The View from Number 80 - Backwards Glances 2008 pt2

Another Minor Rant - it makes sound sense to consult with experts before making an important decision. This could be a private individual perhaps looking for the best shares in which to invest or maybe deciding whether to have surgery or drug therapy of some kind. You would look pretty stupid having consulted a financial advisor or doctor if you decided to ignore their expert advice and invested in a useless company or opted for alternative therapy as opposed to real medicine. The UK government is in danger of looking even more incompetent and foolish than it does already by ignoring advice from experts in two areas (there are no doubt many more) that of the classification of cannabis and legislation on abortion. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has made it clear to the British home secretary that moving cannabis from class C to class B "...is neither warranted, nor will it achieve its desired effect". After a nine month review in which the ACMD "...decided by 20 votes to three to recommend that cannabis remain a class C drug" the home secretary has decided to re-classify anyway, apparently swayed more by tabloid horror stories of super powerful forms of dope than by real evidence. As drugs information charity DrugScope puts it "Unfortunately, the message given by this decision is that drugs policy can be driven as much by political considerations, media headlines and scare stories as by the evidence."

On the subject of abortion there is a strong push being made by some groups and individuals, and yes, the tabloid press, to shorten the limit for abortions from 24 to 20 weeks despite the fact there is no evidential basis for such a move. Naturally the Roman Catholic church is deeply involved in lobbying, doubtless viewing such a change as a step toward complete prohibition thereby boosting that organization's age-old antipathy to women's freedom. If the church and the other groups threw themselves wholeheartedly into promoting contraception and family planning it would be more understandable but they don't. Polly Toynbee, writing in the Guardian examines the pressures being brought to bear on MPs ahead of the human fertilisation and embryology bill having its second reading, which include sending them "...lurid DVDs of abortions: last time they were sent plastic foetuses". The British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing are not in favor of a change, saying in a statement "There has been no significant improvement in the survival of pre-term infants below 24 weeks gestation in the last 18 years." But what does that matter, after all, they are only experts with vast experience in the field. Any cut off date is bound to have an arbitrary element, that is the problem with biology, but the current limit makes sense going on current expert evidence.

On the subject of ignoring evidence let us take a moment to celebrate the death of Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo who finally did something useful - he died - thereby reducing the world's population by one - one that has done untold harm. Trujillo was responsible for the outrageous claim, still repeated by his colleagues, that condoms were useless in stopping the spread of AIDS. The amount of suffering caused by this bigot is hard to quantify, from the lingering deaths of HIV AIDS sufferers and the orphans created, to the many children born to families already poverty-stricken, to the servitude of women reduced to baby machines. Here is a piece on Trujillo's cruel lies that 80 wrote in 2003, describing how he ignored the World Health Organization which had stated "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million." May the ghosts of those millions dance on Trujillo's grave.

Which leads us on to another hypocritical cardinal, Cormac Murphy O'Connor (the pedophile shifter) who has said Britain cannot become "...a God-free zone". He is worried that the religious point of view, or more accurately that of the Roman Catholic church, will no longer be heard in the public square. He cannot mean other denominations as his boss Ratzinger has already said other Christian denominations are not real churches. The amount of waffle he spouts about what is merely self-interest almost rivals that of Rowan Williams. For example "Many people have a sense of being in a sort of exile from faith-guided experience." What he means by "...exile from faith-guided experience" is in fact not exile, but freedom, freedom from being dictated to by unelected churchmen, something which concerns him greatly - from the point of view of his own job security. Whenever religion has been in a position of power it has thrown its weight about oppressively and now it is slowly being relegated to the status of a private matter there is no need any more for a hierarchy of bishops and cardinals - especially those given to dabbling in politics.

The cardinal plaintively asks "What did we do to generate unbelief? We need to examine what we might have done to give people a misleading idea of God." Unbelief has grown because it is obvious the whole god thing is a nonsense and merely a way for people like O'Connor and Trujillo to exercise unearned and undeserved power over the lives of others. Epicurus dealt with God 2300 years ago and no amount of waffle from churchmen has been able to refute the old Greek's logic in any meaningful way. "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" This Guardian article tells us that Murphy O'Connor "...called for a better dialogue between believers and non-believers based on mutual esteem, rather than a rejection of difference, in order to address the split between the Gospels and culture." Mutual esteem? How can you have a meaningful and respectful dialogue with someone who believes that because you reject his absurd sky fairy myth you will burn for all eternity in hell? The sooner Murphy O'Connor and his ilk are a thing of the past the better and their removal from the public sphere should be a priority for anyone interested in human rights. Murphy O'Connor refers to the "mystery of God" but the only mystery is why people still fall for this primitive hogwash. (See here for a piece by Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society on Murphy O'Connor's self-serving drivel)

Go Yoko! - as well as being a pack of lies, half-lies and selective quotes the creationist movie Expelled uses John Lennon's song Imagine without permission. This Alternet blog tells us "You know that stupid Ben Stein movie Expelled, that argues in favor of "intelligent design" and chastises the sane for not allowing religious bullshit to be taught in science classes? Apparently, they used the John Lennon song Imagine in the film . . . without permission. Yoko Ono, one of my all-time favorite feminists, isn't having any of that shit. The issue came to her attention when bloggers started accusing her of selling out. And so she slapped the filmmakers with a lawsuit." (More on Imagine and Expelled here and also see Expelled Execrated and this)

19th May 2008

Dirty Tricks - Can't back up your argument by evidence? Perhaps the evidence contradicts what you personally think is true? Then why not misrepresent and lie? This is certainly the tactic of Tory politicians over the human fertilisation and embryology bill which is going through the House of Commons. The Guardian informs us that "On the eve of a series of Commons votes on the human fertilisation and embryology bill, one scientist accuses the Tory frontbench of misrepresenting his research on abortion to call for a cut in the upper limit. Another, who has worked in a Nobel prize-winning laboratory, accuses the frontbench of tabling "destructive amendments" to the parliamentary bill without speaking to senior figures in the scientific world." Lying and dissembling is a shameful way to try and win an argument. - but then for many politicians it is merely business as usual. For those personally affected by this legislation it is far more serious. At risk is not only stem cell and hybrid embryo research for the treatment of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating illnesses, but also the right of a woman to make her own reproductive choices. Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris points out the danger "Any reduction in the abortion time limit from 24 weeks breaks the crucial link with what the medical consensus says is viability. Once that happens it becomes extremely difficult to defend any particular time limit against attack from anti-abortion campaigners." Also see here. Update - see this piece by Simon Hoggart for the quality of the debate in the Commons on hybrid embryos.

A Cardinal Error - 80 wrote about remarks made in a lecture by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor recently. The cardinal was also interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today show, but not before the presenter John Humphreys had spoken to Richard Dawkins. Dawkins made the obvious point that Humphrys should subject the likes of Murphy O'Connor to the same fierce scrutiny he brings to bear upon politicians and not just accept a statement because it is a "belief". The contrast between Dawkins clear delivery and the fatuous waffle that followed from the cardinal made for a stark contrast. Both interviews can be heard here. On his web site Dawkins has transcribed a particularly outrageous statement from the interview with Murphy O'Connor that Humphrys failed to challenge. The cardinal said "Danger because, if you go just by reason, I think, without faith, without belief in God, you can imagine, for instance in the last century, some of the faith(less), or supposedly faithless societies - people, whether it's like Hitler or Stalin, bringing up - having a country in which, if you like, a God free zone, a dictatorship ruled by reason, and where does it lead? To terror and oppression." There are so many things wrong with this that (apart from the obvious inarticulacy) one is forced to conclude Murphy O'Connor is either a fool or an extremely nasty piece of work - or both. Reason leads to oppression and terror? And this from a man whose organization launched the crusades and the Inquisition? Furthermore a man whose own past is indelibly stained? The sooner he and his kind have to fight to be heard in the public square along with everybody else instead of being given an unearned and undeserved platform from which to spout such utter nonsense the better.

Which God Is It To Be? - it is generally acknowledged that it is impossible to disprove the existence of god, but this actually depends on what sort of god you have in mind. The idea of an impersonal god, outside of space and time, is forever beyond our reach. We exist in the physical universe - and if you take universe to mean "all that exists" it is obvious we can know absolutely nothing about a deity or being that exists beyond, for there is no beyond. Another deity, one referred to by physicists such as Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, is not actually anything like the god of any religion but is more a shorthand for the laws of physics. References to this "god" by physicists and cosmologists are often seized upon by religionists and brandished in the faces of unbelievers as somehow proving the existence of their god. This is either through ignorance or dishonesty as this scientific "god" has absolutely no connection with the personal, caring god of religion. The sort of god the believers have in mind, one that intervenes in history via messiahs and miracles, is definitely amenable to proof and disproof.

Anything in the physical world falls under the domain of science so if Yahweh, Allah or any of the other deities poke their celestial noses into the world and interact with it they are fair game for science and claims of their existence should have to meet the standards of evidence applicable to any other physical phenomena. This does not suit many religionists who want both their metaphysical and physical cake and eat it. They are happy to prattle on about the personal, caring (and vengeful and capricious) god of their scriptures who impregnates virgins, burns bushes, inflicts hemorrhoids and performs magical tricks such as water-walking but when challenged retreat to the deity outside space and time, forever beyond disproof. Such a clumsy and transparent ploy is dishonest in the extreme and should be challenged at every opportunity. So, the choice is between an utterly unknowable deity (and what is the use of that?) or a personal god, a god that started out as a local tribal storm god, then was puffed up into the omniscient and omnipotent deity of monotheism and which, after a period of supremacy slowly ceded its role as an explanation of anything to science and rational inquiry. The god that is left, the god of the gaps, is a sad little thing, a remnant of humanity's ignorant childhood. (Jesus and Mo have something to say on this subject)

Quote - "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." Albert Einstein, in a letter written in 1954.

May 20th 2008

Cult: noun 1. Adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices
2. An interest followed with exaggerated zeal
3. A system of religious beliefs and rituals

Of Cops and Cults - Scientology is a CULT - certainly by the dictionary definitions given above, but not apparently according to City of London police which served a summons on a teenager following a protest against the sinister yet clownish CULT. The youngster was taking part in a "...peaceful demonstration opposite the headquarters of the controversial religion in London" according to this Guardian article. A placard bearing the word CULT was taken from him and his case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. The police deemed calling Scientology a CULT "abusive and insulting". Since when did the City of London police have the power to decide that a perfectly accurate description is an offence? The teenager, who has posted an account of the incident to Enturbulation.org, did not let the police harrassment faze him and quoted a "...1984 high court ruling from Mr Justice Latey, in which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" which was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous"". This information made no difference and the teenager was summonsed anyway. (See this on You Tube) Why would the police act of behalf of this CULT, unswayed by the ruling of Mr Justice Latey? Here's a clue - Justice Latey did not spend large amounts of money ingratiating himself with the City of London cops.

This report from the Guardian from November 2006 tells us "The Church of Scientology appears to be involved in an effort to woo officers from the City of London police - an unlikely partnership perhaps, but one that seems to be blossoming. Details of how more than 20 officers, from constables to chief superintendents, have been invited to a series of engagements by the scientologists over the last 15 months have been revealed by a freedom of information inquiry by the Guardian. The hospitality included guest invitations in May for two constables and a sergeant to attend the premiere of Mission Impossible 3 in Leicester Square, where they were able to rub shoulders with the best known Scientologist of all and the star of the film, Tom Cruise. The Guardian requested details of meetings between police and scientologists after a senior officer from the City appeared as a guest speaker at the opening of the £23m Scientology centre near St Paul's Cathedral last month." Now this may or may not have anything to do with the CULT summons but the police should be, like Caesar's wife, beyond reproach. These previous contacts between them and the Scientology CULT calls their impartiality into doubt - in short, to this observer there is a very nasty smell.

If and when this case comes to court perhaps more light will be shed upon the relationship between the City of London police and this sinister CULT. This may be a case of the cops shooting themselves in the foot as any investigation may give the impression that they are doing the bidding of a CULT. Whether or not this is really the case the damage done to the police's reputation and the renewed interest in the connections, if any still exist, between the City of London police and the CULT can only harm both parties. It is noteworthy that apparently another protest at a Scientology building in a different part of London was allowed to proceed and the police did not act over the use of the word CULT. Why? Because this part of London is overseen by the Metropolitan police, which force, as far as 80 can ascertain, has yet to enjoy the patronage of the Scientology CULT.

For another worrying instance of the police acting heavyhandedly on behalf of a religion see this piece about Assistant Chief Constable Anil Patani from the West Midlands police and Bethan David of the Crown Prosecution Service, the action taken against the producers of the Dispatches TV documentary Undercover Mosque (video here) and the subsequent apology. The National Secular Society is calling for an investigation of this and has written a letter to the Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw

Quote - "Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious...It is corrupt sinister and dangerous. It is corrupt because it is based on lies and deceit and has its real objective money and power for Mr. Hubbard... It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestionably and to those who criticize it or oppose it. It is dangerous because it is out to capture people and to indoctrinate and brainwash them so they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living, and relationships with others." Mr Justice Latey, quoted on a page at Operation Clambake. More details of the case presided over by Justice Latey are available here. And, as 80 has mentioned before, should you be unfortunate enough to meet a Scientologist be sure to ask them about Lisa McPherson.

