1. Scientists confirm shark's 'virgin birth'

Comment #263225 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 10, 2008 at 12:06 pm

Jawsus!

2. The camp that 'cures' homosexuality

Comment #262411 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 8, 2008 at 1:02 pm

Philster61,

You are right, the Bruno and Pastor sketch was total genius. The good news is that the next Sacha Baron Cohen film is Bruno based so expect more of the same.

In the meantime, I recommend a new TV series called Rick and Steve ("the happiest gay couple in West Lahunga Beach"). It's gaydom's answer to Spinal Tap (with Lego).

3. The camp that 'cures' homosexuality

Comment #262095 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 8, 2008 at 1:38 am

"Everyone has paid $600 (£340) for the privilege."

And there you have it.

"All I know is that it makes more sense to listen to the God who created the Universe than to my puny human emotions."

One of the saddest things I have read.

".....they believe that you're born with your religion and choose your sexuality, when that is the opposite of the truth."

One of the truest things I have read.

"A squeaky-voiced youth of no more than 17, who has been trembling violently, shoots up his hand. He wants to know whether he should dump his boyfriend."

Dump your imaginary friend, kiddo.

"And she leaves, ready to face a new life in which love and sex are reduced to the sound of elevator music."

Truly, The Girl From Ipanema.

4. Dawkins: a theologian's perspective

Comment #261087 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 6, 2008 at 12:16 pm

"Although today it is hard to find many examples of Christian extremism..."

How many millions are becoming infected with HIV and dying because of Christian teaching (or even outright lies) regarding condoms?

Not hard to think of that one. Took me all of two seconds. And that is coming from a so-called moderate church.

5. New Rules for Sarah Palin and Her Witchdoctor

Comment #260848 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 6, 2008 at 5:30 am

Further to my earlier inane football related contribution, I will add nothing much else to the debate by pointing out that a rationalist examines the record of the two teams in question for evidence of past success and current form before going down the bookies to put a crisp tenner (or five) on Manchester United to win. A religionist bets his entire life on Port Vale.

6. New Rules for Sarah Palin and Her Witchdoctor

Comment #260425 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 5, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Agnostics are those people who have no idea who is going to win when Manchester United play Port Vale.

7. Respect for religion now makes censorship the norm

Comment #257796 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 1, 2008 at 5:55 am

Melusine,

The story was well covered in both electronic and print media.

However, as there were swift arrests and charges made against three suspects, there are legal limits on what can be said in order not to prejudice any subsequent trial.

Simply to keep up with news stories, my top tip of the day is to check out the National Secular Society website who operate a damned fine cuttings service.

8. Secular schools of thought tainted

Comment #252211 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 22, 2008 at 3:38 pm

Last year, Sir Ian McKellan told reporters that whenever he stayed in a hotel with a bible in the room, he would rip out the pages referring to homosexuality.

Referring to Leviticus he was quoted as saying "I think it's rather obscene and pornographic and shouldn't be there, so I remove it".

He added that he had been vandalising bibles in this way for years and that others did so also and often went so far as to post him the evidence.

He finished off by saying that the Bible should be labelled as fiction.

Nice work Sir Ian!

9. Jewish 'ultras' defend morals with menace

Comment #251580 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 21, 2008 at 5:02 pm

"With the demographics skewed in their favour, government authorities are acquiescing to the growing demands of the ultra-orthodox."

Not totally unlike the US presidential candidates then.

"The transport ministry......has allowed operators to provide 'kosher' or 'pure' routes, where women are required to sit at the back and cannot board unless appropriately dressed."

Rosa Parks must be spinning.

10. Richard Dawkins infected with Satanic 'virus of mind', Christian group claims

Comment #251354 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 21, 2008 at 11:50 am

Corylus,

Christian Voice ran up serious legal fees in their failed attempt to have the Director General of the BBC imprisoned for blasphemy.

Facing bankruptsy as a result of their vexatious action, they have now had the bare-faced cheek to ask the BBC to the waive costs awarded to the BBC by the court.

Having been subjected to a vitriolic campaign by these creeps, Auntie Beeb is having none of it.

Pointing out that agreeing to Christian Voice's request would mean that the licence payer would end up paying for the BBC's defence, the DG has told them to go and swivel.

