If you’ve been curious about what’s been going on at Michael Shermer’s Origins conference, here’s someone who has been live-blogging it. It sounds like most of the morning talks were somewhat interesting, but the afternoon panel session (sponsored by the Templeton Foundation) sounds like it suffered from a shortage of militant atheists, and an excess of apologists, as expected.
You may have heard that YouTube blocked Pat Condell’s latest video — here’s an alternate source for that video.
I have to disagree with part of what Condell says in it, though. He is arguing against the promotion of “tolerance and diversity,” saying it has gone too far. I don’t think so. I think tolerance and diversity are great, I want a society with an interesting mix of weirdos and straights and strange cultural backgrounds, and I want no one to be afraid to express themselves, or worse, to be actively suppressed. What has gotten out of hand is the demand for outright respect, not just tolerance, and the de facto view that certain views, such as that religion is good and just and wonderful for you, must be held by everyone, or you are a bad person.
Condell is right that shari’a is ridiculous…but so are the ten commandments. The reason people are bending over backwards to respect Islam is that they know any open laughter at one form of religious authority opens the door disrespect of the principle that any religious authority can be the foundation of a rational society.
Tolerance is good. Intolerance is what Condell is experiencing when god-lovin’ dogmatists try to silence him. We should all have the right to point and laugh — we can laugh at Christians and Muslims, and if their faith is really that strong, they should be able to bear it; they can laugh at atheists, too, and I’m confident that we can cope, as long as they don’t censor instead of laugh. And I fear that they’d rather silence us.
And, by the way, legislating shari’a into power is not tolerance, nor is opposing it intolerance. Ancient bigotries and ignorance should not be granted any kind of legal authority.
There is a big rally for separation of church and state going on today at 3:30, beginning at the west steps of the Colorado Capitol building. Get out there and make your voice heard!
This is the information I’ve received about it:
Goals: To show support for a wall of separation between religion and government. To provide individuals and groups an opportunity to speak out against erosion of our legal rights on this front. To remind people of some of these issues one month before the elections.
The event is about separation of church and state in general, but we’ll also have some highlight issues in mind:
The 10th District Court’s ruling against Colorado’s ban on tax money going to pay tuition at colleges that discriminate on the basis of religion.
The “personhood” amendment that defines a fertilized egg as a human being, and would make some forms of birth control, in addition to abortion, murder under the law. (On our state ballot for November.)
On the national level, the Faith-based Initiatives that give taxpayer money to religious charities, so that they can provide social services instead of government (secular) agencies.
Eternally recurring battles over prayer in school, school vouchers, reproductive freedom, women’s rights, sexual orientation, health care, creationism being pushed into science classrooms, and other issues throughout the nation.
Denver Atheists & Freethinkers are sponsoring the event, and you should contact Jeanette if you want to know more.
It’s the physicists’ turn on Atheists Talk radio today. Tune in at
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| Minneapolis | Sun 9:00 AM | Zürich | Sun 4:00 PM | Islamabad | Sun 8:00 PM | ||||
| St. Paul | Sun 9:00 AM | Frankfurt | Sun 4:00 PM | Lahore | Sun 8:00 PM | ||||
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| Kingston | Sun 9:00 AM | Prague | Sun 4:00 PM | Hanoi | Sun 9:00 PM | ||||
| Bogota | Sun 9:00 AM | Zagreb | Sun 4:00 PM | Jakarta | Sun 9:00 PM | ||||
| Caracas | Sun 9:30 AM | Vienna | Sun 4:00 PM | Kuala Lumpur | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
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| La Paz | Sun 10:00 AM | Kyiv | Sun 5:00 PM | Vladivostok | Mon 1:00 AM | ||||
| San Juan | Sun 10:00 AM | Khartoum | Sun 5:00 PM | Auckland | Mon 2:00 AM | ||||
| Asuncion | Sun 10:00 AM | Ankara | Sun 5:00 PM | Suva | Mon 2:00 AM | ||||
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| Buenos Aires | Sun 11:00 AM | Beirut | Sun 5:00 PM | Kamchatka | Mon 3:00 AM | ||||
| Montevideo | Sun 11:00 AM | Amman | Sun 5:00 PM | Anadyr | Mon 3:00 AM | ||||
| Brasilia | Sun 11:00 AM | Nairobi | Sun 5:00 PM | Kiritimati | Mon 4:00 AM |
I know I have a few readers from Asia who might be interested in this: a new freethought site established specifically for all the brilliant skeptics in India, Nirmukta. The rest of the world might enjoy it, too.
