If I could write Obama’s speeches so as to best influence the national conversation in a positive way, they would have simply no mention of religion. Our society is best served by candidates being chosen not by a religious litmus test but by a robust debate on the relevant political
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LeDaro: Science and Religion: ‘God Particle’
An interesting debate about Higgs boson (God Particle) and religion. FILE – In this March 30, 2010 file photo a scientist looks at the pictures of the first collisions at full power at the CMS experience control room at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva, Switzerland.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Disservice – Abortion, for everyone else.
Betty Bowers, albeit somewhat crassly, explains the christian take on abortion. Filed under: Religion Tagged: Abortion, christian “morality”, The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Republican Horrified to ‘Discover’ that Islam is a Religion
We’ll file this under the heading ,”Only *MY* magical religious beliefs and bigotry are acceptable”. This article has to do with the already wrong notion that a voucher system is somehow good for public education and the whiplash inducing reversal of course that happened once it was known that school
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Disservice – The Burden of Proof – Qualia Soup
QS tackles some debate basics, but makes the argument that our society is progressing to the state where we can challenge the claims of those who subscribe to the supernatural. Enjoy. Filed under: Education, Religion Tagged: Arguments, Qualia Soup, The Burden of Proof, The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is nothing sacred? Turbulent pastor jumps to the front of Calgary’s Stampede Parade!
Pastor Artur Pawlowski and members of his flock march at the head of the Calgary Stampede Parade on Friday. Below: Pastor Pawlowski with Alberta Solicitor-General Jonathan Denis. Below that: Pastor Pawlowski with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. All photos grabbed from Facebook pages belonging to Pastor Pawlowski or his Calgary Street
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: What Happened To Thunderfoot?
I am continually amazed by people and their ability to be rational in one aspect of their life and the ability to completely ignore rationality in other aspects of their life. The example that I often see is people who are in evidence based professions, especially the ones that require
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The God particle, and what it has to do with God
Oh how I wish the recently demonstrated Higgs Boson, which bestows mass on particles, had never acquired the moniker the ‘God Particle’. I suppose there is one benefit: it increases the attention and coverage about a very cool and significant question, just solved, in particle physics. But it does so
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Religion and Language: Quasi-Religious Terminology
There are a host of commonly used words in the English language which I like to call quasi-religious. Words like soul, spiritual, fate, mother nature, energy, and the like. These are words which have two sets of connotations, one which is spiritual and one which is largely secular, whose different
Continue readingNo more pecker snipping in Germany
With a ruling that circumcising boys constitutes grievous bodily harm, a German court has effectively outlawed the practice in that country. The case was brought against a doctor in Cologne who circumcised a four-year-old Muslim boy on his parents’ wishes. When, a few days after the operation, the boy was
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Uncompromising Freedom of Speech
A German Salafist Muslim Group (Salafists generally considered an extremist variant of Islam) is causing controversy with a plan to distribute some 25 million German language Korans. That something specific could even be done about this is not clear given the strength of German freedom of expression laws, but this
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Christian Science – Geocentric All the Way Baby!
The infallible word of god is proven once again to be anything but although we should give the RCC credit they stuck to their guns that the earth was the centre of the universe till 1992. That is religious progress for you. Potholer54 does a wonderful job of ridiculing the
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Syria Isn’t About Syria
Bahrain and Syria both have repressive governments and both had uprisings in 2011, the United States and Saudi Arabia stopped one but are continuing the other, showing democracy and humanitarian concerns don’t shape foreign policy, national self-interest does. In February 2011 protesters took to the streets in Bahrain calling for
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: On Christopher Hitchens
When asked, several years back, what he thought of fellow leftish dissident Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens made the point that while he respected much of Chomsky’s work, Chomsky was overvaluing his core issue – criticism of principally US imperialism – and thus saw the Balkans conflict entirely through this lens,
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Disservice – Pick up sticks and you die!
Ah, the prefect moral being and originator of all things good and holy is at it once again, this time condemning people to death for daring to defy his will. Objectively moral my ass. Filed under: Religion Tagged: absolute morality, christian “morality”, ethics, How Religion Poisons Everything
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Richard Dawkins and Cardinal Pell – Q&A – Watch Religion Fail Mightily
The good cardinal is out gunned, out classed and out argued on this episode of Q&A. He ends up calling Jesus and ignorant sheep-herder. A great debate, well worth your time. Filed under: Atheism, Religion, Science Tagged: Pell, Q&A, Religion, Richard Dawkins, Science and Religion
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Romney and the "M" word
CNN’s religion section notes today that W. Mitt Romney (W for Willard) still has a major hurdle to overcome on the road to the White House. His religion, Mormonism. Now personally I can’t understand why it should be such a big deal — who should honestly care what one’s belief
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Disservice – God is Love and Poseidon is the Sea
“Do you believe in god?” “No.” “Well, do you believe in love?” “Sure.” “Then you must believe in god, as god is love” “Wha…?” I’ve heard the ‘god is love’ bit quite a number of times, but never as a proof for its deistic existence. When it is merely an
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Religious Bullshit and Assisted Suicide Law Struck Down
If you are a religious person you know that life is sacred and only god can decide when and how you will die. You also know that god has a plan for you and works in mysterious ways. So he might decide that you will die quietly in your sleep
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: God Created Adam and Eve Not Adam and Steve
I’m really not sure why religious right wingers always seem to use this phrase in reference to the Adam and Eve story (as well as other Old Testament references) to justify their claims that homosexuality is an abomination (and as the Catholic school system would call it “intrinsically disordered”). The
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