It was partly as a result of all this that the blasphemy law was recently struck off the statute.

That's what I call a result.

11. YouTube Removes Viral Video on Palin's Churches For Inappropriate Content

Comment #248376 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 16, 2008 at 6:07 am

Follow the "read on" link to a video on Holy Laughter Anointing. The noise they make sounds just like a group of chimps. Ironic or what?

12. Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution

Comment #247571 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 14, 2008 at 3:21 pm

I see the apology is being addressed directly to Darwin himself.

As the assumption behind this must be that he is still around in some way to hear it, this apology would appear to be a further insult to the truth about religion (and the consequential absence of an afterlife) that Dawrin revealed in his life's work.

13. Sharia courts operating in Britain

Comment #247556 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 14, 2008 at 3:06 pm

PrimeNumbers,

I feel the point is that we are not giving special treatment in the normal sense of offering privilage.

Quite the reverse. We are, in fact, allowing religious bully boys to push inferior law onto vulnerable people within their own communities - people who deserve the protection and rights they are due under English law but who may either unaware of those rights or simply to afraid to exercise them.

We are allowing the creation of second class citizens and, to me, this is a disgrace.

14. Sharia courts operating in Britain

Comment #247403 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 14, 2008 at 11:39 am

The theory behind approval for this is that the participants are taking part in these agreements of their own free will.

But what of an immigrant who might be used to religious courts in their homeland and has no knowledge that they have rights and recourse under English law?

Similarly, what of those who might be threatened with violence or "honour" killings if they do not submit to a religious court?

And what of those who are threatened with being cast out of their communities or made apostate?

What are people to do when they might not even speak the language, have no friends outside their own closed community or have been taught from birth that God's word, as delivered by the preacher, is law?

Big Gus is correct. At it's worst, this is vigilantism. Even at it's best it is a bully's charter that will allow exploitation of the fears and ignorance some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Surely, a civilised society should be protecting and helping such people not turning it's back on them and handing them over to vicious self-serving beardy creeps.

Worse, behind it lies the deeply offensive implication that some members of our society are in some way not good enough for or do not deserve our laws.

It's one step short of outright racism. Shame on us.

15. Our scientists must nail the creationists

Comment #247131 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 14, 2008 at 2:37 am

The fact that children believe a load of nonsense is an educational issue that needs to be addressed - not, as Reiss suggests, a situation to be pandered to.

That a small but growing number of UK schools slipping creationism into the classroom can now pray in aid the Royal Society's spokesman on education is a disgrace.

He might be a fool but, for some, he is turning out to be a very useful one.

16. Saudi OKs Killing 'Immoral' TV Execs

Comment #246525 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 12, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Would this apply to Fox News?

Let the slaughter begin!

17. Knowledge regained

Comment #245822 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 11, 2008 at 12:50 pm

"...science can neither prove nor disprove God."

But we can establish probability.

18. Comedian Sabina Guzzanti 'insulted Pope' in poofter devils gag

Comment #245795 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 11, 2008 at 12:30 pm

There is such a thing as over-reach.

Christian Voice (the UK's answer to Westboro) tried to pursue a private prosecution against the BBC over Jerry Springer: the Opera. Result: repeal of the UK blasphemy laws.

We can only hope the same happens here.

19. Gay support group gets straight 'no' from Brethren

Comment #243862 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 7, 2008 at 2:45 pm

"Small town" (or "Middle England") is not a geographical construct. It's just a more politically acceptable way of saying "small minded".

20. Gay support group gets straight 'no' from Brethren

Comment #243853 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 7, 2008 at 2:23 pm

Cartomancer,

You say "They are generally also guilty of thinking that being gay is entirely about sex. I will admit that modern gay culture does little to dispel this misunderstanding, but it is about the most pernicious of misunderstandings out there".

This is true but it is also true of heterosexual culture - as any advertising agency or newspaper editor will tell you - sex sells and heterosexual sexual images are all around us every day. So who is obsessed the most?

Straight people who go around acccusing gay people of a preoccupation with sex is like the bull calling the goat horny, methinks.

And try watching "Club Reps" on ITV if you want to see modern heterosexual culture at work. In the last series a girl claimed to have slept with 19 men and she had only arrived in the resort two days earlier. That's some going.