It sounds like Christopher Hitchens got to demolish another religious figure yesterday. I guess it’s a good thing we’ve got a bumper crop of these guys, or I’d worry that there wasn’t going to be any left for the rest of us.
You can tell a lot about people from signs. For instance, the atheists at the University of Alberta went to extra effort and expense to make a nice canvas banner that they could reuse at their events — so some helpful Christians decided to decorate it. They’re going to have to make a new sign, but I think they should keep the old one, too, to remind everyone of the tolerance of the opposition.
This sign says a great deal about the person who made it, don’t you think?
Well, we’ve got to start early, you know. When you’ve got a lot of godless skeptics who love the human celebration of family and tradition that is Christmas, yet are accused of trying to destroy the holiday by refusing to bow our heads to an imaginary sky fairy, you’ve got to add the job of shouting down the blustering Christianist idiots to the usual tasks of baking cookies and shopping for presents. Happy London is getting a show: well-known atheists will be at the Bloomsbury Theatre on 19 December, presenting Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People. Now that is a Christmas I wish I could attend! I hope there will be a recording made to share with the world.
It’s almost time for Atheists Talk radio!
This week, they are going to talk about secular wedding ceremonies. I have a personal interest; my own wedding was not at all secular, but was instead officiated by a full-of-himself Christian priest who felt such an arrogant sense of privilege that he ignored our request to keep it as non-sectarian as possible to instead preach at us a full-blast come-to-Jesus sermon.
It always seemed to me that if you enter a contract in which one of the parties is entirely imaginary, it would weaken the bond. Fortunately, we wrote our own vows that we said to each other in private, and that was our commitment — the old fool bellowing that our marriage was blessed by heaven and made in the eyes of a dead Jewish rabble rouser was entirely irrelevant, except as a delaying tactic interfering with our escape to our honeymoon.
Atheists Talk radio is streamed live online to listeners who can provide a Minnesota zip code (like 56267) at the following time:
| Honolulu | Sun 4:00 AM | Sao Paulo | Sun 11:00 AM | Addis Ababa | Sun 5:00 PM | ||||
| Anchorage | Sun 6:00 AM | Rio de Janeiro | Sun 11:00 AM | Baghdad | Sun 5:00 PM | ||||
| Vancouver | Sun 7:00 AM | St. John’s | Sun 11:30 AM | Aden | Sun 5:00 PM | ||||
| San Francisco | Sun 7:00 AM | Reykjavik | Sun 2:00 PM | Riyadh | Sun 5:00 PM | ||||
| Seattle | Sun 7:00 AM | Casablanca | Sun 2:00 PM | Antananarivo | Sun 5:00 PM | ||||
| Los Angeles | Sun 7:00 AM | Lisbon | Sun 3:00 PM | Kuwait City | Sun 5:00 PM | ||||
| Phoenix | Sun 7:00 AM | Dublin | Sun 3:00 PM | Moscow | Sun 6:00 PM | ||||
| Edmonton | Sun 8:00 AM | London | Sun 3:00 PM | Dubai | Sun 6:00 PM | ||||
