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Needless to say the attempt fails. It’s a sad state of affairs but this is probably the toughest interview Huckabee will face on his current book tour.
Filed under: humour, religion, Video | Tagged: jon stewart, mike huckabee, politics, USA | 4 Comments »
The below is taken from a Wall Street Journal article on the upcoming Durban II conference.
The draft declaration… goes after the West’s freedom of speech and antiterror laws under the guise of protecting religion (read: Islam) from “defamation.” The entire West will be in the dock for allegedly persecuting Muslims. “The most serious manifestations of defamation of religions are the increase in Islamophobia and the worsening of the situation of Muslim minorities around the world,” the draft reads. “Islamophobia” is a term used to brand any criticism of Islam as a hate crime.
The Islamic terrorists who have killed hundreds of thousands of their co-religionists get a free pass. Instead, the draft calls for a media code of conduct and “internationally binding normative standards . . . that can provide adequate guarantees against defamation of religions.” If this sounds like censorship, that’s because it is.
…If the Durban II drafters have their way, any challenge of Islamic teachings, including teachings used to justify violence, would be taboo. Reprinting the Danish Muhammad cartoons, exploited by Muslim agitators in 2006 to incite riots around the world, would be a criminal offense. Even gross human-rights violations in Islamic countries — such as stoning adulterers in Iran — could be immune from criticism.
It seems pretty clear that this is just another attempt at special pleading by the religious, in this case Islam. The Canadian government has already said it will not participate in this farce and it seems likely that the US will follow suit. It’s probably too much to hope that the EU will take a similar stand.
Free speech is a core western value and we cannot accept any erosion. My advice to Muslims (or anyone else) is simple, if you can’t deal with open debate, if your faith is so weak that it cannot stand up to any criticism, then you need to seriously examine the validity of that faith. The future has no place for ancient magical superstitions.
Edit: I take the point made by commenters below. What I should have said is I hope the future has no place for ancient magical superstitions, but people will have to embrace reality on their own and in their own time. It certainly isn’t something I could or would force on them.
Filed under: debate, religion | Tagged: free speech, Human Rights, islam, UN | 3 Comments »
To Romania first and the news that the Romanian Ministry of Education has removed the teaching of Evolution from schools. This is apparently prompted by a growing conservative movement in the country.
Information on natural selection, how fish turned into lizards and, more or less, a summary of the first 4.5 billion years of the world until man walked the earth is now optional.
…
Meanwhile, in religious classes, pupils are taught that the world was created in seven days and God made plants on the third day and the sun on the fourth. Textbooks claim the first man was Adam, who was ‘made of ground’, and that Eve, the first woman, was made from one of her husband’s ribs.
In case you’ve forgotten Romania has been an EU member state since last year. Hooray we have our own Kansas now 😦
Romania please learn a lesson from Ireland, they only way a poor country can become a prosperous one is by throwing off the shackles of religious dogma and embracing science and technology.
via Bad Astronomy
In case that’s not depressing enough, news that the Vatican’s oft touted ‘Culture of Life’ apparently doesn’t extend to gay people. OK, maybe that doesn’t actually count as news.
When France proposed a resolution seeking all nations to decriminalise homosexuality, the Vatican immediately said it would oppose the resolution. This is despite the fact that up to 70 nations still have legal punishments for gay people including, in some instances, the death penalty. In a number of Islamic countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, homosexual acts are still a capital offence.
The UN resolution is due to be proposed by France later this month on behalf of the 27-nation European Union. But Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would “add new categories of those protected from discrimination” and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.
So to sum up, better that a few Gay people get killed than we risk “traditional heterosexual marriage”, you know where your parents chose your husband or wife. If we’re not careful you might end up with people who love each other making solemn life long commitments!
Last but not least, another in a long line of daft articles about European ‘Islamophobia’, all the usual canards are there – Islam is a race, no mention of the inherent sexism of Islam and of course no acknowledgement that Europe is open to those that embrace our values but is going to be pretty uncomfortable to those who want to follow idiotic tribal religions. The article itself is fairly weak stuff but some of the comments are on the money.
Anyway, I have to go and weep softly at the foolishness of man.