But, again, as you rightly point out, this is not necessarily typical. Neither is it right or wrong. It's personal choice.

As Oscar Wilde might have put it "There is no such thing as gay behaviour or straight behaviour. There are people who sleep around - and people who don't."

And while I'm at it, the "safety" issue bugs me also.

I mean, since when was there a war fought in the name of gayness, or a gay inspired inquisition, or a suicide bombing by a gay rights activist? Did a buch of gay guys ever fly an aeroplane into a building in the cause of homosexuality? I doubt it.

If there is a safety issue, it's around religion.

Rant over.

21. Gay support group gets straight 'no' from Brethren

Comment #243839 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 7, 2008 at 1:51 pm

As Phillip Island's most famous tourist attraction is its "Penguin Parade",someone should tell the Christian Brethren about the unholy activity taking place on their very doorstep.

Research has shown that the incidence of gay sex in penguins to be the highest in the animal kingdom (humans are about average) and, as the male will generally mate with a particular female for only one breeding season, the annual divorce rate in heterosexual couplings runs at over 90 per cent.

Oh, in case you were wondering, Japanese Macaques are top lesbians, apparently.

22. Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview

Comment #241823 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 3, 2008 at 5:58 am

Here is an extract from Johann Hari's article in the Independent this morning (the final flourish is sooooo quotable):

Sarah Palin says global warming is "not man-made". She's a denier married to an oilman, who even wants to take polar bears off the endangered species list because she believes there is no risk to them. (This is part of a wider lack of scientific understanding: she thinks creationism is "a credible scientific theory" too.) If McCain; a 72 year-old cancer survivor; dies in office, we get Dick Cheney with breasts as President.

*guffaws mouthful of tea across room*

23. Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview

Comment #241726 by Ivan The Not So Bad on September 3, 2008 at 2:21 am

"I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."

So, let me see, I stay here in London and run the very small risk getting pitchforked into the fires of Hell or I go to Anchorage for the very small possibility of spending all eternity with a bunch of utter loons.

That's a toughie (especially as Pascal's wager would probably leave me in Newfoundland).

24. Atheists: The Last Political Outcasts

Comment #238735 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 28, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Eshto,

Do not despair yet. The latest polls show a majority AGAINST approving the religiously inspired Proposition 8 (which seeks to reverse the recent CA Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex unions).

25. Museum in censorship row over Darwin sign

Comment #238722 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 28, 2008 at 2:02 pm

Perhaps Professor Dawkins could volunteer to rewrite a new sign for them. And a few of us could each chuck in a couple of quid to pay for it. What a wind-up that would be.....

26. It's no wonder evangelical atheists need to shout so loud

Comment #238125 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 27, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Re. Big Bang and the beginning of the universe, Professor Brian Cox (a particle physicist and ex member of the popular music combo D'Ream) offers the following gem in a Q&A session currently going on as part of the BBC's rather fabulous Big Bang website set up to preview the CERN LHR switch-on scheduled for 10 September:

"Some of the current theories of the origin of our Universe suggest that in fact the Universe has been around for ever. What we see as the big bang was simply something happening to our little piece of spacetime 13.7 billion years ago. There could be multiple "sheets" of spacetime (sometimes called "branes" floating around in an infinitely large multi-dimensional Universe, with everything we see being confined to just one. When these sheets bump into each other, they become very hot and expand, so to anyone living on a sheet today it would look like their Universe began at the point of collision."

Asked if the LHC will create a black hole that will devour the Earth, the estimable Professor Cox answers in a manner we will all sympathise with:

"I am in fact immensely irritated by the conspiracy theorists who spread this nonsense around and try to scare people. This non-story is symptomatic of a larger mistrust in science, particularly in the US, which includes intelligent design amongst other things. The only serious issue is why so many people who don't have the time or inclination to discover for themselves why this stuff is total crap have to be exposed to the opinions of these half-wits."

Or as he would have put it in his previous job "Things can only get better".

27. Plan to exhume cardinal is 'homophobic'

Comment #237432 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 26, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Newman's sexuality is well known, or at least well speculated upon.