| Denver | Sun 8:00 AM | Lagos | Sun 3:00 PM | Tehran | Sun 6:30 PM | ||||
| Guatemala | Sun 8:00 AM | Algiers | Sun 3:00 PM | Kabul | Sun 6:30 PM | ||||
| San Salvador | Sun 8:00 AM | Madrid | Sun 4:00 PM | Tashkent | Sun 7:00 PM | ||||
| Tegucigalpa | Sun 8:00 AM | Barcelona | Sun 4:00 PM | Mumbai | Sun 7:30 PM | ||||
| Managua | Sun 8:00 AM | Paris | Sun 4:00 PM | New Delhi | Sun 7:30 PM | ||||
| Mexico City | Sun 9:00 AM | Brussels | Sun 4:00 PM | Kolkata | Sun 7:30 PM | ||||
| Winnipeg | Sun 9:00 AM | Amsterdam | Sun 4:00 PM | Kathmandu | Sun 7:45 PM | ||||
| Houston | Sun 9:00 AM | Geneva | Sun 4:00 PM | Karachi | Sun 8:00 PM | ||||
| Minneapolis | Sun 9:00 AM | Zürich | Sun 4:00 PM | Islamabad | Sun 8:00 PM | ||||
| St. Paul | Sun 9:00 AM | Frankfurt | Sun 4:00 PM | Lahore | Sun 8:00 PM | ||||
| New Orleans | Sun 9:00 AM | Oslo | Sun 4:00 PM | Almaty | Sun 8:00 PM | ||||
| Chicago | Sun 9:00 AM | Copenhagen | Sun 4:00 PM | Dhaka | Sun 8:00 PM | ||||
| Montgomery | Sun 9:00 AM | Rome | Sun 4:00 PM | Yangon | Sun 8:30 PM | ||||
| Lima | Sun 9:00 AM | Berlin | Sun 4:00 PM | Bangkok | Sun 9:00 PM | ||||
| Kingston | Sun 9:00 AM | Prague | Sun 4:00 PM | Hanoi | Sun 9:00 PM | ||||
| Bogota | Sun 9:00 AM | Zagreb | Sun 4:00 PM | Jakarta | Sun 9:00 PM | ||||
| Caracas | Sun 9:30 AM | Vienna | Sun 4:00 PM | Kuala Lumpur | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Indianapolis | Sun 10:00 AM | Stockholm | Sun 4:00 PM | Singapore | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Atlanta | Sun 10:00 AM | Cape Town | Sun 4:00 PM | Hong Kong | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Detroit | Sun 10:00 AM | Budapest | Sun 4:00 PM | Perth | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Havana | Sun 10:00 AM | Belgrade | Sun 4:00 PM | Beijing | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Miami | Sun 10:00 AM | Warsaw | Sun 4:00 PM | Manila | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Toronto | Sun 10:00 AM | Johannesburg | Sun 4:00 PM | Shanghai | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Nassau | Sun 10:00 AM | Harare | Sun 4:00 PM | Taipei | Sun 10:00 PM | ||||
| Washington DC | Sun 10:00 AM | Cairo | Sun 4:00 PM | Seoul | Sun 11:00 PM | ||||
| Ottawa | Sun 10:00 AM | Sofia | Sun 5:00 PM | Tokyo | Sun 11:00 PM | ||||
| Philadelphia | Sun 10:00 AM | Athens | Sun 5:00 PM | Darwin | Sun 11:30 PM | ||||
| New York | Sun 10:00 AM | Tallinn | Sun 5:00 PM | Adelaide | Sun 11:30 PM | ||||
| Montreal | Sun 10:00 AM | Helsinki | Sun 5:00 PM | Melbourne | Midnight Sun-Mon | ||||
| Boston | Sun 10:00 AM | Bucharest | Sun 5:00 PM | Canberra | Midnight Sun-Mon | ||||
| Santiago | Sun 10:00 AM | Minsk | Sun 5:00 PM | Sydney | Midnight Sun-Mon | ||||
| Santo Domingo | Sun 10:00 AM | Istanbul | Sun 5:00 PM | Brisbane | Midnight Sun-Mon | ||||
| La Paz | Sun 10:00 AM | Kyiv | Sun 5:00 PM | Vladivostok | Mon 1:00 AM | ||||
| San Juan | Sun 10:00 AM | Khartoum | Sun 5:00 PM | Auckland | Mon 2:00 AM | ||||
| Asuncion | Sun 10:00 AM | Ankara | Sun 5:00 PM | Suva | Mon 2:00 AM | ||||
| Halifax | