This is a rather funny video of Richard Dawkins reading out some wonderful emails he has received from those all loving Christians. Hilarious.
Frequent use of AI may hinder students' academic performance
15 minutes ago
Friday, August 29, 2008
Sydney Atheists Rawk
Yet another great meetup last night for the Sydney Atheists at the Atheist Social Lounge! A great turnout of enthusiastic and motivated atheists and freethinkers, with loads of fun had by all. We launched the freethinkers lending library, comprising of a variety of books and DVDs which will expand over time. We are certainly well on our way to some very exciting times ahead, which we will keep updating on this blog.
There are a group of us tomorrow who will be attending the Ark Van Tour. The Ark Van Ministry, a team of young earth creationists, will be showcasing their three Noah's Ark models, which is designed to help people understand "how real the Ark was, as not many people have had the opportunity to see up close how plausible the biblical Ark was". Rod Walsh will be able to expertly answer all of our questions that other Christians are unable to answer, such as "were there dinosaurs on the ark?" Hopefully we will have the opportunity to ask some questions. Should be fun, so come along if you are in the area!!
And now for some thing completely different. Here is a very cool video of a prime example of pareidolia. See if you can make out "the face of god".
And this video is very cool too. It's lightning striking in slow motion. Nature is awe inspiring.
There are a group of us tomorrow who will be attending the Ark Van Tour. The Ark Van Ministry, a team of young earth creationists, will be showcasing their three Noah's Ark models, which is designed to help people understand "how real the Ark was, as not many people have had the opportunity to see up close how plausible the biblical Ark was". Rod Walsh will be able to expertly answer all of our questions that other Christians are unable to answer, such as "were there dinosaurs on the ark?" Hopefully we will have the opportunity to ask some questions. Should be fun, so come along if you are in the area!!
And now for some thing completely different. Here is a very cool video of a prime example of pareidolia. See if you can make out "the face of god".
And this video is very cool too. It's lightning striking in slow motion. Nature is awe inspiring.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Michael Shermer on ABC radio
You can hear Michael Shermer on ABC Radio here.
There is also a full transcript at the link above.
It was recorded for the 'all in the mind' show, which is a weekly radio show and is podcatchable.
The blurb for the Shermer Show is as follows:
Are markets moral? Is our hunter-gatherer brain geared for modern capitalism, and do economies work like evolutionary organisms? The rise of neuroeconomics, the extinction of Homo Economicus and more -- with outspoken founder of the US Skeptics Society, Dr Michael Shermer, and shareholder activist and Crikey founder, Stephen Mayne.
There is also a full transcript at the link above.
It was recorded for the 'all in the mind' show, which is a weekly radio show and is podcatchable.
The blurb for the Shermer Show is as follows:
Are markets moral? Is our hunter-gatherer brain geared for modern capitalism, and do economies work like evolutionary organisms? The rise of neuroeconomics, the extinction of Homo Economicus and more -- with outspoken founder of the US Skeptics Society, Dr Michael Shermer, and shareholder activist and Crikey founder, Stephen Mayne.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Michael Shermer at the Wesley Centre
Here's some video of Michael Shermer at the Wesley Centre, Sydney during his debate with John Lennox on Saturday.
Enjoy
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
And Here's a photo set, thanks to John
Enjoy
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
And Here's a photo set, thanks to John
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Michael Shermer at the Big Night of Science
Michael Shermer's Adventures in Sydney- Friday 22/8 (Part 2)
After our lunch at the American Club, we headed over to the Powerhouse Museum, where Shermer would be speaking at the "Big Night of Science" as part of the Ultimo Science Festival and National Science Week.
We had some time to kill, so we went to a pub near by for a few quick drinks and a bite to eat. Before too long, a few of our friends from the Australian Skeptics turned up, followed soon after by Michael Shermer and Paul Willis!
(L to R) Ian, Me (Alan), Rachel, John, Margaret, Michael Shermer, Paul Willis, Richard, Jason and Amanda.
This was a blast! we never thought that he would just mosey up to the divey little pub that we were at, and it was a great chance to have a laid-back informal chat with both Michael and Paul.
It also afforded us the opportunity for a bit of a beer-skulling comp!
Shermer was good, but couldn't beat Dave the Happy Singer!
Before long, we left the pub and went to the Big Night of Science. There was a live Jazz band playing and plenty of wine for all.
The first talk of the night was by Simon Pampena, the Stand-Up Mathematician, with his Maths Olympics show.
It was a blast, he was tragically funny, with an over-the-top comedy/maths blend that went down really well with the audience. He also called for two participants from the audience, my mate, Nathan, and girlfriend and critical mass blogee Rachel.
I'd like to see this guy again, he was great. I'm sure he would go down pretty well with school audiences too.
Next up was something completely different, Dr Jim Partick gave a talk about bionics and cochlear implants, which was interesting to me because of the number of clients I have who benefit already from such bionic devices.
The third stop on the program was the discussion between Paul Willis and Michael Shermer, which was supposed to be about the nature of genius, but became more of a QnA with Shermer about his past works, latest book and life experiences. It was a really interesting talk and when question time began, I'm sure the museum was staring to regret the free wine offered earlier!
The last talk was by Dr Fred Watson, who spoke about space tourism. He explained a lot about the difficulties faced by those hwo are trying to provide space tourism at the moment, what is being developed in the field of space torism and what the future may have in stall for space tourism.
It's a tremendously interesting subject and there are so many different avenues being explored that it looks like there may be a likelihood of affordable space tourism within our lifetime. As soon as I can afford it, you can bet that I'll be zooming through the cosmos like Rocky Jones!
The whole night was heaps of fun, and to make it even better, we (a whole rabble of atheists and sceptics) went out for dinner with Michael Shermer in chinatown, where we chatted until late into the night about all th things we don't believe in (and some of the things we do!)
We had some time to kill, so we went to a pub near by for a few quick drinks and a bite to eat. Before too long, a few of our friends from the Australian Skeptics turned up, followed soon after by Michael Shermer and Paul Willis!
(L to R) Ian, Me (Alan), Rachel, John, Margaret, Michael Shermer, Paul Willis, Richard, Jason and Amanda.This was a blast! we never thought that he would just mosey up to the divey little pub that we were at, and it was a great chance to have a laid-back informal chat with both Michael and Paul.
It also afforded us the opportunity for a bit of a beer-skulling comp!
Shermer was good, but couldn't beat Dave the Happy Singer!Before long, we left the pub and went to the Big Night of Science. There was a live Jazz band playing and plenty of wine for all.
The first talk of the night was by Simon Pampena, the Stand-Up Mathematician, with his Maths Olympics show.
It was a blast, he was tragically funny, with an over-the-top comedy/maths blend that went down really well with the audience. He also called for two participants from the audience, my mate, Nathan, and girlfriend and critical mass blogee Rachel.
I'd like to see this guy again, he was great. I'm sure he would go down pretty well with school audiences too.Next up was something completely different, Dr Jim Partick gave a talk about bionics and cochlear implants, which was interesting to me because of the number of clients I have who benefit already from such bionic devices.
The third stop on the program was the discussion between Paul Willis and Michael Shermer, which was supposed to be about the nature of genius, but became more of a QnA with Shermer about his past works, latest book and life experiences. It was a really interesting talk and when question time began, I'm sure the museum was staring to regret the free wine offered earlier!
The last talk was by Dr Fred Watson, who spoke about space tourism. He explained a lot about the difficulties faced by those hwo are trying to provide space tourism at the moment, what is being developed in the field of space torism and what the future may have in stall for space tourism.
It's a tremendously interesting subject and there are so many different avenues being explored that it looks like there may be a likelihood of affordable space tourism within our lifetime. As soon as I can afford it, you can bet that I'll be zooming through the cosmos like Rocky Jones!
The whole night was heaps of fun, and to make it even better, we (a whole rabble of atheists and sceptics) went out for dinner with Michael Shermer in chinatown, where we chatted until late into the night about all th things we don't believe in (and some of the things we do!)