June 10th 2008

About Faith - aren't you sick of hearing about it? Religionists assume that believing in something for which there is zero evidence is a good thing, a thing that allows them to take the high moral ground and gives the right to interfere in the democratic process. The word faith apparently now stands for the assumption of unearned and unjustified privileges claimed by those who think they are special in some way because they have forsaken logic and rationality. Even that old bigot Ratzinger feels the need to claim his faith is in some way rational although he is unable to provide any evidence for this assertion. Now, in the UK, the Church of England (CoE) has produced a report called Moral, but No Compass in which it whines about the lack of special treatment accorded to it by the Labour government. Is this a thinly-disguised attempt to revert to the old CoE which was memorably described as the Tory party at prayer? Or is it just part of Britain's so-called "compensation culture" as suggested here by David Aaronovitch? Aaronovitch also notes that the church, in the form of the Bishop of Buckingham, complains that “Politicians haven't, by and large got a clue about majority religions in this country on the ground." and asks quite justifiably why this should be so when the CoE has 26 unelected bishops sitting in the House of Lords? What do these people do all day? Surely at least no politician can be unaware of the antics of the Archbishop of York who recently made a parachute jump in aid of charity. He oh so wittily referred to the jump as a "leap of faith". Wrong. It would have a been a leap of faith if he had not used a parachute - and doubtless he would have made a greater impact. (This is not to belittle the deserving cause for which he jumped, the Afghanistan Trust) This stunt follows on his dog collar protest against the Mugabe regime which was certainly less impressive on the daring front.

Another type of faith is demonstrated by the Jewish dietary system which believes god has ruled certain types of food (the raw materials of which he created) unclean. The choices seem to be somewhat arbitrary and have needed updating over the years as new edible species became available which were totally unknown to the writer/s of Leviticus. (Such ignorance is also displayed by the dearth of kangaroos, armadilloes and aardvarks on Noah's ark.) Now the range of clean foods has been bolstered by the addition of the milk and flesh of the giraffe. Apparently a "...Professor Zohar Amar, took a routine sample of milk and found that it clotted in the way required by Jewish law for kosher certification." and subsequently the veldt-dwelling ruminant was given the all clear for addition to the diet of observant Jews. Happily in these matters the adage all that is not forbidden is compulsory does not apply, for the chief vet of an Israeli zoo, one Dr Yigal Horowitz, said "This does not mean that tomorrow we are going to drink giraffe milk or eat soup made from giraffe necks, after all, this is an animal in danger of extinction." Giraffes and giraffe-lovers everywhere will no doubt sleep easier knowing this.

The faith of some doomsday-mongers will remain unshaken by this good piece from Universe Today on the Mayan calendar. A whole minor industry has grown up about this calendar (or more accurately, calendars) and in particular the "prediction" that the world will end on December 21st, 2012. Ian O'Neill comprehensively trashes this while explaining some of the workings of the Mayan system/s which were pretty sophisticated. This debunking will not affect at least two groups - those who publish books on the "mystery" of the calendar and those true believers (these two groups are not necessarily the same people although there is an overlap) who a. need something to believe in and b. are too dense to understand the relaively simple arithmetic involved. Incidentally, Universe Today is an excellent resource on matters astronomical, astronautical and cosmological. You can sign up here for the free newsletter. (You can also hear an interview with O'Neill on the 2012 story at Terra Chat. Details here)

Finally, as if faith were not discredited enough we have the nauseating spectacle of a smirking, money-grabbing war criminal setting up a so-called Faith Foundation. Yes, it is Tony Blair, mouthing what is at first sight one of the most frightening predictions out there. The grinning, permatanned one has said “Religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st century as political ideology was to the 20th century. In an era of globalisation, there is nothing more important than getting people of different faiths and cultures to understand each other better and live in peace and mutual respect, and to give faith itself its proper place in the future.” The fact that people are of different faiths is the single largest barrier to understanding each other better and living in mutual respect seems to evade the great man. With each faith claiming to be the one true one how could it be otherwise? You could be seriously worried about Blair's prediction but then you remember that he is more style than substance and is also a serial liar - think WMD in Iraq and the "45 minute" nonsense - who even used the news of his wife's miscarriage for political ends. Let's face it, if he and his harpy of a wife are an example of faith in action the sooner we ditched such irrational silliness the better. (see Ophelia Benson's take on Blair's waffle and by a spooky coincidence faith happens to be the subject of Jesus and Mo's latest confrontation with the barmaid.)

Who Knew? - "Iraq dramatically increased the official size of its oil reserves yesterday after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabia’s and be the largest in the world." we are told by the Times. One comment below the article notes that it was a "...good thing the Americans didn't go there for the oil. What a lucky coincidence!" This no doubt explains the construction of "enduring bases" by the US.

Quote - "Abortion should be a private decision between the patient and her doctor, just like any other medical treatment. Why is it so difficult for societies, even one like ours, to give the power to decide to those who carry the consequences?" Christine McCafferty, the Labour MP for Calder Valley quoted in the Guardian on the day parliament decided to keep the current limit of 24 weeks for abortion. Following the decision to permit hybrid embryo research this is not only a victory for evidence and reason but also a well-deserved slap in the face for hypocritical, interfering, unelected churchmen. Abortion should always be a last resort but it is an option that must be made available to those in need. One wonders how many fervently anti-abortion MPs who liken it to murder voted for the invasion of Iraq with its attendant and continuing carnage among adults and children?

The Temptation of Templeton - the Templeton prize is a large sum of money awarded to those that have, in some way acceptable to Templeton, managed to reconcile science and religion. 80 looked at the prize and its latest recipient in Begging The Question. Now Robert Carroll of the estimable Skeptic's Dictionary has made a rather better job of it in his essay The Templeton Fundies. Read and enjoy. (Also see The Templeton Foundation - A Skeptic's Take by John Horgan. Finally, don't miss Carroll on Ben "Expelled" Stein's deeply dishonest and anti-intellectual claptrap and this op-ed in the Washington Post (reg rqd))

Fashionable Nonsense and Religion - here is an interesting interview with Ophelia Benson, she of the excellent Butterflies and Wheels web site, by The Freethinker. Benson explains how the focus of the site, which originally took on the "fashionable nonsense" of post-modernism and the "...anti-science, relativist thinking prevalent in academia and a certain section of the left" has widened and now often deals with religion and its apologists. She say of this "What cultural relativism turns out to mean, nearly all the time, is being protective of religion at the expense of women’s rights. The more I bumped up against irritating sentimental blather about ‘faith communities’ when the faith communities in question seemed to consist entirely of men, the more worthwhile it seemed to point out that the truth claims that underpin ‘faith communities’ are not based on much of anything. .... I’m still waiting to see something impressive and convincing from a priest or an imam or an apologist. ... It has a shooting fish in a barrel aspect, I suppose, but I don’t really care, because clerics do get a hell of a lot of unearned deference and attention and credence, they do get their voices heard on abortion and stem cell research and ‘family values,’ they do get seats on ethics committees despite a total lack of expertise and even ability to think clearly, they do have a wildly disproportionate ability to tell people what to do – so however easy it is to keep saying ‘Why should we believe that?’ I think it’s worth doing." It certainly is and long may she continue - you can sign up for a free weekly newsletter from Butterflies and Wheels here and subscribe to The Freethinker here.

June 12th 2008

Too Dumb To Doubt? - Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, is to publish a paper in the journal Intelligence which claims that intelligent people are less likely to believe in god. He cites a decline in religious observance in the last century as evidence of increasing intelligence. 80 would like to cite the increase in "reality TV shows" over the last few years as evidence of the exact opposite. It seems unlikely that mere differences in intelligence can account for the level of religious belief. Differences in education would seem to be a more likely factor. If a young child is exposed/indoctrinated to religion early enough this could well affect later religious faith regardless of intelligence. If children are taught comparative religion, imparting to them the ability to contrast and compare all the claims of the various major faiths then perhaps they would be less likely to follow any of them. As far as 80 knows this has not been done on a wide enough scale to draw any useful conclusions.

Professor Lynn's findings, at least as reported in the press, seem to miss the phenomenon of compartmentalization. There are many people who are brilliant in a particular field but seem lose their acuity when dealing with another. (One thinks of the astrophysicist Fred Hoyle's inability to get his head around evolution.) This also applies to people other than so-called intellectuals, as noted by Carl Sagan when he wrote "The tenets of skepticism do not require an advanced degree, as most successful used-car buyers demonstrate. The whole idea of a democratic application of skepticism is that everyone should have the essential tools to effectively and constructively evaluate claims to knowledge. All science asks is to employ the same levels of skepticism we use in buying a used car or in judging the quality of analgesics or beer from their TV commercials." Or weighing up the claims of various religions. It is a truism that the children of religious parents tend to follow the parents' religion - apostasy is the exception rather than the rule. When religion is imbibed with the mother's milk, as it were, it becomes very deeply entrenched to the point where scrutiny becomes well nigh impossible. This does not mean that the person is necessarily unintelligent.

As said above 80, at the moment, is only going on press reports of Lynn's paper but one has to wonder how he defines and tests for intelligence. He is quoted as referring to people's I.Q. which only reminded 80 of the old line that I.Q. testing only measured the ability to do I.Q. tests. A report in the Daily Telegraph tells us that "A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers." and that "A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God." This says less about the level of intelligence but speaks volumes regarding the training of that intelligence toward skeptical inquiry - into all claims, not just those made by religions. Comparative religion classes and/or the development of a skeptical outlook will surely have a much greater effect on religious/supernatural belief than any supposed "higher" intelligence.

Shock and/or Awe - read here Robert Ritchie's clarion call for a war against heaven. God's record is appaling he tells us "He has brought famine on numerous occasions. He has inflicted plagues in the form of Aids, Sars and H5N1. Not a single year has passed without war raging in some corner of the globe, often with His explicit blessing on one side or the other and sometimes on both. Tsunamis, floods and hurricanes are three more devastating weapons in the deadly armoury He has not only developed but appears all too willing to use." And there could be worse to come "Faced with these already terrifying powers, we tasked the world's intelligence services to establish when - not if, ladies and gentlemen, but when - He will have the capability to launch genuine weapons of mass destruction. I refer, of course, to thunderbolts from heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my grave duty to inform you that all intelligence conclusively points to the fact that God already possesses such a capability and could launch it at a moment's notice." If non-existent WMDs were reason enough for a pre-emptive attack on Iraq it would seem this god bloke is going to be toast. One can dream.........

CULT News Update - It seems it is not only the City of London police who appear to do the bidding of the Scientology CULT (see Of Cops and CULTS). This piece from the Sunday Herald tells us that Strathclyde Police "...have been accused of "trampling on basic rights" after ordering protesters to take down banners accusing Scientology of being a cult." Make no mistake Scientology is a CULT and a sinister CULT at that. Add this latest bit of heavy-handed policing to the London incident and the Undercover Mosque business and grounds could be made for an investigation of religion's harmful effect on the law enforcer's supposed impartiality. See also this piece on civil rights group Liberty's call for a judicial review on the City of London police's actions "...if it is found that the force's guidelines for policing demonstrations led officers to confront the schoolboy. If it emerges that the policy relates only to anti-Scientology demonstrations, a complaint could be lodged with the Independent Police Complaints Commission instead." (also see Scientology: Cult or Mirror to all Faiths? by Carl Anders who employs an interesting analogy with regard to religions and cults.)

June 19th 2008

Licensed Hypocrisy - South Carolina is being sued by Americans United for Separation of Church and State to (AUSCS) stop it from being the first state to issue Christian car license plates which feature a large bright yellow cross superimposed on a stained glass window and carry the words "I believe". The AUSCS is acting on behalf of "...a multi-faith group of clergy from the Bible Belt state including two Christian ministers, a humanist pastor and a Rabbi as well as the Hindu American Foundation." according to the Daily Telegraph. Rev. Barry W. Lynn, leader of AUSCS, stated "I can't think of a more flagrant violation of the First Amendment's promise of equal treatment for all faiths, I believe these plates will not see the light of day." The Americans United lawsuit (PDF file) says the Christian license plate violates the separation of church and state as well as freedom of speech. Other religions will not be able to get similar license plates expressing differing viewpoints, nor can a comparable “I Don’t Believe” license plate be issued. The plates were approved unanimously by state legislators in the face of opposition. The Republican House Speaker is quoted in the Telegraph as saying "...the plates were a response to residents' requests for a way to express their beliefs." Perhaps a better way would be to do some good works or give the money otherwise wasted on a plate to a deserving charity. The plates are just another way, and a markedly lazy one at that, of parading their belief in public. 80 is reminded of their own holy scripture, namely Matthew 6:5, "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward."

Bad day For Corporate Whores - the Daily Telegraph has an item that looks oddly familiar. It seems that today, June 20th, is the happiest day of the year based upon a formula concocted by one Cliff Arnall, a psychologist and former tutor at Cardiff University. The reason it looks familiar is that Arnall is a serial concocter of formulae for the happiest/saddest etc day of the year. See this piece by Ben Goldacre of Bad Science who has little time for such nonsense and dubs Arnall a "corporate whore" as opposed to his own self-description, "media slut". This latest effort was paid for by Walls Ice Cream. Not only that, for Goldacre "...these equation stories - which appear with phenomenal frequency, and make up a significant proportion of the total science coverage in the UK - are corrosive, meaningless, empty, bogus nonsense that serve only to caricature and undermine science." Just how desperate does a newspaper have to be to fill column inches with Arnall's self-promoting non-news? Or do they get money from Walls too?

Unbelievable - in a short item in the Daily Telegraph we are informed that "..Iran complained about the UK's record on tackling sexual discrimination." to the UN Human Rights Council. Perhaps Britain is not hanging enough gays or covering enough women in black tents. Elsewhere in the paper is an item on George W Bush's meeting with Pope Ratzinger amid speculation that he may convert to Catholicism. Not too surprising as his poodle has already done so. We are told "Several Italian newspapers cited Vatican sources suggesting that Mr Bush may be prepared to convert. One source told Il Foglio, an authoritative newspaper, that "Anything is possible, especially for a born-again Christian such as Bush." Indeed it is, from a preemptive invasion to choking on a pretzel to claiming he is not a warmonger, just misunderstood. Talking of Ratzinger he addressed the World Food Security Summit in Rome urging "...the international community to combat the causes of hunger, saying starvation and malnutrition were unacceptable in a world that can produce plenty to eat." So is overpopulation, made worse by the old bigot's obdurate attitude to contraception. In Florida, the US Catholic bishops "...condemned the destruction of human embryos for stem cell research as a "gravely immoral act"" So is raping children and then concealing the crime. Perhaps the bishops would like to to sign a pledge renouncing the use of any therapy for themselves that may be developed from this wicked research. That way they can fully experience the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases that will be visited on at least some of their number by their loving god.

