1. PLEASE WRITE IN SUPPORT OF PZ MYERS

Comment #208527 by Ian Jackson on July 11, 2008 at 2:27 am

Here's my contribution:

Subject: In support of PZ Myers.

Dear Mr Bruininks

I'm sure that you will receive many emails on this subject, so Itentatively apologise for clogging your inbox a little more, but I feel that I must write to you in support of Professor Myers.

You'll know all about PZ's comments about a piece of bread by now, and the somewhat rabid reaction that it has provoked from a certain Mr Donahue of the Catholic League. My understanding is that Donahue has demanded that Professor Myers loose his post at the university for his statement that a wafer is, well, just that: a wafer. Mr Donahue's personal superstition bestows rather grander significance upon this humble morsel, as attested by this comment from him:

"It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ."

Well, personally I can think of a million and one actions more vile that being mildly rude to a carbohydrate. High on this list is the idea that a courageous academic should be threatened with dismissal(and, it seems, much worse) for simply exercising his right to speak freely and openly.

Some believe that by dint of an ancient ritual in a beautiful but long dead tongue, this wafer is transubstantiated into the physical person of a deity. Others, myself included, feel pretty certain that it's still a wafer, magic incantation or no. Both sides should be at liberty to express their thoughts on the matter, free of threat and intimidation, and the audience to the debate free to make up their own minds.

PZ Myers is a towering figure in the modern Enlightenment and a huge credit to your institution. I am myself an ex-biologist who left science almost twenty years ago, and PZ is one of several great academics who make me wish that I have not made that decision. His writings on science, humanity and reason are great inspiration to many thousands. He is why I personally, writing from Engand, know of the Morris campus of the University of Minnesota and hold it in high regard.

I sincerely urge you to unflinchingly support Professor Myers in the face of this intimidation by a disproportionarely vocal minority.

My very best regards,

Ian Jackson,

[Full address and phone number]

2. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111909 by Ian Jackson on January 16, 2008 at 1:32 am

George,
The very best of luck to you, and wishing you a full recovery from your illness. Thank you for your ongoing contribution to our freedom from tyranny of all kinds, and your active support of of the cause of reason.

Ian Jackson

3. Texas Leads U.S. in Teen Birth Rate

Comment #59045 by Ian Jackson on July 27, 2007 at 3:49 am

Proof (as if proof were needed) that the abstinence approach to sex education is about as sensible and effective as the 'hold it in' approach to potty training.

4. Floods are judgment on society, say bishops

Comment #53580 by Ian Jackson on July 2, 2007 at 5:34 am

This just willfully ignorant, backward and bigotted. But the fact that these people can express such ideas in this day and age and not be the subject of howls of derision is only possible because they're not just ordinary, run of the mill backward bigots. This retarded fcukwittery is only tolerated because these guys are a special kind of backward bigot: they're [I]bishops[/I]. Bishops in, lest we forget, the Church of the Obese Polygamist (though it hides its real origins by trading under the name of the Church of England).

So the flooding in the north is caused by the recent laws that ensure that homosexual people are treated equally in all respects. [I]What the fcuk?[/I] A few same-sex couples book into hotel rooms unmolested by bigotted, stone-age proprietors because the law prevents it, and the Sky-Faerie is so pissed that he sends a deluge on Sheffield. Christ, I've heard of collateral damage, but this is just in an altogether different league. Mind you, since Falwell (or Robertson, can't remember) said that the Faerie destroyed New Orleans because of a lesbian comedian who lived there, we already know that the accuracy of divine retribution is beyond crap.

All this goes to prove is that you can call yourself a minister and that gives you the right to spout any old poisonous sh!te and the papers report it without comment, because we have been conditioned to respect religion. Why? Well, just [I]because[/I]. Imagine the furore (in the UK, at least) if ordinary politicians or media figures had said these things? But because these pillocks are bishops (with seats in the Lords and paid for by us), they can say what they like and the rest of us are supposed to politely let them. The protocols of ordinary decency and civility are automatically suspended when the vicars/priests/imams/rabbis etc etc hold forth. Richard is so right: Enough is enough.

5. Is God poison?

Comment #30858 by Ian Jackson on April 10, 2007 at 5:14 am

Richard, it must be galling to see your words misquoted or quoted out of context, and your arguments wilfully misrepresented. Perhaps one small consolation is that Bethune and his ilk are almost paying you a complement, because if they reflected what you are saying accurately, they would substantially weaken their own, already flimsy arguments.

6. Militant atheists: too clever for their own good

Comment #30166 by Ian Jackson on April 7, 2007 at 5:59 am

"Actually, yes. Because if you believe that a magic flying jew saved the world by getting nailed to a tree you are, let's face it, a fuckwit."

That was howl-out-loud, cross-legs-and-wipe-eyes funny, but only because it's just so true, when you think about it.

7. Did John Paul II perform a miracle? Am I Mother Teresa?

Comment #30162 by Ian Jackson on April 7, 2007 at 5:42 am

A splendid article. Parris's message is right up there with best of the 'tell it like it is' school of non-theistic thought, Dawkins, Hitchens, Grayling et al.

Islam has it's universal clarion call: "There is no God but God." Might I suggest that we adopt that same sentence, but just miss off the last two words?

8. The Fifth Flea!

Comment #28237 by Ian Jackson on March 28, 2007 at 1:17 pm

TGD seems to have really kicked over the theist applecart. All of these 'rebuttals' are exactly what you call them, POA: hastily-authored damage control.

I've just been listening to Richard's debate with Alister McGrath, one of the fleas, at Oxford. It still befuddles me that so intelligent and eloquent an individual as McGrath can not just believe, but actively profess to believe, complete absurdities.