Avampirism

Recently I’ve run-up against the argument that atheism is “just another faith” — as if that somehow raised the merit of a believer’s position, which of course, even if atheism were, it does not.
I’d like to begin by quoting my buddy Sam Harris:
I think that ‘atheist’ is a term that we do not need, in the same way that [...]

Color Blind

Watch this one to the end…

PZ’s Mailbag

I wasn’t planning to write more about this after my previous post on it, but having read through some of the letters that PZ has received, I wanted to share one that reveals, on a couple levels, the kind of view that many with a “religious mind” seem to have:

Sunday Funny #2

This video is in response to McDonalds giving $20,000 and receiving membership to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. A McDonald’s spokesperson has been quoted as responding: “Hatred has no place in our culture. That includes McDonald’s, and we stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination [...]

“Because I Love Her” Is a Rational, Reasonable, and Logical Response

In his book The End of Faith Sam Harris points out, “People of faith naturally recognize the primacy of reason and resort to reasoning whenever they possibly can. Faith is simply the license they give themselves to keep believing when reasons fail” (232). To believe something true without evidence or in spite of evidence is [...]

“Host-age” Update — THE END!

Wow! Ok, let me catch you up. College student walks out of Catholic mass with communion wafer to show to friend. News gets out and inflamed Catholics harass student until he fearfully returns said wafer. Biologist PZ Myers posts a scathing review of events on his blog, ending his commentary with an invitation for someone to [...]

Wheatgrass and Autism

Michael Shermer has a short article over at Scietnific American titled “How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Result.” It touches on both my posts over the last two days. He’s a smart guy. You may know him as the “skeptic” on several History Channel programs; he is also a former Evangelical Christian. I reccomend his books [...]

The Alternative Medicine of Genocide

Radovan Karadzic has been caught. The leader of an area of Bosnia dominated by “Serbs” (that is to say Orthodox Christians) — he was in control during the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the town of Srebrenica in 1995 and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, where 11,000 people died from sniper fire, mortar attacks, starvation, and illness.

I am writing [...]