In fact, the long-established group within the RC Church that campaigns for reform of the church's attitude towards gay and lesbian people is called, if memory does not fail me, the Cardinal Newman Society.

Of course, if the Church really believed Newwman's relationship was platonic and they weren't just engaged in a pathetic attempt to airbrush his gaynesss, they could abide by his dying wish by exhuming Farther Ambrose St John as well and then keep the bodies (or matching bits of them if they plan to send various parts hither and thither) together.

Somehow, I don't think they'll go for that though........

28. Pastor Rick's Test

Comment #233881 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 20, 2008 at 2:05 pm

For some background, the following article from the Economist a short while back is illuminating.

(And yes, I would insert a link here rather than paste the whole thing in if only I could get this whizzy new laptop to obey me. Like Basil Fawlty, having given it due warning, I am now going to thrash it.)


"Both Barack Obama and John McCain have problems with religion

Few Democrats have seemed more comfortable talking about God than Barack Obama has. And yet few, if any, have had more problems with God at the ballot boxâ€"from rumours that he is a Muslim to doubts among Catholic and Jewish voters to repeated "pastor eruptions".

This is a serious worry for the Democrats as they gird their loins for the general election. Four years ago the party finally grasped what should have been obvious for years: that running as a secular party in a highly religious country is a recipe for defeat. George Bush not only beat John Kerry by huge margins among "values voters". He also profited from a visceral sense that there was something unAmerican about the Democrats' secularism. Seven out of ten Americans routinely tell pollsters that they want their president to have a strong personal faith.

The Democrats sensibly (if cynically) set about closing the God gap. The party ran candidates with impeccable religious credentialsâ€"Ted Strickland, a former Methodist minister, in Ohio; Tim Kaine, a former missionary, in Virginia; and Robert Casey, a pro-life Catholic, in Pennsylvania. The Democratic National Committee also hired a new species of political professionalsâ€""religious outreach specialists".

The leading Democratic candidates all talked about God with a gusto that had once been reserved for the Republicans. Hillary Clinton said that she was a "praying person" who had once contemplated becoming a Methodist minister. She also outraged some of her hard-core supporters by describing abortion as a "tragedy". John Edwards said that his crusade against poverty was rooted in his Christian faith. The New Testament, after all, has a lot more to say about poverty than about gay marriage.

But none of them talked about God as well as Mr Obama. Mr Obama had a great conversion story to tellâ€"he was the child of agnostic parents who had "felt God's spirit beckoning me" as a young man and had been baptised at the age of 26. And he talked about religion in a way that appealed to both his party's religious and its secular wings. The Republicans may have co-opted religion for reactionary political ends. But the religion that Mr Obama embracedâ€"the religion of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther Kingâ€"was a force for social reform. In his career-making speech at the Democratic convention in 2004 he noted that Americans worship the same "awesome God" in the red states and the blue states. Surely the Democrats had discovered the perfect solution to their God problem?

Two high-octane preachers in Mr Obama's hometown of Chicago put paid to that hope. Jeremiah Wright's cries of "God damn America" almost shook the wheels off his campaign in March. Then last week America witnessed another "pastor eruption"â€"Father Michael Pfleger, a white Catholic, mocking Hillary Clinton as an "entitled" white crybaby. Hardly the stuff of religious reconciliation and responsible social reform.

Mr Obama's problems with God are not limited to Trinity United Church, which he formally abandoned this week. He may have done enough to quell worries among Jewish voters with a robust speech on June 4th. But the persistent rumours that he is a Muslimâ€"contemptible though they areâ€"will remain a problem during the general election. A poll for Newsweek in May found that 11% of Americans believe that Mr Obama is a Muslim, and a further 22% could not identify his religion.

Mr Obama may also have problems with Catholic votersâ€"a group that has been one of the most important swing votes in America since Ronald Reagan and that is over-represented in almost all the swing states. Mrs Clinton won 72% of the votes of white Catholics in the Pennsylvania primaryâ€"a nine-point improvement on her performance among whites as a whole and a 13-point improvement on her performance with white Protestants. Only 59% of Catholic Democrats, compared with 70% of Protestants, said that they would vote Democratic in November if Mr Obama were the nominee. Mr Obama's failure with Catholics was not for want of trying: he was backed by Mr Casey and recruited an army of "faith community contacts". Nor was it a one-off problem: exactly the same thing occurred in Ohio, where Catholics put Mr Bush over the top in 2004, and Massachusetts, where even the Kennedy name could not rescue Mr Obama.

