The news is that Rev Tom Gordon, a Church Of Ireland Anglican priest, has formally entered into civil partnership with his boyfriend of 20 years, and has also received the full support of his bishop, the Rt Rev Michael Burrows. Now normally when a couple get together it is not public news to anybody except their friends who wish them well, so why is this an exception? I need not explain, you all know, and are all familiar with the anti-gay rhetoric that is very pervasive amongst many shades of belief.
9/11 conspiracy theories debunked
The Guardian has a nice short summary article that debunks the 9/11 truther claims, here is a quick extract …
The twin towers were destroyed by controlled explosion
Truthers say video footage of the buildings falling points to demolition due to the way the towers bend before collapsing. Also, there appear to be explosions as the windows blow out, floor by floor, from the top downwards. One US academic claims to have tested samples from the wrecked towers which show the presence of chemical residue, suggesting explosives had been used.
Famous Psychics and the $1 Million challenge
Not too long ago, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) appeared on ABC’s Primetime Nightline where some famous psychics put their trickery up on display. It was obvious to most what was going on, the psychics knew before the show who they were doing a reading on, and … gasp … came back with information readily available via google, yet when asked to do a reading for others, declined with some excuse.
Encyclopedia of Life catalogues more than one-third of Earth’s species
Now this is cool, more than one-third of all the known species of life on the planet have now been cataloged … the total they have (as I write this) is 753,315. Just before we launch into the article lets clarify those numbers. It is estimated that there are probably around 8.7 million species in total. That is just a finger in the air, so it is within a couple of million either side of that. OK, just so that you understand that number, what in actually means is that an astonishing 86% of all plants and animals on land and 91% of those in the seas have yet to be named and catalogued. Ah but hang on a moment, those sums don’t add up, one-third of 8.7 million is not 753,315, so what is the story here? Easy, we only know about 1.9 species, the rest have yet to be discovered, so it now has more than one third of the known species cataloged.
Vatican Responds to Irish Criticism: 25-Pages of “Nope, not our fault”
The Vatican has finally responded to the scathing criticism directed at them by the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. A few months ago the findings of the Cloyne report revealed on-going abuse and cover-up, so caused considerable anger. In response the Taoiseach (the head of the Irish government) stood up in the Dail (the Irish Parliment) and gave a speech in which he described “the dysfunction, disconnection and elitism” in the Vatican and accused them of interferring by blocking the reporting of abuse to the Irish Authorities.
A 25 page reply from the Vatican has now been issued in which they state:
“… significant reservations that the speech made by Enda Kenny… in particular, the accusation that the Holy See attempted to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign democratic republic, is unfounded.”
Atheists and Sex Offenders
Many of you might have already seen the video by the Thinking Atheist that is a response to Florida “pastor” Michael Stahl’s blog suggestion that a national register of Atheists should be compiled. Least you missed the fuss about his crazy suggestion, I blogged about it here, but fret not, he is a complete kook and is pastor of nothing at all except a web site. In reply, he was flooded with so many objections that he has closed his Facebook page and locked down his blog.
Anyway, here is the Thinking Atheist’s great video that lists some very famous Atheists who would be on any such list. The point of course is to highlight that non believers include some of the most influential folks and highly respected people on the planet …