1. Why Dawkins is right and his critics are wrong

Comment #235330 by funflower on August 22, 2008 at 7:35 pm

Anyone know whether this program is likely to make it to US television any time soon?

2. Church exorcism protected by First Amendment

Comment #221513 by funflower on July 29, 2008 at 5:21 pm

If she was there voluntarily, she has no claim regardless of how unhappy she was about the experience. If she was kept against her will, a crime has been committed, and the first amendment is irrelevant.

3. Escape or betrayal.

Comment #217957 by funflower on July 24, 2008 at 7:43 pm

Enlightenment comes to a society through education. Since the internet is the beset educational tool I can think of, my personal favorite idea for a charitable effort that would help bring enlightenment to primitive societies and subcultures, is a nonprofit that would fund translation of internet sites (such as this one)into Arabic and other languages that can be read by people in especially oppressive cultures.

4. Islam subway ads cause stir in New York

Comment #216214 by funflower on July 22, 2008 at 8:43 pm

I just learned from that neato "Collapse of Darwinism" movie on WhyIslam.org that that cells have these amazing little motors that are just too darned complex to have evolved "by coincidence"? I'll bet the Discovery Institute folk will be thrilled to know they are helping their fellow People of the Book recruit new members.

5. Nine face stoning death in Iran

Comment #214619 by funflower on July 20, 2008 at 5:18 pm

The Religion of Peace(TM) is at it again.

6. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #198749 by funflower on June 24, 2008 at 12:35 pm

Why do we have to go to the internet to see this stuff? Where is Fox News when you need them?

7. Mark Steyn vs. the 'Sock Puppets'

Comment #185810 by funflower on May 28, 2008 at 4:21 pm

If we do one thing right in the United States, it's the First Amendment to our Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

I can't imagine this happening here.

8. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150369 by funflower on March 26, 2008 at 7:23 pm

Same thing happened in Oregon earlier this month.

Prosecutors are reviewing the death of a 15-month-old girl a medical examiner says could have been saved if she had been treated with antibiotics.

The Oregonian newspaper quoted Dr. Christopher Young, a deputy state medical examiner, as saying that Ava Worthington died March 2 at home from bacterial bronchial pneumonia and infection.

He said both conditions could have been prevented or treated with antibiotics, and the child's breathing was further compromised by a benign cyst that had never been medically addressed and could have been removed from her neck, The Oregonian reported Saturday.

If prosecuted, the paper said, Ava Worthington's parents would be the first members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ, a fundamentalist Christian denomination, to face charges for failing to seek medical treatment for a gravely ill child.

"We are reviewing the case, and our investigation is progressing," said Greg Horner, Clackamas County chief deputy district attorney. He did not release the parents' names.

(more)

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_032408_news_faith_healing_death_15_month_girl_.2096e0ed.html

9. Saudi Arabia Leader Calls for Interfaith Dialogue

Comment #150364 by funflower on March 26, 2008 at 7:12 pm

Considering where the Saudis are coming from, this is progress. While Abdullah undoubtedly thinks he's going to co-opt western Christians into "respecting" his faith and supporting his agenda (he should take a lesson from Mitt Romney on that one, but I digress), engagement in "interfaith dialogue" is a first, albeit small, step on the road to a rational worldview. Fifty or 100 years ago, most westerners were not willing to engage in "dialogue" across, say, the Catholic/Protestant divide.

10. Curriculum for Baptist School

Comment #126653 by funflower on February 13, 2008 at 7:03 pm

I was shocked to see this on the website of a local Christian middle school. It describes their science teacher's approach:

He enjoys leading his students to discover the truths of science and God's creation and to build a foundation of reliance on God's Word. The Creation, The Curse, and The Flood are continually emphasized as causative events that have shaped our universe.

11. God's honest truth?

Comment #102928 by funflower on December 24, 2007 at 1:37 am

Being a believer in FREE thought, I think the Swedish policy, along with any attempt to censor ideas or speech is unworkable, counterproductive and wrong. When we give government the power to decide which ideas are acceptable, we are creating a monster far more dangerous than anything that could possibly emanate from a faith school.

Freedom of speech has got to be as close to absolute as possible or it means nothing.

There is some interesting research I read recently showing that children of fundamentalist families are highly likely to leave their childhood religion eventually, and the reason is that they are taught to care deeply about truth (after all, their religion is the one true path). When, as teens or adults, they realize their family's faith could not possibly be true, they abandon it in large numbers. In short, teaching children to care about truth is more predictive of adult secularism than what content is presented to them as being true when they are children.

12. Banishing the Green-Eyed Monster

Comment #92180 by funflower on November 30, 2007 at 2:42 am

From a Darwinian perspective, a woman is jealous because she doesn't want the father of her children spending his economic (and emotional) resources on another woman's children.

Women's growing financial independence and the capability of paternity testing to allocate financial responsibility for children might lessen this instinct somewhat in the future.

However, I seriously doubt humans will soon give up on the highly utilitarian system of monogamous pairing for the purpose of raising mutual offspring.

13. Griffin's 'offensive' Emmy speech to be censored

Comment #69782 by funflower on September 12, 2007 at 6:55 pm

"The speech drew fire from a leading Roman Catholic group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned Griffin's remarks as "obscene and blasphemous".

Anybody else think this is a wee bit ironic?

14. Rushdie knighted in honours list

Comment #51168 by funflower on June 21, 2007 at 8:20 pm

This was a great decision. Honoring Rushdie for his literary acheivements and moral courage is exactly the right use of a knighthood.