Five Reasons Not to Miss TAM Vegas 2011

TAM-9 Coming up soon … here is a link to their web site for details. Five Reasons Not to Miss TAM 2011 If you miss the inimitable George Hrab as TAM emcee, you’ll be puzzling over all the in-jokes for the next year while your skeptical friends are LOLing. Penn Jillette’s Private Rock & Roll, … Read more

Washington Post asked Richard Dawkins about the end of the world

It just had to happen I guess, but the Washington Post called up Richard Dawkins and asked him for his thoughts on it all. Now least you have missed it by burying your head in the sandpit, Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping believes that he has calculated the exact date of the rapture: May 21, 2011. (yes just a few days away) While many are laughing at the suggestion, Camping’s followers are taking him seriously, bringing his message of impending doom to billboards and public spaces around the country. Richards reply is great, here is what he said …

Why is a serious newspaper like the Washington Post giving space to a raving loon? I suppose the answer must be that, unlike the average loon, this one has managed to raise enough money to launch a radio station and pay for billboards. I don’t know where he gets the money, but it would be no surprise to discover that it is contributed by gullible followers – gullible enough, we may guess, to go along with him when he will inevitably explain, on May 22nd, that there must have been some error in the calculation, the rapture is postponed to . . . and please send more money to pay for updated billboards.

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Quoting Hitchens

I have two items for you today, both specific to Christopher Hitchens.

The first is the letter that he has written. He was scheduled to appear at a conference of atheists during the weekend, but sadly had to cancel due to his illness, so he wrote them a letter instead. Now remember, this is a man that has a true gift with the written word, so while his voice might indeed have been absent, his thoughts and words have now instead been spread far a wide via this open letter, perhaps far further than initially planned, here are some extracts to tempt you to read it all …

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Christopher Hitchens preaches support for the Bible

No, Christopher Hitchens has not  had a sudden conversion, but he has indeed written an article within the May edition of  vanity Fair in full support of the Bible. He argues that our language and culture are incomplete without this 400-year-old book—the King James translation of the Bible. It was spurned by the Establishment, so it really represents a triumph for rebellion and dissent.

Here are a couple of extracts …

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Cynicism by the Book

Christopher Hitchers latest Slate article goes into my “Must read” category. In it he distills his thoughts on both the burning of the Quran by Pastor Stupid in Florida, and the utterly insane (but predictable) reaction within some quarters of the Islamic world. To make it easy, I’ve distilled out a few key points … … Read more

Storm

Its finally available, Tim Minchin’s nine-minute beat poem has been released as an animated movie. If you have not come across anything by Tim before, but you are a skeptic, then you really should check this out. Tim is an Australian comedian, actor, and musician, but is best known for his musical comedy, which has … Read more

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