June 26th 2008

...And Now The Happy News - irritating, ignorant and charmless bigot Stephen Green has announced on his Christian Voice web site that he is "facing bankruptcy". Green, you may remember, tried to bring a court action against BBC Director General Mark Thompson and Jonathan Thoday of Avalon for the screening and subsequent tour of Jerry Springer: The Opera (JS:TO) and bravely bullied a cancer charity that dared to accept a donation from the JS:TO touring company. Green is now facing a bill of many thousands of pounds over the abortive court action. On his site he notes that "He has written to both Mark Thompson and Jonathan Thoday inviting them to waive their costs in the interests of goodwill and justice." Goodwill and justice were not uppermost in his mind when he brought his action so why should it be extended to him now? He fulminated like an Old Testament prophet at anyone he considered to have offended his narrow sensibilities and now expects two of them to play nice. He whines "How are people with limited means expected to bring actions of public importance against public bodies or wealthy people? It is outrageous that a public-spirited individual should be dissuaded from upholding standards of public decency in a public body because of the fear of adverse, grotesque costs orders." In his case the limited means are not only financial but intellectual - he should have thought things through. It is hard to imagine anyone feeling much sympathy for this deeply unpleasant individual - read here his disgusting comments following the Katrina disaster in New Orleans. For more on Green and his campaigns see No Still, Small Voice, Non Vox Populi, Other Voices, Soft Target, Begging Voice and The Gospel According to St Stephen.

Goodbye, George - "I'm in favor of the separation of church and state, my feeling is that either one of these institutions screws you up bad enough on its own. You put them together and you got certain death."

"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck"

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

Some of the barbed wit and wisdom of the great George Carlin who died June 22nd. Check out this You Tube video of the man himself, entitled Religion Is Bullshit. Also see this from the Independent, George Carlin: Seven words that shook a nation

A Barrel Load of Primates - the Hebrew tribal god has grown quite a bit since he was first dreamed up by his followers. He is now considered creator of the whole universe, which most educated people accept is mind-bogglingly huge and full of countless stars and galaxies. Architect of the entire cosmos - that's quite a trip from the genocidal, homophobic and jealous Old Testament god who gleefully encouraged his minions to rape and murder. But some folk still hanker after the vengeful deity of old, a deity which has always showed an inordinate and unhealthy interest in what his finest creations do with their genitalia. The attendees of the Global Anglican Futures conference (GAFCON), a bunch of bishops and archbishops set on a path of schism from the rest of the Anglican Communion, thunder that homosexual acts are unnatural and that sex between humans is solely for breeding. This ignores the fact that other of their god's creations such as bonobos and dolphins use sex not just for reproduction but as a form of social interaction and, it would appear, sometimes solely for gratification.

That the ranting against homosexual acts is led by bishops largely from Africa adds a cultural dimension as homophobia there is widespread and often state-backed. It follows that god, a creation of his own followers, will share their cultural prejudices and this is what we mainly see here. (Read this piece by Rod Liddle from 2003 - it could have been penned yesterday.) It is a truism that believers cherry pick the laws in their holy books and this is a fine example, for 80 would bet not one of these bishops follows every rule laid down in scripture. They just choose the stuff that fits in with their pre-existing prejudices and cultural biases, which include condemnation not only of homosexuality but also rejection of the equality of women. When there is so much unfairness and cruelty in the world it is more than a little obscene that these devotees of a supposedly loving god concentrate on gay sex and misogyny. We are told in this piece that the GAFCON "... meeting, lasting eight days and costing £2.5m, is the climax of ultimatums and summits, spanning a decade, about the ordination and consecration of gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions." What an incredible waste of time, money and effort when these people could have been doing something actually useful.

In stark contrast to these sex-obsessed primates is someone like Archbishop Desmond Tutu who has said of the "gay clergy" row "Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids - a devastating pandemic, and conflict. God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another. In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality." One Tutu is worth a whole barrel load of these other pathetic primates.

July 2nd 2008

Hitchens, Critics and Waterboarding - see here an interesting review by Max Dunbar of Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq and the Left (ed. Simon Cottee and Thomas Cushman, New York University Press, 2008) - although not all Hitchens' critics are represented. We are told "Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and many others refused to let their criticism of Hitchens be reprinted in the anthology. ‘It is a disheartening irony,’ the editors write, ‘that all the authors who refused permission are, or have been, robust defenders of free expression and the dialectical exchange of ideas.’" Surely if these criticisms are sound why should Chomsky et al not want them included? It seems very childish. Another oddity noted by the book's editors is that many of the critics who did consent to publication of their attacks on Hitchens seem to have done just that, attacked Hitchens. Not his ideas but the man himself. Which again seems very childish. Maybe there is just something about Hitchens that renders his detractors petulant.

One point on which he does take a lot of flak is his defence of the Iraq invasion (in 80's view deservedly so) but Dunbar faults the book's editors when they claim "Hitchens has not been ‘trenchant enough, at least in print, about the many failings of the Bush administration.’" and cites examples. On that subject this piece in the Guardian makes it very clear about Hitchens' stand on torture and in particular a form of torture that the Bush administration claims isn't torture at all - waterboarding. In a piece in Slate Hitchens attempted to draw a distinction between what he called techniques of "extreme interrogation" and "outright torture". When challenged on this with the suggestion he try waterboarding himself, he did just that. His description of the experience can be found here, in a piece for Vanity Fair. It includes this observation, "I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture." (As an example of the sort of attacks Hitchens attracts see this miserable piece by John Dolan for Alternet)

Creationists, Dumber Than Dirt? - Evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski has observed what New Scientist has called "A major evolutionary innovation" in Escherichia coli bacteria. After watching many generations "...sometime around the 31,500th generation, something dramatic happened in just one of the populations – the bacteria suddenly acquired the ability to metabolise citrate, a second nutrient in their culture medium that E. coli normally cannot use." This would appear to be a clear example of evolution in action and Lenski and colleagues are now working to find out exactly how this happened. New Scientist quotes Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago. "The thing I like most is it says you can get these complex traits evolving by a combination of unlikely events. That's just what creationists say can't happen."

This rankled one such creationist, Andrew Schafly, he of the laughable Conservapedia, who wrote to Lenski demanding his original data. Lenski pointed out that the data was included in the original paper. This was obviously too complicated for Schafly and he demanded the data again in more strident tones. This was too much for Lenski who crafted a wonderful and utterly withering reply, the first paragraph of which sets the tone, "I tried to be polite, civil and respectful in my reply to your first email, despite its rude tone and uninformed content. Given the continued rudeness of your second email, and the willfully ignorant and slanderous content on your website, my second response will be less polite. I expect you to post my response in its entirety; if not, I will make sure that is made publicly available through other channels"

One such channel being Ben Goldacre's Bad Science where you can read the full correspondence and compare it with the Conservapedia entry on Lenski. It is a pity in a way that Lenski's time was wasted in replying to this ignoramus but it does allow the rest of us to enjoy Lenski's barbed and utterly damning response. 80 wrote about Schafly and Conservapedia last year - see Organized Stupidity. (Talking of Bad Science, do read Goldacre's examination of the claims and qualifications of one Roger Coghill and his cellphone microwave scaremongering. Let us say that Coghill and his claims (including a novel theory about AIDS) are given the treatment they thoroughly deserve - as does the Sunday Express newspaper which is happy to unquestioningly publicize Coghill's nonsense.)

July 7th 2008

Creationists, Catholics and Crackers - creationists are not just a Christian phenomenon there are Hindu and Islamic nitwits out there as well. One of the latter is Harun Yahya aka Adnan Oktar who has produced the Atlas of Creation, a "..a huge and lavishly illustrated book" full of creationist drivel. This he has sent out to thousands of academics so that they may be convinced of his main thesis, that evolution is false. The reaction to this unsolicited book and Yahya's ideas has been interesting in that it has produced the unlikely spectacle of Richard Dawkins and Inayat Bunglawala (of the Muslim Council of Britain) singing from the same hymn sheet. Bunglawala has been conducting a dialogue with Yahya in the Guardian defending evolution, although creationism is such palpable nonsense he doesn't have to try too hard. Meanwhile Dawkins, one of the recipients of Yahya's unsolicited tome has taken it to pieces on his web site. The pictures in the Atlas of Creation have attracted particular attention, for biology professor P Z Myers has noted that, hilariously, some of the photos of insects are actually of fishing lures. Dawkins obligingly gives us a picture of one, complete with hook. Other commentators have had a field day tracking down the publications from which Yahya stole his images. The owner of this site might like to talk to Yahya about copyright. (Do take a look at this article on The myth of Science in the Quran by Adrian Reddy)

Talking of P Z Myers, he of the excellent Pharyngula blog has fallen foul of hysterical Catholics. He commented on the story of a Webster Cook, who "...says he smuggled a Eucharist, a small bread wafer that to Catholics symbolic of the Body of Christ after a priest blesses it, out of mass, didn't eat it as he was supposed to do, but instead walked with it." This has caused outrage among Catholics some of whom, forgetting the turn the other cheek spiel, sent Cook death threats. As Myers rightly points out this wafer is only a cracker - there are many things worse in the world (priestly child rape for one, more of which later) than a stolen cracker. Now a communal meal is part of many religions but it took the Catholics to turn it into some form of supernatural cannibalism through the weird doctrine of transubstantiation - so the cracker this guy stole is actually Christ's flesh to these nutjobs, hence the over-the-top reaction. (read Ophelia Benson's take on this nonsense)

A Catholic priest, Miguel Gonzalez compared Cook's "crime" to kidnapping, thus, "It is hurtful. Imagine if they kidnapped somebody and you make a plea for that individual to please return that loved one to the family." GET A GRIP, IT IS A CRACKER, NOT A PERSON. It seems in the face of such hysteria and threats Cook has now returned the cracker but the loonies of the Catholic League now have a new bogeyman - P Z Myers. In his report of the whole ridiculous affair Myers flippantly wrote "Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers? There's no way I can personally get them — my local churches have stakes prepared for me, I'm sure — but if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare."

As a result this page from the Catholic League is headlined "Minnesota Prof Pledges to Desecrate Eucharist", and the body of the piece exhorts Catholics to complain to Myers' university president - even though the remarks were made on his personal blog. Myers has since posted a piece on the escalating silliness "So far today, I have received 39 pieces of personal hate mail of varying degrees of literacy, all because I was rude to a cracker. Four of them have included death threats, a personal one day record. Thirty-four of them have demanded that I be fired. Twenty-five of them have told me to desecrate a copy of the Koran, instead, or in some similar way offend Muslims, because — in a multiplicity of ironic cluelessness — apparently only some religious icons must be protected, and I would only offend Catholics because they are all so nice that none of them would wish me harm. I even have one email that says I should be fired, that the author would like to kill me, and that I only criticize because Catholics are so gentle and kind." That's Catholics for you. (If you want to email or write in support of Myers the details are here, scroll down. Also see here and here for what Jesus and Mo make of this)

Talking of Catholics we are told here "The Catholic Church in Australia said it is reviewing allegations of sexual assault by a priest more than 20 years ago, as victims of abuse called for Pope Benedict XVI to issue an apology during his visit to Sydney." In fact Pope Ratzinger's visit to Oz should prove interesting, not just for all those that would like to annoy him and his minions (see Asking For Trouble) but also because "Australian support group Broken Rites says it has been contacted by more than 3,500 people in the past two decades complaining of church-related abuse and wants the pope to apologize during his visit." Let's see if Ratzinger will oblige. A church and congregation that gives the appearance of caring more about a magical cracker than about real, abused human beings has got a big image problem, and it is to be hoped Ratzinger's Australian bash will be a public relations disaster. It certainly won't help with the church's current financial shortfall reported here "Annual accounts published this week show the Holy See fell into the red last year, recording a loss of €9.1m (£7.25m)." Perhaps that's why the New South Wales and federal governments are footing the bill for the Catholic jamboree there next week. Check out this design competition for T-shirts "commemorating" the Pope's visit and the so-called World Youth Week. Update - "Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Australia and signalled that he intends to apologise to those who have suffered sexual abuse by clergy" quoth the Guardian, which adds "The NoToPope coalition has taken the New South Wales government to court arguing that the laws should be declared unconstitutional, after the state's solicitor-general agreed that a protester could be fined for tying a shoelace."

