SCIENCE REASON AND CRITICAL THINKING

One To Watch - Phrases such as the "Muslim community" used in news reports wrongly convey the idea of a monolithic bloc. In reality Islam is fragmented, its two major sects, Sunni and Shia, locked in internecine strife for centuries. Iraq is currently a battleground as this BBC report illustrates "Iraq has seen a sharp increase in sectarian violence in recent weeks. It comes amid growing tension between minority Sunni Arabs and the Shia-led government." Reading of the spate of bombings, "growing tension" is a massive understatement. Another arena for this ancient conflict is Pakistan where minority Shia Muslims are subject to frequent attacks. In light of this ancient enmity the disclosure of the details of a London court case seem somewhat surprising. Saudi Arabia is a majority Sunni country and has no love of the Shiite theocratic dictatorship of Iran, or the Iranian puppet terrorist group in Lebanon, Hezbollah. Yet we learn from the Guardian "Two prominent Saudi princes are involved in a London-registered company that supposedly facilitated "money laundering" for Hezbollah in Lebanon and helped smuggle precious stones out of Congo, according to contested allegations in court documents obtained by the Guardian." One of the princes is a former defence minister which makes the scandal even greater. The dispute, according to a British judge, has "thrown up a nuclear mushroom cloud" of litigation. The princes involved had attempted to suppress reporting of the business, going so far as to imply Saudi/British relations could be damaged if the affair became public. This case has everything, from accusations of lies and extortion to that current concern of the British government, offshore tax havens. That presumably staunch Sunnis have allegedly been aiding a Shiite terrorist group is just the icing on the cake. 80 will be watching with interest (and more than a little schadenfreude) as things unfold in the full light of day.

Reads Of The Week - first up is a piece by Richard Carrier called Defining the Supernatural. Supernatural is a word like "spiritual" that means different things to different people, thereby hindering meaningful discussion. As Carrier says "Consequently, we need a proper definition of "supernatural" (and, therefore, of the word "natural" as well), one that tracks what people really mean when they use the word, one that marks a metaphysical distinction, and allows us to say when the word is being used sloppily or improperly, as must be the case for any word we intend to be useful." Carrier's blog is well worth a visit, as are his pieces for the Secular Web. Several of his talks are available on YouTube, including Why I Think Jesus Didn't Exist: A Historian Explains the Evidence That Changed His Mind and Why the Gospels Are Myth: The Evidence of Genre and Content.

Secondly is an article by The Economist blogger Erasmus, called In God Some Trust. Erasmus explains "For a couple of recent postings, I had to consult the constitution of the Republic of Ireland, which still has many references to the spiritual, despite the removal in 1973 of a line about the special position of the Roman Catholic church, and the ongoing arguments over its provisions on reproductive matters. That got me thinking about how many other countries' constitutions have a religious dimension. The "religiosity" of a country's basic law, as I discovered, generally tells you more about its political history than about the religious feelings of its present-day population." The article covers inclusion of the deity even in modern European constitutions, to the current clamor for the enshrinement of sharia in the new constitutions of the so-called Arab Spring nations. Other pieces by Erasmus include The right to be appalling on the obnoxious Westboro Baptist Church and A (contentious) list of violators on religious repression.

Third is a piece from Greta Christina, who, like Richard Carrier, blogs on the excellent FreeThought blogs. In this instance she appears on AlterNet with 9 Questions That Atheists Might Find Insulting (And the Answers). "Every marginalized group has some question, or questions, that are routinely asked of them -- and that drive them up a tree; questions that have insult or bigotry or dehumanization woven into the very asking. Sometimes the questions are asked sincerely, with sincere ignorance of the offensive assumptions behind them. And sometimes they are asked in a hostile, passive-aggressive, "I'm just asking questions" manner. But it's still not okay to ask them. They're not questions that open up genuine inquiry and discourse, they're questions that close minds, much more than they open them. Even if that's not the intention."  From  "How can you be moral without believing in God?"  to  "How do you have any meaning in your life?" Sometimes asked as, "Don't you feel sad or hopeless?"  Christina's responses are a delight. (Fittingly, Jesus in the comic strip above asks one of those annoying questions of the indefatigable barmaid)

Transcend This - is the latest from Pat Condell. Here he fulminates against the vacuity of organized religion. Not one of his best, but still worth seeing.

