religionisbullshit.net

I though as I've just finished re-reading it, I would recommend what is by far my favourite book by Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow (Amazon | Amazon UK). I think that it actually does a better job than The God Delusion of exposing religion - along with superstition, the paranormal, pseudo-science and plain bad reasoning - by showing that real science, properly understood, "does not disenchant nature, but rather enhances the poetry of experience by revealing the workings of the natural world in their full wonder". (The God Delusion was a book that I think rather preached to the choir; I doubt if many "true believers" would even pick the thing up in the first place, particularly as many would have been advised to stay away from it by their religious leaders, who presumably fear that Dakwins might have a valid point or two).

It goes into some detail on two of the things that I've always thought lead to religious belief - an inability to comprehend big numbers (which inhibits understanding of things like the size of the universe or the timescale involved in its formation) and not "getting" probability (which is why many people, when faced with what they see as an unlikely occurrence, think that "it must be God"). The part showing why the human brain is particularly good at recognising faces might explain why large numbers of people find significance in apparent images of Jesus on everyday items (such as a piece of toast). And on that subject, this made me laugh (particularly the last line) . . .

Hi again peeps. Thought I'd post this as it made me laugh - show it to anyone who thinks that science and creationism are compatible.


[via b3ta]

I keep thinking that I should declare this blog officially dead, but I can't quite bring myself to do so. After all, I might write something ... sometime ...

Writing about religion is more than a little frustrating, having to reiterate the same old arguments and put up with trolls and hit-and-run fundie commenters. Also, I got all the metaphysical stuff out of the way early on, leaving me to have to follow the news if I wanted to write anything of interest - something that I don't consistently bother with (plenty of other people do that job rather better than me).

There is still an interest in the site though, so I'm not planning to get rid of what's already here whether I continue writing or not. I still get hundreds - sometimes thousands - of visitors a day. People still comment on old posts and I receive a large number of responses to the Christianity Questionnaire (I haven't posted any of the responses recently as they are all just variations of the same theme).

I have been told that sites like this are pointless as I'm either preaching to the converted or winding up fundies who are beyond any form of reasoning. This may be partially true, but I'd guess that at least a few of the more intelligent religious people who have found their way here have gone away questioning their beliefs to some extent. Also, anything that promotes atheism is a good thing. While it may be several centuries since anyone was burnt at the stake for heresy, it's only fairly recently that atheism has become socially acceptable. The atheist bus thing is a good example of this - I don't imagine that even a few years ago it would have happened. The response from religious groups was fairly feeble and not really taken seriously (although the hypocrisy of Christians and the special treatment still given them for no reason other than they have a "belief" was evident when a Christian bus driver refused to drive one of the busses displaying the advert - somehow I can't imagine an atheist bus driver being allowed to refuse to drive a bus displaying an advert for the alpha course).

On the subject of the advert, I do think that the wording could have been stronger:

(Thanks to the bus slogan generator, via b3ta)

Anyway, this site is more than just a blog. Since writing last I have put back the articles from the original version of this site and re-done the front page (just an introduction, but contains the important - and much talked about it would seem - disclaimer). Any other updates will be added below.

In the meantime, buy my stuff!

UPDATES:
23/02/09 - added a response to a Christian's view of atheism

The server this site is on has just had its php upgraded. This has had the interesting effect of stopping everything from working properly. I'm currently trying to get it all sorted and, hopefully, have a bit of a tidy up around here. In the meantime, feel free to look around - there is actually some good stuff hidden in this mess of a website.

It would have been nice if all the people who have been foaming at the mouth following the recent comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Sharia law recently had have found out what he actually said first.

He's still wrong thought, for the reasons highlighted in this post by the Pub Philosopher. I don't always agree with Pub, but here he points out exactly why religious groups should never be given any power, even as an "alternative" authority that is available to certain sections of society (the post also shows how in many ways the state is what allows freedom, something that most conservative/right-wing people don't seem to understand. But you don't want to get me started on that subject ...)

It seems that the UK's "ancient, discriminatory, unnecessary, illiberal and non-human rights compliant" blasphemy laws - which are generally ignored anyway - are likely to be abolished [BBC News story].

Although certain religious groups will be seriously pissed off by this, it seems that many high profile Christians are in favour of the law being abolished. Lib Dem MP Evan Harris points out the obvious:

"The Almighty does not really need the protection of these ridiculous laws and that's why large numbers of people of a religious perspective share the view that these offences need to be abolished".