1. As the world becomes smaller, the need to understand each other's faith grows

Comment #193307 by Eclectic on June 15, 2008 at 8:29 am

Steve Zara:
"I believe that Blair's initiative, if it works, will work against faith. Finding out about other religions can be a good way to start to doubt about your own."

That's exactly the gist of what I was trying to say. And even in cases where people don't abandon their religion completely, I think it makes it a lot harder to hate an entire group of people when one learns about and empathises with how they live on a day-to-day level. One is still free to hate the ideas themselves: an important distinction.

To me, Tony Blair's really stupid move on the subject whilst in office was to approve more state funding for "Faith Schools," and encourage many new ones to be built. You can bet comparative religion really will not be taught objectively in those. Wealthy Christian creationists such as Peter Vardy will get the usual Intelligent Design rubbish into the Christian schools, and ghettoing Muslim children together is hardly going to encourage integration. Christopher Hitchens really pressed this point with Mr Blair when he met with him last year but was unsuccessful in persuading him.

From the piece:
"As a first step we will work with partner organisations to bring together people of different faiths to help to eradicate deaths from malaria, a scourge that kills 3,000 children a day."

Whilst this is an admirable goal, I resent the way aims like this are brought in to try and guilt trip people into following along with other religious goals that have nothing to do with it. Mother Theresa comes to mind and her tireless efforts to repress women in India and elsewhere, and her cronyism with various despicable regimes, all of which no-one criticized because she had built some over-crowded hospices.

I don't think many people realise how efforts like this will absolutely pale in comparison to what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation should be able to accomplish (completely transparently operated, and endowed by two atheists, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates - love or hate his software as you will!)

2. As the world becomes smaller, the need to understand each other's faith grows

Comment #192927 by Eclectic on June 14, 2008 at 9:07 am

Notwithstanding the criticisms made by others in this thread, I'm going to go against the grain and give Blair some props. The idea that people, and in particular children, should be taught the facts about other religions is a good one. Remember Dan Dennett making a similar suggestion in his lectures? Realising the mutual contradictions by oneself without being preached about it is IMO the most powerful argument against any of them. At the very least, it should help counter the us-against-them mentality that religion is extremely efficient at entrenching.

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the hilarious Abraham House suggestion. Of all the people to name the building after!

I'm also very interested to see what Professor Dawkins' take on this will be, if he offers it. I know he's a long time Independent reader. Perhaps even a response in the paper's Comment section?

3. Karma comedians

Comment #186916 by Eclectic on May 31, 2008 at 7:11 pm

Link is broken (there is no www.c.co.uk)

Should be:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/31/chinaearthquake.china

4. 2007, a bad year for God squadders

Comment #101704 by Eclectic on December 20, 2007 at 7:35 pm

The issue of "implausibility-means-it-must-be-true" was covered excellently by Sam Harris in the Four Horsemen video. Richard Dawkins also answered all of these questions about his carol singing before they had been asked.

5. Christopher Hitchens appears on the Hugh Hewitt Radio Show

Comment #97524 by Eclectic on December 12, 2007 at 8:45 am

Thanks for the mp3 hosting, Zzyx1170

6. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #93292 by Eclectic on December 2, 2007 at 3:36 pm

D'Souza in part 11 of the debate:

"These blood sacrifices, I would argue, have been revived in modern paganism and modern atheism"

When is the next atheist blood sacrifice? It would be helpful if Josh could list them in the 'upcoming events' column so no-one misses out.

7. Hitchens, Sharpton and Faith

Comment #38918 by Eclectic on May 9, 2007 at 1:39 pm

A big thanks to kkant for the mp3 conversion.

8. Conservapedia v Wikipedia

Comment #24644 by Eclectic on March 7, 2007 at 8:25 pm

Poor Einstein gets his share of vitriol:

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) proposed a theory of general relativity in 1915, which built on work he had done in 1905. He won a well-deserved Nobel Prize, but not for his theory of relativity.

Unlike most advances in physics, the theory of relativity was proposed based on mathematical theory rather than observation. The theory rests on two postulates that are difficult to test, and then derives mathematically what the physical consequences should be. Those two postulates are that the speed of light never changes, and that all laws of physics are the same in every (inertial) frame of reference no matter where it is or how fast it is traveling. This theory rejects Newton's view of gravitation and replaces it with a concept that there is a continuum of space and time, and that large masses (like the sun) bend space in a manner similar to a finger depressing an area of a balloon. From this proposed bending of space the expression arose that "space is curved." But experiments later proved that space is overall flat after all.

Einstein's work had nothing to do with the development of the atomic bomb. Nothing useful has even been built based on the theory of relativity. Only one Nobel Prize (in 1993 and not to Einstein) has ever been given that even remotely relates to the theory of relativity. Many things predicted by the theory of relativity, such as gravitons, have never been found despite much searching for them. Many observed phenomenon, such as the bending of light passing near the sun or the advance of the perihelion in the orbit of Mercury, can be also predicted by Newton's theory.

Einstein never accepted quantum mechanics and his theory of relativity conflicts with it.

Trolling is rampant - this gem is from the Bill Clinton article:

Clinton also attempted to use the American military to kill Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, an action which was seen by some as an attempt to distract the nation from the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

9. Fossils: The Devil's Handiwork

Comment #22452 by Eclectic on February 18, 2007 at 7:46 pm

That's a different clip, but very amusing as well. The other one is here:

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=18015

10. Fossils: The Devil's Handiwork

Comment #22311 by Eclectic on February 14, 2007 at 3:54 am

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart- 'Evolution Schmevolution'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3WtCweGUao

11. Fossils: The Devil's Handiwork

Comment #22210 by Eclectic on February 13, 2007 at 1:22 pm

Ricky Gervais discovers a theory, in a dusty old book, that deviates from Darwin's slightly...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_EXqdJ4L7I

He's also openly atheist, and said this in an interview with John Humphrys in the Radio Times:

"Being an atheist makes someone a clearer thinking, fairer person. They [atheists] are not doing things to be rewarded in heaven; they're doing things because they're right, because they live by a moral code."