May 11 Links

Herb Silverman on how or whether government should define religion

Jerry Coyne summarizes the Pew Report on the Muslim World.  The news isn't good.

Some Jewish women want to wail at the wailing wall.  Lots of Jewish men don't want them to do it.  The military has to intervene to let them.  Crazy.

The Black Ladies of Los Angeles buy their Sunday best from a Jewish Iranian clothier... and never on a Saturday.  I have to admit, I have always admired black lady church clothes.  Nobody does it better, and apparently the black ladies of Los Angeles are the best of the best.

I can see my house from here!  Live stream from the space station.

Unintentionally funny church signs  (found via reddit atheism - yes, I went there!)

The Dark Side of Home Schooling (found via the Richard Dawkins Foundation:  The Dark Side of Home Schooling)

last-minute addition:  Boston pediatric psychiatrist barred because of diagnosing "sprititual" disease.  They won't report which church Dr. Kam took his patient to.  Why?  Shouldn't people be warned away from this dangerous church, too?  (h/t Religion Clause)

Video of the Week: "The Storytelling of Science" hosted by Lawrence Krauss with a stellar panel of sciency atheistic types.  Be sure to make time for the second part. Neil DeGrasse Tyson goes ballistic!



Part Two:

God Works in Mysterious Ways? Seriously?

Like everyone else I think the rescue of the three women in Cleveland is a great story.  Waiting for years for her moment, perhaps earning the trust of her captor in order to create such a moment, Amanda Berry screams to a passerby, who comes to her aid and calls 911 on her behalf.  The police respond, rescue the other two women and the child born into that horrible situation, and now the captors are behind bars and the women are with their families.

The aunt of one said: “I will tell you this because I was there to see her- all three girls. God works in mysterious ways. It’s just unbelievable, unbelievable, these girls, these women are so strong; stronger than I am."  Did she work in her praise for god just out of a sense of duty?  I wouldn't give that callous asshole one iota of thanks for letting the perp have "free will" to deprive three others (and then his rape-daughter also) of theirs.  What kind of "good" god is this?


First of all, God could have given this man ALS or crippled him in a car wreck, preventing him from being able to snatch three girls off the street and systematically rape them.  Or he could have blessed him with visions of His goodness and inspired him to join the priesthood (where he would rape little boys instead).  Or He could have just caused the guy's mother to have a miscarriage and prevented the whole thing.  How many mysterious ways could God have worked on this problem?  A bajillion, at least!

Did "He" choose to do any of those things?  The wise and loving father who looks after the innocent?  NO!  He looked over the guy's shoulder while he was raping those girls!  Or he closed his eyes, or maybe he put all his energy into rigging baseball games in favor of the team with the most prayerful people on their side.  He certainly didn't lift a finger to help these girls.  He could at least have prevented an innocent baby being born into the situation.

This is the classic Problem of Evil.  If god is all-powerful and omniscient and omnibenevolent, then why didn't he intervene?  Either 1)  he's not all-powerful or 2) he's not omniscient or 3) he's not benevolent.  Option four:  he could intervene but chooses not to is hardly a characteristic of a god worth worshiping but people will defend him with that line.  As Tracie Harris said on The Atheist Experience, "If I could stop a person from raping a child, I would. That’s the difference between me and your God."

Coincidentally, the niece's name is Gina DeJesus.  Hallelujah.  I can't imagine keeping that name after what she's been through.

Deconversion Stories of Famous Atheists

Dan Barker, former evangelical preacher and now co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  His autobiography is Losing Faith in Faith and he also wrote Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America' Leading Atheists.





Bart Ehrman, Biblical scholar who trained to be a pastor and became an atheist.  He peeked behind the curtain and found out that the Wizard was a fraud.  Most of the video summarizes the main problems in the transmission of the books of the Bible and early debates about Jesus:



Seth Andrews, former Christian broadcaster and now podcaster and speaker, wrote Deconverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason.

Jerry DeWitt, another ex-pastor (Pentecostal), wrote Hope After Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism. He is the first graduate of The Clergy Project, started by Dan Barker and Richard Dawkins to give closet atheist pastors a safe place to discuss transitioning to secular life.



