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A collection of 264 posts

determinism

My Appearance on BBC 1’s The Big Questions Today

It finally came to pass as the producers liked the cut of my jib when they phoned me to ask me about my views on free will; a sort of a test run to see if I sounded OK. I passed.

crime

The Quarantine Approach to Crime and Punishment

As a determinist who believes that free will is an illusion, the argument over whether we have libertarian free will or not is somewhat passé. The interesting debates happen over whether we have moral responsibility or not, what any ramifications of this would be, and what approaches we should have

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FOX stoop to new lows

Urghhh. This was so painful to watch. They should be had up in court for misinforming and mischaracterising. This is evil propaganda of the worst sort. What can be done about it? It's so depressing that such a widely watched channel can spew forth such vitriolic nonsense. I

Biblical Exegesis

Easter: The Resurrection Round-up

Being that time of year, let me remind you of some things that I have written on the Resurrection (and death and burial) of Jesus: On the Skepticism of the Resurrection On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 2) On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 3) On the Skepticism

atheism

Bill Burr tells it like it is

This was exactly what I espoused here in my piece "Why do normal people believe ridiculous things?" Except way way funnier. The art about curling is sublime. H/T Rebecca Bradley or Beth Ann Erickson (one of my esteemed colleagues) [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7IcQRItOdk&

atheism

Real Deconvserion Story #10 - ML Candelario

Here is another account in my series of real-life deconversion stories. They are often painful, psychological affairs, as you can see from the various accounts. ML Candelario was put on to me by contributor Cody Rudisill who has posted the occasional article. I thank MLC for his contribution. Please check

atheism

Death: When I die...

The Skeptic Ink Network are running a little series on death, so keep your eyes peeled for some articles across the network from a few contributors (see our previous series on moral panics). To start the ball rolling, here is something that I have to offer on the subject: I'm hopefully not going

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Guest Post: God's Love Should Be Superior To Man's

This is a guest post by Little Fire who submitted through a friend. An interesting little twist on the idea of God's love: WHY? Why Is God's Love Conditional? Love is different for everyone because we all put different conditions or expectations on the ones we love -- consciously and unconscio

extremism

Ali Rizvi Exposes Muslims’ Double Standard About “Hate Speech”

The Friendly Atheist has an excellent short piece which utterly destroys liberal and moderate Muslims in their case for Islam being a religion of peace. It is not that, as I have shown here, and due mainly to this. The problem stems from the core text, the Qu'ran. And you can't really be a Muslim an

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Germany court orders measles skeptic to pay 100,000 euros

Bad skeptics suck. The BBC reports: A German biologist who offered €100,000 (£71,350; $106,300) to anyone who could prove that measles is a virus has been ordered by a court to pay up. Stefan Lanka, who believes the illness is psychosomatic, made the pledge four years ago

Beyond an Absence of Faith

Another great review for Beyond An Absence Of Faith

Here is another great review for the anthology of deconversion accounts that myself and Tristan Vick compiled and edited. The accounts cover different religions and there is a fair gender split of accounts. It's a great book and we are well pleased with the results. Here is a review from Amazon in t

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Reminder: UKIP's Farage was childhood "racist" and "fascist"

I can't believe I had forgotten this, or perhaps it never passed my radar. Apparently UKIP aren't a racist party, even though theor supporters and members are empirically more racist and intolerant than all other main parties, even though it seems that a councillor activist puts their foot in their

AGW

In Florida, officials ban term climate change

The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in this country, according to scientists. Sea-level rise alone threatens 30 percent of the state’s beaches over the next 85 years. But you would not know that by talking to officials at the Florida Department of

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Satan as God's Management Executive

God is supposed to be omnipotent. You know, all powerful, almighty. The great-making characteristics of such a god are the paragon of abilities. He could achieve anything at the metaphorical click of his fingers. So what the hell is Satan still doing hanging around? Well, of course, he doesn't ex

Epistemology

Propositional content of the inner witness of God

How many times do we hear Christians claiming that they have had direct experience of God as a self-authenticating inner witness? It is pretty common as a debate closer. William Lane Craig famously uses it, as in here:

extremism

US-Bangladesh blogger Avijit Roy hacked to death

Attackers in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have hacked to death a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose writings on religion angered Islamist hardliners. Avijit Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was also hurt in the attack.

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Left-wing people less likely to hurt others

A new piece of research has come out which looks to take the landmark Milgram experiments to the next level of analysis. The Milgram experiment showed that people could just be following orders when being harmful to others? As wiki states: The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was

Creationism

Christians Against Dinosaurs - yes, these idiots exist.

There is a group called Christians Against Dinosaurs. They are clearly nuts. This article is taken from Addicting Info. It makes for disturbing reading: Most Christians are warm, loving people. Some use their chosen holy book to spew hatred and bigotry. Others…are just insane.

Devil

Hell ain’t nothing without Satan

One of my published works, The Little Book Of Unholy Questions, is a romp through the cumulative case against God set out as 501 leading questions, supported by commentary introducing and closing each section. After my section on Hell, I look briefly at the idea of Satan, who is nothing more than a

atheism

Chapel Hill: Perspective

I admittedly don't know an awful lot about the incident at Chapel Hill whereby an atheist gunned down three Muslims. As a skeptic, questions automatically come to mind, such as, given the notion that a lack of belief in a deity isn't really enough content as a proposition to cause any action other t

capitalism

Dealing with replies to my free market skepticism posts

This chap (to whom the series was directed), Scotty M, has replied to some of my points in the series on Free Market Economics. Unfortunately, he would rather rabidly bash away at You Tube than bring a civil discussion here. The most common issue that Scotty faces is his predilection for straw ma

capitalism

On the Skepticism of Free Market Economics (part 3): free market success stories

Buckle up, this is another sizeable piece... In this series looking skeptically at libertarian claims of free market capitalism being the holy grail of all of reality, I have come to the section where I cast a skeptical eye over some of the more common claims of libertarians. The claim appears to

capitalism

On the Skepticism of Free Market Economics (part 2): No True Capitalism

Perhaps I should call this article the No True Capitalism Apart From When It Suits ME. As I shall explain. I have written a previous and lengthy piece to this debunking certain myths and pointing out certain problems with free market economics in its most fundamental ideal. This is all a result o

capitalism

On the Skepticism of Free Market Economics (part 1)

Free market economics seems to be the cornerstone of both right-wing and libertarian political ideology, broadly espousing that the companies and corporations and consumers of the world arbitrate supply, price and, in some way it is hoped, moral dimensions of product manufacture and consumption. In

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Are religious people kinder? I'm skeptical...

I have told you before that Reasonable Doubts is my favourite podcast. Well, here is a great RD Extra podcast with Luke Galen, psychologist, looks skeptically at claims of religious people being kinder, more charitable, prosocial. So very worth a listen: