Unreasonable Faith, via Jesus Needs New PR, present the standard evangelical gospel, "God has made you sick and commands you to be well", presentation from Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (as a commenter on JNNPR says, Jesus likes C-list celebs, L Ron Hubbard has the A-listers). Vorjack notes Ray is utterly unconvincing wonders who Ray's talking to: my guess is cultural Christians who vaguely accept Ray's premises. Even so "Have you ever told a lie? What does that make you?" invites the response "Have you ever told the truth? What does that make you?", I suppose… Perhaps Ray needs a Bad Arguments post of his own. (tags: evangelicalismevangelismray-comfortkirk-cameronchristianityreligionsin)
A popular response to arguments which say that suffering and evil in the world is evidence that God does not exist is to say that we're not in a position to know that God doesn't have good reasons for allowing the evil/suffering. In "On What God Would Do", Rob Lovering shows that that sort of response to the problem of evil ends up creating problems for arguments in favour of God's existence, since they generally rely on claims about what God would do. Hume got there first, as usual, but Lovering makes it rigourous. (tags: philosophyreligiontheodicyevilrob-lovering)
Donald Duck invented the plot to Inception and a method of raising sunken ships using ping pong balls, apparently. (tags: comicscrackedcartoonsinceptiondisneyduck)
Blackford writes good stuff: "What we do say is that it's hopelessly misleading to go around saying "Science and religion are compatible." It would be more true to say that science tends to undermine all or most traditional forms of religion, making them less plausible, putting pressure on the religious to thin out their supernaturalist, providentialist views of the world, and so on. The result is that much in the way of actual religion really is threatened by the advance of science. Claiming otherwise is, we say, likely to be disingenuous (or, to be fair, simply mistaken)." (tags: sciencereligionatheismaccomodationismrussell-blackford)
"Many people are fooled by the Daily Mail’s appearance into thinking that it is something it’s not. Every week seems to bring fresh stories of people or organisations that have co-operated with it, but are then upset to find themselves misrepresented or just deliberately lied about in its pages. If they had realised that it is not a newspaper but a comic, and does not seem to be bound by any of the laws that we popularly imagine newspapers to comply with, they probably would not ever have agreed to speak to its journalists. Readers, too, are often misled by the Mail’s appearance into thinking they are reading a newspaper, which can often lead to enormous confusion on their part." (tags: journalismmediadaily-mailfunny)
Maryam Namazie reckons you can and should be critical of Islam without joining the EDL. Via an ex-Muslim of my acquaintance, who I'm obviously not going to name. (tags: islamislamismpoliticsreligionmaryam-namazie)
"David Cameron will today signal a sea-change in the government fight against home-grown terrorism, saying the state must confront, and not consort with, the non-violent Muslim groups that are ambiguous about British values such as equality between sexes, democracy and integration." I agree with Dave, to the extent that it’s unfair to call Christians on their shit without doing the same to Muslims. (tags: islammulticulturalismukeuropeguardianreligionpolitics)
A brief introduction to various sorts of ethics (virtue, deonotological, consequentialist). Some interesting comments about what causes us to reject various systematisations of morality and whether our rejections are legitimate. (tags: moralityethicsphilosophy)
"Ignostics take issue with a question so fundamental it's often overlooked: What do you mean by "God"? Is "God" a coherent or cognitively meaningful thought? Is it premature, or even possible, to have a serious discussion about a vacuous concept?" Interesting: I tend to find discussion of the evangelical Christian God meaningful, but I have no idea what it would mean for some other sorts of god to exist. (tags: ignosticismphilosophyreligiongod)
Andrew Brown on the ruling against a some Christian hoteliers who refused a double room to a gay couple. The Christians would also not allow unmarried straight couples to share a double bed, but the judge made the decision on the basis that the gay couple were civil partners. (tags: religionsexhomosexualitylawsocietyandrew-brown)
Sort of Russell's Teapot with some bite: a brilliantly edited video. Apparently done as a homework assignment: can you do this stuff on home equipment these days? via mefi. (tags: religioncrazywatering-canvideoyoutubeteapotrussell)
I'm reading Blackburn's "Truth" at the moment, and "Being Good" is next on the queue (clearly I should get "Lust" to complete the set). Here he is arguing that Sam Harris is wrong to claim that science can answer all moral questions. (tags: sam-harrismoralityethicssimon-blackburnblackburnharrisphilosophy)
"Norah Vincent spent 18 months disguised as a man. She relives the boys nights out, the bad dates – and what happened when she ended up in bed with another woman." Women don't quite know what dating is like as a guy, it turns out. Or at least, Norah didn't, and ended up being quite sympathetic when she'd tried it 🙂 (tags: equalitygenderwomenmendatingsexrelationships)
The story of Jesus is not much like those of Mithras, Dionysus or Horus, despite what you may have heard. As the author says, Christianity has enough problems with it without making up more. Via andrewducker. (tags: christianityreligionchristmasjesusmithrasdionysushorus)