A Little Bonus - on top of the release of the three women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, imprisoned for years in a house in Cleveland comes what is in comparison a small, yet welcome bonus. Ghoulish harridan and self-proclaimed psychic, Sylvia Browne is revealed (yet again) as a total fraud. As we learn from the Guardian "Browne announced the death of Amanda Berry in 2004, when she appeared on Williams' show to tell Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, that her daughter was "in heaven and on the other side" and that her last words were "goodbye, mom, I love you". Miller would die a year later of heart failure." The Williams mentioned is talk show host Montel Williams who often featured Browne. Hopefully this latest exposure will put the final nail in the coffin of her heartless, despicable, hateful career although some of her die-hard fans are still making excuses for her. For more of this crone's failures see Psychic Defective.

At Your Own Risk - Voice of America reports on a charm offensive by Egypt's tourism minister, eager to swell that country's deleted coffers. Hisham Zaazou is quoted as saying "Bikinis are welcome in Egypt and booze is still being served". However the wearing of bikinis in this increasingly Islamist state may not be the wisest course for women holidaying there. BBC news informs us "A recent UN survey suggested an astounding 99.3% of Egyptian women had experienced harassment of one form or another. Sixty percent of those asked said they had been touched inappropriately." Egyptian men's loathsome behavior, according to Someyya Hussein, herself a two-time victim of sexual assault, is sanctioned by by the religious hierarchy. She says "Clerics appear on TV inciting people, telling men they have the right to touch a girl if she is not 'properly' covered up. They should be stopped and brought to account but they are not." The report continues "Egyptians will tell you that women now are dressing far more conservatively than they did just a few years back. That is certainly no guarantee that they will be left alone. Many of those reporting harassment wear headscarves or even the niqab, which covers the face." So what hope is there for a bikini-clad tourist in the Land of the Pharaohs Gropers? Minister Zaazou's welcoming words to would-be visitors mean nothing compared to the situation on the ground in this increasingly Islamist country. Egyptian women live with harassment and abuse every single day.

 

No Evidence, No Point - Heedless of the risk of looking like conspiracy loons we learn American lawmakers, in exchange for $20,000, appeared at the National Press Club in Washington where the Citizen Hearing On Disclosure was held. Disclosure of what, one may ask? The government's cover-up of alien spacecraft that have visited the Earth, of course. According this report "Expert witnesses were sworn in under oath to testify before the committee of former politicians." Taking an oath gives the impression that the attendees, apparently believers all, had even the flimsiest evidence to support their assertion. Well, that doesn't include one "Roscoe Bartlett, a Tea Party Republican from Maryland who served 10 terms in Congress, [who] said: "Extraterrestrials are not anti-biblical. Read the book of Job – it's all there." The Disclosure meetings have been around for a while with no noticeable results on government policy - 80 originally mentioned them in June 2001 - see Disclosure Poseur. But the lack of Disclosure's success is explained by "Stanton Friedman, who has two degrees in physics, said: "If there were something announced, say by the pope (sic) and the Queen, what would happen? Young people would see themselves as Terrans and would lose their allegiance to nations. No government could allow that."  It's all so obvious when explained by a physicist with two degrees.

Meanwhile, the Daily Record reports from Scotland on a possible solution for a claimed UFO sighting. "The mystery of a UFO which narrowly missed an aircraft above Scotland could lie in the hands of a four-year-old boy. The Record revealed yesterday that aviation experts had been left baffled when the crew of the airliner described how a strange object loomed in front of them before flying underneath the plane at 3500ft." The UFO, which didn't register on the plane's radar, was described as "...blue and yellow and silvery" which by spooky coincidence were the colors of Billy Orsmond's six-foot shark helium balloon lost at the same time "...over Baillieston, 13 miles from Glasgow airport." 

 

 

Read Of The Week - comes from the New Statesman and asserts New Atheism should be able to criticise Islam without being accused of Islamophobia. Andrew Zak Williams points out that it has become popular recently to accuse some of the more prominent New Atheists of Islamophobic bigotry. As 80 has noted elsewhere Islamophobia is a nonsense word often used to imply racism in an attempt to shut down discussion. Critics that complain about the harshness of comments on Islam by likes of Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins are trying to use the perceived harshness to draw attention away from valid criticisms. As biologist Jerry Coyne says, “Critics of the New Atheists are free to take issue with their tone, but to dismiss them without addressing the substance of their arguments constitutes an implicit admission that they just might have a point."  Other articles by Williams are listed here.

