an atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support

There’s quite an interesting post here about this article in the LA Times, in which the Times’ religion reporter William Lobdell describes finding and then losing his faith in the process of reporting on the subject.…

two thoughts on nuclear power

There are increasing signs that Australia is going to go nuclear in the medium term.

First Thought

One way of looking at the benefits of nuclear power versus the risks is to consider the worst…

what are you, gay?

I’m sure you’re familiar with the old “homophobes are really closet gays” line of reasoning.  Interestingly, this research seems to confirm that theory. From the abstract:

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men

…

petitio principii

This is a dangerous piece of circular reasoning: the solution to the problems created by an ageing population is to increase population growth.

The ‘logic’ employed appears to be that, in order to sustain the current number of…

on teaching science

I enjoyed this article about the teaching of physics to school children in the United Kingdom, and reforms which seem to be focused on teaching kids to talk “about” science rather that teaching kids science itself.

Perhaps the…

ham update 2: ham-related art, and more legal details

Further to previous posts (one, two), here’s some great “Jesus with the little dinosaurs” art (thanks to KO):

Meanwhile Legal Eagle points to this article on the actual details of the legal battle in the Ham v Anti-Ham lawsuit.

it is more important to force raped women to have children than to stop murder and torture: god

Those wacky funsters at the Vatican are at it again – this time they’re misrepresenting Amnesty’s new policy regarding abortion and instructing Catholics not to support the organisation. Amnesty’s position is that women who are pregnant as a result of…

ham update: ham sued by anti-ham offshoot of church of ham

You will recall our friend Ham, curator of the Creation “Museum”, from the story about dinosaurs with saddles – he who told us that T-Rex ate grass until “the fall” and other such nuggets of wisdom.

It seems…

fundamentalist threatens NSW members of parliament

The double standards on display in relation to this story are fascinating. A religious leader threatening members of the New South Wales parliament with holy consequences if they vote for a particular piece of legislation:

Catholic politicians who

…

are we, or the media really this stupid?

This is the headline this afternoon from the ABC news website:

The headline is a reference to the proposal that Australia implement a carbon trading scheme to (finally) start doing something about our greenhouse…

exclusive brethren under investigation for election advertising

The Electoral Commission has finally referred the matter of the Exclusive Brethren cult’s involvement in the funding of pro-Government election ads at the last election to the Australian Federal Police.   A company linked to the cult spent more…

god presents: dinosaurs with saddles

You have probably heard about this by now: evangelical Christians will today open a “Creation Museum” (or, ‘moron magnet’, as this blog eloquently puts it) in the USA. Rather than being designed along the lines of a giant…

stacked ABC board forces network to show documentary promoting idiotic non-science

You may or may not recall that over the last few years, the federal government has carefully stacked the ABC’s board with right wing nutcases, including Keith “we never did nuffink to the Aborigines, it was like that…

little girls deserve cancer because I’m uncomfortable with sex

This story is a typical example of the amazing moral contortions that reactionary social conservatives seem to be able to perform to justify interfering with, and indeed harming, others to satisfy their own arbitrary and irrational beliefs.

As…

one more cup of coffee

Coming soon: soap which stimulates you in the shower. No, not like that, you pervert – for people too lazy to make a cup of coffee in order to get their caffeine fix, the option may soon exist of just…