Teresa Macbain, also a member of The Clergy Project. She came out despite certain unemployment, and she is now a speaker and Public Relations Director for American Atheists. (Mute until she is at the podium b/c there's terrible feedback):



Matt Dilahunty of The Atheist Experience:



Michael Shermer (blog post): he read up on evolution in order to debunk it, and became a skeptic and atheist


I don't know if this guy is famous but he ought to be!  He tried to convert "natives" and they deconverted him:



And the classic, "Why I am Not A Christian" by Bertrand Russell (not read by him):



His answers to lame questions in an interview. His deconversion is part of the interview:

May 4 Link Round-up

Moon Landing Faked!  Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories  Skeptical article in Scientific American ... not by Michael Shermer

 Real paleontologists visited the Creation Museum.  Fortunately they were not left speechless.

The survey says:  Christians are more like Pharisees than like Christ

PZ Myers destroys the aquatic ape hypothesis idiocy.

10 Things Most Americans Don't Know About Themselves

Interview (.pdf) with the author of Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live

Florida freethinkers win the right to distribute atheist literature in a Florida school system.  The schools had allowed a group to leave Bibles on a table for students, so freethought literature will now be available as well.

A printable electronic ear has been developed so borg people can now be their own ipod.  Add Google Glass to become a total Borg, but it may not last:  Google Glass:  Too Dorky to Live?

Rep. Randy Forbes tells Congress that the Obama administration is waging war on Christians in the military.  Politifact says Mostly False:  "This did happen in at least one briefing at a reserve center in Pennsylvania. The Army says it was a mistake -- made by an individual, not the command -- that was corrected upon the first complaint."

Westboro Baptist "Church" threatens to picket George Jones' funeral.  They're trying so hard to make conservatives hate them.  Why isn't it working?

More affinity fraud, this time pastors in Toronto, who bilked their congregation of $9 million Canadian (it's still a lot of money even if it is Canadian)

It's Buddhists vs Muslims in Sri Lanka and Burma, with Buddhists adopting violence contrary to their religion.

Richard Carrier reviews a book with mythicist arguments against the historical Jesus so you don't have to.  Really.  Doesn't sound like a very good book.  Carrier's review is good reading, though.

Video of the Week: The Four Horsemen in Conversation (Dawkins, Dennett, Carrier and the late great Hitchens)

Dawkins and Krauss Go on the Road

A new film is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival this week.  It's called "The Unbelievers," starring Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss.  Apparently it is edited from various conversations they have held with each other and with diverse audiences around the world. 

Watch their television promos, thanks to the Jesus Saves ... at Citibank youtube channel.  I'm also  sharing two of their road trip videos below the telly appearances.  The two videos  come from the Australian leg of their road trip.  The first is Richard Dawkins vs. an Idiot Catholic Cardinal (Caradinal Pell).  The second is from the next day, with Dawkins & Krauss together in front of a less hostile audience.  They reference the appearance with Cardinal Pell during that video.

Toronto Television:


Dawkins & Krauss on CNN, with Dawkins not letting the interviewer get away with a last-minute nod to believers:


Dawkins vs. the Cardinal:



Dawkins & Krauss in Australia:

Reading List

After seeing the shockingly bad reading list for the Ball State course purporting to be about the "boundaries of science" but being totally just ID/creationism, I started thinking of which books I would recommend as the counterbalance to his creationist/ID list for undergrads.  This is what I've come up with.  Any suggestions?

Coyne.  Why Evolution is True

Darwin.  On the Origin of Species

Dawkins.  The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Dawkins.  The Selfish Gene

Festinger & Carlsmith.  "Cognitive Dissonance" (article)

Hawking.  A Brief History of Time

Krauss.  A Universe from Nothing

Mills.  Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism

Sagan.  A Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Shermer.  How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God

Shermer.  Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design

Sokal.  Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture

Stenger.  God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist

Tyson.  Origins:  Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution

Richard Dawkins (Politely) Gives an Hour of Time He'll Never Get Back to a Y.E.C.

I don't know how he does it, or why he's called "strident" or "militant." He's waaaaay more polite than I would be toward this idiot (note that in the comments there's a debate over whether you can call the interviewer an idiot).