Michael Shermer's Adventures in Sydney- Friday 22/8
Now I've finally got the photos up, I can say a bit more about our wonderful weekend. Friday, we stated at an exclusive lunch at the American Club, where Michael Shermer and John Lennox held an informal debate on the topic of 'Has science buried God'.
There was a fair group from the Australian Skeptics there
(From left to right) Me, Frode, Barry Williams, Margaret, John, Rachel and John.
(L to R) Margaret, John, Barry, Michael, Jason
John Lennox was the first speaker. He argued using all of the same weak arguments that we've heard time and time again coming from the religious front, such as that science cannot deal with abstract concepts such as love, poetry, music; Darwinism implies atheism; atheism is a religion; atheism is a philosophy, not science, etc etc etc...
Lennox also posited that atheism and theism are worldviews and the question is with which of these science is closer related;
Christianity gave us science, therefore they must be inseparable;
the atheistic worldview tells us that consciousness is unguided, so why should we believe it?;
atheism undermines the basic rationality needed to explain science because information cannot be reduced to physics and chemistry.
He concluded with asserting that mind must precede matter, not matter before mind, and his closing statement was that either in the beginning were the particles and a cold process of gradual movement from simple to complex forms, or in the beginning was the word...
-------------------------------------------
Michael Shermer then took to the lectern. After a few jokes, including an anecdote about his past life as an evangelical door knocking christian which was followed by a period of militant atheism where he went around knocking on the same doors and taking it all back!
Shermer made the points that atheism only answers the question of belief in a god which makes no positive assertion about what an atheist believes. He also spoke about all of the other groups, such as agnostics, secular humanists, naturalists, brights etc that have tried to escape from the negative connotations associated with the term 'atheism'. He went on to explain that American religion is so virulent because of the separation of church and state, which means that the churches have to compete with each other for money, like businesses; and because of the poor social services by which religious groups are the safety net for those who don't get the care they need from the state, as happened during hurricane Katrina.
Shermer also spoke about the difference between a top-down or bottom-up view of nature. God represents a top-down process, whereas Darwin proposed a bottom-up process, the difference between them being the testability of their claims. Science and religion intersect where religion makes testable claims, which led to a discussion on the efficacy of prayer studies (1,2,3)
Shermer concluded by saying that even if there was evidence to support the existence of god, science would still want to know the process by which she stared it all off. There is nothing that intersects with the physical world that lies outside of the scope of science.
-------------------------------------------
There was then a break and Michael Shermer made a b-line for Rachel, remembering her from TAM (I didn't get recognised nearly as quickly, but then again, I'm not a pretty blonde!)
We had a chat with him and congratulated him on a great speech, before getting an obscene amount of photos. It was really good to see him, he is such a nice guy that has time for anyone who wants it. Before long, we were being called back to our seats for the QnA side of the luncheon.
The questions included "What about other gods?"
Shermer: The world of a deistic god is not as satisfying as a world where the god interacts in people's lives, so the theistic gods appeal to people much more than the deistic gods. The reason that these debates are about the judeo-christian god is that it is the god that our society mostly identifies as 'God'. It would be frivolous to debate the existence of a god that people don't believe in anymore.
Does god interact with the world and can we test it?
Lennox: The resurrection of Jesus Christ is history and enough to prove Christianity.
Has science buried god? Whatever the answer, who cares?
Shermer: The recent boon of interest in the subject of religious criticism shows that there are many people that seem to care.
Lennox: The question of if there is or is not a god has a huge significance either way. If atheism is true, no victim of terror will ever achieve justice.
---------------------------------------------
Concluding statements:
Shermer- If there is no god, justice must be carried out in the present. Furthermore, we need to concentrate on the present without wishful thinking of an afterlife for which there is no evidence. The naturalistic worldview gives much more importance to the here and now.
Lennox- Justice in this world is an important thing to have, but there is an ultimate justice that exists. If atheism is right, there is no hope of justice for so many people.
---------------------------------------------
Afterwards, we all mingled together. There were a few heated debates with Lennox and John Dixon
And a photo opportunity or two
(L to R) Margaret, John, John Lennox, Frode, Rachel, Me (Alan) and John.
And that was just the beginning... more posts coming soon!
There was a fair group from the Australian Skeptics there
(From left to right) Me, Frode, Barry Williams, Margaret, John, Rachel and John.
(L to R) Margaret, John, Barry, Michael, JasonJohn Lennox was the first speaker. He argued using all of the same weak arguments that we've heard time and time again coming from the religious front, such as that science cannot deal with abstract concepts such as love, poetry, music; Darwinism implies atheism; atheism is a religion; atheism is a philosophy, not science, etc etc etc...
Lennox also posited that atheism and theism are worldviews and the question is with which of these science is closer related;
Christianity gave us science, therefore they must be inseparable;
the atheistic worldview tells us that consciousness is unguided, so why should we believe it?;
atheism undermines the basic rationality needed to explain science because information cannot be reduced to physics and chemistry.
He concluded with asserting that mind must precede matter, not matter before mind, and his closing statement was that either in the beginning were the particles and a cold process of gradual movement from simple to complex forms, or in the beginning was the word...
-------------------------------------------
Michael Shermer then took to the lectern. After a few jokes, including an anecdote about his past life as an evangelical door knocking christian which was followed by a period of militant atheism where he went around knocking on the same doors and taking it all back!
Shermer made the points that atheism only answers the question of belief in a god which makes no positive assertion about what an atheist believes. He also spoke about all of the other groups, such as agnostics, secular humanists, naturalists, brights etc that have tried to escape from the negative connotations associated with the term 'atheism'. He went on to explain that American religion is so virulent because of the separation of church and state, which means that the churches have to compete with each other for money, like businesses; and because of the poor social services by which religious groups are the safety net for those who don't get the care they need from the state, as happened during hurricane Katrina.
Shermer also spoke about the difference between a top-down or bottom-up view of nature. God represents a top-down process, whereas Darwin proposed a bottom-up process, the difference between them being the testability of their claims. Science and religion intersect where religion makes testable claims, which led to a discussion on the efficacy of prayer studies (1,2,3)
Shermer concluded by saying that even if there was evidence to support the existence of god, science would still want to know the process by which she stared it all off. There is nothing that intersects with the physical world that lies outside of the scope of science.
-------------------------------------------
There was then a break and Michael Shermer made a b-line for Rachel, remembering her from TAM (I didn't get recognised nearly as quickly, but then again, I'm not a pretty blonde!)
We had a chat with him and congratulated him on a great speech, before getting an obscene amount of photos. It was really good to see him, he is such a nice guy that has time for anyone who wants it. Before long, we were being called back to our seats for the QnA side of the luncheon.
The questions included "What about other gods?"
Shermer: The world of a deistic god is not as satisfying as a world where the god interacts in people's lives, so the theistic gods appeal to people much more than the deistic gods. The reason that these debates are about the judeo-christian god is that it is the god that our society mostly identifies as 'God'. It would be frivolous to debate the existence of a god that people don't believe in anymore.
Does god interact with the world and can we test it?
Lennox: The resurrection of Jesus Christ is history and enough to prove Christianity.
Has science buried god? Whatever the answer, who cares?
Shermer: The recent boon of interest in the subject of religious criticism shows that there are many people that seem to care.
Lennox: The question of if there is or is not a god has a huge significance either way. If atheism is true, no victim of terror will ever achieve justice.
---------------------------------------------
Concluding statements:
Shermer- If there is no god, justice must be carried out in the present. Furthermore, we need to concentrate on the present without wishful thinking of an afterlife for which there is no evidence. The naturalistic worldview gives much more importance to the here and now.
Lennox- Justice in this world is an important thing to have, but there is an ultimate justice that exists. If atheism is right, there is no hope of justice for so many people.
---------------------------------------------
Afterwards, we all mingled together. There were a few heated debates with Lennox and John Dixon
And a photo opportunity or two
(L to R) Margaret, John, John Lennox, Frode, Rachel, Me (Alan) and John.
And that was just the beginning... more posts coming soon!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
What a massive day!