 

Aping Science - Creationism is an example of willful ignorance in face of the facts. It is not just a rejection of evolution by means of natural selection, but a denial of all science. If, for example, you reject the current estimate of the age of the Earth you also reject the physics that underpins that estimate. You cannot cherry-pick which parts of science you accept. Creationists like to point out scientific debates and arguments as though they bring all of science into ill-repute. Disagreement among scientists about, say, the details of evolution is not a sign of the collapse of the theory. (Here theory is meant in the scientific sense and not as misunderstood ad nauseam by creationists) It is strange that they reject the scientific method but love the appearance of science and strive to present their imaginings in what they think is a scientific fashion. (This has similarities to what Richard Feynman called cargo cult science.) These attempts are laughably infantile and reveal the depths of their ignorance. The source of creationism is not any kind of scientific evidence whatsoever but an uncritical acceptance of every word in the Christian Bible (usually the King James Version). A good example of this aping of the forms of science but not the method is the CreationWiki which claims to be an Encyclopedia of Creation Science. This oxymoronic melange is epitomized on a page  concerning an extinct genus of ape, Gigantopithecus, which dates (in the real world) from around 9 million years ago. The first paragraph (shown below) is a fairly representative mix of scientific nomenclature, fantasy and deliberate ignorance.

"Gigantopithecus is an extinct ape that was of an unusually large size. This ape is guessed to have the weight of a polar bear (around 600 pounds) but this is only just for the smaller species. There are three different species of Gigantopithecus: G. bilaspurensis, G. blacki, and G. giganteus. Their fossils have been found in almost a dozen different sites in China. [1] The authenticity of the Gigantopithecus is quite possible, however it does not support the different evolutionary ideas of a giant human, giant hominoid, bigfoot, or yeti judging by all of the fossil observations, research, and evidence. [2] Some scientists still believe that in some sites in Vietnam or some provinces in China, there are still G. blacki remains that are scattered among these places. [3] There is no known reason in why the Gigantopithecus went extinct, but some evolutionists suspect that as Bigfoot, and Yeti were giants. They also suspect that human beings descended from the Gigantopithecus. However studies show that the difference in the Gigantopithecus jaw and the human jaw gives no relation to the two. [4] There is no proof or evidence that humans descended from this ape or any of the Great Apes."

Note the use of Linnaean taxonomy to give a "scientific" gloss to what is actually a confused and incoherent ramble. For example "The authenticity of the Gigantopithecus is quite possible, however it does not support the different evolutionary ideas of a giant human, giant hominoid, bigfoot, or yeti judging by all of the fossil observations, research, and evidence." The inclusion of fantastic cryptids as examples of evolutionary ideas is a charming if nonsensical touch. The following sentence "There is no known reason in why the Gigantopithecus went extinct, but some evolutionists suspect that as Bigfoot, and Yeti were giants." is a complete non sequitur, complete with dodgy grammar. Next comes a blatant lie "They also suspect that human beings descended from the Gigantopithecus. However studies show that the difference in the Gigantopithecus jaw and the human jaw gives no relation to the two." The "they" referred to obviously means the "some evolutionists" of the preceding sentence. No information is supplied as to who these "evolutionists" are - they serve as strawmen, nothing more. The final sentence fits in with this strawman ploy, "There is no proof or evidence that humans descended from this ape or any of the Great Apes." Once again willful ignorance surfaces as no one is claiming humans descended from the great apes - but we do share a common ancestor. See the real Wikipedia page on Gigantopithecus for comparison. For more duplicitous drivel on Gigantopithecus see this  from Creation Ministries International.

 

 

Reads Of The Week - homeopathy, the oldest so-called alternative medicine, is given the treatment it so thoroughly deserves in Diluting the scientific method: Ars looks at homeopathy (again) from the excellent Ars Technica web site. It is in fact a republishing of an article from 2007, dragged back into the daylight to honor (don't laugh) World  Homeopathy Awareness Week.

