A thought occurs to me about this gender segregated seating caper. The Equalities Adviser told Chris Moos that

All attendees are free to sit wherever they feel comfortable. If some female and male attendees choose to sit in separate areas, that is of course fine, however it is expected that there will be a large mixed area where anyone can sit.

Hm. Suppose some female and male attendees choose to sit in separate areas, and then someone from the “wrong” gender sits there. Then what? [Read more…]

Leo Igwe has a piece on humanist funerals in Nigeria in The Guardian (Nigeria).

ON February 9, 2013, the former Chairman of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Eze Ebisike died after a brief illness. On March 2, he was buried in his hometown, Okpokume, Mpam, Ekwerazu Ahiazu Mbiase in Imo State. Ebisike was an ex-Catholic priest and an atheist. He was buried after a short humanist funeral ceremony in the compound. The ceremony was a historic event because it was the first time, in that part of the country that someone who was an atheist was given a non-religious funeral.

Another cleric turned atheist and executive Humanist. [Read more…]

Update 2: Good news for once. Chris heard back from the equalities adviser, and UCL will not allow gender segregated seating, although people will be allowed to sort themselves if they want to – “however it is expected that there will be a large mixed area where anyone can sit.”

Chris Moos of the LSE* Atheist Secularist and Humanist group alerted me to an event at UCL** tomorrow: The BIG Debates: Islam or Atheism: Which Makes More Sense? The two proponents are Lawrence Krauss and Hamza Tzortzis. Chris reports:

Although the event was supposedly organised through “The Big Debates”, which describes itself as an independent organisation, the account used to set up the event with eventbrite.com is actually that of iERA, Hamza’s outfit.

And guess what else – seating is gender segregated.

Gender segregated. At a grown up, secular, urban, 21st century university in London – seating is gender segregated.

Imagine if it were racially segregated. Imagine the uproar. Yet UCL is apparently turning a blind eye to gender segregation.

Student Rights has some background on Hamza Tzortzis. [Read more…]

Oh looky here – via Stephanie, another Callous Bastards’ Handbook, this time by “vjack” at Atheist Revolution. It’s better written and a little better thought than Vacula’s efforts in the same vein, but it’s still callous bastard bullshit.

You and you alone are responsible for how you feel. Nobody else can make you feel sad, angry, upset, or anything else without your agreement. I know we sometimes talk as if other people cause our feelings, but this is misleading.

If you insult me, I may experience feelings of sadness. My feelings are based on my understanding of our interaction and are guided by the whole of my personality and life experience. If I care what you think of me, I may feel sad; if I do not, I may not feel much of anything. It is not your insult that leads to my feelings; it is my interpretation of your insult, the meaning I assign to it, and the manner in which I put it in context. That is, how I feel following your insult is far more about me than it is about you. [Read more…]

Tasneem found a report in English on that blogger attacked in Dhaka.

Saniur Rahman, 28, was stabbed in the  head and legs at around 8:30pm near Purabi Cinema Hall.

The Shahbagh  uprising activist was returning to his home in Rupnagar Eastern  Housing.

Residents of the neighborhood rescued Shamiur and rushed him to  a local hospital, he added.

Saniur said that he used to write articles in blogs against  communalism and the riotous activities run by rowdy activists of the  Jamaat-e-Islam and its student wing Islami Chattra Shibir.

Asif  Mohiuddin, another blogger and online activist who was also stabbed seriously in  the city’s Uttara on the night of Jan 15, commented about the criminal attack on  the latest assault in his Facebook status. “He (Saniur) often used to write on  Facebook. I also met him once or twice, he is a very well-behaved young  man.”

“He was a supporter and activist of the Shahbagh movement, and  often used to harshly criticise the religion-based parties like Jamaat, Shibir  and Hizb Ut-Tahrir.”

He’s out of danger, the article says, so that’s good, but not being attacked at all would be better.

And right here in Washington state – a florist joins this fun new trend of florists refusing to supply customers they dislike or disagree with in some way. Remember that florist who refused to deliver roses to Jessica Ahlquist? And got sued by the FFRF as a result? Like that. This time it’s not freedom from religion, it’s gay marriage.

For nearly a decade, Robert Ingersoll and his partner, Curt Freed, had bought bouquets from local business Arlene’s Flower Shop, owned by Barronelle Stutzman, reports the Tri-City Herald. So it was Stutzman the men sought out when they recently decided to get married. (Same-sex weddings became legal in Washington State in December 2012.)

But when Ingersoll asked Stutzman last Friday to arrange the flowers for his September nuptials, he got a shock. [Read more…]

The International Humanist and Ethical Union put out a report last week on the criminalization of atheism in many parts of the world, as a presentation to the UN Human Rights Council.

States sometimes play on concerns about Islamophobia and religious intolerance to support laws which go far beyond their legitimate concerns, instead rendering any form of religious skepticism, or the expression of a positive humanist philosophy, effectively illegal. The IHEU submission relates to its report published in December, Freedom of Thought 2012, on the same subject of discrimination against the non-religious around the world. [Read more…]

The Times of India reports that a study by Canadian researchers catches up to what Hitchens told us years ago: “Mother” Teresa did very bad things. The study calls her

“anything but a saint”, a creation of an orchestrated and effective media campaign who was generous with her prayers but miserly with her foundation’s millions when it came to humanity’s suffering.

The controversial study, to be published this month in the journal of studies in religion/sciences called Religieuses, says that Teresa – known across the world as the apostle of the dying and the downtrodden – actually felt it was beautiful to see the poor suffer. [Read more…]

What happened to and about Chagnon is a fascinating (and appalling) example of ideological policing in anthropology. He tells a little about it in the interview.

SK: Most importantly, let’s turn to the science. What were the two heresies you proclaimed in your publications on the Yanomamö that went against the prevailing orthodoxy in anthropological community?

NC: Well, I didn’t realize until I began committing these heresies, how entrenched that orthodoxy was. [Read more…]