstellar travel concepts said Saturday.
Christians, in particular, might take the news hardest, because the Christian belief system does not easily allow for other intelligent beings in the universe, Christian thinkers said at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to discuss issues surrounding traveling to other stars.
In other words, "Did Jesus die for Klingons too?" as philosophy professor Christian Weidemann of Germany's Ruhr-University Bochum titled his talk at a panel on the philosophical and religious considerations of visiting other worlds.
29 Aug 2011
Famed Scientist Richard Dawkins Destroys Rick Perry on Evolution
We all know Texas Governor and GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Perry is full of it with his anti-science agenda, and we've read about his close ties to a cadre of religious extremists who have anointed him for privileging religion over scientific evidence (his "pray for rain" moment being a prime example).
Still, a smackdown from none other than Richard Dawkins on the subject of those outmoded, dangerous beliefs has a particularly satisfying highbrow but low-blow quality to it. Dawkins, an evolutionary bioligist and outspoken atheist, delivered such a smackdown to Perry in the course of a Q and A in the Washington Post's On Faith column.
Dawkins said that while a candidate's views on evolution are not paramount, they're indicative of his or her ability to understand science and his or her general levels of educational literacy. He also had harsh words for the valuation of ignorance among the Republican electorate.
Here are some choice excerpts:
There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.
