1. The God disunion: there is a place for faith in science, insists Winston

Comment #34692 by robives on April 25, 2007 at 12:01 am

In the newspaper hard copy the list of authors at the end of the article is a box out. Linda MacDonald is the byline for the box.

2. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27142 by robives on March 23, 2007 at 9:15 am

I'm constantly amazed at the weakness of Alistair McGrath's argument - he says nothing. Just a lot of wishing and wanting.
Is this guy can't really a professor?

3. Britain Proposes Allowing Schools to Forbid Full-Face Muslim Veils

Comment #26742 by robives on March 21, 2007 at 1:05 pm

There is a muslim response to the veil issue here
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/rajnaara_akhtar/2007/03/put_a_veil_on_it.html

4. UK Christians 'suffer for faith'

Comment #26390 by robives on March 19, 2007 at 4:40 am

I've put a copy of the programme in question (Heaven and Earth - BBC) up on YouTube.

Part 1

Part 2

enjoy.

Rob

5. Atheists Take On Religion

Comment #24126 by robives on March 4, 2007 at 11:39 pm

14% of Americans say they have no religion but only 2% are athiest ? Huh?!

6. Was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

Comment #24121 by robives on March 4, 2007 at 11:17 pm

If you are wanting to read "The Dawkins' Letters" by David Robertson there are lots of open letters by him to RD which I guess comprise the bulk of the book here
http://www.freechurch.org/issues/2007/issues07.htm
and here
http://www.freechurch.org/issues/2006/issues06.htm

Rob

7. Was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

Comment #24051 by robives on March 4, 2007 at 1:10 pm

I have a copy of the Dawkins Delusion - it is everything you would expect from Alistair McGrath. I'm happy to send it to anyone who wants to read it as long as they are happy to pass it on to the next reader. Send me an PM if you are interested.
Rob
(edit) I've received a message and sent off the book today :-)(/edit)

8. The Certainty Bias

Comment #23214 by robives on February 26, 2007 at 11:42 pm

Does anyone know of a good primer on Bayesian (sp?!) stats apart from "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"?
Rob

9. Faith

Comment #23065 by robives on February 26, 2007 at 4:58 am

One good thing about the article: I have pre ordered the Christopher Hitchens book from amazon :-)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Not-Great-Against-Religion/dp/184354573X/sr=8-1/qid=1172494676/ref=pd_ka_1/026-6747382-6847632?ie=UTF8&s=books

10. Britons unconvinced on evolution

Comment #18789 by robives on January 23, 2007 at 2:31 am

Carlisle! I used to teach in Carlisle before I escaped from the classroom. I did once teach a Jehovah Witness - they had some very weird beliefs.

Rob

11. Britons unconvinced on evolution

Comment #18768 by robives on January 22, 2007 at 10:38 pm

Out of interest; does anyone in the UK know anyone who believes in creationism?
Rob

12. Ruth Kelly, her hard-line church and a devout PM wrestling with his conscience

Comment #18472 by robives on January 21, 2007 at 5:13 am

Russell (#18460) I really don't think we should be "resentfully tolerant" of homophobia any more than we would be "resentfully tolerant" of racism or any other type of discrimination.
We really should not let them off the hook. This is a clear manifestation of intolerance bourne of blind belief. It should not be allowed to impinge on other people's lives.
Rob

13. Dispatches: Undercover Mosque

Comment #18464 by robives on January 21, 2007 at 4:32 am

What I find astonishing is that the current "national debate" is about a bunch of vacuous tarts in the Big Brother house rather than this.
The kind of bigotry on display in the mosques was terrifying, this is what we should be getting worked up about!

Rob

14. Discussion of The God Delusion

Comment #18118 by robives on January 18, 2007 at 12:07 pm

Was that a paperback copy of The God Delusion?
Is it out already?

Rob

15. FiveLive debate on faith and discrimination

Comment #17326 by robives on January 12, 2007 at 11:11 pm

yeahok said
"Their beliefs may be silly, but its not truly doing any harm to anybody."

The point is that that their silly beliefs do harm other people. They harm the people who are being discrimated against.

Rob

16. FiveLive debate on faith and discrimination

Comment #17223 by robives on January 12, 2007 at 5:44 am

kestsjk said:
"If I decide I don't want to religious people as clients, or people who like peanut butter, or homosexuals, that's *my business*! If this law passes lawsuits will fly whenever a homosexual gets rejected."

And does the same apply to other minorities? Can we go back to the days of "No black, No Dogs, No Irish" posted in the guest house window?

Rob

17. FiveLive debate on faith and discrimination

Comment #17220 by robives on January 12, 2007 at 5:07 am

I found the whole thing eye opening. As well as the manifest looneys ringing in (did you hear the Islamic gentleman!?) there were people who under other circumstance could be thought of as being polite, thoughtful and even liberal. What I find incredible is the way they simply could not see that they were being bigoted homophobes. The power of religion to blind?

I disagree with chbg21808 about the rights of landlords. It is the difference between having the right to follow your own moral code (being against homosexuality) and having the right to impose your morality on others. The landlord who wishes to ban gays from his property is not inviting the behavior in his own home - it is a place of business. There is no reason for him to object to the moral code of gays; they affect him in no way whatsoever.
There really is no difference between racism and homophobia - both are unwarranted forms of bigotry.
Rob

18. FiveLive debate on faith and discrimination

Comment #17215 by robives on January 12, 2007 at 4:06 am

The program is the Matthew Bannister program on BBC Radio FiveLive transmitted on Tuesday 9th January 2006 between 9:00am and 10:00am.

It was an instructive listen. The lady from the Christian Lawyers Fellowship sounds like a nice person who you would think you could enjoy having a drink and a chat with but she goes through the most incredible mental contortions to convince herself that banning homosexuals from staying in your hotel on religious grounds is completely different from banning blacks from staying in your hotel on race grounds.
I hope she has has time to reflect on what she is saying and perhaps takes time to listen to the nutters who are on her side.
The email from Rob in Cumbria at approx 43mins is me :-)

19. Secular fundamentalists are the new totalitarians

Comment #16395 by robives on January 6, 2007 at 1:36 pm

I have found the endlessly repeated attack on BA profoundly depressing. They have been constantly misrepresented. They never banned christian or religious symbols, they had a preexisting ban on openly displayed jewelry. The woman in question wanted an exemption from the dress code because she was a god botherer. The end. This was NOT about religious discrimination. Please Tobias - stop making false claims.
What happened with BA and that woman in the end?

20. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #13664 by robives on December 19, 2006 at 4:06 am

What a disappointing program. Rod Liddle's main arguement seemed to be "Isn't that an arrogant viewpoint?" No look at the substance of any arguement placed in from of him and no attempt to justify him beliefs. The whole program smacked of smug anti-intellectualism.
What a shame.