WOW! We have had such an unbelieveable day.
Michael Shermer is in town and it's been a non-stop day of activities and events.
We went to an invitation only lunch where Shermer and John Lennox held an informal debate on the topic 'Has science buried God?' During the break, Shermer recognised Rachel from TAM and came up and gave her a big hug. We had a big chat with him and got loads of photos. The debate was good (more on that to come) and the club was really nice.
We went to the Powerhouse Museum after lunch and decided to get a snack and a brew at a pub up the road and guess who strolls in?.... Michael Shermer, with Paul Willis, just there for a drink before their talk on the topic of genius. We had a real good time chatting to him about all manner of things, from cycling to god's exisance with a whole bunch of wheatgrass juice jokes.
Next on the to-do list was the 'Big night of science', with live jazz and winein between a variety of talks which included a hilarious mathematics olympian, a presentation on cochlear implants, Shermer and Willis chatting about a bunch of different topics, and Fred Watson, who spoke about the future of space tourism. In between topics we spent even more time chatting to Shermer and catching up with all the other people from the various groups (sceptics, atheists etc)
Shermer invited an entourage of about fifteen people to go to dinner with him after the talks and we all tramped over to chinatown and took over a sall restaraunt. We left the dinner at close to midnight absolutely buzzing from such an exciting day.
And there's still more to go! Tomorrow, we're having lunch with Shermer, then we'll hang out with our sceptical and atheist friends until the big debate between Shermer and Lennox, after which we'll be going for drinks with Shermer.
It's a non-stop joy ride!
We'll be posting more extensive notes on each of the events along with the pictures later this weekend.
Michael Shermer is in town and it's been a non-stop day of activities and events.
We went to an invitation only lunch where Shermer and John Lennox held an informal debate on the topic 'Has science buried God?' During the break, Shermer recognised Rachel from TAM and came up and gave her a big hug. We had a big chat with him and got loads of photos. The debate was good (more on that to come) and the club was really nice.
We went to the Powerhouse Museum after lunch and decided to get a snack and a brew at a pub up the road and guess who strolls in?.... Michael Shermer, with Paul Willis, just there for a drink before their talk on the topic of genius. We had a real good time chatting to him about all manner of things, from cycling to god's exisance with a whole bunch of wheatgrass juice jokes.
Next on the to-do list was the 'Big night of science', with live jazz and winein between a variety of talks which included a hilarious mathematics olympian, a presentation on cochlear implants, Shermer and Willis chatting about a bunch of different topics, and Fred Watson, who spoke about the future of space tourism. In between topics we spent even more time chatting to Shermer and catching up with all the other people from the various groups (sceptics, atheists etc)
Shermer invited an entourage of about fifteen people to go to dinner with him after the talks and we all tramped over to chinatown and took over a sall restaraunt. We left the dinner at close to midnight absolutely buzzing from such an exciting day.
And there's still more to go! Tomorrow, we're having lunch with Shermer, then we'll hang out with our sceptical and atheist friends until the big debate between Shermer and Lennox, after which we'll be going for drinks with Shermer.
It's a non-stop joy ride!
We'll be posting more extensive notes on each of the events along with the pictures later this weekend.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Memories From The Amazing Meeting 6
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Sceptics Dinner Meeting with Victor Stenger
Last night was the sceptics dinner meeting, where we were graced by the presence of Vic Stenger, author of the bestseller God: The Failed Hypothesis.
As always, the dinner meeting was a great opportunity to chat with fellow questioners of bunkum and the turnout was quite impressive, with 170 attendees all up. The agenda favoured the buffet dinner over the guest speaker, which was a slight dissapointment (RSL club buffets aren't the most vegetarian friendly affairs, it was roast pumpkin and lettuce all the way!). We were lucky to get there early enough to get some good seats and ended up in the company of 'the regulars' from sceptics in the pub.
At about 8:30pm, after dessert was served, Richard Saunders gave a news rundown where he spoke about the recent bigfoot controversy and his involvement in 'The One' before handing the mic to Martin Hadley, who introduced Stenger.
Stenger began with a joke. "Australia got all the convicts, America got the christians. Australia must have had the first choice" before moving on to explaining that agnostics are actually atheists and defining the god that his work referrs to as the theistic god of the Judeo/Christian/Islamic traditions, which he differentiated from the pantheisic and deistic varieties of god mythologies. He will be covering the other types of gods in his next book "The Quantum Gods".
Stenger's argument is based on the assumtion that if the theistic god existed, there should have been some evidence to support it by now. He rejects the common addage 'abscence of evidence is not evidence of abscence' and says that the abscence of evidence means that we have no reason to believe in the proposition of a god and that the evidence against the existance of a god, through testing the claims made by religious followers (such as prayer, supernatural intervention etc), leads one to the conclusion that the existence of god has been disproved beyond a reasonable doubt. This definition of 'proof' has more in common with the legal tradition than the scientific model, which has been one of the main arguments against Stenger's book.
Stenger then went on to quickly debunk the main arguments for the existence of god;
the cosmological argument;
the argument from creation/design, to which he explained some instances of 'unintelligent design' including the single hole for food and air leading to hundreds of deaths by choking each year;
the argument from revelation, which could be supported if anybody produces new information through a revelation experience;
the fine tuning argument, to which the inherent hostility of the universe was enough;
and the hiddenness argument, where Stenger said that a god that deliberately hides from people who want to believe cannot be a moral god. "An evil god would btter fit the data" was Stenger's response.
The night then opened up for a QnA session.
Stenger was asked to clarify a point where he refered to a 40 billion year old universe, which he explained as an artifact of the expansion of the universe, to which the age is 13.7 billion years, but there are objects 40 billion light years away.
Stenger was then asked to speak about his involvement in paranormal research. He explained that his interest in the subject lies in the misuse of quantum mechanics and spoke about some particularly terrible examples such as 'What the Bleep do we Know?', 'The Secret' and Deepak Chopra's work on quantumn healing.
All in all, it was a pretty good night. I wish Stenger had have been given more time, but it was a good quick overview of his major arguments. After his talk, we had the opportunity to meet him and have a quick chat and we found him to be quite personable.
Stenger will be taking part in the IQ2 debate on Tuesday 19th of August. The topic will be "We'd be better off without religion". It will be a 3 a side debate and Stenger will be flanked by Richard Ackland and Lyn Allison. They will battling it out against John Lennox, Suzanne Rutland and Ian Plimer.
We'll let you know how it goes.
For more info on Stenger, look here. To read some reviews on God: The Failed Hypothesis, go here and here.
As always, the dinner meeting was a great opportunity to chat with fellow questioners of bunkum and the turnout was quite impressive, with 170 attendees all up. The agenda favoured the buffet dinner over the guest speaker, which was a slight dissapointment (RSL club buffets aren't the most vegetarian friendly affairs, it was roast pumpkin and lettuce all the way!). We were lucky to get there early enough to get some good seats and ended up in the company of 'the regulars' from sceptics in the pub.
At about 8:30pm, after dessert was served, Richard Saunders gave a news rundown where he spoke about the recent bigfoot controversy and his involvement in 'The One' before handing the mic to Martin Hadley, who introduced Stenger.
Stenger began with a joke. "Australia got all the convicts, America got the christians. Australia must have had the first choice" before moving on to explaining that agnostics are actually atheists and defining the god that his work referrs to as the theistic god of the Judeo/Christian/Islamic traditions, which he differentiated from the pantheisic and deistic varieties of god mythologies. He will be covering the other types of gods in his next book "The Quantum Gods".Stenger's argument is based on the assumtion that if the theistic god existed, there should have been some evidence to support it by now. He rejects the common addage 'abscence of evidence is not evidence of abscence' and says that the abscence of evidence means that we have no reason to believe in the proposition of a god and that the evidence against the existance of a god, through testing the claims made by religious followers (such as prayer, supernatural intervention etc), leads one to the conclusion that the existence of god has been disproved beyond a reasonable doubt. This definition of 'proof' has more in common with the legal tradition than the scientific model, which has been one of the main arguments against Stenger's book.