And then there's McCain.

The good news for Mr Obama in all of this is that he is up against a Republican candidate in John McCain who has plenty of God problems of his own. Mr McCain has a tin ear for religion. He is in many ways a throwback to the pre-Reagan Republican Party of Nixon and Fordâ€"a party that regarded religion as something that you did in private. He is much happier talking about courage than compassion. At one point recently he sounded confused as to whether he was a Baptist or an Episcopalian.

Mr McCain has also been making a hash of dealing with his religion problem. He initially embraced the support of the religious right's own versions of Jeremiah Wright in the form of John Hagee (who believes that the anti-Christ will return to earth in the form of a "fierce" gay Jew) and Ron Parsley (one of the leaders of the anti-gay marriage movement), though he recently rejected both men. He seems blind to the fact that the leadership of the evangelical community is shifting to a new generation of much more appealing leaders such as Rick Warren.

All this makes for a much more even fight for the religious vote than for a long time. But it will also make for a more intense fightâ€"with the Democrats aggressively courting Catholics and evangelicals and the Republicans relentlessly trying to tie Mr Obama to Mr Wright. Those people, in both secular Europe and on the secular wing of the Democratic Party, who had hoped that America's God-soaked politics would disappear with Mr Bush are in for a disappointment."

29. Sincerity no substitute for evidence

Comment #233521 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 20, 2008 at 2:30 am

As someone else on this site once so memorably said:

"Keep an open mind. But not so open that your brains fall out."

30. Catholic leaders block contraceptive advice for 30,000 Scots girls

Comment #232603 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 18, 2008 at 11:37 am

These are state funded schools and if any school will not act according to what the state believes to be in the best interests of the children's health, stop the funding.

Sadly, considering the devastation caused by the spread of HIV on the back of Catholic teaching in Africa, this is, in the words of David Bowie, "a God awful small affair".

31. Rushdie condemns cancellation of Muhammad novel

Comment #230889 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 15, 2008 at 11:49 am

I would have thought the answer would be for the author to take the copyright back from the publishers (they would appear to be in breach of contract anyway) and then make the manuscript available for download from her website for free or in return for whatever people want to pay.

This worked very well for Radiohead with their last CD. Not only did they reach a much wider audience but, although some people did download for free, the average donation was a fiver - not the 12 quid they would have charged for a conventional release but, bearing in mind the money went straight to them without the usual cut by the record company/distributor/retailer, not a bad deal.

Worth copying. And, of course, the publicity from such a move is it's own below-the-line marketing strategy.

32. Father, son and holy toast

Comment #226970 by Ivan The Not So Bad on August 9, 2008 at 3:24 am

At last, religion is toast.

33. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129646 by Ivan The Not So Bad on February 19, 2008 at 12:16 pm

If you think this was good, go to the BBC iPlayer and check out last week's Apocalypse Bus Tour episode of BBC2's sublime Wonderland series.

It's jaw dropping half funny ignorant lunacy on stilts stuff that will make you sad, bemused and angry at the same time. The teenager is quite chilling - all the more so as she is studying Critical Thinking.......

As my laptop refused to co-operate with the iPlayer, so perhaps someone else could send the link to Josh or, better still, download the programme and send the file to him in order to get round the UK only geographical bar.

34. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115643 by Ivan The Not So Bad on January 24, 2008 at 1:08 pm

Someone ought to tell WBC that a few hundred thousand "fags" and their attitude free straight "fag enabler" friends have been going to Heaven each and every year since 1979.

Built into three giant barrel-vaulted arches under Charing Cross station, it's a cathedral sized place with room for nearly 2500 souls that comes equipped with a stunning state of the art lighting rig and an ultra high powered Funktion-One "Resolution 5" Infra-Bass loaded sound system of staggering capability.

God, of course, is a DJ (waves glowstick.......).

35. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109699 by Ivan The Not So Bad on January 9, 2008 at 2:10 pm

Try the following "below the line" technique for publicity:

1. Send a copy to each presidential candidate under cover of a personal letter from RD.

2. Alert the media to this by publishing the letter attached to a news release.

3. Contact media interviewers and prime them to ask the candidates about it when the opportunity arises.

4. Then follow the candidates around on their campaigns waving a large version of the poster on placards in the background at rallies, walkabouts, interviews etc.

5. Before all of the above, discuss with your potential supporters (Harris/Hitchens/secular and humanist groups/friendly media etc.) in order to have them prepared and available to offer "third party endorsement" by interview or article when you issue the news release/letter.

Exposure, maximum. Cost, minimum.

I usually charge for this but in case I think of something else (and I usually can), you can contact me directly at an exceptionally reasonable rate......

36. New attempt to end blasphemy law

Comment #109679 by Ivan The Not So Bad on January 9, 2008 at 1:29 pm

There is a live discussion about this tonight on BBC Radio 5 Live after 23.00 GMT if anyone wants to listen or join in via text or e-mail.

37. US 'doomed' if creationist president elected: scientists

Comment #108726 by Ivan The Not So Bad on January 7, 2008 at 1:30 pm

There is some classic archive TV footage showing the reaction of typical members of the US public after Russia launched the first satellite. The uncomprehending shock, confusion and despair on their faces as they realised another nation was outdoing the US illustrated an important aspect of the American psyche - a fear of losing top dog status.

The fear is no longer Russia but China. I'm no fan of China and it's legions of human rights abuses but if it is pointed out that atheist China is now churning out highly-educated science gradutates like there is no tomorrow whilst the US slips back into ill-educated superstition then this might provide the jolt needed to snap out of this religious inspired stupidity before it is too late.

38. Three wise men just legend: archbishop

Comment #101531 by Ivan The Not So Bad on December 20, 2007 at 1:34 pm

This is more like the CoE we came to know and love back in the 70's and 80's - less of a serious religion and more of a half-baked metaphysical glee club in drag.

The rise of the fruitloop Afican part of his communion is clearly diving Rowan over the edge.

39. Borders Tags Atheist Book with 'O Come All Ye Faithless' Cards

Comment #100434 by Ivan The Not So Bad on December 18, 2007 at 3:48 pm

Nice of Rev. Jonathon Edwards of the Baptist Union and Justin Thacker of the Evangelical Alliance to give us an idea of who we might want to send these cards to.

40. Springer opera court fight fails

Comment #94356 by Ivan The Not So Bad on December 5, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Friend Giskard is right.

I made the point on another thread some weeks ago that on the grounds you should choose your enemies carefully, this attack on the BBC by Christian Voice (the UK's answer to Westboro') was to be welcomed as it would show them up as the vile lunatics they are.

If they suceeded then so much the better as the backlash would have been unstoppable. A real "teddy" moment for the UK. With the Director General of the world's largest news organisation on his way to prison, the government would have had no choice but to repeal the blasphemy laws.

With this in mind, it's no shock that other religious groups were looking at Christian Voice's antics with horror and are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief tonight.

As things stand, we still have a blasphemy law with the result that the BBC had to propose a defence not of free speech but that the programme was a satire of a talk show and therefore not an insult to Christianity.

Furthermore, the ruling was made with reference to the Broadcasting Act and the Theatres Act so now we are in a situation where it would be very difficult to bring a prosecution against a broadcaster or a theatre but still theoretically possible against a newspaper or book.

So it's progress of a sort but we remain in a mess over this silly law which remains a deeply unwelcome spectre watching over us all.

41. Ask The God Delusion author Richard Dawkins

Comment #94268 by Ivan The Not So Bad on December 5, 2007 at 5:58 am

Clicking on the BBC news forums link at the top of the article and geting stuck into the comments section is highly recommended. It's like hunting cows with an AK47.

42. Ofcom backs Channel 4 over mosque probe

Comment #90016 by Ivan The Not So Bad on November 22, 2007 at 11:55 am

Re. comment #18 by peacebeuponme.

I feel your outrage but on the grounds that it is important to choose your enemies well, we should welcome the decision by Christian Voice (the UK's answer to Westboro Baptist) to try and bring a case for blasphemy against the BBC.

It is an opportunity for them to reveal themselves as the vile nutcase bigots they are and then be trounced in a very public fashion.

The "moderate" religionists must be despairing of this upcoming spectacle realising that at least some of the flying mud will stick to them.

For black entertainment check out www.christianvoice.org.uk

43. Getting Overheated

Comment #89402 by Ivan The Not So Bad on November 20, 2007 at 3:04 pm

Stephen Fry is up there as possibly the greatest living Englishman along with Morrissey, David Attenborough and, if he scores a spectacular last minute winner tomorrow night, David Beckham.

44. Ofcom backs Channel 4 over mosque probe

Comment #89052 by Ivan The Not So Bad on November 19, 2007 at 3:31 pm

The West Midlands police said that comments made by the Imams in the programme had been "taken out of context" and many of us on this site were at a loss to imagine a context that could possibly have made such hate speech appropriate.

What makes this decision by Ofcom (the UK broadcast regulator) even more righteous is that their statement (see the associated link) goes on to condemn the West Midlands police for their shameful actions.

However, it remains a pity that the CPS (the Crown [state] Prosecution Service) lacked the courage not, as they put it, the evidence to prosecute clear breaches of the law that were on display in the programme.

45. Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster

Comment #88663 by Ivan The Not So Bad on November 18, 2007 at 12:34 pm

I like the idea of "a genuine theological belief". As opposed to one based on no evidence whatsoever, I imagine.

46. Mother dies after refusing blood

Comment #85346 by Ivan The Not So Bad on November 5, 2007 at 2:21 pm

This is so sad and I feel so sorry for all those involved.

However, at the risk of offending upon such grief, there is a point that might be worth considering.

If I did not wish to live anymore, the law would intervene to prevent me from taking my own life.

If I attempted suicide, I would be unable to stop doctors from administering life-saving treatment on the grounds that I was not rational and therefore incapable of making my own decisions.

However, if someone believes in a non-existent space bloke who they think created the universe six thousand years ago, then they can refuse life-saving treatment (in the full knowledge that they will certainly die as a result) and their "faith" has to be respected provided the doctors deem the patient to be "rational".

Eh?

47. The new wars of religion

Comment #84259 by Ivan The Not So Bad on November 1, 2007 at 3:03 pm

If you have the time, it's well worth clicking through to the special report using the link in the text of the article.

It's a real tour around the houses with about a dozen separate articles, one after then other, on different aspects of religion in public life and pages of fascinating stuff.

From one of the tables of statistics it seems that nearly two thirds of Americans have actually witnessed, yes, actually witnessed a divine healing.

And this figure is low compared to some countries.......

48. The US is a Christian Nation

Comment #81967 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 25, 2007 at 1:06 pm

As we here in the UK often hear the cry that "Britain is a Christian nation" and no doubt others around the world hear similar things about their country, this forum might be better headed "(Country X) is a Christian nation" and then sub-dividing it according to country as the argument will be different for each.

For instance, the UK has a state church with 26 bishops in the upper chamber of Parliament, a head of state who is head of that church and an heir to the throne who wants to be "Defender of Faiths" rather than "Defender of the Faith". This is clearly different from the situation in the US where state and religion are more clearly separated.

With current proposals for reform of the upper house into an all elected chamber, it is important that we are on top of this as the Government are showing signs of backsliding in the face of protests not only from the Church of England but also from other religions who now want to have seats in our legislature reserved for them in the name of "equality".

49. Catholic condom ban helping AIDS spread in Latam: U.N.

Comment #80923 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 23, 2007 at 2:06 pm

Four years ago the RC Church spread the outrageous barefaced evidence free lie that condoms have holes in them that allow the HIV virus to pass through.

A few weeks back, one of their archbishops in Africa actually attempted to top this by claiming that condoms exported by European manufacturers had been deliberately infected with HIV in order to wipe out Africans.

Clearly, they will stop at nothing and are prepared to see countless thousands die in a peverse attempt to try and make people follow their take on morality.

50. Make Richard Dawkins a Knight

Comment #80917 by Ivan The Not So Bad on October 23, 2007 at 1:47 pm

The monarch's powers as head of state are entirely theoretical. If the Queen does not do as the Prime Minister "requests", then she is toast.