Judicial Idiocy - this piece in the Times tells us "..Britain's first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe"". It would be too much too ask then that Muslims confront the anti-semitism endemic in their religion/culture out of a feeling of solidarity? Of course it would. Meanwhile Britain's senior judge, Lord Phillips, has said "...he was willing to see sharia law operate in the country, so long as it did not conflict with the laws of England and Wales, or lead to the imposition of severe physical punishments." How about it conflicting with the human rights of women, who are considered of lesser worth than men in sharia? This obviously doesn't bother the judge, who according to this Guardian report "... also suggested sharia principles should be applied to marriage arrangements." The very area where women would be most vulnerable. Law lord or not, Phillips does not seem to have thought this through at all. 80 is reminded of the late, great Peter Cook's observation "Being a miner, as soon as you are too old and tired and sick and stupid to do the job properly, you have to go. Well, the very opposite applies with judges". (Read Matthew Parris' take on this. Perhaps Lord Phillips should also read this in The Spectator, Our survey shows British Muslims don’t want sharia)

A Bowdlerism Too Far? - the uptight American Family Association has recently learned the folly of allowing software do its censoring - such programs do exactly what they are told, leading to such silliness as this item. You don't have to ridicule these people; often they just do it all by themselves. (merci, Alphonse)

Asking For Trouble - sometimes the authorities in a zealous attempt to mute public comment and dissent manage the complete opposite. It looks like this may well happen in Australia. It seems that when Pope Ratzinger visits Sydney for World Youth Day the authorities are so worried about whether he and/or his minions will be "annoyed" by protesters that new laws have been passed to prevent such an occurrence. Are the authorities mad or just plain stupid? They are likely to make matters far worse - or amusing, depending on your point of view. As the Urban Jungle blog in the Sydney Morning Herald notes "..annoying people has been a great Australian tradition". The maximum fine for wearing a T-shirt deemed offensive is 5,500 dollars. One enterprising soul is already selling shirts emblazoned with "5,500 dollars -- a small price to pay for annoying Catholics". Even better, in 80's view, is the one that says "The Pope touched me Down Under". One posting to Urban Jungle sums things up nicely, "I have no objection to Catholics holding a get together. I do, however object most strongly to tax-payer funded religious events and am very annoyed at the draconian laws introduced to potentially fine me for being annoying to a pilgrim. Now more than ever before I wish to be as annoying as possible." The cost of World Youth Day is likely to be in the order of $150m but could rise. So, all eyes on Sydney over the July 15-20 period - this should be interesting. (For more on the inaccurately named World Youth Day and local reaction see this piece from Humanist Network News)

Islam's Misogyny - this news item tells us "Women in a northern Malaysian city ruled by conservative Islamists are being urged by the city's authorities to forsake bright lipstick and noisy high-heels "to preserve their dignity and avoid rape"" Of course any woman in heels and lipstick is asking for it - how can any poor would-be rapist stand a chance under such wanton, lascivious provocation? Instead of "protecting" women in this way why not make the men, who apparently lack any kind of self control, wear chastity belts?

July 18th 2008

Something For The Weekend - as an antidote to the tedious and pathetic bickering within the Anglican Communion as it tries to cope with gays and women and that old ghoul Ratzinger in Australia apologizing once again for the child rapes perpetrated by his priests let's look at some good (and free) stuff instead. First up is Pat Condell, whose You Tube page now boasts 42 videos - and everyone a winner, including his latest offering A secular world is a sane world. Update - That Pat's a prolific bugger. Here is his latest, Islam is not a victim. For those who would like some sense and humor on their iPod Pat's stuff is also now available in MP3 format here. Fridays herald the arrival of two items that are well worth a moment of your time, James Randi's Swift newsletter and the weekly Newsline from the National Secular Society (NSS). Randi should be classified as an international treasure and in this week's Swift he is on fine form, taking aim at faith healers, psychics and other fantasists, liars and con-artists. A link to the latest Swift is always to be found in the sidebar of this page.

You can sign up for the free NSS Newsline here to receive news from the front line in the battle against ever more religious privilege. The Newsline intro sums things up thus " Do you believe that religion should be separate from the state? That everyone should be equal and that human rights should trump religious privilege? Do you want the right for everyone to be free to worship according to their conscience and also be free not to worship at all? Do you believe that schools, hospitals and social services should be neutral spaces that deliver their services without discrimination on grounds of religion? Then if you are not already a member, please join the National Secular Society today. Go to www.secularism.org.uk and sign up securely on-line."

The latest Indiana Jones movie involves a race to keep a crystal skull with supernatural powers out of the hands of the evil Soviets. The creators of the series are keen on such artifacts with previous outings featuring the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. Unlike these last two crystal skulls do actually exist in various museums and collections around the world but where do they come from, and how were they fashioned? All is revealed at the Bad Archaeology web site, a treasure trove of information concerning cult/pseudo-archaeology from Hancock to von Daniken to Zecharia Sitchin. Learn the facts behind the Jesus Family Tomb and learn just how real is the Priory of Sion of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail fame. A word of warning about this site - if you are anything like 80 you will be there for ages. The Freethinker magazine started in 1881 and is still going strong - do take a look at the web site which is full of interesting stuff and if you like what you see, subscribe to receive "..a refreshing dose of irreligion, blasphemy, and atheist polemic through your door every month". Finally, do check out the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) courtesy of NASA. The archive is replete with not only astounding astronomical images such as this of spiral galaxy NG 7331 and beyond but also beautiful pictures of the night sky from earthly locations - see this image of the full moon and Jupiter in the skies above ancient Ephesus and this of a Comet Between Fireworks and Lightning. Beautiful and more awesome than a barrel load of gods....

Still Annoying - the "don't annoy the catholics" law has been overturned by a federal court in Australia on free speech grounds, which is a step in the right direction. Only a step though, as this news item confirms "...judges dismissed other parts of the challenge mounted by the NoToPope Coalition, ruling that a clause banning the sale of items such as provocative T-shirts did not infringe upon the right to free political communication." Meanwhile the provocative T-shirt competition continues... Update - one industry in the area is rubbing its metaphorical hands together in the hope of a business boost from all those "pilgrims" - the sex industry. "The Eros Association, Australia's adult industry group, said sex shops and brothels across Sydney are expecting "huge turnover" during World Youth Day. "We know the kind of people who visit prostitutes and adult shops, many of them do it because of their own personal repression," Eros spokesman Robbie Swan told AFP. "And often it's because of religion.""

A Singularly Unimpressive Ghost - the Telegraph reports that "The spirit of a dead soldier from the Battle of Naseby has supposedly been captured on film by a group of paranormal enthusiasts." It seems The Northampton Paranormal Group were visiting the English Civil War battlefield on the 363rd anniversary of the conflict when "..they heard clunking noises as well as sounds like cannonball fire." It was only later when looking through pictures they had taken "...they spotted what appeared to be mysterious figure walking out of the dark carrying something in its hands." The picture published in the Telegraph shows no such thing - the area helpfully highlighted shows nothing out of the ordinary. It would have been better if the paper published the photo un-highlighted and then asked readers if they could see anything unusual. Even the leader of the paranormal group seems unsure of the actual detail of the claimed apparition - "We’re saying that it’s a soldier. Some people can see it sitting on a horse and some people just see it as a walking soldier." So, it is either someone sitting astride a large quadruped or just someone walking. Oh yeah, very impressive - more pareidolia. Another comment is from Adrian Perkin, a self-styled 'ghost detective', who says "If this is genuine it’s a very, very, good example. It’s the best I have seen for many years." All one can say is if this crap picture is the best he has seen in years he must have abysmally low standards. As has, at least in this instance, the Telegraph. (For more on the real, earthbound Battle of Naseby see here)

Lourdes Lucre - the moneymakers of Lourdes who peddle tawdry trash to gullible pilgrims are worried that their takings will be diminished by the news that Fr Raymond Zambelli, the priest in charge of the shrine, is accused of being on the fiddle - to the tune of £360,000 ($716000). Zambelli claims the money in his personal account"...was a donation from an ageing worshipper." (This is reminiscent of Father Ted and the money that was "resting" in his account. Does Craggy Island beckon for Zambelli?) This is not the only source of trouble for Lourdes, for in the light of modern medicine the cure rate for the holy place is mediocre. The Skeptic's Dictionary informs us that since the founding of the shrine "..the Church has validated 67 miracles at Lourdes (of the thousands that have been reported).." It is estimated that in recent years about 5 million pilgrims a year visit the shrine at Lourdes. Over the past 150 years, some 200 million people have made the pilgrimage. For those who care, that's a success rate of .0000335% or 1 out of every 3 million." The church, in a ploy known as "moving the goalposts" wants to alter the rules and in this lovely turn of phrase from a Guardian report, "...is considering a new category of religious experience: "miracle lite"." It is obvious that Lourdes' reputation rests on very little in the way of cures and certainly never anything truly impressive like regenerating the limbs of amputees.

But the reputation of the shrine does receive a boost from uncritical reporting of the healing claims. Jason Burke, writing in the Observer about the Zambelli affair does exactly this in the penultimate paragraph, where we are informed "Liam McGovern, 37, a former boxer from Ireland, had come to Lourdes with his mother to fulfil a promise made after he recovered from stomach cancer after visiting the shrine last year." Questions unasked are a) How firm was this man's diagnosis? b) Was he receiving conventional treatment such as chemotherapy/radiotherapy and couldn't this be responsible? c) If this was some kind of spontaneous remission caused by god why doesn't he do it for all cancer sufferers? According to religionists he certainly has the power. McGovern himself, quoted in the last paragraph, says "There is something here that is real. A lot of people talk about this being a racket, but that doesn't change my faith. When your back is against the wall, like mine was, you have to talk to the man up above. And sometimes he answers." The question left hanging is why does the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent deity only answer "sometimes" and not all the time?

Santas' Schism - it would seem that it is not only the Anglican Communion that is tearing itself apart in internecine war. This bunch seem far from jolly. You really cannot make this stuff up.

July 24th 2008

Alternative Medicine - is neither. There is only medicine that works - the rest is either delusory or an outright con. Richard Dawkins defines so-called Alternative/Complementary Medicine (sCAM) as a "...set of practices which cannot be tested, refuse to be tested, or consistently fail tests. If a healing technique is demonstrated to have curative properties in properly controlled double-blind trials, it ceases to be alternative. It simply...becomes medicine." This was brought home to 80 in recent correspondence with a believer in homeopathy who wrote "Since homoeopathy works on an individual basis rahter (sic) than a morbocentric one it is not amenable to double blind trials". Which is effectively saying that the treatment works - except when you subject it to the kind of testing all pharmaceuticals have to undergo. (By the way, 80's correspondent defines morbocentric as "..a system of medicine that is disease centred rather tha (sic) health centred". It sounds like one of those words such as "allopathy" which only seems to be used by quacks. Quackery is the subject of a piece in the Guardian by Rose Shapiro drawing parallels between the recently captured Radovan Karadzic, his time spent as an "alternative healer" and the general world of quackery. While 80 views all sCAM with a jaundiced eye this goes perhaps too far. One could say that Hitler was a vegetarian therefore all vegetarians are megalomaniacs. This point is well made by the Respectful Insolence blog. This is not to say the rest of Shapiro's article on sCAM is not worth reading - it very definitely is.

UFOs - seem to be in the news once again after a rash of "sightings" in the UK, Canada and elsewhere. In the UK at least these may have been triggered by the release by the Ministry of Defence of UFO reports - needless to say they appear to be the same old unverifiable stuff (do see these pictures). One recent account from Wales even has the Moon being mistaken for a UFO - one wonders what the observer had been smoking. In fact Wales is claimed to be a bit of a UFO hotspot but there is help at hand for those fearing abduction. Michael Menkin, described as a US aircraft worker, "...suggests his specially-designed helmet prevents abductions by aliens because it blocks their attempts to communicate telepathically with humans." Menkin's web site, Stop Alien Abductions, displays these items and claims great success in stopping abductions. Well, sometimes things don't work out for we are told "A fourth failure was with a frail woman who had her helmet removed by two alien-human hybrids who snuck up behind her, tackled her and forcedly removed it. The helmet still works for people being abducted by aliens, but not by their alien-human hybrids who are now integrating into our societies." Faith in Menken's ideas is not bolstered when you read his inspiration for his helmets - the 1930s Lensman stories by E E "Doc" Smith. (If you see a UFO don't forget to tell National UFO Reporting, the trainspotters of the UFO world)

Adding to the atmosphere of lunacy is Apollo astronaut and moonwalker Ed Mitchell, who has long been a fan of telepathy and other paranormal hogwash. In a recent interview he leaps from a statement that 80 finds not unreasonable, "There’s not much question at all that there is life throughout the universe. I’m totally sure we are not alone.” to claiming "...that we have been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomenon is real - though it’s been covered up by governments for the last 60 years or so." The evidence for such a conclusion is conpicuous by its absence. In all the quoted 60 years no one has come up with any convincing proof of alien craft and ET visitors, and the idea that successive administrations have managed to keep the whole thing secret for so many years is just not credible, if only on the grounds of government incompetence. (For an excellent study of the UFO phenomenon see the archives of the late Philip J Klass, The Klass Files. Also see Saucers Go Triangular from Number 80 back in 2004)

A Miracle You Can Get your Teeth Into - although the meat served in a northern Nigerian restaurant looks pretty unpalatable it does have another use - as spiritual nourishment. According to this piece (thanks Deborah) from BBC News "Diners have been flocking to a restaurant in northern Nigeria to see pieces of meat which the owner says are inscribed with the name of Allah." It seems some of the beef served there has, to the eye of faith, the word Allah spelt out in gristle. Gristle - not really the first medium that springs to mind when thinking about messages from a deity. The restaurant owner, Kabiru Haliru, said "When the writings were discovered there were some Islamic scholars who come and eat here and they all commented that it was a sign to show that Islam is the only true religion for mankind." (or that the restaurant needs to find a better meat supply). This is only the latest instance of deities communicating via foodstuffs, see the Holy Tomato and The Miracle of Saint Rorschach)

Dark Bishop of the Sith - Nice shot here for Christians and Star Wars fans from the Register.

July 31st 2008

Volte Face - sometimes one reads something in the middle or end of a piece that, at a stroke, renders previous statements void, or at least forces them to be seen in a very different light. This happened today while reading an article in the Guardian about lithium, an element vital for the production of advanced batteries, particularly for automobile use. Several experts are quoted giving varying estimates of how much of this vital element there is on the Earth and how much can be economically extracted. Of those quoted by far the most pessimistic is a man called William Tahil who predicted "...two years ago that demand for lithium in cars would outpace supply." 80 has no real knowledge of the subject but by the end of the article felt sure that Tahil's statements were hogwash. Why? Because in an ensuing paragraph Tahil is also described as "...claiming that the World Trade Center was felled by underground nuclear explosions". Whether he is right or not about the lithium 80 cannot tell, but any credibility Tahil may have appeared to possess just flew straight out of the window. All that remains is puzzlement at why the writer of the piece bothered to include Tahil's contribution in the first place, except possibly in pursuit of journalism's current (and often misguided) obsession with "balance".