Stenger then went on to quickly debunk the main arguments for the existence of god;the cosmological argument;
the argument from creation/design, to which he explained some instances of 'unintelligent design' including the single hole for food and air leading to hundreds of deaths by choking each year;
the argument from revelation, which could be supported if anybody produces new information through a revelation experience;
the fine tuning argument, to which the inherent hostility of the universe was enough;
and the hiddenness argument, where Stenger said that a god that deliberately hides from people who want to believe cannot be a moral god. "An evil god would btter fit the data" was Stenger's response.
The night then opened up for a QnA session.
Stenger was asked to clarify a point where he refered to a 40 billion year old universe, which he explained as an artifact of the expansion of the universe, to which the age is 13.7 billion years, but there are objects 40 billion light years away.
Stenger was then asked to speak about his involvement in paranormal research. He explained that his interest in the subject lies in the misuse of quantum mechanics and spoke about some particularly terrible examples such as 'What the Bleep do we Know?', 'The Secret' and Deepak Chopra's work on quantumn healing.
All in all, it was a pretty good night. I wish Stenger had have been given more time, but it was a good quick overview of his major arguments. After his talk, we had the opportunity to meet him and have a quick chat and we found him to be quite personable.
Stenger will be taking part in the IQ2 debate on Tuesday 19th of August. The topic will be "We'd be better off without religion". It will be a 3 a side debate and Stenger will be flanked by Richard Ackland and Lyn Allison. They will battling it out against John Lennox, Suzanne Rutland and Ian Plimer.We'll let you know how it goes.For more info on Stenger, look here. To read some reviews on God: The Failed Hypothesis, go here and here.
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Widsom of Ray Comfort
Ray Comfort's blog, wittily entitled "Comfort Food" is a excellent resource for learning evolutionary theory. "How's that?" you ask, "I was under the impression that Ray was a scientifically illiterate creobot" Have a look at a recent entry from Comfort Food, and then read the comments. Everything you wanted to know about the transitional species Tiktaalik.
http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2008/08/berkley-experts.html
http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2008/08/berkley-experts.html
Resources for Freethinkers:Books
Books are probably the best source of information when it comes to the topics covered by freethinking, which include science, religious criticism, scepticism, philosophy etc. The importance of books is getting somewhat lost amongst the milieu of information available to the regular broadband-packing layman. In a world of point and click soundbite snippet based media it's important to take a break from the digital intertubes and hold a few pounds of paper in your fist and do some old school learning.
This list is by no means comprehensive, and is in no particular order. It is the first 50 books that came to mind which I felt were important to the freethinking world. If you think I've left out a particularly important book (which I no doubt have) please feel free to let us all know by posting a comment.
Demon Haunted World- Carl Sagan
The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins
God is not Great- Christopher Hitchens
The Origin Of Species- Charles Darwin
Why People Believe Weird Things- Michael Shermer
God: The Failed Hypothesis- Victor Stenger
Atheist Universe- David Mills
Skeptics Guide to the Paranormal- Lynne Kelly
Letter to a Christian Nation- Sam Harris
The End of Faith- Sam Harris
The Science of Good and Evil- Michael Shermer
Darwin's Dangerous Idea- Daniel C. Dennet
Unweaving the Rainbow- Richard Dawkins
The Cannon- Natalie Angier
The Atheist Manafesto- Michael Onfray
Climbing Mount Improbable- Richard Dawkins
Why Darwin Matters- Michael Shermer
Bad Astronomy- Phil Plait
Origins- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Quirkology- Richard Wiseman
The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick- Peter Lamont
Skeptical Essays- Bertrand Russell
Why I am NOt a Christian- Bertrand Russell
The Varieties of Scientific Experience- Carl Sagan
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion- David Hume
Brocas Brain- Carl Sagan
The Portable Atheist- Christopher Hitchens
The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing- Richard Dawkins
The World Treasury of Modern Science Writing- Timothy Ferris
Last Chance to See- Douglas Adams with Mark Carwardine
Evolution vs Creationism- Eugenie Scott
The Stuff of Thought- Stephen Pinker
The Blank Slate- Stephen Pinker
How the Mind Works- Stephen Pinker
Death by Black Hole- Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Sky id not the Limit- Neil deGrasse Tyson
An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural- James Randi
Flim-Flam!- James Randi
The Faith Healers- James Randi
The Doors of Perception- Aldous Huxley
The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Psuedoscience- Michael Shermer
How We Believe- Michael Shermer
The Pandas Thumb- Stephen Jay Gould
The Gods and Other Lectures- Robert G Ingersoll
The Voyage of the Beagle- Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man- Charles Darwin
A Brief History of Time- Stephen Hawking
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
The Discworld Series- Terry Pratchett
This list is by no means comprehensive, and is in no particular order. It is the first 50 books that came to mind which I felt were important to the freethinking world. If you think I've left out a particularly important book (which I no doubt have) please feel free to let us all know by posting a comment.
Demon Haunted World- Carl Sagan
The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins
God is not Great- Christopher Hitchens
The Origin Of Species- Charles Darwin
Why People Believe Weird Things- Michael Shermer
God: The Failed Hypothesis- Victor Stenger
Atheist Universe- David Mills
Skeptics Guide to the Paranormal- Lynne Kelly
Letter to a Christian Nation- Sam Harris
The End of Faith- Sam Harris
The Science of Good and Evil- Michael Shermer
Darwin's Dangerous Idea- Daniel C. Dennet
Unweaving the Rainbow- Richard Dawkins
The Cannon- Natalie Angier
The Atheist Manafesto- Michael Onfray
Climbing Mount Improbable- Richard Dawkins
Why Darwin Matters- Michael Shermer
Bad Astronomy- Phil Plait
Origins- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Quirkology- Richard Wiseman
The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick- Peter Lamont
Skeptical Essays- Bertrand Russell
Why I am NOt a Christian- Bertrand Russell
The Varieties of Scientific Experience- Carl Sagan
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion- David Hume
Brocas Brain- Carl Sagan
The Portable Atheist- Christopher Hitchens
The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing- Richard Dawkins
The World Treasury of Modern Science Writing- Timothy Ferris
Last Chance to See- Douglas Adams with Mark Carwardine
Evolution vs Creationism- Eugenie Scott
The Stuff of Thought- Stephen Pinker
The Blank Slate- Stephen Pinker
How the Mind Works- Stephen Pinker
Death by Black Hole- Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Sky id not the Limit- Neil deGrasse Tyson
An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural- James Randi
Flim-Flam!- James Randi
The Faith Healers- James Randi
The Doors of Perception- Aldous Huxley
The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Psuedoscience- Michael Shermer
How We Believe- Michael Shermer
The Pandas Thumb- Stephen Jay Gould
The Gods and Other Lectures- Robert G Ingersoll
The Voyage of the Beagle- Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man- Charles Darwin
A Brief History of Time- Stephen Hawking
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
The Discworld Series- Terry Pratchett
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Ray Takes Comfort in Credulous Ideas
The creationists are at it again. Oh sorry, I mean, "Intelligent Designers". But we all know that Intelligent Design is just creationism in a really cheap tuxedo. Intelligent Design proponent Ray Comfort recently did a radio interview, which was originally intended as a debate with biologist PZ Myers.
The format was changed to two separate interviews, which allowed people to call in and challenge and ask questions. Ray does nothing more than come out with the same old tired arguments that he just cannot let go of - "a painting must have a painter", "if there is no god, we would all be sinning all over the place", "we are god's special creation and do not have common ancestors", and, one of my personal favourites, "you never see a puppy hatch from a chicken egg do you?" No Ray, we don't see puppies hatch from chicken eggs, nor do we see "crocoduck". He clearly does not understand the mechanisms of evolution, and arguments such as this demonstrate his complete ignorance to the way science and evolution work.
He also takes many opportunities to preach on with bible babble, claims he has undeniable evidence for intelligent design (we are still waiting for it) and claims the "atheists" took his banana argument out of context, which is a lie. Here is the full video:
PZ discusses the elegance and beauty of the theory of evolution, and how it explains the diversity of life on this planet. Though this does not automatically lead to atheism, it negates any need for the idea of an intelligent being creating the universe. PZ also comments on the recent "wafergate" situation, where he has received many death threats for throwing a piece of bread in the bin. It is such a shame that people care so deeply about bread products.
The biggest challenge to evolution we face? Ignorance. Nice one, PZ.
Listen to both interviews here.
...
The format was changed to two separate interviews, which allowed people to call in and challenge and ask questions. Ray does nothing more than come out with the same old tired arguments that he just cannot let go of - "a painting must have a painter", "if there is no god, we would all be sinning all over the place", "we are god's special creation and do not have common ancestors", and, one of my personal favourites, "you never see a puppy hatch from a chicken egg do you?" No Ray, we don't see puppies hatch from chicken eggs, nor do we see "crocoduck". He clearly does not understand the mechanisms of evolution, and arguments such as this demonstrate his complete ignorance to the way science and evolution work.
He also takes many opportunities to preach on with bible babble, claims he has undeniable evidence for intelligent design (we are still waiting for it) and claims the "atheists" took his banana argument out of context, which is a lie. Here is the full video:
PZ discusses the elegance and beauty of the theory of evolution, and how it explains the diversity of life on this planet. Though this does not automatically lead to atheism, it negates any need for the idea of an intelligent being creating the universe. PZ also comments on the recent "wafergate" situation, where he has received many death threats for throwing a piece of bread in the bin. It is such a shame that people care so deeply about bread products.
The biggest challenge to evolution we face? Ignorance. Nice one, PZ.
Listen to both interviews here.
...
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Resources for freethinkers: Podcasts
Here's a list of the podcasts that I listen to.
I hope there's something here that people will find interesting.
In particular, I would recommend The Atheist Experience, The Non-Prophets, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Point of Inquiry and the Infidel Guy Show.
Happy podcatching!
Atheism
I hope there's something here that people will find interesting.
In particular, I would recommend The Atheist Experience, The Non-Prophets, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Point of Inquiry and the Infidel Guy Show.
Happy podcatching!
Atheism
Atheist viewpoint from American atheists
The Way of Reason- An Infidel Guy Production
Scepticism
The Amazing Show Starring James Randi
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
Science
The royal society- audio podcasts
Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American
Humour
Christopher Hitchen Vs Dr John Lennox
This morning i had the pleasure of attending a debate between the uncompromising Christopher Hitchens and Dr John Lennox.
Im sure most people aware of Christoper Hitchens and his outspoken commentary on religion, however i was not so familiar with Dr Lennox. For more information visit http://www.ttf.org/index/about/lennox/
The debate was titled "The New Europe Should Prefer The New Atheism", which i found not particularly inspiring. The debate was organised by "The Trinity Forum" and "The Fixed Point Forum" so i assume that they chose the debate title.
The debate was filmed and will be broadcast, possibly on the BBC later this year, and so will inevitably find its way onto the web.
In brief, here are some of the arguements proposed by Lennox:
Im sure most people aware of Christoper Hitchens and his outspoken commentary on religion, however i was not so familiar with Dr Lennox. For more information visit http://www.ttf.org/index/about/lennox/
The debate was titled "The New Europe Should Prefer The New Atheism", which i found not particularly inspiring. The debate was organised by "The Trinity Forum" and "The Fixed Point Forum" so i assume that they chose the debate title.
The debate was filmed and will be broadcast, possibly on the BBC later this year, and so will inevitably find its way onto the web.
In brief, here are some of the arguements proposed by Lennox:
- Intelligent Design should be considered as a viable scientific theory
- Atheism leads to communism
- The resurection was not a miracle, therefore Hume was wrong.
- The evidence for Jesus Christ being god in human form is overwhelming (Lennox did forget to provide said evidence)
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Visit To A Psychic Fair
Today we went along to a “Psychic Fair”. We did not hold high expectations as it was in a very small nearby suburb, however upon arrival we were surprised to see a fairly good turn out. Out the front were signs promoting “psychometry”, “clairvoyance” and “tarot readings”. It was $15 for a reading of your choice, held in a hall at small tables. There were lots of women holding crystal balls, pendulums, tarot cards and other woo. There were large queues for a reading, with a ticket issued upon payment. There were a variety of stalls selling books on "past life therapy", "tarot", "life after death", "homeopathy" and even UFO's! One woman told Alan that he was "smiling too much!", and she didn't even know we were skeptics... (or did she...!). We purchased a variety of books (for a dollar each) which will certainly provide a number of hours of enlightened reading. There was a stall selling "psychic wax pictures" - "As seen on the Kerri Ann Show!"... (Alan too was seen on the Kerri Ann show).
On our way out, I took some photos of the signs out the front, and a man came over to us and exclaimed that he had never had anyone take photos of his signs. He then showed us his palms and said "see this line here? that means I should work with animals." He told us a number of anecdotal stories about palm reading, and I could no longer hold back. I began to question some of the claims he was making, for example he claimed that a television in his house jumped two or three feet off the ground, but the vase stayed on top and didn't break. "TWO OR THREE FEET?" I asked, demonstrating with my hand how high that is. "Well," he said, "it jumped off the ground" and then he moved off that topic onto another. I told him about the Australian Skeptics $100 000 prize for anyone who can demonstrate what it is they can do under experimental conditions. He said that they are not interested in the money, so I asked why they were here charging $15 for a reading on a Saturday, to which he replied it was fund raising for their church. We pointed how great for them it would be for their church if they took the test and won the money, but he kept jumping from topic to topic. I tried to give him an Australian Skeptics card with details on it, but he refused to take it, and even refused to give it to anyone else. He also said that he feels very sorry for James Randi, as he just doesn't believe in anything... I happily told him that we has met Randi just a few months ago at The Amazing Meeting 6, and explained that he is extremely happy, has led a very fulfilled (and honest!) life. He ended the discussion by saying to us that we will one day believe. "Show us one shred of evidence, and we'll be happy to believe" we replied.
It is often hard to tell apart the people who are truly deluded and those who are out right frauds. Many of the people attending for readings are desperate people who are looking for answers and help in their lives. Unfortunately, they turn to this type of money making credulous woo woo, instead of seeking out practical and constructive methods that will actually help them. We ran into a lady we know who is a single mum and has a severely autistic son, which she is really struggling with. It is terribly sad to think that she, and countless others, are taken advantage of by this type of rubbish.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Phil Plait Becomes President of the JREF
The James Randi Educational Foundation is the keystone of rational thinking. James Randi has been running the show now for 12 years, but it seems that it is time for him to pass the baton and hand over the presidency.
Yesterday, it was announced that Phil Plait has taken up the presidency of the foundation,
while Randi will now chair the JREF board of directors and work on his next two books 'Wrong!' and 'A Magician in the Labratory.
It will be interesting to see where this change takes the foundation, already Phil has said the he will concentrate on the educational side of the organisation and will produce books for children. After seeing Phil talk at TAM and chatting to him in person, his vigour and enthusiasm make him the perfect candidate for the position.
Great news, Phil. I'm sure you'll live up to expectations and take the JREF to new heights.
For more info, go to the JREF press release, The Bad Astronomy blog and Skepchick. There's sure to be a flood of other blogs (like this one) on the subject and i'm sure everyone will know about it before too long.
Yesterday, it was announced that Phil Plait has taken up the presidency of the foundation,
while Randi will now chair the JREF board of directors and work on his next two books 'Wrong!' and 'A Magician in the Labratory.It will be interesting to see where this change takes the foundation, already Phil has said the he will concentrate on the educational side of the organisation and will produce books for children. After seeing Phil talk at TAM and chatting to him in person, his vigour and enthusiasm make him the perfect candidate for the position.
Great news, Phil. I'm sure you'll live up to expectations and take the JREF to new heights.
For more info, go to the JREF press release, The Bad Astronomy blog and Skepchick. There's sure to be a flood of other blogs (like this one) on the subject and i'm sure everyone will know about it before too long.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Musical Messages. The Shins: Fighting in a Sack
I've decided that I might start combining my interests in music and critical thinking. There are loads of songs out there with pretty good messages in them (and plenty of crap ones too) and I thought it might be interesting to have a bit of a look at some of them in a bit more depth than you might have done in the past.
To kick it off, I'm going to be looking at 'Fighting in a Sack' by The Shins. It's off their 'Chutes too Narrow' album, which is one of my favourites. There's lots of interesting themes in the lyrics to, if you can figure out the poetry.
The Shins Lyrics
Fighting In A Sack Lyrics
Well, I see this song as a journey through a deconversion experience, where the believer goes through stages of doubt, then disbelief, then leaves the religion and is able to look back and see the futility of the religious system.
I'll go through the lyrics and see if I can explain what the song means to me.
This is the pivotal point of the song and characterises the point of deconversion quite well. When you go from believer to doubter, you have to go through a time of shedding your preconcieved notions of the world and adopting new foundations for reality. Then you have to make the decision to move away from those that still believe through quitting the church.
The next part is my favourite:
I find that this is the most difficult part of being a doubter. The religious crowd have their meetings that they go to to learn about the basis of their worldview in the company of friends and in a nice sociable pleasant way. As an atheist, there are few places that you can go to and get a similar experience. Most of the learning you do is self-directed and there are generally few supports. We are lucky to have a really great Atheist group in Sydney that hold both informative and social events, which helps us to feel like we belong to something. The only peoblem is that it is so small. I would like to see these kinds of groups flourishing all over the place, giving rational thinkers a place to get together and discuss their ideas and get information about where to look for answers.
I like this song on a bunch of levels. The music is great for starters, which is a big plus and the lyrics are poetic yet convey a really interesting story, without getting 'preachy'
And if that wasn't enough, the clip of the song on YouTube contains a bunch of escape artists, which just sweetens the deal in my opinion. Magicians are often involved in sceptical societies and atheist movements and they have been really good at explaining to the public how easy it is to be fooled.
To kick it off, I'm going to be looking at 'Fighting in a Sack' by The Shins. It's off their 'Chutes too Narrow' album, which is one of my favourites. There's lots of interesting themes in the lyrics to, if you can figure out the poetry.
The Shins Lyrics
Fighting In A Sack Lyrics
Well, I see this song as a journey through a deconversion experience, where the believer goes through stages of doubt, then disbelief, then leaves the religion and is able to look back and see the futility of the religious system.
I'll go through the lyrics and see if I can explain what the song means to me.
To keep this boat afloatBasically, the boat is an analogy to faith. To maintain one's faith, you have to be able to compartmentalise, or be able to discard those things that are in conflict with your beliefs. We see many religious believers doing this all the time. When a particular scientific finding conflicts with their faith, they have to create apologetics, or come up with (usually flawed) contrasting evidence to support their position (like AIG do). To keep their faith going strong, they have to put all of their effort towards the apologetics, hence to 'save all their breath for the sails'.
There are things you can't afford to know
So I save all my breath for the sails
But you'll find those lingering voicesI would say that the 'lingering voices' are the thoughts about the conflicting ideas leading to the apologetics used to reconcile the divide between beliefs and fact. Cognitive dissonance is the psychological conflict that results from holding beliefs that are incongruent and can lead to severe psychological issues if not dealt with. When a believer holds a religious belief (say, creation), but is also made aware of the objective facts relating to the issue (evolution), they often reconcile them through the path of least resistance (evolution is just a theory). If they were to attempt to disprove evolution scientifically, or discontiue believeing in creation, it would take much more mental effort than to dimiss evolution, as above. They have, in this case, settled for the easier alternative, rather than the most correct. This is a commom theme among religious apologetics.
Are just your ego's attempt to make it all clean and nice
And make a moron out of you
Walking a bridge with weakening cablesThis section really speaks for itself. Their faith is based on weak reason, the believer knows that at some point they are going to learn that it is untrue, which is difficult for them to accept.
Huddled up in fear and hate because we know our fate
And it's a lot to put us through
Most ideas turn to dustThis verse deals with the acceptance of the irrationality of religion and the choice to shed the ideas that have been shown to be wrong. It is the moment of deconversion, when reason wins out over the irrational beliefs of religions. The second part is the choice to move away from what is now seen as a waste of time. They make the decision that they are now headed in the right direction and will leave those who still believe behind 'fighting in a sack'.
As there are few in which we all can trust
Haven't you noticed I've been shedding all of mine?
So let's abandon that track
And leave our fathers fighting in a sack
Cause we are way too wise-assed for that.
This is the pivotal point of the song and characterises the point of deconversion quite well. When you go from believer to doubter, you have to go through a time of shedding your preconcieved notions of the world and adopting new foundations for reality. Then you have to make the decision to move away from those that still believe through quitting the church.
The next part is my favourite:
You might find some fools at your doorstepThis is in relation to the doorknock evangelicals, who try to push 'new ideas' about their beliefs on you with the hope of recruiting them to their religion and increasing the number of people whose lives they can control. But, as we saw earlier in the lyrics, the believers will move towards doubt at some stage and some will drop out of the religion. The doorknock evangelicals know that this will eventually happen and can see the futility in what they are doing, since it's a neverending loop; recruit members, members become doubters, members leave, need to recruit more members etc... This realisation makes them lose heart in what they're doing.
Hustling the latest changes to the book
That's the strangest in an attempt to multiply
Marionettes on weakening cables
Huddled up with fear and hate
Because they know their fate and it's a lot to put them through.
We've taken on a climbThis part deals with the difficulties of the new found disbelief. It takes a lot of self-directed learning to get yourself into a position where you are comfortable that you have taken the right direction. Also, there are always people out there trying to misdirect you through offering misleading information, trying to obscure the truth like the 'teach the controversy' crowd.
And it's long enough to put the best of us on our backs
Walking up a slide
And there are those we know who'd have us five miles off the track.
I find that this is the most difficult part of being a doubter. The religious crowd have their meetings that they go to to learn about the basis of their worldview in the company of friends and in a nice sociable pleasant way. As an atheist, there are few places that you can go to and get a similar experience. Most of the learning you do is self-directed and there are generally few supports. We are lucky to have a really great Atheist group in Sydney that hold both informative and social events, which helps us to feel like we belong to something. The only peoblem is that it is so small. I would like to see these kinds of groups flourishing all over the place, giving rational thinkers a place to get together and discuss their ideas and get information about where to look for answers.
I like this song on a bunch of levels. The music is great for starters, which is a big plus and the lyrics are poetic yet convey a really interesting story, without getting 'preachy'
And if that wasn't enough, the clip of the song on YouTube contains a bunch of escape artists, which just sweetens the deal in my opinion. Magicians are often involved in sceptical societies and atheist movements and they have been really good at explaining to the public how easy it is to be fooled.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Voices of Science
If you haven't seen the new Richard Dawkins Videos, You don't know what you're missing. Voices of Science is great, we'll be ordering our copy asap.
Richard Dawkins & PZ Myers
Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss
Richard Dawkins & Steven Weinberg
Oh, and it's available to purchase as a DVD too!
Richard Dawkins & PZ Myers
Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss
Richard Dawkins & Steven Weinberg
Oh, and it's available to purchase as a DVD too!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Violent Pilgrims VS Positive Atheism (Part 2)
When we arrived at Taylor Square, there was already a gathering of protesters gathered around.
We distributed some fliers with the even's timetable on it throughout the crowd and telegraph poles, then got the Sydney Atheists Flag out and found a prominent place to display it from.
There was a bit of a rally, with the Raelians destroying a bit of the credibility of the protest by arriving with a pink alien called 'Pope Alice' with a Vagina for a pope-hat and another one on her chest with an inflatable green alien inside (do they think that's going to gain them any credibility at all? seems to me like they're taking the piss).
Then we started the march, with the world truth day's pope-mobile leading the way (followed by pope Alice, but we'll ignore that for now..) There was chanting and yelling, mostly about the Catholic Church's stance on safe sex, homosexuality and particularly condom use.