Still on the subject of quackery is a piece from Martin Robbins in the New Statesman called Giving space to Andrew Wakefield on MMR isn't balance, it's lunacy. Measles is very much in the news in Britain with a large outbreak of the disease in Wales, and rightly so as it can cause complications such as "... pneumonia, otitis media, acute encephalitis, and corneal ulceration (leading to corneal scarring). Complications are usually more severe in adults who catch the virus". According to the BBC "Nearly 700 people have contracted measles since November." and a large vaccination program is under way. Why is this necessary? In part the blame lies with many parents falling for the discredited "research" of ex-doctor Wakefield who claimed to have found a link between the MMR vaccination and autism and inflammatory bowel disease. This was triggered by the Lancet's (now retracted) publication of a paper by Wakefield. It is now known that his work is, in the words of Douglas Adams, a load of dingo's kidneys. Wakefield now resides in the USA where anti-vaccination nuts proliferate. As the Welsh outbreak came to the public's attention the Independent newspaper had a brilliant idea, let's interview an arrogant, discredited quack and pretend his opinion is worth a lazy, scaremongering article. All the Independent has achieved with this coverage is confirmation that it is an irresponsible rag, perhaps even lower than the Huffington Post, which also has a penchant for publishing pure quackery. Update - do take a look at We've seen sense on measles, but we're not yet rid of quacks by Catherine Bennett.

Lastly is a piece from Paul Canning posted on Harry's Place entitled The quiet repression of non-believers. Most countries still have blasphemy laws, and even where they have been repealed, as in the UK, other laws are used to achieve the same ends. We hear all the time of religions persecuting each other - think, say, of other faiths in Muslim majority countries. The persecution of those with no religion receives much less attention but is widespread. Canning's piece helps redress the balance and in addition comes up with surprising information (at least to 80) such as "In Israel, you can be imprisoned for a year if “one voices in a public place and in the hearing of another person any word or sound that is liable to crudely offend the religious faith or sentiment of others.” and "In Germany insulting “the content of others’ religious faith or faith related to a philosophy of life” can get you three years imprisonment. In 2010 a magazine was prosecuted for a cartoon about the pedophilia scandals in the Catholic Church."
 

 

Islamic Google Earth

It's About Time - and maps. Here's the latest technology news from Iran, hot on the heels of its fake stealth fighter plane. Firstly we learn "Ali Razeghi, a Tehran scientist has registered "The Aryayek Time Traveling Machine" with the state-run Centre for Strategic Inventions....Razeghi, 27, said the device worked by a set of complex algorithims (sic) to "predict five to eight years of the future life of any individual, with 98 percent accuracy"." So can we see this marvellous machine in action? Not according to the great inventor "The reason that we are not launching our prototype at this stage is that the Chinese will steal the idea and produce it in millions overnight." The fiends! But why not use the machine to see if the Chinese manage to pirate it? It seems a little pointless to invent such a device and then not use it. But then Razeghi also says "As such we expect to market this invention among states as well as individuals once we reach a mass production stage." So, what's it to be, hide the device from the Chinese or mass market it? 80 is waiting with bated breath for further developments.

Secondly the theocratic dictatorship Islamic Republic, long suspicious of Google Earth as a cover for Western spy agencies, has announced its own version. We are told "Iran's minister for information and communications technology, Mohammad Hassan Nami, announced this week that his country was developing what he described as an "Islamic Google Earth" to be called Basir (spectator in Farsi) which will be ready for use "within the next four months"". In order to comply with the Quran, as everything in Iran must, will Basir show the Earth as flat? We'll know in four month's time.

 

 

Are Sharia Councils Failing Vulnerable Women? - is the question posed by a BBC Panorama investigation. What a bloody stupid question. All Muslim women are "vulnerable" in the face of sharia. The authorities allow courts that are guided by a religion that treats women as though they of less worth than men and are then surprised at the result. It is obvious that a court system of this nature will favor men every time. The BBC cites examples of women who have been coerced into staying in an abusive relationship under the threat of losing access to their children. This is not legal in the UK but many Muslim women are not aware of this. This is part of the legacy of the failed policy of multiculturalism. Many Muslim communities have done little to assimilate. In such a segregated culture many women do not even know that there is a secular legal system open to all that does not discriminate on the grounds of sex. 80 makes no apology for republishing some past items on this subject below. 
 

