Yesterday I was at the British Humanist Association’s one day conference, Darwin, Humanism and Science, at the Conway Hall. I confess that I was really going to see Richard Dawkins speak, but actually I got a whole day of fascinating speakers. Following a brief introduction by Polly Toynbee, Dawkins was the first speaker. His talk… Continue reading Darwin, Humanism and Science
Tag: religion
Creationist Idiocy in the UK
To “celebrate” the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, Theos (the religious think-tank) commissioned a survey into the public perceptions of Darwin’s theories. The results were published yesterday and do not make comforting reading. It seems that about half of the UK don’t accept Darwin’s findings and only about a quarter of us… Continue reading Creationist Idiocy in the UK
More Christian Voice Idiocy
Christian Voice (Stephen Green’s one-man extreme christian hate-squad) have written to the Advertising Standards Authority registering an objection to the atheist bus adverts. Green is quoted as saying that the adverts “break the ASA’s codes on substantiation and truthfulness”. He claims that the atheists need to produce evidence that there’s probably no god and goes… Continue reading More Christian Voice Idiocy
Atheist Quotations
The Atheist bus campaign raised so much money last year that they have been able to massively expand their plans. Instead of the original 30 buses they were planning in London, they are now running 200 buses in London and 600 more in other places in the UK. The bus campaign officially launched yesterday. They… Continue reading Atheist Quotations
Non-Magic Bus
Last June, writer Ariane Sherine wrote an article on Comment is Free complaining about the amount of religious advertising on the side of London buses. As part of the research for the article she calculated that it would take about 4,500 atheists donating £5 each to get together enough money to have an atheist advertising… Continue reading Non-Magic Bus
Michael Reiss: Creationist
Following last weeks entry about the media and MMR I have another post brewing which goes into more detail about the central message of Ben Goldacre’s excellent book. That central message is that you usually can’t trust science and health stories in the press because they are usually written by people who don’t understand the… Continue reading Michael Reiss: Creationist
Planet Atheist
I’ve mentioned before that I run a few planets. A planet is a simple web site which aggregates web feeds on a particular subject. They are named after the software which is used to build many such sites. I’m always looking out for good ideas of other planets to add to my collection. Yesterday on… Continue reading Planet Atheist
Michael Reiss Steps Down
Michael Reiss has stepped down from his post as director of education at the Royal Society. This follows the controversy over his remarks about creationism in science lessons last week. I think he’s right to go as having an ordained minister in such an important role in the Royal Society is pretty silly. I agree… Continue reading Michael Reiss Steps Down
Is Sarah Palin a Wiccan?
This just came up in a discussion in the office. You read it here first. Sarah Palin claims to be a christian. If that’s the case then why are at least two of her children (Willow and Piper – I’m researching the others) named after teenage witches? I reckon she has wiccan sympathies. Does anyone… Continue reading Is Sarah Palin a Wiccan?
The Press on Dawkins
Richard Dawkins‘ new documentary series, The Genius of Charles Darwin, begins on Channel 4 this evening. He has therefore been doing a round of publicity interviews and the results have been appearing in the press over the weekend. It’s interesting to see how different papers treat it. The Times ran a pretty straight article about… Continue reading The Press on Dawkins