An atheist offers to accept Jesus

Hey, I’m up for it in theory. If he ever actually turned up, he’d be welcome. I’m happy to make a completely empty gesture if that’s what Christians think God wants from me. But would it really help? (I’ve bought a new camera since filming this one, and it’s way better. The difference will be [...]

Read Full Post »

Islam sucks, but you don’t have to

Here’s an interesting account of someone’s experiment wearing a veil which covered her hair, and the shift in attitudes she experienced when people assumed she was a Muslim. It’s a troubling tale of prejudice and discompassion. Here’s a clip of Sam Harris, one of my heroes, talking about Islam, asserting among other things that Osama [...]

Read Full Post »

I have opinions about #26march. Or #march26. Or I don’t.

There were some protests in London over the weekend, in which large numbers of people took to the streets to express their disapproval with some of the government’s policies. You might have some less vague things to say about them yourself, if you’re better at assessing information than I am. The protests – as is [...]

Read Full Post »

Ex-gay? Well, okay

This is one of those times where I’m siding with the anti-gay Christians. And not even grudgingly, like when your commitment to free speech and intellectual honesty means you sort of have to accept the Westboro Baptist Church’s right to picket military funerals, however much it might pain you to let them to be so [...]

Read Full Post »

Atheists know God exists?

It’s a popular Christian assertion. Atheists know they’re wrong about God, they just don’t want to admit it. Makes perfect sense. If you knew there was an all-powerful, all-knowing deity who was going to judge you for eternity based on whether or not you accepted his authority, the obvious thing to do would be to [...]

Read Full Post »

Law and Lasciviousness

You know that hideously embarrassing English libel law we’ve been trying to get changed, so that it has a slightly greater fighting chance of actually representing some semblance of justice? Well, some people have been working on that. In particular, a draft libel reform bill was published by the government today (PDF link). This will [...]

Read Full Post »

The Nightingale Collaboration

Okay, so that’s not all you’re getting from me tonight. I also posted a video earlier, about the Nightingale Collaboration: Give it a thumbs-up or a favourite or something if you think it’s worth my doing more of these.

Read Full Post »

Happy birthday, dear Albert

Today is Albert Einstein’s birthday, and also Pi Day. But that link’s currently broken, so maybe you should just listen to pi in musical form instead. Except, The Tau Manifesto makes a pretty good case. And anyway, I’m English. We don’t write today’s date as 3/14. Technically my Pi Day should wait until the 31st [...]

Read Full Post »

It’s a bood! It’s a ploon! It’s… Soopermoon!

I told you yesterday I was having trouble keeping up the earnestness. It all seems barely less terrible in that part of the world than it was yesterday, but there are other petty things worth getting annoyed about, in between just feeling sad. Ben Goldacre has pointed to an article in the Daily Mail which [...]

Read Full Post »

Japan

If you have nowhere to turn but me, to be informed about shit that’s going down in Japan right now, or how to donate and help the thousands of people who are having their lives fucked up and homes destroyed, then you have problems that go beyond my capacity to assist you. Having said that, [...]

Read Full Post »