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February 8th 2008

Bearded Cleric Sharia Shock - where does Rowan Williams stand on the equality of the sexes? Does he think it is right for women to be deemed of lesser status than men in a legal system, even one that would only rule on marriage and property matters? It would appear that the Archbishop of Canterbury is a closet misogynist. Not even the most woolly-minded nitwit can pretend that within sharia law women are treated as  equal to men and yet Williams says the introduction of sharia in Britain is "unavoidable". If he was trying to promote debate on the subject that use of the word unavoidable rather negates that aim - it sounds like his mind at least is made up. Astoundingly he appears to think such a system could be put in place without harming the rights women already enjoy under the existing law - this is nonsense. Who, one wonders would administer and preside in sharia courts? The elders and clerics of the local Muslim community - all male.

It has been said that the use of a sharia court would be an option for divorce cases and domestic disputes, the very sort of cases that inevitably involve disputes between the sexes. But how easy would it be for a woman to opt out of the sharia system? Given the already tremendous social pressure to conform within Muslim communities anyone opting out is liable to be ostracised or worse. Has Williams given any real thought to these questions? For any women who have come to live in Britain and are happy to have escaped the inequalities of sharia in the countries of their birth Williams' foolish remarks must surely fill them with dread. On a personal note one wonders what his wife, Jane Williams, a writer and lecturer in theology, thinks of her husband's view that the introduction of a misogynist legal system is unavoidable. They must have some fascinating conversations.

If ever there was a good reason for the disestablishment of the Church of England it is this ridiculous sharia statement by the Archbishop. The best safeguard for any and all religions is a truly secular state with no faith given special status. Anything else leads to "me-tooism" by those who perceive themselves as being treated unfairly. It has been pointed out that British Jews have their own religious courts, the Beth Din, and this been given as a reason for the adoption of sharia for Muslims. But surely it is fairer for no faith to have special courts and for everyone, of whatever faith or none, to be dealt with on an equal basis? Anything else will soon have groups such as Sikhs, Pagans, Hindus and even Pastafarians insisting that they too should have their own religious legal system. This is a point 80 has made before with reference to Canada's flirtation with sharia in Ontario. Here it was decided by Premier Dalton McGuinty that Ontario would reject the use of sharia law and would move to prohibit all religious-based tribunals to settle family disputes such as divorce.

Considering the British government has done nothing about the anachronism of 26 unelected Christian bishops sitting in the upper chamber of parliament it is unlikely it would have the guts to end the Jewish courts. Instead of being hailed for giving everyone a level playing field it would no doubt be accused of anti-Semitism in the same way some affronted Muslims cry Islamophobia at the drop of a bacon sandwich. The British government's reaction to the archbishop has been less than enthusiastic with a spokesman saying that the prime minister "...believes that British laws should be based on British values". The introduction of sharia was also condemned by both opposition parties but until the Jewish courts are ceased government is wide open to cries of favoritism and special treatment. Sharia law for the UK, even in the truncated form of "sharia-lite" which seems to be what Williams is talking about, is not "unavoidable" but it is unacceptable, as is any other parallel religious justice system. (Read here the reaction from the National Secular Society)

Oxymoronic Religious Justice - In the light of Rowan Williams' sharia comments see How multiculturalism is betraying women by Johann Hari in which he "describes a recent ruling by Judge Christa Datz-Winter involving a Muslim woman who asked for an early divorce because of the severe beatings meted out by her brutal husband. The judge declined to grant an early divorce because, despite police evidence of extreme violence, there was no "unreasonable hardship". Why? Because Muslim women should have "expected" to be beaten. The judge went on to cite passages from the Koran granting Muslim husbands the "right to use corporal punishment", including Sura 4, verse 34." This case, which happened in Germany, is also reported here.

April 6th 2009

Sharia Shame - 80 has received an email from the government responding to the online Stop Sharia petition and it is pretty much the mealy-mouthed bollocks you would expect. There is, of course, no mention of the fact that women are deemed to be of less worth than men in this Arab justice system thereby depriving British Muslim women of their human rights. Concerning the binding nature of sharia courts (or councils in government speak) we are told "These councils are not part of the court system, although parties may find them useful in resolving litigation, as may be done with arbitration by regulatory bodies (such as ABTA). A Shari’a council could constitute an arbitration body if it is a tribunal that complies with the Arbitration Act 1996 (for example, that parties have given written consent to the Shari’a council to arbitrate.) The decisions of Shari’a councils may be enforceable through the courts by virtue of the Arbitration Act. This provides that, where both parties agree to arbitration, the decisions of the Shari’a council will be enforceable if the requirements of the Arbitration Act are satisfied."