A Star Is Not Born - nor will it be. A short while back 80 mentioned the excellent Universe Today web site and newsletter (helmed by Fraser Cain) and in particular an article by Ian O'Neill debunking the 2012 Mayan Prophecy hokum. Now O'Neill looks at something that had slipped under 80's radar completely. It seems that some folk are worried that the plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft, currently surveying the beringed gas giant Saturn and its attendant moons, will cause a cataclysm at the end of its mission. O'Neill takes up the story "NASA (in association with secret organizations, such as the Illuminati or the Freemasons) wants to use this plutonium for a "higher purpose", dropping Cassini deep into Saturn at the end of its mission where atmospheric pressures will be so large that it will compress the probe, detonating like a nuclear bomb. What's more, this will trigger a chain reaction, kick-starting nuclear fusion, turning Saturn into a fireball. This is what has become known as The Lucifer Project." The aim of which is to enable the founding of new civilization on a now habitable Titan orbiting a newly stellar Saturn. To 80 this sounds like someone has been dropping acid whilst reading Arthur C Clarke's 2010, in which the mysterious monolith does a similar trick and ignites Jupiter. So Project Lucifer is, apart from anything else, is far from original. Read O'Neill's meticulous dissection of the whole farrago of nonsense, it's good stuff - and this is only part one of the article. For the latest Space News and articles and lively discussions of the topics raised sign up to receive the free Universe Today newsletter or click the link in the sidebar of this page. Update - the second part of O'Neill's article on Project Lucifer is now available here)

Dias' Diagnostic Drivel - a Roman Catholic cardinal, one Ivan Dias, has made some observations on the Anglican Communion's difficulties over gays and women currently being aired at the Lambeth conference. He is reported in the Times as having "...suggested that the Anglican Church may be “suffering from spiritual Alzheimer’s”" He went to add "...that perhaps the Anglican Communion had “ecclesiastical Parkinson’s”. Apart from these cod diagnoses the cardinal, boss of the Vatican’s Congregation for Evangelisation and a pal of Ratzinger himself, has also offered some loony observations on secularism, which he views as "in combat" with the church.

Here he reveals the dark world that he and his kind inhabit, a world quite as nutty as that of the most fanatical conspiracy theorist, "This combat rages fiercely even today, aided and abetted by secret sects, satanic groups and New Age movements, to mention but a few, and reveals many ugly heads of the hideous antiGod monster: among them are notoriously secularism, which seeks to build a godless society; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the gospel." My, what a load of paranoid nonsense, however it does help with the diagnosis of Dias' own problem, which is surely that he suffers from verbal dysentery.

Desperate Measures - the Times today illustrates how desperate the church is to fill pews - instead of trying to get the dupes/faithful to come to church why not take the church to the flock? "Sunbathers wishing to attend a Sunday service without the bother of getting dressed were offered an alternative form of religious experience yesterday: an inflatable church on the beach." This has not been met with approval by traditionalists and perhaps not even with god, for we are told "Yesterday the structure had to be deflated hastily because of a strong mistral that threatened to lift it into the sky". You can just imagine the UFO report that would generate. At least if the blow-up church springs a leak there will no shortage of hot air from the pulpit to inflate the thing.

August 6th 2008

Eco-nonsense - once again the secularists are being badmouthed, and as usual, the accusation levelled at them entirely lacks supporting evidence. In a rather odd piece in the Guardian, Nick Reeves, of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, writes about the role religious groups can play in addressing climate change. Reeves approvingly quotes an Archbishop Bartholomew on where the responsibility lies "We are all culpable. Each one of us has a smaller or greater contribution to the deliberate degradation of nature." If this is the case you have to wonder why in a subsequent paragraph Reeves paraphrases the archbishop, saying "... cohorts of secularists continue to pursue greedy and harmful lifestyles believing that techno-fix solutions alone will be our salvation." What a load of codswallop.

A secularist is someone who believes that religion should play no part in government and should receive no special privileges from the state, in other words secularists believe there should be a wall between "church and state". Secularists themselves can have religious faith or none, so why does Reeves (and the archbishop) seem to portray them as otherwise? Is it just ignorance? Are secularists really more likely to damage the environment? Of course not. If, as Archbishop Bartholomew says, "we are all culpable" surely that means secularists and everybody else. The major threats such as global climate change, pollution, epidemics, habitat devastation and resource depletion, the "degradation of nature", have the same root cause, human overpopulation. All the while faith groups (including Bartholomew's) oppose birth control to talk of them making any meaningful contribution to combatting climate change is just wishful thinking. "Be fruitful and multiply" and "Marry and procreate" may have been acceptable commandments in the 1st century and the early middle ages but they have become a recipe for disaster in the 21st century. Religions, with immutable, god-given rules rooted in humanity's infancy, are poorly equipped to deal with the future and the novel challenges with which we are all faced. (Also see the Optimum Population Trust and Population and the Environment: The Global Challenge)

'Tis the Voice of the Bigot - in a depressing act of appeasement the South Wales Echo has withdrawn an article by Dan O'Neill which, quite reasonably in 80's view, asked the question "If God considers gays an abomination, why did he create them?". The group that complained to the paper so successfully will be familiar to readers of these pages, Christian Voice, run by the ultra-bigoted Stephen Green. O'Neill's article was not only withdrawn but the paper has actually apologized. For information on Green and his gang of fundamentalist nitwits see ...And Now The Happy News. Fortunately O'Neill's piece has been republished here, courtesy of the Humanist Society Scotland. You will see that it is not a great piece of journalism but hardly one that should be buried because it offended Green and chums - what in the modern world doesn't upset these throwbacks?

Once again Green has demonstrated what a dismayingly ignorant little man he is. You would think his time would be taken up raising money to pay the legal costs of his last ignominious defeat, not spent harrassing a local paper. Should you wish to register your disgust there is a petition available here set up by The Freethinker, signing it will only take a minute and it may help the South Wales Echo realize that self-censorship in the face of complaints from such a group as Christian Voice undermines freedom of speech. Perhaps the editor of the paper should take a look at the Christian Voice web site and the vile rants of Green then decide which is more offensive, O'Neill's piece or Green's disgusting and cruel comments on the New Orleans Katrina disaster. (See Cynical Dragon and The Freethinker for more details on the South Wales Echo's shameful cave-in)

Kermit of Nazareth? - not necessarily. The tranquility of Pope Ratzinger's summer break in Northern Italy is being zealously guarded by his flock, which has taken action against a nearby museum. According to this item in the Times "Local Catholics have complained to the police that the work by the German artist Martin Kippenberger, on show at the Bolzano Museum of Modern Art, is a "public obscenity". It depicts a bright green frog with its tongue hanging out, nailed to a cross, with a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in the other." Quite why these clods associate the crucified frog with their likely mythical godman is not revealed to us. Many thousands of real, flesh and blood people have suffered this appalling punishment.

True, their god was certainly weird enough to dream up a plan for executing his own son but it is not thought he actually invented crucifixion, which had been in use for hundreds of years before and after the supposed time of Jesus. This whole story is an illustration of the ignorance of Ratzinger's flock, which automatically assumes any representation of crucifixion is a comment on the Passion fable. The museum authorities have now moved the frog to a less prominent position, but so far have refused to withdraw it from display. They have said "...the work was not an attack on Christianity but rather a reflection of the artist's “state of profound crisis” at the time." No doubt Kippenberger had just seen the movie Spartacus and was deeply moved...

Catawa and Muttawa - Saudi Arabia's religious police force, the Muttawa, are in the news again. Stories about these bastards seem to veer from the horrific to the ridiculous. In 2002 these "lawmen" caused the death of at least 14 schoolgirls in a blaze at a school. They obstructed rescue efforts on the grounds the girls were not dressed in accordance with Saudi dress codes (ie wearing black tents). Civil Defense officers later reported, "Whenever the girls got out through the main gate, these people forced them to return via another. Instead of extending a helping hand for the rescue work, they were using their hands to beat us." Scum like these religious cops are beneath contempt - but they are also prime targets for ridicule. 80 wrote about their bizarre campaign against Barbie dolls back in 2003 (see Barbie in Bondage) suggesting that any dolls confiscated were, far from being destroyed, added to their own illicit collection. Now these pillars of Islamic righteousness have a new target, dogs and cats on the grounds that men are "...using them as a means of making passes at women..". You can just see the Saudi would-be Romeos sidling up to some cat-owning, black-draped temptress and uttering the immortal pick-up line, "My, that's a nice pussy you have there."

August 8th 2008

A Sock Puppet Speaks - In a piece in Indyweek.com on the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences 80 was interested to read Brian Howe's account of the finding of the scrolls and the speculations over their origin(s). Regular readers will know 80 has covered the scandal of the partisan exhibition of these fascinating documents mounted by the San Diego Natural History Museum and the efforts of Charles Gadda in drawing attention to many worrying features of that display. Howe's piece refers to that controversy which now affects the North Carolina exhibition, "..modern viewers have the opportunity to consider their meaning and provenance for themselves, albeit through the lens of the controversy that surrounds their interpretation." He goes on to say "Regardless of the controversy surrounding the exhibit, which we'll address shortly, the presentation is quite impressive." As promised he then mentions "Other scholars have criticized de Vaux's popular interpretation for being scientifically tenuous and biased toward a Christian interpretation, maintaining that Qumran was not an ascetic Essene settlement, but a military base, pottery factory or country estate."

The de Vaux referred to is Father Roland de Vaux, a French Dominican priest and director of the Ecole Biblique, a theological school. His team undertook the first excavation of Khirbet Qumran, a site which he and others have linked to the scrolls and a sect called the Essenes. De Vaux went so far as to suggest the scrolls were produced at Qumran in some kind of proto-monastic settlement. Such an interpretation has more to do with de Vaux's faith and imagination rather than concrete evidence. Then something strange happens to Howe's article - several lines have been struck out, although they remain readable and a link within the lines still functions. This section is followed in parentheses by the words (please see Editor's Note below). The note informs us "In the course of attempting to provide more resources about the ongoing scholarly uncertainty about the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we inadvertently stepped into an obscure controversy that we are ill-equipped to adjudicate. As a result, the writer and editors of this story have decided to strike through the controversial link that accompanied the original version of this story".

The struck out lines refer to critics of the way the scrolls have been exhibited, "...whose complaints are best summarized in Robert Dworkin's essay "The Ethics of Exhibition: Romancing the Scrolls," originally posted on the Web site Spinoza's Lens and now moved to Dworkin's blog: robertdworkin.wordpress.com" 80 clicked through to Dworkin's page to find what appears to a succinct and accurate summary of the controversy, including a quote from 80. Now this is pure speculation on 80's part but one feels that the editor of Indyweek.com, David Fellerath, for some reason was compelled to strike out the lines but decided to do so in such a way as to leave them readable and the link therein functional. The effect of this has merely served to draw attention to Dworkin's piece as surely any curious reader, including myself, will wish to know why the piece was edited in this unusual way. Before and after this editorial intervention Howe does state quite clearly "...critics of it ... contend that the exhibition excludes Jewish perspective on the scrolls in favor of a Christian one and mischaracterizes current research on the scrolls' provenance." He continues "And it does seem true that the exhibition, while paying lip service to the controversy over the nature of Qumran, gives the secular interpretation short shrift." and further states "Whether this owes to a bias in the museum's administration or to an inherent weakness in the opposition's argument depends on whom you ask—the competing claims are immersed so deeply in ideological cant and esoteric research that the layperson has little hope of objectively picking a side."

That latter part of that sentence is, in 80's view innaccurate, for any sufficiently interested observer can read about the different interpretations and learn enough to form an opinion. It is interesting that something that is described as "esoteric research" can arise so much ire in some quarters. Take a look at the comments posted below Howe's article to find a similar, if not the same, pack of angry correspondents that infected the discussion of this subject on the Internet Infidels web site and comments on pieces by Charles Gadda on the NowPublic site. Once again appears the strange accusation that those who question the "traditional" interpretation are all facets of some master mind - the term "sock puppet" is used, a term that has been aimed at 80 before by these Scrolls partisans. These somewhat paranoid accusations certainly achieve one thing - they demonstrate the poverty of the arguments of these "traditional" supporters. To launch into ad hominem attacks on Gadda and Dworkin is surely a sign of intellectual inadequacy verging on infantilism. Some of the insults and accusations would not be out of place in a school playground. Such petulant behavior and name-calling has no place in a serious discussion and betrays an emotional rather than intellectual involvement. (For more background on this strange affair see Why don't you take your anti-Christian junk someplace else? and Scrolls of Dishonor, Scrolling Along, Faith-Based Reality and Objective Obfuscate With reference to criticisms of the North Carolina exhibition see Dead Sea Scrolls in Raleigh) Update - read here a piece by Charles Gadda on a scrolls exhibition in New York that will present a more balanced picture of current theories. UPDATE -See this important update to the story of "Charles Gadda" and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Genius of Charles Darwin - for those folk who are unable to watch the UK Channel 4 TV station which has been airing Richard Dawkins' excellent The Genius of Charles Darwin there is good news. Parts one and two are available from the Richard Dawkins.net website in the form of You Tube links and downloadable Quicktime videos, each of around 145 MB. If you, like 80, will not have Apple's Quicktime player on your computer there are two good alternatives. One is rather obviously named Quicktime Alternative and the other is the VLC player. The latter so far has played every video format 80 has thrown at it.

