The White House vs Catholicism

Barack Obama has come under a barrage of criticism from religious organisations over a new requirement that Catholic-run schools and hospitals provide free contraception to workers. As you might imagine, the republicans have also leapt upon this issue and are attempting to mint some political coin out of it by claiming he is “hostile to … Read more

The atheist-shaped hole in the interfaith movement?

Rory Fenton writes an article in Today’s Guardian that is titled ” There is a gaping, atheist-shaped hole in the interfaith movement“. If indeed you are a non-believer like me, your first reaction is perhaps the same as mine, “Why should I bother engaging with a bunch of folks who hold irrational beliefs?”. Well OK, … Read more

Onion satire becomes factual reality – 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Ridiculous

The Onion, everybody’s favorite source for satire, has given us all a good laugh with headlines such as … ‘9/11 Conspiracy Theories Ridiculous’ – Al Qaeda You can find the satire they did on that uploaded to YouTube back in 2008 here on 1st April (well come on, what other date could they possibly pick), … Read more

Republicans Against Science

Yesterday’s Op-Ed column in the New York Times by Paul Krugman, is quite disturbing to read. In essence the GOP contenders appear to be frantically striving to present themselves as complete lunatics. He puts it more politely and uses the term, “Anti-Science” (well it is the NYT, they tend not to publish if you use terms such as “Clueless Gobshite”, even if it is accurate). He writes:

Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, recently made headlines by dismissing evolution as “just a theory,” one that has “got some gaps in it” — an observation that will come as news to the vast majority of biologists. But what really got peoples’ attention was what he said about climate change: “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.”

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Perry

If you know me, then you will know that I’m a staunch supporter of the concept called “Freedom of Thought”, which basically distills down into “you can believe whatever you wish” – fairies, unicorns, jesus and other similar myths. However, there comes a point at which you truly do need to raise your voice of … Read more

News Bias – Attacking Atheists

It is often quite interesting to look at how a specific event is reported, and note the tone of the article. Such a comparison often tells us quite a lot about the bias that is introduced by the article’s author and perhaps also reveals a hidden agenda. Here now is an interesting example of this:

First … the event. A Metal beam, in the shape of a cross (pictured here) was found at 9/11 ground zero, it was subsequently blessed by a priest and erected as a memorial. What has now happened is that a US atheist group filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order the removal of the cross-shaped steel beam or request that other religions and nonreligious views be equally represented. My thoughts? Well, it sounds fair to me, we live in a pluralistic society, all they are asking for is an even playing field.

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