1. Richard Dawkins to appear in Second Life

Comment #45567 by jose on May 28, 2007 at 8:32 am

Juice barracuda will be there. If my graphics card can handle it.

2. 4 Sermon for Matins: 'Dawkins and The God Delusion'

Comment #36510 by jose on May 1, 2007 at 11:34 am

'Clearly, as a biological scientist (he is an ecologist)'

Really?

3. Intelligent design to feature in school RE lessons

Comment #18872 by jose on January 23, 2007 at 10:49 am

Exactly, unless there is an incredible amount of retraining, supervision of lessons etc this will end up with science and superstition put on an equal footing by RE teachers who have very limited understanding of what evolution actually means. It will be portrayed as design vs blind chance with paley's watch as the the decider. Or at least it will be in my old school (not a religious school by the way, just an average, rural comprehensive). And while some of the kids will be able to sort the wheat from the chaff many others will go on to contribute to articles like "Britons Unconvinced by Evolution" on this site.

4. Intelligent design to feature in school RE lessons

Comment #18825 by jose on January 23, 2007 at 4:46 am

Lionel,
That's a good idea. I was fortunate in that i had read 'life on earth' and 'almost like a whale' before i encountered an RE teacher who had no understanding of the process. There must have been numerous other kids who came out of it with a distorted and just plain wrong view of evolution and science in general. Having a science teacher there who could intervene and ensure that the right debate was taking place- no straw men- would be useful. Although i suppose they may be concerned about undermining other teachers. It's easy enough to do...

5. Intelligent design to feature in school RE lessons

Comment #18818 by jose on January 23, 2007 at 4:24 am

It's a difficult question, but i think offering vastly bigger salaries to the best and brightest to atttract them into teaching would be a start. Also, i've had teachers who put in so little effort that it was embarrassing. A science teacher who put on the same 1980's video every week while we did a poster on the dangers of electricity. He should have been teaching us about the wonders of the universe, inspiring people. Teachers like him should be sacked. i know, from talking to governers, that having such bad teachers in an institution brings everyone down.
Obviously these suggestions may not work/be unworkable but speaking from experience i know that the teachers i had would not have handled this interesting idea. My RE teacher was afraid of debate because she was religious and felt like any criticism of religion was a direct challenge to her. It was not unusual to be sent out of class for picking her up on the absurdity of her arguements, even when it was done in a polite manner. There is no way that she could address a piece of work by Dawkins or Steve Jones on evolution. Apologies for the slightly ranting format but i had to sit through several years of inadequate teaching while my interest in subjects was undermined rather than strengthened.

6. Intelligent design to feature in school RE lessons

Comment #18801 by jose on January 23, 2007 at 3:34 am

In principle this sounds like a good idea. However, my experience of RE teachers suggests that it will be seen as a way to place religious superstition and scientific enquiry on an equal footing. My RE teacher put forward the Paley's watch argument as a fundamental disproof of evolution. She then failed to comprehend my explanation as to why this was ridiculous (not blind chance, power of accumulation etc) and i imagine that many people leeft the class thinking that evolution was on shaky ground. For this to work you need competent teachers and having left school 3 years ago, i'm not convinced they exist. Even my science teachers had limited understanding of evolution, again referring to it as a blind chance process. I had to explain to one of them why a predator oculd evolve camoflage.

7. Beyond Belief 2006 Videos

Comment #11944 by jose on December 8, 2006 at 12:30 pm

Am watching the 4th session as i type and have found it fascinating so far, with the exception of the quantum conscious bit which went way over my head. Makes me wish i'd carried on with science instead of the Politics degree i'm in the middle of. Oh and is the torrent download of this legal? I'd love a copy to show to people.

8. A Modest Proposal for a Truce on Religion

Comment #11195 by Jose on December 3, 2006 at 4:25 pm

Luke, here's the full Bill Hicks quote. He was right about so many things.

"This is it, folks. This is the idea which has kept me virtually unknown for the past 16 years. I have watched my crowds dwindle. I am going nowhere, and nowhere quick, but, those of you who have children, I am sorry to tell you this, but they are not special. Wait! I know some of you are going: "What, what?" Let me just clarify: I know you think they're special … ha ha ha! I'm aware of that. I'm just here to tell you that they're not! Ha ha ha ha! Sorry. Did you know that every time a guy comes, he comes two-hundred million sperm? One out of two-hundred million – that load, we're only talking about one load – connected: Gee, what are the fucking odds? Do you know what that means? I've wiped nations off of my chest with a grey gymsock. Entire civilizations have flaked and crusted in the hair around my navel! […] I've tossed universes in my underpants while napping. Boom! A Milkyway shoots into my jockeyshorts: "Unngh … what's for fucking breakfast?!"