1. Trailer for Religulous

Comment #190534 by Angels On a Pin Head on June 9, 2008 at 8:38 am

If you want to download widescreen/HD versions, try these links:

religulous-tlr1a_h480p.mov (34MB)

religulous-tlr1a_h720p.mov (105MB)

religulous-tlr1a_h1080p.mov (171MB)

2. Richard Dawkins interviewed by John Humphrys on Cardinal Murphy O'Connor

Comment #177615 by Angels On a Pin Head on May 9, 2008 at 11:11 am

It's funny that the Cardinal's god is all ineffable when people use critical thinking to show that such a being is unlikely to exist - he says "You can't talk easily, simply about God. God is mysterious beyond all our comprehension." (audio @ 4:20).

But then, on specific issues, like (to choose a few random examples) homosexual relationships, contraception, research on embryonic stem cells, God stops being ineffable, and it's absolutely clear what God's views on specific current political issues is. Where has this "mysterious beyond all our comprehension" thing gone?

I don't mind people using the ineffable deity argument. However, once you have used that argument then you have automatically foregone your right to make any statements about either the specific nature of your god, or about the morals that your god espouses. In particular, you have no right to increase other people's suffering because of your comprehension of something that you describe as incomprehensible.

3. Richard Dawkins interviewed by John Humphrys on Cardinal Murphy O'Connor

Comment #177569 by Angels On a Pin Head on May 9, 2008 at 10:10 am

BBC Radio 4 listeners out there might like to consider contacting the weekly radio highlight programme "Pick of the Week" suggesting they play the interview with Richard. It would give it a chance of being heard by people who aren't up listening to the news at 7:15 in the morning.

4. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177442 by Angels On a Pin Head on May 9, 2008 at 5:24 am

I've just noticed that a video of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor delivering his lecture is available online here: http://www.rcdow.org.uk/lectures/

I too must admit that I didn't make it through either the transcript or the video. It really is incredibly bad stuff - I'm reminded of the Vogon poetry passage where someone had an ode read to them, and their own intestines crawled up through their oesophagus to strangle their brain.

Perhaps it's to test people's faith - only those who were really convinced that they were immortal would waste any time on this dreck.

I find it ironic that, for me, the most convincing arguments for atheism come not from people like Richard Dawkins, but in the form of apologetics from apparently respected members of the faithful whose arguments are so risibly poor that I would be embarrassed to associated with them. I hear some of these debates, and I think the atheist side would have won even without turning up.

It all seems to add weight to the argument that these apologetics are not directed at atheists or agnostics. Rather, they are there to shore up the faithful - to convince them by emotional appeal that good answers do exist to any questions about their faith, and that they can carry on with their lives without worrying about such things.

5. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177395 by Angels On a Pin Head on May 9, 2008 at 2:42 am

For those that didn't catch Richard on the radio, it's available (probably temporarily) via the Today Programme website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/

Direct links:

Richard "The Professor" Dawkins (streaming RealAudio)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/ram/today2_dawkins_20080509.ram


Cormac "The Cardinal" Murphy O'Connor (streaming RealAudio)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_religion_20080509.ram

The Cardinal's section has also been selected for the "Best of Today" podcast, so is available in MP3 format:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/today/today_20080509-0941.mp3


Added...

Audio clips are now available on RichardDawkins.net - look here.

6. Tyrannosaurus rex protein proves dinosaurs evolved into birds

Comment #168556 by Angels On a Pin Head on April 25, 2008 at 7:50 am

Partisan:

I'd like to see what other animals they compared the proteins with, besides chickens/ostriches and alligators.

See this report on Ars Technica for a cladogram.

7. A Conversation with Expelled's Associate Producer Mark Mathis

Comment #168328 by Angels On a Pin Head on April 25, 2008 at 2:57 am

hadrianushaereticus

Yes, I was disappointed that the SciAm people not only let the "necessary condition" statement through, but they repeated it. I presume the staff logician was busy having treatment for the seizure brought on by watching Expelled.

I repeat as plainly as I can: Darwin's work has no logical connection with any atrocity committed in human history.

8. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #168207 by Angels On a Pin Head on April 24, 2008 at 6:34 pm

I predict Teratonis will show up and write a book length sermon on peak oil.

That's OK - just get Remnant to pray for more oil. Problem solved.

9. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #168199 by Angels On a Pin Head on April 24, 2008 at 6:07 pm

If that is you child you are holding, I will pray for her.

And I will support science and rationality for her, and all like her.

Because, in her lifetime, the probability is that she will have her life saved many times by modern medicine. She will take for granted an abundance of good food all year round, something that we in wealthy countries get thanks to modern farming and shipping, and to which we owe much of our health. She will be protected from the harsh environment by modern buildings that provide winter heating and summer air-conditioning.

We can expect her to see amazing things from around the world, either in person, thanks to modern transportation, or indirectly via our rapidly evolving communications systems. She may live to see an era of accessible space tourism, and experience for real the wonderful sights that we see in photos and films from the space shuttle and the Apollo missions.

We can expect her, if she follows science news, to learn many things that would astonish us. Things about the world, the universe, and about herself. New knowledge apparently without end that is revealed to us by the never-ending investigation and insights of people who have dedicated much of their lives to improving the reservoir of knowledge of all mankind.

Her whole life will be alongside computers, incredible machines whose working parts are so small that we have no intuitive understanding of how they work. And yet we can make them, and make them work, through our mathematical understanding of modern physics. Computers are our greatest tools yet, the descendants of flint axes, and yet they are certainly mere precursors to wonders still to come.

All these things come from people looking at the world and not being satisfied with our current levels of knowledge, but always striving to know more, to do more. I can't thank these people, too numerous to count, but I can support the great work that they contributed to, and which I am thankful to have benefited from.

So, Remnant, you keep praying. It's nice that we can all contribute to the happiness of future generations in our own different ways.

10. Interview with Dan Dennett

Comment #168076 by Angels On a Pin Head on April 24, 2008 at 1:54 pm

If god is dead, then everything is permitted

Whether gods exist or not, they are used by believers to justify everything.

11. Interview with Dan Dennett

Comment #167727 by Angels On a Pin Head on April 24, 2008 at 9:37 am

If anyone would like to convert this to an mp3...

You can download the MP3 podcast version from the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/stw/

(Probably available until next Monday)

[Edit: the article has now been updated with this MP3]

12. A Conversation with Expelled's Associate Producer Mark Mathis

Comment #165307 by Angels On a Pin Head on April 21, 2008 at 10:12 am

There's just too much stupid in what Mr Mathis says to comment on it all, and the SciAm people do a good job in general. However, I'm surprised that they didn't object to the characterisation of "Darwinism" as a necessary condition for the Holocaust. It was no such thing.

As they say, mass transportation of people was a necessary condition (no transportation would mean a very different Holocaust). Also, anti-Semitism was a necessary condition (no anti-Semitism would mean that any Holocaust would not include Jews).

However, I see no way to argue that, without Darwin's ideas, the Holocaust could not have happened precisely as it did. The major contributing factors were bigotry (in this case it was primarily anti-Semitism, which predates Darwin by centuries), a technology capable of slaughter on an industrial scale (not connected with biology), and a strong military regime. With these three things it seems to me that you have a good chance of a seeing the attempted genocide of whoever the subject of the bigotry is. Without any one of the three, you may still have terrible acts committed, but you don't get the Holocaust.

Neither Darwin's work, nor the reality of evolution, were necessary or sufficient for this shameful episode in our species' history.

What I do grant is that a poor understanding of Evolutionary Theory was taken and misused as a justification for the eugenics aspect of the Holocaust (I'd love to cite specific individuals who used this reasoning, unfortunately my knowledge doesn't extend that far, but it seems likely that such thinking existed). Meanwhile, the actual strategy of eugenics relied on nothing more than the ancient knowledge of artificial selection. However, this misuse of a little science knowledge is an argument for better science education, so that in the future such twisted reasoning cannot be used without it being obvious to everyone that it is worthless attempt to justify psychotic racism. No doubt people would find other ways to justify malignant world-views, but I hope that such cancers would be less successful in spreading within an educated population.