We walked for 1km or so through the streets and ended up at Moore park, where we were able to stand alongside the pilgrim parade, with a police barricade to protect the pilgrims from rational thought.
We were there for about an hour and there were seas of pilgrims walking past. The Sydney Atheists had their sign up at the first spot in the protest, so the pilgrims saw us first and got our message of positive atheism before the chanting and yelling of the main body of the protest. We can only hope that some people may have been interested by our message and go find out about atheism.
We were saying things like 'There is no God, sorry", "Fairytales are for children", "Jesus is a myth", "I like zombie stories too". The interaction from the crowd was generally acceptable, they were singing religious songs and chanting "Benadictus!" (to which we responded "nice as eggs!"). There were some with strollers, to which we said "your baby is an atheist, you know" and there were some with pets "your dog is an atheist". Some took umbrige to our protest and yelled abuse at us, stuck their fingers up, but nothing too bad. Except there was one guy who decided to go AWOL at us . When he saw the protestors, he began screaming all kinds of obscenities. We said "that's the christian spirit, why not turn the other cheek" and he broke through the barricade of police (obviously a semi-permiable membrane) and hit the guy next to me in the throat.
He was all right afterwards, just a bit shocked, but it has been all over the media, which is good. The only altercation throughout the whole day was a catholic nutjob punching a protestor, which does a lot for our side. The protestor was filmed and photographed for the news and was one of the big stories of the nightly news.
Not long after that, we all marched back to Taylor Square (and straight into a pub) where everyone had a good time chatting and swapping stories about the day and their opinions on the whole event of world youth day.
It was a fun day, we got the message out there and there was plenty of news coverage and there was only one personwho took things too far, which was a Catholic!
I just hope they have as much fun when the Madrid atheists get their chance to protest in 3 more years time.
Here's a video of the Sydney Atheists' involvement in the protests
We distributed some fliers with the even's timetable on it throughout the crowd and telegraph poles, then got the Sydney Atheists Flag out and found a prominent place to display it from.
There was a bit of a rally, with the Raelians destroying a bit of the credibility of the protest by arriving with a pink alien called 'Pope Alice' with a Vagina for a pope-hat and another one on her chest with an inflatable green alien inside (do they think that's going to gain them any credibility at all? seems to me like they're taking the piss).
Then we started the march, with the world truth day's pope-mobile leading the way (followed by pope Alice, but we'll ignore that for now..) There was chanting and yelling, mostly about the Catholic Church's stance on safe sex, homosexuality and particularly condom use.
We walked for 1km or so through the streets and ended up at Moore park, where we were able to stand alongside the pilgrim parade, with a police barricade to protect the pilgrims from rational thought.
We were there for about an hour and there were seas of pilgrims walking past. The Sydney Atheists had their sign up at the first spot in the protest, so the pilgrims saw us first and got our message of positive atheism before the chanting and yelling of the main body of the protest. We can only hope that some people may have been interested by our message and go find out about atheism.We were saying things like 'There is no God, sorry", "Fairytales are for children", "Jesus is a myth", "I like zombie stories too". The interaction from the crowd was generally acceptable, they were singing religious songs and chanting "Benadictus!" (to which we responded "nice as eggs!"). There were some with strollers, to which we said "your baby is an atheist, you know" and there were some with pets "your dog is an atheist". Some took umbrige to our protest and yelled abuse at us, stuck their fingers up, but nothing too bad. Except there was one guy who decided to go AWOL at us . When he saw the protestors, he began screaming all kinds of obscenities. We said "that's the christian spirit, why not turn the other cheek" and he broke through the barricade of police (obviously a semi-permiable membrane) and hit the guy next to me in the throat.
He was all right afterwards, just a bit shocked, but it has been all over the media, which is good. The only altercation throughout the whole day was a catholic nutjob punching a protestor, which does a lot for our side. The protestor was filmed and photographed for the news and was one of the big stories of the nightly news.
Not long after that, we all marched back to Taylor Square (and straight into a pub) where everyone had a good time chatting and swapping stories about the day and their opinions on the whole event of world youth day.
It was a fun day, we got the message out there and there was plenty of news coverage and there was only one personwho took things too far, which was a Catholic!I just hope they have as much fun when the Madrid atheists get their chance to protest in 3 more years time.
Here's a video of the Sydney Atheists' involvement in the protests
Violent Pilgrims VS Positive Atheism (part 1)
What a big day we had.
Saturday (19/7) was a great day for reason in Sydney. The pope has been in town for a few days now and Saturday was the day that the pilgrims would be going on a 10km exodus across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, through the city streets and over to Randwick Racecourse o hear an 81 year old virgin in a dress tell them about proper sexual practices (among other things)
Saturday morning started early, we were lucky to have been able to stay in north Sydney at our friend's apartment (Thanks Fleur). Just let me add that it is perhaps the most amazing views of the harbour that any residential address has. We melted out of bed at 5am still suffering from the effects of a party not long diffused and we met up with the other early morning atheists for a march to Observatory Hill where we welcomed the pilgrims as they crossed the bridge.
We were met by around 15 police as we were getting ready for the morning walk (not bad for 8 atheists!) who were just there to make sure it all went smoothly. When we got to the observatory, we were given a specific patch of grass to stand on and were told that we would get arrested if we got any closer.
As the pilgrims crossed the bridge, we were waving and welcomed them to the city. The point of the protest at this point was just to be a presence and to show that the atheists weren't going to make a nuisance of ourselves. There was a bit of interaction with the pilgrims, singing John Lennon's 'Imagine' to them and being told that Jesus loved us.
The morning went well and we were there for over an hour as the sun rose and were seen by a great deal of the pilgrims.
Afterwards, we all split up. Many went home, but Rach, Tynan, Dave and myself decided to hit the streets for a bit of close contact with the pilgrims to pass the time before the afternoon's major protest.
We had a few discussions with people that we met on George st, mostly about whether the funding for World Youth Day should have been covered by the catholic church or the Australian taxpayer. There were no confrontations and everyone was really nice, emphasising that it is not the believer, it is the institution that causes the problems.
We then decided to look in the merchandise store and were stunned by the official WCYD bible passage "you will know the power of the lord when the holy spirit comes over you" !!!! Couldn't they have picked something with less of an explicit sexual innuendo to it? There's children there wearing this on shirts, hats, keyrings and scarves! That's catholicism for you.
It was at this point that one of the security guards came over and told us that we would be kicked out if we didn't stop laughing at the trinkets. We calmed down a bit and got to see the Jesus and Mary from the stations of the cross talking about being able to feel Jesus and being brought to tears as he was taken off the cross.
There was a statue of 'Unlucky Jesus' (a name we gave him because he was made of broken mirrors)
and when we were leaving the park, the Pope was doing his apology to the victims of sexual abuse in the church and a reporter from SBS radio came and interviewed Tynan about it.
We then made our way over to Taylor Square where the major protest was going to take place...
(I'll split this into Two separate posts, because this is getting pretty long)
Saturday (19/7) was a great day for reason in Sydney. The pope has been in town for a few days now and Saturday was the day that the pilgrims would be going on a 10km exodus across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, through the city streets and over to Randwick Racecourse o hear an 81 year old virgin in a dress tell them about proper sexual practices (among other things)
Saturday morning started early, we were lucky to have been able to stay in north Sydney at our friend's apartment (Thanks Fleur). Just let me add that it is perhaps the most amazing views of the harbour that any residential address has. We melted out of bed at 5am still suffering from the effects of a party not long diffused and we met up with the other early morning atheists for a march to Observatory Hill where we welcomed the pilgrims as they crossed the bridge.
We were met by around 15 police as we were getting ready for the morning walk (not bad for 8 atheists!) who were just there to make sure it all went smoothly. When we got to the observatory, we were given a specific patch of grass to stand on and were told that we would get arrested if we got any closer.As the pilgrims crossed the bridge, we were waving and welcomed them to the city. The point of the protest at this point was just to be a presence and to show that the atheists weren't going to make a nuisance of ourselves. There was a bit of interaction with the pilgrims, singing John Lennon's 'Imagine' to them and being told that Jesus loved us.
