Universities UK Legal Opinion

There has been a lot of hubbub in the UK press and elsewhere about Universities UK's guidance notes on imposed segregation at University hosted events; bizarrely, they think it is sometimes permissible. See posts from, for example, Nick Cohen, and Ophelia Benson. The BBC reports: The case study involves an external speaker invited to...

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Unfair Discrimination Ruling Upheld

The Christian guesthouse owners who advertised their double bedrooms as available only to “heterosexual married couples” have lost their appeal to the Supreme Court. The BBC reports the following reactions: Lady Hale, deputy president of the Supreme Court, said: "Sexual orientation is a core component of a person's identity which...

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A Dangerous Infection

Sadly disease has struck the shelves of some of the nation's leading magazine retailers, in the shape of the WDDTY bacterium; this is its footprint: Watch out for it. It's spread by a Lynne Mctaggart, whose rather silly but dangerous views can be sampled here: When 'Science' is a Dirty Word. Note the scare quotes; it's indicative of a...

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The Problem of Theistic Philosophers of Religion

Roman Catholic Dr Tim Stanley has written a paranoid piece attacking Richard Dawkins and 'atheist trolls' who constantly mock his beliefs. He writes: When you insult my faith you go right to the heart of what makes me me. When you're trying to convince me in 140 characters of sub-GCSE philosophical abuse that God doesn't exist, you're...

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William Lane Craig, Agony Uncle

In a remarkable question of the week, William Lane Craig responds to a common conundrum for theists: what to do when you fall in love with a non-believer, and in marrying them thereby go to hell!? Yes, really; this chap (I assume) is worried that he will go to hell if he marries a non-believer. Rather than celebrating the joyous confluence...

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Andrew Brown Struggles to Contain his Contempt!

The writing of Andrew Brown often comes across as contemptuous, airily dismissive and lacking in nuance. To be charitable, I assumed this was a fault in his writing; after all, being contemptuous, airily dismissive and lacking in nuance is the sort of criticism he regularly levels at Richard Dawkins and any other 'new atheists' who offend...

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The Problem of Non-God Objects and the Evil God

Justin Schieber has a post up that formalises one reason I have always found belief in the Christian God untenable. He calls it The Problem of Non-God Objects, and it's really another problem of evil issue. For me, I have always wondered why a god, if he's sitting in his reality, which is, by the Christian God's definition, maximally...

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More Wealth Inequality in the UK

Following on from my previous post on the subject, I'm adding a further graphic to illustrate the wealth imbalance in the UK (click graphic to enlarge): The data is drawn from the same source as before. The figures above the percentages represent individual wealth at those points in the spectrum, so readers can gauge their own position...

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What Does it Matter What One Believes?

As a 'new atheist', Richard Dawkins has been subjected recently to a campaign by right-on lefties who want to stifle criticism of Islam. Their unfortunate modus operandi is to devalue the notion of Islamophobia; the reprehensible practice of unfair discrimination against Muslims. Maybe first was Nathan Lean on Salon.com, who said, with...

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Walk in the Dark with a Mystery, or Walk in the Daylight Alone?

Friendly Atheist has this video up in a post by Paul Fidalgo. As Paul says, it's quite heartbreaking, especially given the recent news. In it Kay Warren, wife of Rick, says: I would rather be in relationship with a god who in many ways remains a mystery. And walk in the darkness with a god who in some ways remains a mystery, than to try to walk in complete daylight without him. That seems to me to be such a sad thing to say,...

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Craig Slips Down the Fallacy Slide

William Lane Craig's serious response to same sex marriage advocates is to say that if marriage is treated as a social construct (which it is) rather than something with an essence (which it is not), this means 'anything goes', including goat marrying. In his latest Question of the Week in which he allows that the law should be...

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The Wrong Side of History II

(Opposition to Same Sex Marriage) We have a massive collapse of marriage ongoing, a collapse that is rooted in our cultural inability to address the ways in which gender matters. The next generation’s endorsement of gay marriage is going hand in hand with a massive retreat from connecting marriage and childbearing. Almost six in...

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The Wrong Side of History I

(Opposition to Racially-integrated Education, responses to Brown v. Board of Education.) It is high time we thought of normalcy and routine for our young. We decry such [a] state of affairs in the home and constantly blame juvenile delinquency etc. on this lack of security and home balance. (Letter from Ainslee B. Dohme and Alvin R. L. Dohme) In...

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Wealth Inequality in the UK

Watch this excellent video which illustrates something that many people find difficult to picture - the extraordinary inequity of wealth distribution in the developed world. This graphically represents US inequality: The US is close to the most unequal country in the world, by wealth; here's the key graphic again, this time from Mother...

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Homeopathy sent to Room 101

Which is nice. Sadly, BBC iPlayer does not allow embedding, so I can only give you this link and this screenshot: Comedian Ben Miller, a physics graduate, opted to send homeopathy to Room 101, in the BBC program based on Orwell's dystopian vision of the future: You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the...

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Christian Bias in the Media

Some Christians occasionally claim they are being persecuted; Andrew Copson of the BHA pointed this out on the BBC this morning when discussing the ECtHR cases: [Christian lobby groups] have used [these cases] to whip up a narrative, a very false narrative, of Christian persecution in this country... The media in the UK continues...

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