Lying for the faith

Time and time again we find that religious folks, who claim to hold the ultimate form of morality (an apparent direct line to a God) to be a tad lacking in basic ethics. The most common example we all often come across consists of Christian Creationists lying for Jesus and more or less making stuff up that they then claim is “proof”. When you go through it with them, it does not make one iota of a different, they might as well have stuck their fingers in the ears and babbled “la la la” while you patiently explained things. The very next day they will be back to babbling the same old rhetoric.

Is it just the Christians? Nope, not at all. Today we have an Islamic example. Andrew Gilligan writes in today’s Telegraph about an East London Mosque that had faithfully promised to ban homophobic preachers. Well yes, I’m sure you can guess where this is going … he writes …

Read more

Facebook = $50 Billion? – Apparently not if you look at the data

Damian Thompson writes today on the telegraph with data that appears to show that anyone who has bought into Goldman Sachs’ $50 billion valuation of Facebook, which is based on projections of revenue growth that seem ludicrously optimistic in the light of the data now available … Here’s a chart showing year-on-year growth (again, click … Read more

Neutrino Transformation Could Help Explain Mystery of Matter

Cool story in Wired today … Two research teams have found new evidence of transformations in elusive elementary particles called neutrinos. The findings may finally help explain why the universe didn’t vanish shortly after its birth. “These results are just the beginning of the story for neutrinos,” said physicist Robert Plunkett of Fermilab in Chicago. … Read more

Islamic Sex Slaves!!!

I suspect many sites that thrive on the creation of satire must truly struggle when it comes to Islam … not because they fear the death threats, but rather because the actual claims made are so bizarre and morally outrageous, that it is almost impossible to distinguish satire and the real belief. To illustrate what … Read more

Blasphemy In Ireland

Padraig Reidy wrote an article is Friday’s UK Guardian about Ireland’s poisonous blasphemy debate. Being Irish born and bred myself, I’m chipping in with a few additional comments of my own.

The context of the article is the latest challenge to the utterly insane blasphemy laws that still currently stand in Ireland. As an aside, what the heck does blasphemy actually mean, especially in the context of every religious belief being blasphemy to every other shade of religious belief, it truly is stupidity incarnate. If pursued to its logical end then they would need to lock everybody up … no exceptions, because every possible position of belief or non-belief will be blasphemy to somebody else.

Read more

(UK Libel Reform Campaign) – A message from Simon Singh & Ben Goldacre

Dear Libel Reform Supporter,

Last week, we gave evidence to the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee examining the draft defamation bill. We sat alongside Philip Campbell (editor of Nature) and Fiona Godlee (editor of the British Medical Journal) and explained how English libel law currently hinders free speech in science and medicine and we outlined how the law could be reformed.

You can watch our evidence online here:

http://www.badscience.net/2011/06/nerds-at-the-parliamentary-committee-on-the-draft-defamation-bill/ (our session starts at 17.40)

Read more