A Tippling Philosopher

Featured ATP

It's wrong to kill lions! (Or is it?)

Everyone knows about it. I needn't really explain the story, but I will. Dentist from Minnesota pays loads of money to go shoot a lion with a bow in Zimbabwe, after it is lured illegally outside of the national park with bait. Lion gets hit, wonders around in pain, life ebbing, for 40 hours until

FOX News

Fox News Is Brainwashing Viewers And Hurting The Republican Party

Ploiticsusa has released this article which reinforces what I have said before (in the thread). A new study has found that Fox News is hurting the Republican Party by brainwashing millions of angry conservatives with misinformation. In a new study of the Fox News effect by Bruce Bartlett, rese

equality

Dawkins, Islam and feminism

Dawkins has just been trashed by a feminist guest contributor to The Friendly Atheist. TFA is usually well on the money, but this recent article had me annoyed. A lot. It all started with this seemingly innocuous tweet:

Deep Dive

Evolution and morality

I was recently having a private conversation about humanity and whether we are uniquely different from all other creatures in such a way that naturalistic evolution could not explain the step change from primates to us. As a naturalist who has read a fair bit on evolution and evolutionary psychology

Islam

'Oldest' Koran fragments found in Birmingham University

Imagine rifling through your old crud to find some old booky thing and thinking, "Hey, that looks old. I wonder how old". And then getting it dated and finding out it's the oldest, arguably mots important book in the world!

BHA

House of Lords discuss persecution of humanists

Peers in the House of Lords have discussed the persecution of humanists around the world in a debate on freedom of religion and belief. Lord Alton’s motion had asked that the Lords take note of Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights – which stipulates that everyone has the r

Daily Mail

Why the Daily Mail is a pathetically crap newspaper

Liz Kendall, running for Labour leadership in the UK, was rightfully indignant about the shiteness of the Daily Mail, Britain's worst paper. Seriously, what century are we in? As the BBC reports: Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall has said it is "unbelievable" she was asked about

equality

Are you a gay ex-Muslim?

I am interested in the conflict within Islam between being gay and believing in the Qu'ran and the Hadith. I would like to know if you have a story to tell about this that you could write for me and post here. I have had many arguments with

Consciousness

Evolution, language and the unconcsious: yup, free will again!

John D. Bargh is a psychologist with an interest in matters concerning free will. He edited a superb book on psychology and free will which I would advise anyone to get called Are We Free? From it, this excerpt was interesting, especially given recent conversations defending naturalism with a fellow

determinism

Charleston Gazette features my FI free will article

I recently wrote an article for the Free Inquiry on free will and its growing acceptance as an illusion in modern society. The other day, an essayist-veteran-humanist-naturalist-freethinker-lawyer in his 90s wrote this piece for the Charleston Gazette. Thanks! Here is an excerpt:

brain

Some notes on free will, evolution and evolutionary psychology, part 1

This will definitely be TL;DR (Too long; didn't read), but... In discussing some thing on a private thread with a fellow Tippling Philosopher, I have written quite a bit on free will, evolution and evolutionary psychology which I would hat to go to waste and would love to keep for reference and p

The Little Book of Unholy Questions

New review of Unholy Questions

The Little Book Of Unholy Questions is my 2011 book which acts as a cumulative case against the existence of God. I am thankful for this latest review. The book also has a new cover (click on the image to go to the Amazon listing): Dynamite in a Small Package!

death

SIN Series: Death - Physicalist cowboy reincarnation

Yup, you heard it here. This song and lyric seems rather oddly out of place in its rational, skeptical outlook!   MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die - Reincarnation LyricsWhere do cowboys go when they die?Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye? Where

extremism

Adam Curtis' Bitter Lake

Adam Curtis has made some brilliant documentaries. Watch this one.   [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3NIXAxt2MQ[/youtube]

bible

Do the Bible and Qu'ran need commentaries?

Over on a recent thread about the challenges I have met in my claims of Islam, a Catholic commentator asked this question: I agree with you that Islam has problems. I have a quick question: do you read commentaries and theology books written by Muslims to offset your bias? To which I said:

pseudoscience

Old but classic deconstruction of woo

I love this video (and all of Minchin's stuff), it's long been a favourite. Watch and savour.

bible

On Islam and answering my critics

I have had many discussions concerning Islam and my views pertaining to it. I would like to flesh out here some of the criticisms I have had and answer them properly, also offering this as a post that I can point people to when this undoubtedly pops up again.

Consciousness

Authoring our thoughts: my favourite video clip

The next five minutes of this video of Sam Harris talking at the Sydney Opera House on free will is fantastic. The idea that we choose our language and our thoughts is an incoherent one, and that notion is set out with aplomb by Harris here. Enjoy: [youtube]https://youtu.

Economics

Tourism in Islamic countries: my prediction

Tunisia's second attack in recent times has left the country reeling, and British tour operators pulling out for the next week, at least. This has been the biggest attack on and death of British people in a terrorist attack since the 7/7 bombings in London and the country has been rocked. But not as

Featured ATP

Charleston murderer was easy to stop.

If you were God. A friend recently emailed this: The South Carolina Shooter's Free Will or the Will of God? The well-established facts about human birth mechanism includes a tremendous amount of knowledge about the incomprehensible chances against any specific person (p) ever being born. The p sperm

Dorset Humanists

My "Understanding Islam" talk went very well

I had a debate of sorts in my last talk to the Dorset Humanists on Thursday night. It was really interesting, and I am thankful to DH for inviting me and providing a thoroughly stimulating environment to discuss these things. As mentioned in previous posts, my talk was based roughly on my blog post

Consciousness

Consciousness has less control than believed, according to new theory

Consciousness -- the internal dialogue that seems to govern one's thoughts and actions -- is far less powerful than people believe, serving as a passive conduit rather than an active force that exerts control, according to a new theory proposed by an SF State researcher.

Consciousness

Oh dear. William Lane Craig and his bizarre triality...

William Lane Craig, in a recent video, has declared, as a get out of jail free card for free will and neuroscience, a soul-brainstate-consciousness model for decision making.

Epistemology

Which Qu'ran, Mecca or Medina?

This is an excellent succinct synopsis of the issue of contradictions and abrogation in the Qu'ran. The Qu'ran can be broadly split into two based on when and where the revelations took place. This article is reblogged with kind permission from Beyond the Cusp - thanks! This is a quick synopsis for

Dorset Humanists

Understanding Islam

Sorry I have been quiet, but I have been preparing for a talk to the Dorset Humanists on Islam. This will be a co-presented evening which will feature me putting forward my case that Islam naturally tends towards violence on account of the role model of Muhammad and the provenance