Month: April 2010
Say It Loud!
You’ve probably heard it said before: “So why don’t moderate Muslims publicly condemn terrorism?” Turns out they do, quite a few of them, but because it’s a less sensational story it doesn’t get reported all that well. But it begs a related question: “Why are Christians so reluctant to publicly condemn the sins and excesses…
10 People with whom I would love to dine
(in no particular order) Stephen Fry – British comedian, author, TV presenter, actor William Gibson – Canadian-based American novelist Jack Womack – American novelist Dara O’Briain – England-based Irish comedian Alyssa Milano – American actress Tim Minchin – England-based Australian musical comedian Lemmy Kilmister – American-based English musician Terry Pratchett – English novelist Kieran Egan…
David in the Middle
I say fairly often to people with whom I’m having a discussion “hey, you know I also argue with the people on the opposite side of this issue, right?” It’s true – I challenge evolutionists and creationists, Christians and atheists, left-wingers and right-wingers, and so on. I don’t think people often believe me, though. Here’s…
Ethics in School
The St James Ethics Centre has developed a non-religious course on ethics that is to be offered to students in New South Wales as an alternative to Religious Education. Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen weighed into the debate, claiming ethics without religion are impossible. Here’s an excellent radio interview, by Philip Adams, of Simon Longstaff, director…
Stunning Photos of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano
These are amazing: I’d never thought about lightning in ash clouds, but it makes sense – and looks great! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/4/19/211154/316
The Life and The Work
One of the things I got from our time in Canada was a deep love of the excellent Canadian band ‘The Tragically Hip’. I’ve been posting and discussing some of the songs on the William Gibson Board lately, so they’ve kind of been stuck in my head this week: and they’re all memorable and amazing.…
Can you point out a flaw?
I continue in search of a reasonable faith: Christianity claims to make people more moral: in fact, to be the source of morality. Yet the statistics for divorce, spousal abuse, child abuse and so on are pretty much identical between Christians and the rest of the community. Christianity clearly and simply fails, in an empirically…
Invisible ______ is spotted
A small piece of British comedy news quiz ‘Have I Got News For You’. In this round panelists try to guess the missing word:
It’s just that fragile, and it can go away in a second
Hundreds of thousands of people, making plans to fly for business or pleasure. I don’t do it all the time, but I do it enough that I take if for granted. We all do, all over the world. And then, without warning, a volcano erupts in Iceland and shuts the whole thing down for a…
Windpocked Sandstone
There’s a bit of a poetry challenge going on at the WGB at the moment, where we’re given the first line and have to make up a poem from that: the person who provided the first line gets to judge the poems. I kinda liked how this one (the prompt was ‘Wind pocked sandstone’, and…
Michael Specter on the dangers of science denial
(not about climate) (Have to admit, I often don’t watch videos people post: the time-lockedness bugs me. IMO this one is worth doing, so leave it until you have 20 min set aside and check it out.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OMLSs8t1ng
Grace
In a night where I dreamed a lot, for some reason, I only remembered one fragment (because I woke up and told myself to so I could blog about it!) There was a large meal, something like Thanksgiving, and I was saying grace. I said something like “We know that for huge parts of human…
Mercantilisation and Education
Businesses used to have (at least) two purposes – making the best possible ‘product’, and making money. Over the past perhaps 50 years we have seen a shift in the direction of making the cheapest, crappiest possible product and maximising shareholder return (money). This is not inevitable, it’s just an evolution in our consumerist society.…
The Large Hadron Collider
(wrote this for another purpose elsewhere, but since I’ve alluded to the LHC here a couple of times here I thought I’d share) I think there’s a lot of nonsense being talked about the LHC, what it is and what it does. Talk of ‘God particles’ and ‘mini-big bangs’ is journalistic license, or scientists doing…
That ‘Future Fellowship’ Application
Not sure whether I’ve mentioned it here, but I have on Facebook and other places. I’m currently in the process of applying to become a ‘Future Fellow1‘ funded by the Australian Research Council. That would mean that the ARC would take over paying my salary for the next 4 years to allow me to focus…
Dammit, I was trying to stay away from negative Christianity stories
It’d help with that if these #%^%@%&# even faked being sorry for the evil they do in the world: http://tv.gawker.com/5512126/jon-stewarts-crusade-against-the-catholic-church-rolls-on Instead of showing contrition, they seem to prefer whinging that the world is picking on them, and comparing their ‘plight’ with that of the Jews in the 30s. Just disgusting. God needs to get his…
46 Going on 25
Thanks so much to all those who have wished me ‘Happy Birthday’ by email, Twitter, Facebook and on forums. I’ve tried to thank as many as possible, but the international response has been overwhelming and humbling: I don’t feel as though I deserve as many good friends as I have, but I’m delighted you’re my…
Road Triippp!!
First I was excited – Turisas are taking a break from recording their album to do a lightning tour of Australia! Then I was depressed – the Brisbane show happens to be the night we fly back from Malaysia, and the flight arrives after the show will be finished. The fact that it’s in an…
Social Justice Christians
Perhaps balancing the scales a bit (as Paul pointed out to me in comments, my frustration with Christian hostility and hypocrisy has dominated this blog a bit recently), here’s an initative I can get behind:
Who would Jesus intern?
Tony Abbott, Australia’s opposition leader, opined in a TV interview last night that Jesus would turn back asylum seekers: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/even-jesus-christ-would-not-accept-every-asylum-seeker-says-tony-abbott/comments-e6freon6-1225850156617 Maybe Tony’s Bible is missing Matthew 25…