McCain Revelation - don't noise this about but 80 has it on good authority that John McCain is the Antichrist. The good authority, according to reporter Robert Dreyfuss, is the True Bible Society of Colorado Springs. (What's the betting their "True Bible" is the Authorized King James Version? For such types it usually is) True to form this bunch believes the "end times" are near (aren't they always?) and by scrabbling around in the hallucinatory ravings known to the faithful as the Book of Revelation they have proved, at least to their own satisfaction, that McCain is the bad guy to end all bad guys. It all hinges around the city of Babylon which many understand, at least in the Book of Revelation, to stand for imperial Rome. But to these scholars sometimes Babylon actually means Babylon - as, in the phrase attributed to that crackpot Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And the connection? According to one David Jenkins, described as a "biblical scholar", because McCain "...has declared his intention to maintain US forces in Iraq for a hundred years that means that McCain wants to control Babylon for at least a century.” Got that? There's more, do try and keep up. In common with many end times ~~nutters~~ scholars Jenkins believes that "...the End Times is near, based on the pattern of wars, earthquakes. and other strange phenomena we’ve been witnessing since the start of the New Millennium."

So all the wars, earthquakes etc before the "New Millenium" don't count apparently. Why? Perhaps because they didn't occur in a pattern - though quite what form that pattern takes is not explained. But surely the Antichrist was Saddam/Hitler/Stalin (insert name of megalomaniac here)? No, they are only the Antichrist until they die and then it all turns out to be a mistake and the "real" one is found, which, in this case, is McCain. Robert Dreyfuss encapsulates the "logic" involved thus, "Until 2003, many Christians believed that Saddam Hussein might be the Antichrist, since he started excavations to restore Babylon in the mid 1970s. But Hussein’s death meant that the Antichrist is someone else. Since Obama wants to get out of Iraq, he can’t be the Antichrist either.." So, bingo! It must be McCain. But here comes the clincher - "..genealogical research showed that McCain’s great-grandfather was actually not John McCain, but John Mihai. Mihai is an ancient Romanian name, and according to Bible-believing Christians, the Antichrist is likely to be a Romanian." What's more "...the name Mihai means ‘who is like the Lord,’” said Jenkins. “As far as we’re concerned, that was enough. It means that McCain might easily pretend to be the Redeemer.” See, irrefutable! Well, not really. The intellectual giants over at Rapture Ready are more savvy - they know there have been plenty of others put into the Antichrist frame and they even supply a list. There you will find the usual suspects such as Nero, Aleister Crowley, Hitler and Stalin but there are also a few surprises, including Bill Clinton, Barney the Dinosaur and Prince Wingnut himself, Charlie Windsor. 80's money is still on Dick Cheney. (The full report from the True Bible Society is to be published in next month's End Times Journal - 80 can hardly wait.)

Women "Equal" in Sharia? - the headline in the Telegraph says it all - "New Sharia law marriage contract gives Muslim women rights". So what? Under the law of this country they have equal rights anyway, so just what is the big deal? The law in the UK is not sharia and protects men and women equally - just because some archaic form of religious law has managed to be partially dragged into the present day it is hardly a cause for celebration. It is the height of condescension to belatedly bestow rights on Muslim women, rights that already existed under UK law. Sharia, in any form, is unnecessary, you live in the UK you abide by the same laws that govern everyone else. Also worth remembering is that as Islam has no central authority there is no guarantee that such "revolutionary" rights will be accepted by the bearded old men that administer sharia anyway.

August 20th 2008

Department of the Bleeding Obvious - the newspapers are full of the story of the bigfoot/sasquatch corpse that turned out to be a fake - is there any other kind? It seems two American hunters tried to pull off a hoax with a picture of a bigfoot body in a freezer, a picture they posted on the web. Unconvincing though it looked a bigfoot "researcher" called Tom Biscardi travelled to meet the discoverers. In fact he handed over an "undisclosed sum" in order to take possession of "...a freezer with something appearing large, hairy, and frozen in ice". As the object thawed it became obvious the sasquatch was a "rubber gorilla suit". The hunters apparently admitted to the fake and agreed to sign a statement of admission but then didn't turn up to an arranged meeting. The whereabouts of the pair are not currently known. The same goes for Biscardi's money, $50,000 according to James Randi - see Hairy Chap in the News Again.

Meanwhile, Sasquatch's possible cousin, the yeti or Abominable Snowman is fast becoming history in its old range of Bhutan, a remote Himalayan kingdom. While the older generation tell of this mysterious creature a newer one has no time for such things, as this young road-builder put it "What is there to say? There's nothing out there in the forest. Any educated person today knows this." Not all of them - Japanese decorator Yoshiteru Takahashi, 65 is about to set off on his fifth expedition to look for the yeti in Nepal. Takahashi, who is taking high tech equipment, claims to have seen a group of three yetis on his last visit to Nepal in 2003 but says bad light precluded photographing them. He reckons "The ones that I saw were small, around 85 cm tall, but it was getting dark and it was difficult to see them properly. I don't know what they are, but they appear to be some sort of hybrid of chimp or orangutang without a tail." Despite the fact that orangutans do not have tails this is at least slightly more believable than claims that a breeding population of Sasquatch are living in the USA alongside human beings and yet not once have any hairs or droppings proved their existence. (If you would like to track down Bigfoot read this Skeptical Inquirer review of The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide)

Heard It Before? - this article tells us of the conclusions reported by British statistician Kenneth Mitchell, namely that "..athletes born in certain months were more likely to thrive in particular events." He has dubbed this the Pisces Effect, not because it sounds fishy (although it does) but because he found "... that athletes born under the sign received around 30 percent more medals than any other star sign in events like swimming and water polo." (Fish, water! Geddit?) Although surprised by his results, which incidentally match successful fencers to Scorpio, (Sting, stab! Geddit?) Mitchell claims they are conclusive. 80 is not one to doubt Mitchell's ability as a statistician but it is reasonable to doubt his conclusions. Correlation does not imply causation. What would be the mechanism? It is instructive to read about French psychologist Michel Gauquelin who claimed to have found a "Mars Effect" which meant that ".. when Mars is in certain sectors of the sky great athletes are born in numbers indicative of a non-chance correlation." Gauquelin's results do not hold up under scrutiny. Not that this necessarily means Mitchell is barking up the wrong tree but his methodology could do with some independent checking. (See here for A Brief Chronology of the "Mars Effect" Controversy)

The Tyranny of Scripture - is the latest offering from Pat Condell and highly recommended. Sick of clods who think quoting scripture is the equivalent of rational argumentation? So is Pat. All 44 of his videos can be found here on You Tube and over 30 of them are available on DVD from RichardDawkins.net

“Pat Condell is unique. Nobody can match his extraordinary blend of suavity and savagery. With his articulate intelligence he runs rings around the religious wingnuts that are the targets of his merciless humour. Thank goodness he is on our side.” - Richard Dawkins

Sports News - in keeping with the sporting atmosphere of the Olympics here are a couple of items, one old and one new. The new one is a report in The Age that Jesus apparently played cricket (although the accompanying picture of the Christian godman looks more like a pacemaker ad.) We are informed that Dr Abraham Terian, recently a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Humanities has found this information in a very late gospel, the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy. This would appear to be one of the genre that fills in the "missing" years of Jesus' childhood, the bit between infancy and preaching. The only reference in the canonical gospels to this period is in Luke and so others have stepped in to fill the gap. Note that the canonical gospels have no more authenticity than any of the others - they were all written long after the supposed period they describe and seem, in the main, to be constructed from biblical "prophecies". Many of these prophecies are in fact re-interpretations of verses, parts of verses and amalgamations of unrelated phrases from what we know as the Old Testament, making them prophetic when in fact they described contemporary events. (See here for a list of gospels - the number may well surprise you.)

Another infancy gospel makes no mention of cricket but does describe the young Jesus' other activities, such as animating clay models of "...asses, oxen, birds, and other figures". It also tells us that this superbeing was a dud at his dad's profession of carpentry and used his magic powers rather than tools to shape the wood. This might well be how he made his cricket bat. It is not vouchsafed to us how good he was at the sport although it would seem he was a bit of an exhibitionist, "He (Jesus) would take the boys to the seashore and, carrying the playing ball and the club, he would go over the waves of the sea as though he was playing on a frozen surface, hitting the playing ball. And watching him, the boys would scream and say: 'Watch the child Jesus, what he does over the waves of the sea!' Many would gather there and, watching him, would be amazed.'"

This site, which 80 has looked at before, should appeal to those Christians of a sporting inclination. Catholic Shopper offers little statues of the Naz playing various sports with young children, including " Baseball, Football, Soccer...." As this is an American site they can be forgiven for omitting cricket. Among these bizarre little figurines is a ballet dancing one, which to 80's jaundiced eye looks more than a little creepy, featuring the white-robed celibate preacher cavorting with young girls in tutus, and one where JC is hands-on with some young female gymnasts. This again looks somewhat disturbing, especially taking into account the known proclivities of a number of priests. On which note do read Mark Morford on guidelines for priests on what behavior is appropriate with young children and what is now verboten, including "..bear hugs, lap-sitting and piggyback rides" Oh, and look out for God's Little Cherub.

August 22nd 2008

Cock Fighting - The latest round of violence in Kashmir has erupted over a Hindu shrine in a cave called Amarnath. The shrine is hard to reach at 4000 meters above sea level and so the government decided more temporary shelters were required for the pilgrims. The Muslims in the area claimed this was merely an attempt to start Hindu settlements in a Muslim region. The government reversed its decision only to fall foul of hardline Hindus, who saw this as a climbdown. Since then things, as so often in this area, deteriorated into protests and violence. This article from Time supplies some of the background to the shrine dispute, telling us that shrine is "...a natural cave called Amarnath, where stalagmites form during the summer months. Devout Hindus believe this cave to be one of the holiest sites of their religion, and that the largest of the ice formations is a Shiva Lingam, the symbol of Lord Shiva. Hindu mythology has it that Shiva — the destroyer in the Hindu Trinity that includes Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver — imparted the secrets of creation to his consort, Parvati, in Amarnath." The Time article skirts around the subject but the stalagmite called the Shiva Lingam is considered to be phallic. So, let's get this straight, people are fighting and dying over a geological formation that looks like a penis. Of course there are many reasons for the unrest in Kashmir, and this latest incident is one of many but, as happens depressingly often, it is religion that provides a flashpoint, a focus for the violence.

Blame the Women - Another kind of violence is religion's attack on human rights - or more particularly that portion of humanity which happens to be female. This is most associated with the three "abrahamic" religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. To many westerners the most obvious manifestation of this is the position of women in Islamic society, where they are judged to be of less worth than a man. They are also to blame for men's lust - let's face it in a patriarchal religion run by blokes for blokes any other outcome is pretty unlikely. These guys are not going to blame themselves. The reason that many Islamic countries insist on women being draped from head to toe is to stop them from arousing the men around them - never mind the men actually getting a grip and behaving like civilized people. Does covering women up rather than civilizing men actually work? Not according to this item from the Washington Post about Egypt, where women are being pressured to cover up. Far from decreasing instances of molestation things are actually getting worse. A Egyptian social commentator Mona Eltahawy has said "The more women veil the less men learn to behave as decent and civilized members of society." In fact, the Post tells us "Female travelers consider Egypt one of the worst countries in the world for harassment on the streets -- second only to Afghanistan, where the Taliban forced all women behind the veil and into seclusion in their homes."

We are further informed "A new survey by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights makes harassment on the streets appear not a risk, but a virtual certainty. According to the center, 98 percent of the foreign women and 83 percent of the Egyptian women surveyed said they had been sexually harassed in the country." The reasons offered by men interviewed about the problem come straight out of the male chauvinist pig handbook, all arrogance and machismo. One 20 year-old said "It makes a woman happy when I call to her. It makes her know she's attractive." She needs some testosterone-filled moron to tell her this? This 50 year-old is no better "The woman herself is the one who makes men harass her, if she's walking, swinging as she goes, of course it will happen." Even walking along in a bloody hijab is enough to trigger the lust of these repressed weirdoes. (By a spooky coincidence the latest Jesus and Mo' is relevant here)

There is little doubt this disgusting attitude is enabled by the status of women in Islam - it is disingenuous to say such behavior is cultural - Islam thoroughly pervades the culture. As for supposedly post-Taliban Afghanistan, in which coalition troops are fighting the kind of scum that kill teachers for the crime of educating girls we are told that "Two-thirds of the women in Lashkar Gah's medieval-looking jail have been convicted of illegal sexual relations, but most are simply rape victims – mirroring the situation nationwide. The system does not distinguish between those who have been attacked and those who have chosen to run off with a man." Misogyny is alive and well in Mexico too, where a priest commenting on miniskirts in an online publication wrote "When we show our body without prudence, without modesty, we are prostituting ourselves." Never mind the all-inclusive "we" it is only women he is on about. At least in Mexico his remarks caused outrage leading the archdiocese to say his words were taken out of context - in the words of that great American philosopher bart Simpson, "Yeah, right".

Sites For Sore Eyes - one such is About.com's site on atheism and agnosticism, ably helmed by Austin Cline. You only have to take a look at some of the comments he attracts, many of which are incoherent, threatening or dumb (and often all three) to appreciate Cline's near superhuman patience. His replies, perhaps because he asks for evidence to back the claims of respondents, often serve to infuriate them. They cannot get it into their heads that, for example, quoting the bible is not supplying evidence but merely appealing to authority. Mind you, Cline has had some practise for his bio tells us he "...is a Regional Director for the Council for Secular Humanism and a former Publicity Coordinator for the Campus Freethought Alliance." In a piece on so-called Intelligent Design Cline quotes Jason Rosenhouse, a quote that bears repeating. "Children might attribute to Santa Claus the presence of their gifts under the tree. Teenagers who persist in doing so despite having been presented with the more reasonable explanation that their parents placed the gifts under the tree (Santa Claus may exist, after all), are generally regarded as people in need of counselling. ID proponents regard them as scientists" Cline adds "A harsh criticism, to be sure - but quite accurate, I think. What "Intelligent Design" proponents expect from scientists would be regarded as something akin to a mental illness in the average person. Sincere belief in Intelligent Design isn't justifiable - it can only be based on ignorance, willful deceit... or perhaps some sort of mental illness." You can sign up for a free newsletter from Cline here.