The above assumes that women have chosen to participate of their own free will and have not been coerced by overwhelming pressure from the rest of their family and the local imam/mullah. This shows on behalf of the government either a total ignorance of the pressures a Muslim woman or girl could face or even worse, a total disregard of those pressures, no doubt in the service of that great god of discarded principles, "social cohesion". See Muslim Women Lose Their Human Rights and One Law For All.

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It's An Old Trick - but it might just work. We learn from the Independent "Austria’s Turkish community claimed a victory in its fight against Danish toy giant Lego yesterday after the firm agreed to withdraw a Star Wars toy set featuring a mosque-like building inhabited by an obese, hookah–smoking alien, following complaints that it was anti-Muslim." Two observations to make about this latest sally from the religion of rage and blame. One, in looking at the model of the evil mastermind Jabba the Hutt (for it is he) did these Turks see themselves? To most folk Jabba resembles a slug - there is nothing particularly Muslim about him. The model is faithful to the movie that's all - will they be after George Lucas next? Two, as for the "mosque-like" building, the closest resemblance in architecture that 80 can see is the Hagia Sophia, the church of the Holy Wisdom in Istanbul. Much as Austria's Turks would like to claim it for themselves, adding minarets to a Byzantine church built in 360 CE before Islam existed, does not make it an example of Muslim architecture. In fact it's more likely Hagia Sophia influenced mosque builders. 

As others have observed before, Islam still has plenty of growing up to do. 80 is currently re-reading Earl Doherty's excellent Jesus Neither God Nor Man and found a quote therein about early Christians and the Roman authorities that is absolutely applicable to the way Islam comports itself today, especially in Western Europe. "...we can recognize a natural sectarian tendency for "painting our own group as perennial victims in order to stifle criticism and allow us to advance our claims for privileges." Christians still, on occasion, use this ploy (see almost anything said by ex-archbishop Lord Carey) but the unrivalled masters these days are surely the devotees of Islam. Look at the news and you will see examples of this strategy practically every single day. Oh, 80 nearly forgot. Lego? You are bloody spineless.

Note - to the Independent headline writer for "The racist menace? Muslims declare victory in fight over ‘anti-Islamic’ Lego" Islam is not a race. The religion has claims to universality and is not confined to any single race. Please don't hand its stroppier adherents yet another chance to rage and whine.

The Jooz Done It - you may or may not be aware that there has been something of an internet war going on. Spamhaus, a not for profit group, supplies large organizations and companies with a black list of Internet service providers which are known spam sources, that is those who knowingly provide service to the unscrupulous creeps and crooks that enables them to fill your email inbox with crud. Such unsolicited email, apart from a waste of bandwidth, very often has a criminal intent. Spamhaus does not block the spammers itself but provides a useful service. Now Spamhaus has been attacked online by use of DDOS, which essentially tries to overwhelm their servers with bogus traffic. Those suspected to be behind the attack  justify their methods by bleating about free speech and internet freedom. In fact the only freedom they really want is the freedom to spam. The recent DDOS attack was the largest ever seen, actually large enough to slow down the entire internet. As is obvious 80 is no expert on this subject but this page from SecuringIndustry explains things well.

This report from SlashGear looks at the man alleged to be behind the attacks. Sven Olaf Kamphuis claims to be a member of the group that is out to "destroy" Spamhaus. Who does this somewhat irrational individual blame for what he considers all that is wrong with the internet? He is reported to have stated "... that Spamhaus has acted “without any court verdict, just by blackmail of suppliers and Jew lies.”  In 80's book anyone who attempts to justify their questionable actions by blaming a Jewish conspiracy immediately confirms that they are beyond the reach of rational argument. If Kamphuis ever had a case, admittedly an unlikely possibility, he's blown it. (See this Guardian report on the worrying prevalence of anti-Semitism not only in the Islamic world (its natural home) but all across Europe.)