Filed under: religion | Tagged: gay rights, islam, news, romania, vatican | 3 Comments »
Well, from the number of page views it would seem that dj357/FXR’s “I’m an Atheist and I’m OK” is quite popular. In fact this morning I got the below mail –
I just listened to “I’m an Atheist and I’m OK”, and it was wicked funny. And you have great timing on that post.
I’m one of the hosts of Q Transmissions, a weekly skeptical call-in talk show in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
We’ve just posted a contest on the show’s blog, asking people to send us their best rendition of a new atheist anthem. You can read about it on qtransmissions.wordpress.com.
Would you please mention the contest on your blog? We’re hoping to get as many entries as possible, and the only way to do it is to… well… spam the skeptical and atheist community and hope to get the word out. We’re really sorry. Honestly.
And it goes without saying that you are welcomed and encouraged to submit an entry yourself. 🙂
We’re always happy to help out other Atheiskeptihumanists so if you’re feeling creative get recording!
Filed under: announcements, humour | Tagged: music, Q Transmissions | Leave a comment »
I thought it might be nice to share some music each Friday.
This is Laura Veirs‘ “Galaxies” from the album “Year of Meteors”. Hope you like it.
Filed under: Friday music | Tagged: laura veirs, music | Leave a comment »
It seems to be traditional in the USA that this time of year leads to lots of “War on Christmas” headlines in the media. The UK also suffers from this though it’s usually limited to readers of the Daily Torygraph. Here in Ireland I think we’ve largely managed to avoid this sort of silliness, and it seems to me most people enjoy Christmas free of any connection to Middle Eastern myths.
This months poll question is about how you feel about Christmas. Personally it seems to me Europeans have been marking the Winter Solstice (or warding off inner and outer darkness) long before Christianity and we shouldn’t accept the Christian attempt to claim this as their holiday. If there was an historical Jesus there is nothing to suggest he was born on the 25th of December.
Filed under: debate | Tagged: christmas, poll, polls, war on christmas | 11 Comments »
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Filed under: humour, Video | Tagged: Colbert, Feist | 1 Comment »
They were walking to school in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn.
Her friend rushed over to help her, struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face, crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school.
The next time someone uses the phrase “militant Atheist” remind them of this picture
Girl burned with acid
from The Guardian via Butterflies and Wheels.
Filed under: religion | Tagged: Afghanistan, equal rights, islam, religion | 5 Comments »
I know some of you have already been active in this discussion over at atheist.ie.
To give some background Dick Spicer from the HAI wrote an article on atheist.ie suggesting a new more assertive atheist group should be set up.
While there has been much to and fro on the topic the general feeling seems to be supportive of such a move.
The suggestion I made for a next step is below, what do people here think? What would people think of the MWH offering to host such a convention?
Do people think we need a new national organisation? Should we concentrate on building the membership of the HAI instead?
If we do want a new group I’d suggest we call a convention. What I mean is that we form a temporary organising committee and then select a date and location and advertise as widely as possible with the aim of starting a mass movement with local branches throughout the country. The convention would have to run over a couple of days and work on a constitution, name, aims & objectives. This might need to be done by a series of committees and then voted on by those present. Existing groups like the HAI and ISS should be invited to participate.
As I see it the rationalist position will only be treated seriously when we have numbers, another 200 member group won’t change anything. People have criticised the HAI but please remember that it is a entirely voluntary organisation. If we can garner enough support we can have full time paid staff, that means people who are available to write press releases/blogs and appear on TV or radio. There is only so much free time people can give to any organisation.
Filed under: atheism, debate, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: atheism, ireland, organisation | 2 Comments »
Below are links to the most recent episodes of two of my favourite podcasts, The Non-Prophets and The Atheist Experience.
Both shows are sponsored by the Atheist Community of Austin, which is possibly the most active local atheist group in the United States. Larry will correct me if I wrong but I think it’s fair to say that the ACA is a big part of the reason the Mid-west Humanists exist.
The Atheist Experience is also available on Google Video and I’ll add this weeks episode when It’s available.
Filed under: atheism | Tagged: ACA, atheism, podcast, texas | 4 Comments »
Pharyngula
Skepchick
Bad Science
Friendly Atheist
colmobri
cru5ad3r
Jason
larry1506
JohnM
peterohara
robertbennett69
stilldoubting
Sully
Mid-west Humanists - An Irish Atheist Community 