The Quote Mining of Sam Harris

If you have ever debated a Creationist then the concept of Quote Mining will be familiar. This is where a specific quote is lifted out of its original context and then presented in isolation in order to verify the quote miner’s view. For example, Darwin wrote the following in the Origin of the species … To suppose … Read more

How do you feel about “Them” and how do “they” view us? – will it ever change?

Our larger national culture is something that is actually composed of rather a lot of smaller micro-cultures and there are many different types of these micro-cultures within this larger national unit. As an example, this can manifest as distinct geographical variations (North vs South) where each is a distinctly different micro-culture even though in a larger more global context it can … Read more

Bill Maher doing Stand-Up About Religion

Now here is a nice little collection of Bill Maher doing Stand-Up About Religion … Like bees to the scent of nectar, the clip has attracted the usual collection of believers within the comments frantically trying to make a coherent rebuttal … and totally failing to do so. Number of comments – 7,230 Number of thumbs down for … Read more

Bill Maher has the balls to nail it

Now here is a clip in which Bill Maher really nails it and puts things in proportion (yes it’s the infamous Fellate Show from 26th a few days ago) … The Demand for perfection I confess that I do love much of what Bill Maher says. Do I agree with every single word that comes … Read more

Jonathan Sacks makes many utterly absurd religious claims in a Salon article

Salon rang up Jonathan Sacks, interviewed him, and managed to spin some truly absurd religious claims into an article they have published. How much of what comes up is actually the thinking of Mr Sacks, and how much is actually the Salon author’s agenda via a bit of quote mining, I honestly don’t know, but either way it … Read more

Top 5 weirdest most influential cranks on the Internet today

When faced with a search for the weirdest cranks around, I confess that it is truly a hard decision to make, there is simply so much choice, and so what I’ve finally settled on as a selection criteria is to go for those who have influenced lots of others and are often cited as “evidence” for … Read more