Recent Blog Posts
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No children were harmed in the writing of this post
I have a special place in my heart for a lot of people accused of making or possessing kiddie porn. What? Did she really say that? A photo of actual children here might bias you against me. Yep, I did. But hear me out. I say this because child molestation is one of the worst crimes…
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Sue Blackmore decides that religions are not, in fact, viruses of the mind
Sue Blackmore is one of the go-to voices in the UK on matters of religious thinking and consciousness. She is, believe it or not, an atheist with a PhD in parapsychology. Originally a firm believer in the paranormal, she reached the conclusion in the course of her study that it doesn’t in fact have any…
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Musical interlude: Katie Melua
Ketevan “Katie” Melua (born 16 September 1984) is a Georgian-British singer, songwriter and musician. She moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then to England at fourteen. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of composer Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006,…
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Gendering the jokes
Judy Gold: one funny lesbian Psychologist Jesse Bering’s latest “Bering in Mind” column at Scientific American addresses lesbians in comedy– why are there so many? Or rather, why are there so many in comparison with straight female and gay male comics? Obviously the vast majority of comics who do stand-up, whom Bering refers to as…
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Rock Beyond Belief
A secular-type person? Going to be anywhere near North Carolina on April 2nd? Then consider attending: From a statement by the Military Associations of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF) on how the event originated: On Sep 25th, 2010, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association held a concert on the Fort Bragg Main Parade Field. Attendance was projected by…
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Deconstruction of a boogeyman
My long-time friend Ed Brayton blogs over at Dispatches From the Culture Wars about various topics related to the “interface of religion, science, law, and culture.” A stalwart defender of civil liberties, he has come under fire from an indeterminate number of trollish posters accusing him of being insufficiently anti-Sharia and anti-Muslim for not being…