Go Canada - here's a welcome article in the Globe and Mail "Jason Kenney, the federal immigration minister, deserves congratulations for releasing an updated guide for newcomers that refers to certain unacceptable cultural practices as “barbaric.” Those practices include any that “tolerate spousal abuse, honour killings, female genital mutilation, forced marriage or other gender-based violence.” The term “barbaric” is strong, but it leaves no room for misinterpretation. That is the most important issue here."  Excellent.

Guardian's Balance - the headline says Israel launches airstrike on Gaza Strip - the sub-head further informs us "None reported wounded after Hamas and Israeli military confirm strike in northen (sic) Gaza, the first attack since November". That, at least, is a relief. It is only in the penultimate paragraph we learn, "Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said Palestinians launched three rockets at Israel."  So, missiles first, then airstrike. The Guardian struggles with the concept of causality.

 

Ecce Homo Erectus! - yes, it's that time of year and the Telegraph has an Easter plug for a new book called "Il Mistero della Sindone" or The Mystery of the Shroud, by Giulio Fanti. In the face of all evidence Fanti is claiming that the shroud is not a medieval pious fraud but a real ancient burial cloth. But if the alleged miraculous image is that of a human being there is something strange in its proportions. In this article, The Shroud of Turin: The Great Gothic Art Fraud  by Gregory S Paul, a detailed examination of the image shows some physical oddities incompatible with a typical sample of homo sapiens. As Paul puts it "This note is intended to describe why, from an artistic and anatomical perspective, the shroud image is an embarrassingly obvious fraud committed by a Gothic artist following the standard conventions of his time. The artistic errors are so severe that it is impossible for the shroud to record the image of an actual human body—unless it was a very seriously pathological person with a brain the size of a Homo erectus." In addition, the lengths of the arms are significantly different from each other.

Paul's conclusions are utterly damning "If Jesus had the proportions of the image in the shroud, then he was a severely deformed and pathological person who would have cut a shocking figure as he walked down the streets and paths of the Holy Land. Exceptionally tall for his time and place, his rather narrow head was so shrunken and low browed that it would have indicated a unique form of hypocephaly so serious that it would have impaired his mental function, leaving his intellectual performance similar to that of protohuman. Overly long arms would have hung at his sides, with one exceptionally elongated, the other less so because of an atrophied lower arm. It is hard to see how such bizarre attributes would have not been mentioned in an account of his life, assuming anyone bothered to record it considering the circumstances. Because the proportions of the shroud image are essentially impossible, the figure cannot represent that of an actual person." Also see the Shroud entry in the Skeptic's Dictionary and Joe Nickell's book Inquest on the Shroud of Turin.

In The News - here's a miscellany of items that have caught 80's eye in the last few days from the comedic to the tragic. First up is a music video from Jim Carrey - no, don't click away. The rubber-faced actor has redeemed himself with a parody country and western show mocking America's gun-crazies, including the late Charlton Heston. The featured song "Cold Dead Hand" is merciless in ridiculing the gun culture. Carrey can probably feel the cross-hairs on his back already.

Elsewhere, aging TV soap star Bill Roache has had to apologize "...after he appeared to suggest victims of paedophiles were being punished for past sins in a TV interview." Roache's idiocy is reminiscent of England soccer boss Glenn Hoddle back in 1999 claiming that people with disabilities are being punished for doing wrong in a previous incarnation. He said "You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime. I have nothing to hide about that. It is not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap." He didn't have to wait until his next life to reap what he sowed - he was fired. This is unlikely to happen to Roache but he has issued a grovelling apology.

Mehdi Hassan, writing in the New Statesman, laments the anti-Semitism of Labour peer Nazir Ahmed. Ahmed explained his imprisonment for causing a car crash that took a man's life as being the product of a Jewish conspiracy. Hassan writes "The truth is that the virus of anti-Semitism has infected members of the British Muslim community, both young and old." This is not quite right. Anti-Semitism is something Muslims imbibe with their mother's milk, their holy book, the not-to-be-doubted Quran, is full of it. It is more than time for Muslims to drop this religiously-inspired racism - but don't hold your breath.

