Reading Time: 4 minutes Until a few years ago, Sweden had a national Twitter account. A random citizen would curate the @sweden username for a week before passing it on. The government shut it down in 2018 after its content started leaning to the right. Inspired by the Swedish model, an @ireland account is still going strong. The Irish […]
richard dawkins
Posted inFilm/TV
Prominent atheists claim problem with ‘Jihad Rehab’ film is ‘identity politics’
Reading Time: 6 minutes Jihad Rehab, a new documentary focusing on Islamic extremism, is getting attention and criticism after its recent premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, but some of the most defensive reactions are coming from prominent atheists who refuse to dig into the nuance. The film (now called The UnRedacted) takes place inside a Saudi Arabian rehabilitation […]
Posted inNonreligious News
‘Identitarianism’ isn’t tearing humanists apart. It’s making us stronger
Reading Time: 7 minutes In an editorial appearing in the June/July issue of Free Inquiry, Robyn Blumner, the CEO of the Center for Inquiry and the executive director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason &, Science, claims identity politics and cancel culture have “torn apart” the Humanist movement (as far as there is one) mostly because people criticized […]
Posted inPolitics, Sex & Gender
Reflections on Dawkins and the AHA
Reading Time: 9 minutes The AHA have just rescinded an award they gave to Richard Dawkins in 1996. It seems like this episode has created something of a hubbub in the skeptical community – itself a bunch of people loosely associating with each other by hanging around on atheist websites like this. Herding cats, and all that. The background […]
Posted inSex & Gender
American Humanist Association Board Statement Withdrawing Honor from Richard Dawkins
Reading Time: < 1 minute I guess Dawkins has a bit of the Twitter-jitters about him, rather like you-know-who. This is from the American Humanist Association: Established in 1953, the Humanist of the Year Award is conferred annually by the American Humanist Association (AHA), recognizing the awardee as an exemplar of humanist values. Communication of scientific concepts to the public […]
Posted inThe Secular
Alex O’Connor Interviews Richard Dawkins – Interesting…
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alex O’Connor, also known as CosmicSkeptic, has just interviewed Richard Dawkins in his own home, the title of the video of which is “Richard Dawkins | Outgrowing God | On Atheism, Ethics, and Theology” – this covers a lot of ground. Thanks to Geoff Benson for putting me onto this one. One of the key […]
Posted inEvolution
Paley’s Watchmaker and Arguing with Creationists
Reading Time: 15 minutes Last night, I did something I promised I wouldn’t do again. I stayed up until past 2 o’clock in the morning arguing with creationists on Facebook. Originally, I just thought they were normal theists. I don’t know how I “know” him, but this one particular theist posted a status on Facebook that went like this: […]
Posted inThe Secular
“The God Delusion” Free to Islamic Countries
Reading Time: 2 minutes Dawkins’ book The God Delusion has already been insanely influential if only for driving debate between atheists and theists over the years. Indeed, amongst theists themselves. Atheism is a tough sell in Islamic countries because the idea is fighting against such massive propaganda, theocratic systems and pain of death to be heard and taken seriously in public life. […]
Posted inReligion
Medicine vs. Exorcism: The Real Miracle.
Reading Time: 8 minutes One of the biggest markers of modern Christianity–and one of the reasons it is eventually going to fall apart–is that its adherents are incapable of testing and evaluating their ideas in a credible way, which leads them to do really harmful things to themselves and others as they flail around with their magical thinking in hopes of fixing problems that magical thinking just can’t fix.