The morning went well and we were there for over an hour as the sun rose and were seen by a great deal of the pilgrims.
Afterwards, we all split up. Many went home, but Rach, Tynan, Dave and myself decided to hit the streets for a bit of close contact with the pilgrims to pass the time before the afternoon's major protest.
We had a few discussions with people that we met on George st, mostly about whether the funding for World Youth Day should have been covered by the catholic church or the Australian taxpayer. There were no confrontations and everyone was really nice, emphasising that it is not the believer, it is the institution that causes the problems.
We then decided to look in the merchandise store and were stunned by the official WCYD bible passage "you will know the power of the lord when the holy spirit comes over you" !!!! Couldn't they have picked something with less of an explicit sexual innuendo to it? There's children there wearing this on shirts, hats, keyrings and scarves! That's catholicism for you.
It was at this point that one of the security guards came over and told us that we would be kicked out if we didn't stop laughing at the trinkets. We calmed down a bit and got to see the Jesus and Mary from the stations of the cross talking about being able to feel Jesus and being brought to tears as he was taken off the cross.
There was a statue of 'Unlucky Jesus' (a name we gave him because he was made of broken mirrors)
and when we were leaving the park, the Pope was doing his apology to the victims of sexual abuse in the church and a reporter from SBS radio came and interviewed Tynan about it.
We then made our way over to Taylor Square where the major protest was going to take place...(I'll split this into Two separate posts, because this is getting pretty long)
Friday, July 18, 2008
Breakfast TV atheism
It seems that someone in channel 9 must have seen the 'Faith Off' and thought that it was a bit of allright. Soon after the videos went to air on News.com, we were contacted by the Kerry Anne show about being interviewed as a panel.
The interview went allright, Kerry Anne was a bit hard on the Muslim girl and the questions were quite divergent from those that we were expecting (we were emailed a list of questions that were the same as those we had answered in the news.com interview), but all in all, I think it came out allright.
Before the show, there was quite an interesting discussion going on between the Catholic, the Buddhist, the Hindi and I about the psychology of faith, creation stories and world youth day. It was a much more interesting discussion than the one on air and we were all a lot more candid when we weren't being filmed.
The videos have been put up on youtube (thanks John) and have been split into two blocks to remove the ads (no free advertising's getting on this blog!)
This is the first section:
And here's the second bit:
The interview went allright, Kerry Anne was a bit hard on the Muslim girl and the questions were quite divergent from those that we were expecting (we were emailed a list of questions that were the same as those we had answered in the news.com interview), but all in all, I think it came out allright.
Before the show, there was quite an interesting discussion going on between the Catholic, the Buddhist, the Hindi and I about the psychology of faith, creation stories and world youth day. It was a much more interesting discussion than the one on air and we were all a lot more candid when we weren't being filmed.
The videos have been put up on youtube (thanks John) and have been split into two blocks to remove the ads (no free advertising's getting on this blog!)
This is the first section:
And here's the second bit:
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Faith Off!
It's taken it's time, but the Faith Off clips have finally been put up on the news.com site.
The videos are a series of clips compiled from individual interviews into sections that each addresses a single topic. The topics are Sex Before Marriage, Homosexuality, Life After Death, Fitting In, Theory of Evolution and World Youth Day.
The site is kinda cool, there's a nifty interactive component through which you can learn a little more about each person's position on religion by clicking on them.
I had a great time doing the interview and found the interviewer to be quite receptive and interested about my position. After talking to the other participants, it seems that I was the only one to deviate from the predefined list of questions and that some of the others were referring to their notes throughout the interview so as not to misrepresent their dogma.
I am also happy with some of the responses of Richard, the Buddhist, especially his response to the World Youth Day; “in my mind, if it’s just a lot of people getting together and hearing the same old dogma and having that reinforced to the expense and to the exclusion of people using their own minds […] then they might just perpetuate a lot of the division we have in society”
Just an interesting fact, only one of us eats pork. Can you guess who?
The videos are a series of clips compiled from individual interviews into sections that each addresses a single topic. The topics are Sex Before Marriage, Homosexuality, Life After Death, Fitting In, Theory of Evolution and World Youth Day.
The site is kinda cool, there's a nifty interactive component through which you can learn a little more about each person's position on religion by clicking on them.
I had a great time doing the interview and found the interviewer to be quite receptive and interested about my position. After talking to the other participants, it seems that I was the only one to deviate from the predefined list of questions and that some of the others were referring to their notes throughout the interview so as not to misrepresent their dogma.
I am also happy with some of the responses of Richard, the Buddhist, especially his response to the World Youth Day; “in my mind, if it’s just a lot of people getting together and hearing the same old dogma and having that reinforced to the expense and to the exclusion of people using their own minds […] then they might just perpetuate a lot of the division we have in society”
Just an interesting fact, only one of us eats pork. Can you guess who?
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Amazing Spoon Bending Video
Richard Wiseman's 'Amazing Spoon Bending Video' has just been released.
Wiseman's talk at TAM6 culminated in a demonstration of how to bend a spoon using 'psychokinetic powers' (ahem) by Teller of Penn and Teller. He then proceeded to distribute 816 spoons throughout the audience which were skeptically scrutinised before being melted right before the camera!
Now, as far as I can recall, I have only seen Geller bend one at a time. This sugests to me that his psychokinetic powers are only strong enough for single cutlery mutilations. The audience at TAM however, were able to bend 816 pieces of cutlery without a whiff of pychokinetic abilities.
As Randi says, 'If he's using his mind, he's doing it the hard way.'
Click here for the youtube video, or go to the Quirkology Youtube channel to find it.
Enjoy
And if you want to see some truly groundbreaking metal manipulations, check out this video by a good friend of mine. You can see his whole catalogye through his YouTube channel here. The point being that there is no reason to think that it requires any powers whatsoever to bend metals.
Wiseman's talk at TAM6 culminated in a demonstration of how to bend a spoon using 'psychokinetic powers' (ahem) by Teller of Penn and Teller. He then proceeded to distribute 816 spoons throughout the audience which were skeptically scrutinised before being melted right before the camera!
Now, as far as I can recall, I have only seen Geller bend one at a time. This sugests to me that his psychokinetic powers are only strong enough for single cutlery mutilations. The audience at TAM however, were able to bend 816 pieces of cutlery without a whiff of pychokinetic abilities.
As Randi says, 'If he's using his mind, he's doing it the hard way.'
Click here for the youtube video, or go to the Quirkology Youtube channel to find it.
Enjoy
And if you want to see some truly groundbreaking metal manipulations, check out this video by a good friend of mine. You can see his whole catalogye through his YouTube channel here. The point being that there is no reason to think that it requires any powers whatsoever to bend metals.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Atheist interview promo released
A few months ago, I did an interview for News.com.
The premise was to get a group of young people from a variety of religious perspectives together and get each to answer questions about 'Hot topics', such as abortion, homosexuality, afterlife theories, evolution and sex before marriage.
It was going to be a forum/debate, but for various reasons, the producers opted to change the format of the interviews. Each interviewee was to be interviewed on their own and asked a standard set of questions. In editing, they would then be able to splice together each person's answer to the same questions, showing the range of responses.
The fist promo for the interviews has just been released, and can be watched here.
The final interviews will be up on Tuesday at News.com, Ill keep you posted...
The premise was to get a group of young people from a variety of religious perspectives together and get each to answer questions about 'Hot topics', such as abortion, homosexuality, afterlife theories, evolution and sex before marriage.
It was going to be a forum/debate, but for various reasons, the producers opted to change the format of the interviews. Each interviewee was to be interviewed on their own and asked a standard set of questions. In editing, they would then be able to splice together each person's answer to the same questions, showing the range of responses.
The fist promo for the interviews has just been released, and can be watched here.
The final interviews will be up on Tuesday at News.com, Ill keep you posted...
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