Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
History once again repeats itself. Back in 1989, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwā calling for Salman Rushdie’s death due to his book The Satanic Verses, and as a result tens of millions of copies were sold. It earned Salman Rushdie $2 million in the first year alone, and also became an all-time best seller for the publisher. Without the assistance of the Ayatollah … Read more
It is a sad fact there even in the 21st century, a 7th century mindset still prevails in some places. Is that a factual statement? Indeed it is, the above diagram illustrates the nations that have explicit laws that oppress those that dare to simply stop believing religious nonsense, and if you still doubt this, … Read more
The question came up today on the BBCs Big Question, and so in response to that I’ve written this up to add a few additional observations. Offensive Images The idea that an image of a specific human is offensive is a specifically religious idea, and while popular within Islam today, it was not always the case, … Read more
The normal social expectation is that religious beliefs are in many ways akin to joining a social club, and is a place you can come and go as you please. Nope, sadly it is not like that at all. Many variations of belief, not all, play the guilt card and so they psychologically manipulate people … … Read more
Blasphemy laws are meaningless bits of legal nonsense that do nothing except empower a specific religious faction to oppress and stifle almost anything that they decide they are offended about, and that “offence” is never actually defined but is usually sufficiently vague enough to be applied to whatever a random cleric thinks it needs to … Read more
You would think that outside of ISIS themselves, anybody openly criticising ISIS would be commended and supported, even within the Islamic world. Alas, apparently not. The New York Times reports … The chief editor of a prominent Indonesian newspaper, the English-language Jakarta Post, has been summoned for questioning by the police for publishing a cartoon that … Read more