You have read about those who are allergic to electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Wi-fi, cellphones and the like cause these "sensitives" to suffer various unpleasant symptoms. The fact is we are all awash in EMR and the symptoms are psychosomatic. Admittedly they can be stressful but rather than shy away from EMR, a pretty impossible task, these sufferers would benefit more from some therapy and attending a short science course on radiation of all kinds. Now a new phenomenon has reared its idiot head, “wind turbine sickness”. The Register has a good piece of this affliction of the modern age. We learn of Professor Simon Chapman who "...believes the condition is bunk and has co-authored a paper, titled Spatio-temporal differences in the history of health and noise complaints about Australian wind farms: evidence for the psychogenic, “communicated disease” hypothesis. The paper's central thesis is that wind turbine sickness is not real, but that once people hear about it they start to experience its symptoms". Next we will be hearing of poor sods who are not only allergic to wind turbines but also the electricity they produce... Update - this Guardian piece shows how not to report EMR. Another example of journalistic "balance". You will find more sense in the comments. Meanwhile in Sicily we learn the "... regional government has revoked permission for the US to build a military satellite station on the island, its governor said on Friday, after protests by residents who said it could pose a health risk."

For an illustration of the sickness of Islam this New York Times piece is hard to beat. We are told "The sheer number of women sexually abused and gang raped in a single public square had become too big to ignore. Conservative Islamists in Egypt’s new political elite were outraged — at the women." The usual stuff, rather than the men behaving in a civilized manner it is these hussies who are to blame. Apparently their very existence is an incitement to molestation and rape. The article quotes a TV preacher “You see those women speaking like ogres, without shame, politeness, fear or even femininity,” declared... Ahmed Abdullah, known as Sheik Abu Islam. Such a woman is “like a demon,” he said, wondering why anyone should sympathize with those “naked” women who “went there to get raped.” This disgusting state of affairs presents the Islamist government with a dilemma. With the eyes of the world upon Egypt it wants to condemn the rapists but the very hardline clerics who blame the women for men's vileness are allied to President Morsi and his governing party.

Finally Martin Robbins, writing in the Guardian, looks at a Church Of England survey that claims four out of five people in Britain believe in the power of prayer. It is a pleasure to witness his skewering of this poorly-executed survey, although world-weary 80 is more inclined to dismiss it offhandedly as a load of self-serving bollocks foisted upon the public by a pathetic and dying organisation. No offence.

Prayer, The Truth - "Long time ago god made a divine plan. Gave it a lot of thought. Decided it was a good plan. Put it into practice. And for billion and billions of years the divine plan has been doing just fine. Now you come along and pray for something. Well, suppose the thing you want isn't in god's divine plan. What do you want him to do? Change his plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a divine plan. What's the use of being god if every run-down schmuck with a two dollar prayer book can come along and fuck up your plan?" George Carlin, devout Frisbeetarianist. See the man in action. (The above is from Number 80, January 2010, and bears repeating)

Read Of The Week - is an item from The Atlantic titled Being Malala Yousafzai's Dad. It illustrates how her dad, Ziauddin, has backed her campaign for further education for girls. We learn that he is "... a school owner and activist for education himself, [who has] backed Malala's academic pursuits throughout her childhood in Pakistan, defying a deeply rooted belief in parts of the region that girls are the property of men--destined to stay home, forgo school, and marry young". The more girls that are able to escape this fate the more Pakistan will be able to shake off the malign influence of Islamist fanatics and their misogynist death cult. Update - It is reported "The life story of a 15-year Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban will be published later this year, in a deal reported to be worth around £2m."

Secularist of the Year Prize - The National Secular Society has donated its Secularist of the Year prize fund to a global charity campaigning to ensure girls everywhere have equal access to education. The prize fund of £7,000 was awarded to Plan UK in honour of Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl from Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban in October for campaigning in support of female education. Her story sparked outrage around the world after the Taliban said they shot Malala for "promoting secularism". Read on....

Happy And Not So Happy News - according to a recent reputable poll "Sometime last year, the US quietly passed a milestone demographers had long been predicting: for the first time in its history, this country is no longer majority Protestant. Fewer than 50 percent of Americans now identify as Protestant Christians of any denomination....What's happening to these vanishing Protestants? For the most part, they're not converting to any other religion, but rather are walking away from religion entirely. They're becoming " nones," as the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life puts it. It seems likely that this is the same secularizing trend being observed in Europe, as people of advanced, peaceful democracies find religion increasingly irrelevant to their daily lives."  It is not all good news though, the fundies have a plan to spread their poison abroad....