Another site well worth a visit is De-fact-o.com, the motto of which is "Untangling the web one fact at a time". Given the amount of misinformation, lies and ignorance on the web this could well turn out to be a Herculean, if not impossible task but the intention is laudable. The site is divided into various categories within which certain "facts" ie the sort of things "everybody knows" are examined and categorized. In the Religion section you will find the assertion "Two different people kill Goliath at two different times in the Bible" (True) and "The Christian holiday of Easter is named after a pagan fertility goddess" (True). In Conspiracy Theories we find "The twin towers fell into their own footprint, suspiciously like a controlled demolition" (False) and "George W. Bush's grandfather (Prescott Bush) illegally traded with the Nazis during WWII" (True). The site is very much a work in progress with contributions from the creators or by registered members and can be serious or flippant. They even have a page on one of 80's heroes who featured in the original newsletter back in June 2000, Mike the Headless Chicken. De-Fact-o quite rightly acknowledges that Mike's story is true - in fact, now long dead, he still has a web site dedicated to him. Here we learn that despite being headless and dead Mike is making a run for the White House. It is unlikely he would be any worse at the job than the present incumbent.

August 31st 2008

Voices of Faith - This artwork "...wounds the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God's love". Comment in a letter from the Vatican on the row over a "blasphemous artwork". Catholics want a piece of art removed from display because it offends them. 80 finds that the crucifixion images on the outside of Catholic churches wounds his aesthetic sentiments - will they be removed? For the background to this nonsense see Kermit of Nazareth

"Then people can see, people without hands, people can see in public heads rolling down the street, people got [sic] their hands and feet from opposite sides chopped off and they see them crucified…they see people put up against the pole and see them get lashed in public they see it, and because they see it, it acts as a deterrent for them because they say I don't want that to happen to me." Sheikh Khalid Yasin, quoted in the Guardian, on the benefits of sharia law. When challenged he said the quote should be "considered in context." The only context 80 can see is that of a barbaric, cruel, misogynous and homophobic system of punishment. It is not justice of any kind. Furthermore the states where such barbarity is implemented seem no more law abiding than anywhere else - in fact a lot less so when justice is meted out by Islamic clerics (always men of course) in a cruel and capricious way and women are of less worth than men. Here is one example from Saudi Arabia and lest we ignore Shia Islam here is one from Iran.

"Certainly religion cannot be invoked for crimes of this type." Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran commenting on the religious violence in the Indian state of Orissa where Hindu extremists have been murdering Christians. How do these people differentiate between those to be spared and those to be attacked? By their religious affiliation. Cardinal Tauran is talking out of his fundamental orifice.

Barking Virgin - the Telegraph confirms that some of us are still living in the middle ages with this item about yet another apparition of Yahweh's one night stand. An optically-challenged individual from Canada claims that not only is there an image of the Virgin Mary in the bark of a tree in his neighbor's garden but that this "miracle" apparently "...may have helped the health of his mother-in-law, who recently recovered from cancer." Why the Queen of Heaven chose to appear next door and not in the mother-in-law's garden must be down to God, or at least his squeeze, moving in mysterious ways again. Scarborough resident Christopher Moreau who spotted/hallucinated the apparition said "She's not there just for me. She's there to share." Looking at the utterly unconvincing picture she probably is there just for him. (Mary has also masqueraded as the Chocolate Madonna and has appeared on chapatis, tortillas, toasted cheese sandwiches and fenceposts.)

Holy Flap - on matters holy 80 recently mentioned the About Atheism web site in approving tones. Now the site has posted a suitably irreverent piece on what must be the tackiest religious relic of all - Jesus' foreskin. Relics have always been good business, particularly for the Catholic church. However bits of the cross, the crown of thorns etc are all very well but what would really bring in the punters (and their money) is a piece of Jesus himself - but as we are reliably told that he ascended bodily to heaven nothing is left to venerate. Hold on there, there must be one offcut, his foreskin, for as a good Jewish boy Jesus would have been snipped. In fact 80 has mentioned this bizarre item, better known as the Holy Prepuce, before, in 2006, noting its popularity in the medieval Europe.

"As was common in the Middle Ages several abbeys, churches and cathedrals all claimed to possess this somewhat bizarre relic. Now either they were plugging what are known as pious frauds or maybe they all had a piece of the prepuce which leads one to wonder just how big this thing was supposed to be....Someone else who thought the prepuce was of considerable size was 17th century Catholic theologian Leo Allatius who "..speculated that the Holy Foreskin may have ascended into Heaven at the same time as Jesus himself and might have become the rings of Saturn, then only recently observed by telescope." Sadly the images taken by Pioneer, Cassini and Voyager missions have failed to reveal a huge foreskin orbiting the gas giant." Conspiracy theorists will be interested in this article in Slate, Fore Shame, which asks "Did the Vatican Steal Jesus' Foreskin So People Would Shut Up About the Savior's Penis?" . 80 regrets being unable to vouch for the authenticity of another fabled relic, the Sacred Stool of Galilee. Update - these relic peddlers were nothing if not creative - other bits that JC apparently "left behind" included hair, blood, fingernails, milk teeth, and his umbilical cord, all of which were available for veneration. Praise be!

Ten Reasons Why Bigfoot's a Bust - see this slideshow courtesy of the Discovery Channel. Meanwhile the two latest bigfoot hoaxers (see here) are still laying low. Also see Department of the Bleeding Obvious below.

Luring Dawkins - The creationist nitwit, Harun Yahya, (aka Adnan Oktar - see here for his background) wants to have a debate with Richard Dawkins, claiming that Darwin's theory of evolution has "..has lately suffered a global collapse". In his dreams. Yahya, you may remember, sent out unsolicited copies of his magnum opus, the Atlas of Creation, to scientists around the globe, including Dawkins. It was not long before the quality of his scholarship became blindingly obvious as the book featured illustrations of insects which turned out to be fishing lures copied without permission. It is hardly necessary to read the text. (See Creationists, Catholics and Crackers) In fact such a meeting will never take place - Dawkins has better thing things to do than listen to the fantasies of an ignorant buffoon such as Yahya. Besides Dawkins has already written about the Atlas and Yahya's inability to tell sea snakes from eels. Yahya has certainly proved one thing however, and that is that Islamic creationists are fully as dumb as their Christian counterparts.

September 4th 2008

By Their Words Shall Ye Know Them - here is an interesting analysis from the New York Times (reg rqd) of the frequency of use of different words at the Democratic and Republican Conventions. They are scored by the number times the words were used per 25,000 words spoken. It comes as little surprise that the top scoring word for Obama's campaign was Change (89) whilst equally predictably McCain's was God (43). The word Bush scored 46 in Denver whereas at the Republican convention it notched up only 7 - a very obvious sign of the distancing by the McCain campaign from the current White House incumbent. Given his record who could blame them? It also explains why the word Cheney rated a 6 in the Dem's speeches and zero, zip, nada from the Republicans. They scored equal 8 on terrorism/terrorists.

A Heartbeat Away - just how much research (reg rqd) did the McCain campaign undertake when vetting Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate? Not enough, would seem to be a widely held opinion. Considering McCain's health and age Palin could quite possibly end up in charge of the USA despite her inexperience. She would appear, like Bush's failed nominee for the Supreme Court, Harriet Meiers, to have been promoted way above her competence. See Top Ten Most Disturbing Facts and Impressions of Sarah Palin and its follow-up 8 More Shocking Revelations About Sarah Palin both from Alternet. Anyone concerned about science in America would do well to take note of her position on teaching creationism in schools and stem cell research. (In 80's view the revelation about her daughter's pregnancy has nothing to do with her suitability as a vice presidential candidate - there are plenty of real concerns about Palin without that*.) Read this piece by Hadley Freeman, one voter who is far from happy that Palin could one day be a heartbeat away from the chair in the Oval Office. You can read here of the influence Palin's religious beliefs have on her worldview, on abortion, and on America's God-given destiny. She apparently knows what God is thinking, never a good thing in a politician.

* "We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women." Frank Rich in the New York Times (reg rqd) proving 80 wrong.

Palin Speaks for God - "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." Sarah Palin, who knows not only what the deity has in mind for the armed forces but also for a gas pipeline project. "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that." Anyone who doesn't find such statements chilling has not been paying attention. (See here a clip from what is rapidly becoming America's most trusted news source, The Daily Show, in which host Jon Stewart skewers the hypocrisy over Palin's selection demonstrated by Karl Rove and Bill "Falafel" O'Reilly among others)

Putin's Russia, Stalin's Russia - should anyone still be in doubt as to which direction Puppetmaster Putin is taking his country you need only read about a new school history manual that appears to whitewash mass murderer Josef Stalin. Despite the fact that the dictator was responsible for the deaths of 20 million people the textbook says this "He acted entirely rationally - as the guardian of a system, as a consistent support of reshaping the country into an industrialised state." No one should be surprised that, according to the Telegraph, "Alexander Kamensky, of the Russia State University for the Humanities, said the manual was a sign that teaching history in schools has become "an ideological instrument."" (Also see Putin Wants a New Russian Empire)

Is God a dangerous meme? – lecture by Dr Susan Blackmore. Goldsmith College, University of London, 7 October, 7.30pm. Free. Full details.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain presents its first international conference: "Political Islam, Sharia Law, and Civil Society." Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 on 10 October 2008. Details and booking.

September 11th 2008

Creating Ignorance - it is unlikely 80 is alone in being very unpleasantly surprised by Rev Prof Michael Reiss, director of education at the Royal Society, the British equivalent of an academy of sciences, who has said creationism should be discussed in the science class and "...that science teachers should not see creationism as a "misconception" but as an alternative "world view"." He added that he was not suggesting that creationism/Intelligent Design (c/ID) should be given equal time as evolution - so we should be thankful for small mercies. The fact that c/ID is not science and has no place in a science class seems to have passed him by. This is not to say that the subject should be banned, but more properly belongs in a critical thinking or comparative religion class - oh, wait, we don't have those in the UK for some reason. Still, that is no reason whatsoever to allow unsubstantiated fairy tales into the science curriculum. The very act of doing so can only give a semblance of legitimacy to arrant nonsense. Just what is Reiss thinking? He told the Guardian "Just because something lacks scientific support doesn't seem to me a sufficient reason to omit it from the science lesson … there is much to be said for allowing students to raise any doubts they have – hardly a revolutionary idea in science teaching – and doing one's best to have a genuine discussion." So what else should the science lessons include? Energy medicine, the tooth-fairy, guardian angels? Once you allow non-science into the class where do you draw the line? Whose version of creationism do you include? Christian Young Earth? Christian Old Earth? Islamic creationism perhaps, or how about the Hindu version? Perhaps we should embrace all of them. Reiss appears to have given this little thought.

In the Guardian today there is what can only be a companion piece called, wait for it, The Theology of Evolution. No, it doesn't make sense to 80 either but it does make a catchy headline. Whether the writer, Denis Alexander, is responsible for that oxymoron or not the body of the piece has a silliness all of its own. Alexander, a self-described Christian biologist and a "devout Darwinian" (another nonsensical phrase - evolutionary theory rests on evidence, devoutness is not required) who appears to think evolution was God's mechanism for the development of life - in other words it is part of God's plan. As Alexander puts it "After Darwin, Christians began to understand creation not as a series of isolated, unconnected events, but as a long historical process through which God brings about his purposes. It enriched rather than diminished their theology." It would seem then that God's purpose is to allow complex ecosystems to evolve which, now and again, he then flattens with a metorite strike, huge outpourings of magma or any other destructive mechanism he chooses - in his loving kindness.

By coincidence the Telegraph carries an item about the beasties that for millions of years dominated the Earth and whose demise made way for the dinosaurs - the crurotarsan archosaurs. Most tellingly we learn "A study of the fossil record over the 30 million year period when the two groups lived alongside each other suggests dinosaurs eventually came to dominate the world at the end of the Triassic period because of luck and not through superiority." The last couple of paragraphs are especially interesting in light of the Christian biologist's view of God's purpose. Professor Mike Benton, one of the researchers into the demise of the crurotarsans, tells us "Many people like to think that evolution is progressive: mammals are better than dinosaurs because they came later. This is like progressive improvements in car technology - a Ford Taurus is demonstrably better than a Model T. So it may be hard for us to accept that dinosaurs achieved their dominant position on earth largely by chance, just as mammals did when the dinosaurs were later wiped out by a meteorite strike."

Evolution has no plan, no purpose given it by a deity and to claim otherwise requires some kind of evidence. There is none. The only thing unique about the current dominant lifeform is that rather than being destroyed by an external agency we are apparently going to do it to ourselves. Introducing fairy tales into science lessons is one way of hastening that destruction by polluting the best tool for survival humans have in their possession - the scientific method. Never mind discussing creationism/Intelligent Design because a lot of clods believe in it - science is not a popularity contest with the most comforting or least intellectually taxing answers being right. The external, real and very dangerous universe doesn't care if we think we are the creator's favored pets - the fossil record makes it very clear that things don't work like that and no amount of wishful thinking is going to make any difference. (read here a letter from Richard Dawkins on Reiss and the Royal Society row)

Doomsday for One - as we sigh with relief and pledge to be nice to each other for a change having escaped strangelets and black holes devouring the Earth we can reflect that the world has been about to end many times before. The Telegraph has a helpful page of failed doomsday predictions from 1533 to the present day. This site, It's The End Of The World As We Know It..........Again goes into much more detail and ranges throughout history. Actually the sigh of relief mentioned above is somewhat premature - the LHC at CERN has yet to collide anything. This will be done within the next year so keep yourself "rapture ready". One tragic consequence of the ignorance surrounding the experiment was a 16 year-old Indian girl, who, according to her father killed herself after being traumatised by the doomsday speculations. She drank pesticide rather tham wait to see what happened. In this report the final paragraph notes "..in deeply religious and superstitious India, fears about the experiment and the minor risks associated with it spread rapidly through the media." 80 does not distinguish between religion and superstition - religion is, no matter how you dress it up, only organized superstition. Also worth noting is that for the ignorant or ill-informed the supposed end of the world is hardly a "minor risk". (Also see A Little Bang)

Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain - read this latest scoop from the folks that brought us the Theory Of Intelligent Falling.

Calling All Psychics - isn't that just typical? Just when you were getting ready to win the James Randi Educational Foundation's million dollars they have decided to scrap the damned thing. Obviously Randi, who everybody knows is a black magician, divined your intention by telepathic means and doomed the challenge, fearful of having to hand over the cash. Well don't despair - there are plenty of other prizes just waiting for you (and your psychic powers). The Association for Skeptical Enquiry (ASKE) in the UK still has a prize for you to scoop if you are a UK resident. This currently stands at £14000 ($24700) which is quite a bit less than the JREF prize but can still buy an awful lot of healing crystals. Besides, there are plenty of other, similar challenges and prizes up for grabs around the world and as your psychic powers are real they should be a cinch - in fact ASKE has even done some of the legwork for you by providing a list, which should soon have you rolling in dosh. The list covers many countries, from Finland to India to New Zealand, all with piles of unclaimed cash. As the ASKE page says, this is "Easy money for the genuinely gifted."

The only thing that may surprise you is that no one has won any of it - not a single penny. There are a number of reasons given for this by failed applicants. Typical are the ones aimed often at the JREF, for example - that any test would be skewed by Randi. In fact any testing would not involve Randi. Then entrants claim the rules could be/have been changed on them (This is a particular favorite of those tested and found wanting.) But all protocols have to be agreed between the parties before any testing is done. Another excuse is that psychic powers cannot be harnessed to gain money (although this is what the majority of psychics actually seem to do). Simple, the answer is to donate the money to charity, and you would still have the tremendous acclaim of being the world's only properly and skeptically certified psychic. It is a shame the JREF challenge is being shut down but it has been around in various forms since 1964 and will be terminated 6 March 2010. Doubtless they have better things to do with the money. But do keep honing those magic powers so you can clean up on all those other prizes on offer... (Should you decide to try and beat the 2010 deadline for the JREF prize here is a list of frequently asked questions - although you have probably divined them already) Update - a New Zealand skeptic, Stuart Landsborough, is offering "...$100,000 each to the producer of television psychic show Sensing Murder and three psychics if they can perform his tests."

A Little Bang - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will enable us to effectively roll back time to observe the conditions that obtained just after the Big Bang. Hopefully it will help to explain where mass comes from and also give clues as to the nature of Dark Matter - which makes up at least 90% of the Universe. What it will not do is cause the end of the world by creating mini-blackholes, strangelets and any of the other things conjured up by the doomsayers. The collision of protons which will occur in the detectors at the LHC is nothing new - the LHC Safety Assessment Group states "Nature has already conducted the equivalent of about a hundred thousand LHC experimental programmes on Earth - and the planet still exists." Because the particles involved are so mind-bogglingly tiny although they collide at almost the speed of light "Each collision of a pair of protons in the LHC will release an amount of energy comparable to that of two colliding mosquitoes, so any black hole produced would be much smaller than those known to astrophysicists."

Such reassurances have had no effect upon the ignorant who have bombarded CERN with emails (and even some death threats) pleading for the experiments to be shelved. Perhaps all these frightened and misinformed folk will turn up at CERN on Wednesday brandishing pitchforks and flaming torches, and chanting "There are some things man is not meant to know". The Boston Globe, as part of its online The Big Picture series, has posted an excellent photo essay on the LHC with some quite amazing images that really give an impression of the sheer scale and complexity of the project. This may be a slow download but is well worth the wait. If you still have time on your hands take a look at this site from Citizens Against The Large Hadron Collider but don't snigger, it's rude. For more about the man behind this site, Walter L Wagner, see this from The Register. For a list of the 5 best and worse things to come out the LHC see this Short Sharp Science item from New Scientist.

Seeing is Believing? - here is a nice article from the Telegraph on doctored photos from Mao-era air-brushing to Edwardian cut-outs to today's photoshopped confections. For more camera tricks see this exhibition from The American Museum of Photography called Science versus Seance featuring "spirit" photos of various kind. Even better the museum has some pages dedicated to the brilliant, witty and often downright weird photos of William H Martin, entitled "Did You Ever Have A Dream Like This?"

September 13th 2008

Rare Good News - if, against all odds, Hell actually exists 80 hopes there is a special section reserved for those who peddle useless nostrums to the desperately ill as many of these people get away scot free in the here and now. So rarely do they get their comeuppance that when it does happen it is a cause of celebration. The Guardian tells us "Matthias Rath, the vitamin campaigner accused of endangering thousands of lives in South Africa by promoting his pills while denouncing conventional medicines as toxic and dangerous, has dropped a year-long libel action against the Guardian and been ordered to pay costs. Rath sued over three Guardian articles that condemned his promotional activities among Aids sufferers in South African townships." Rath, "A qualified doctor who is thought to have made millions selling nutritional supplements around the globe through his website empire, claimed his pills could reverse the course of Aids and distributed them free in South Africa, where campaigners, who have won a hard-fought battle to persuade the government to roll out free Aids drugs to keep millions alive, believe Rath's activities led to deaths."

The Guardian's Bad Science column, written by Ben Goldacre, attracted litigation from Rath for revealing the truth about his peddling of vitamins to AIDS sufferers. While this setback is good news Rath's firm is still very much in business focusing "...its promotional activities on eight countries - the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, France and Russia - claiming that his micronutrient products will cure not just Aids, but cancer, heart disease, strokes and other illnesses." It is to be hoped that the court verdict is but the first stage in the downfall of this particular individual and the termination of his foundation's activities. Read a comment piece here by Goldacre which looks at the use of litigation to stifle debate and hamper investigative journalism. One exponent of this tactic is the Pooh Lady herself, 'Dr' Gillian McKeith. (See here for an earlier piece by Goldacre on McKeith's qualifications. Goldacre's Bad Science blog has a permanent spot in the sidebar of this page. You will also find there a link to a new site set up by Harriet Hall, The Skepdoc, linking to her blog and articles she has written for Skeptical Inquirer, The Skeptic and others on "...medicine, so-called complementary and alternative medicine, science, quackery, and critical thinking." Hall, a retired family physician and former Air Force flight surgeon is also one of the mainstays of the Healthfraud discussion list with her unfailing courtesy and her knowledgable, thoughtful and logical take on things)

Are You An Elitist? - is the question asked by SFGate.com columnist and serial syntax mangler Mark Morford, who then goes on to give 18 revealing ways to know for sure. His first bears quoting "1. You don't talk like a normal person. Only normal people talk like normal people. Sarah "no questions please, I'm Alaskan" Palin, according to House Minority leader John Boehner, she talks like a normal person... if by "normal" you mean "chillingly antagonistic toward anything resembling progress or political insight or women's civil liberties." Read the rest here.

Defend Science - "The Defend Science Statement aims to rally broad opposition and resistance to the mounting attacks on science and scientific thinking which are unfolding in the United States. Our basic aim now is to run the Defend Science Statement, signed by scientists, as an ad in major newspapers, reaching millions. (At this point the Statement is signed by over 2300 scientists and members of the scientific community.) sign the statement...view a selected list of signatories...join the Defend Science supporters email list..."

This is from physicist Robert Parks excellent free weekly email newsletter, What's New, "Last week we did a word search for "science" in Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver. We thought it unfortunate that Obama made only a single reference to science. As you have surely noticed, What's New is firmly non- partisan, so we ran the same search on a transcript of McCain’s acceptance speech last night in St. Paul. "Text not found" popped up. Could this be? Our nation is roiled by controversies over evolution, nuclear power, climate change, energy shortage, stem cells, Plan B, all of which must turn to science for their resolution. Indeed, is there an issue the nation faces that doesn’t turn on science? "Perhaps the search technology failed," I thought, "try another word." I typed in "fight." There were 25 hits. Hmmm." You can subscribe to What's New here and also check out the archive.

Incompetence v Competence - a couple of stories this week on perceptions of the 9/11 terrorist atrocity are worth a look. This piece from the New York Times (reg rqd) looks at the widespread belief in the Muslim world that the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon could only have been carried out with US/Israeli connivance as was the opening move in a war on Islam. The reason? People cannot believe that Arabs/Muslims could have possibly organized such an effective attack, thereby portraying a touching faith in their own incompetence. This is reinforced by an almost complete distrust of official news sources in the Arab world - a distrust that is quite justified. The theory that the US/Israel were really behind the attacks would, in their minds, be corroborated by the subsequent invasion of Iraq, a country now known to have had no involvement. (It is interesting but hardly surprising to note the tired old Iraq/al Qaeda/Saddam nonsense repeated ad nauseam by vice president Dick Cheney is now taken up (reg rqd) by the dismayingly ignorant Sarah Palin) Another piece of "evidence" cited on the Arab street is the oft-repeated story that on the fateful day Jewish workers at the World Trade Center all took the day off - although surely the cunning and scheming US/Israeli axis should have realized such an absence would be a dead giveaway. But then logic plays little part in such stories. One quote from a Cairo resident shows how low Arab self-esteem can get, “Maybe people who executed the operation were Arabs, but the brains? No way. It was organized by other people, the United States or the Israelis.”

The other side of the fence is featured in this Mother Jones article that looks at the American conspiracy theorists - this bunch have a touching faith in the Bush cabal's competence in orchestrating the attacks - a competence that is not confirmed by other real world events. The botched aftermath of the Iraq invasion (Mission Accomplished - remember?) and the tragically inadequate response to hurricane Katrina's destruction of New Orleans both amply illustrate any impression of competence shown by these people is illusory. This being the US, the conspiracy theorists don't sit around muttering in cafes but make movies illustrating their warped view of events. Two of them are examined in the Jones article, The Reflecting Pool and Able Danger - and both found to be ridiculous. As Mother Jones senior editor David Gilson puts it "They've missed the real lesson of the Bush administration, which is not that a secretive cabal runs the White House, but that its diabolic intent has been trumped by its staggering incompetence. Seven years on, the neocon notion that imperial power can reshape reality has been fully exposed as a fantasy. Yet the Truthers cling to the myth of official omnipotence, making them some of the last Americans who still believe that this administration could successfully pull off anything bigger than T-ball on the South Lawn." So, bizarrely the Arab man in the street and the American conspiracy nuts are in fact soulmates in their inability to grasp how the real world works. The only apparent difference is that the American "Truthers" are a minority while the Arab/Muslim version would be in the majority. It is indeed a funny old world.

September 16th 2008

Muslim Women Lose Human Rights - remember the fuss when the the Archbishop of Canterbury foolishly suggested that implementation of aspects of Islamic faith-based sharia law was inevitable in the UK? Or how about the reaction to Britain's most senior judge who suggested elements of sharia applied in this country? Well, it was all hot air because sharia is up and running anyway - and has been for more than a year according to this Telegraph report. So no debate about it for it is already a fait accompli. We are further informed "Five sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire." Was 80 being inattentive or was this sneaked through?

Sharia is, of course, well known for considering women of less worth than men - a fact which in the view of a reasonable person would destroy any claim it has to being fair. A system that maintains the domination of religious men over others is nonsense and should never have been introduced. The shocking thing is, the Times tells us, "Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court." 80 has been told that this is possible using provisions in the 1996 Arbitration Act for the sharia courts can be considered Alternative Dispute Resolution Courts.

But then to choose such a system of resolution instead of the proper law of the land surely requires informed consent. Consider, for example, a young Muslim woman raised in a religious patriarchal community (and such communities exist within the UK, fostered by the foolish and unworkable idea of multiculturalism and spineless Labour politicians fearful of losing votes) who is quite possibly unaware that, as a UK citizen, she has recourse to a legal system where she is fully the equal of a man. Sadly even if they do know this country has a more equitable system they will almost inevitably come under great social and religious pressure to choose "our way" rather than the kafir's.

In a country where politicians are always claiming that they listen to the electorate just when was this introduction of a biased, foreign, religious legal system debated? Whose decision was this? Anyone? Who thought depriving Muslim women of their human rights was a good idea? There should be no separate legal systems in this country - none. Some have pointed out that Jews have their own courts so why not the Muslims? Then what, Rastafarian courts, Jedi courts, Flying Spaghetti Monster courts? The answer surely is to abolish both sharia and Jewish courts and any other religious justice systems the government has quietly ushered in. If you live in this country you should abide by the law of the land and if you think this is intolerable then perhaps a move to a country where sharia (or whatever system you favor) is practised should be considered. It is funny that Britain's justice system is considered inappropriate for some groups but the health and social security systems are apparently just fine. (Thanks Ken) Also see Islamic Humans Demand Fewer Rights

How Sharia Works - from the Times "...in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons. The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts. In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment. In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations." And such decisions are now enforceable in British courts. For more see the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal and this from Dhimmi Watch.

A Devout Catholic? - an Italian model, one Raffella Fico, "...plans to sell her virginity for one million euros, or £792,000." She told a magazine "I can't wait to see who's going to pull out the money to have me." It is not only the money that will be pulled out. Fico says she has never had sex, a claim endorsed by her family, albeit somewhat strangely. Her brother declared "She's never had a boyfriend. I swear on my mother's grave. She's a devout Catholic and prays to Padre Pio every night." This must be some alternative meaning of the word "devout" of which 80 was previously unaware.

One Word Answer - the Telegraph carries an item today entitled Sarah Palin: You Brits will never get her. Good.

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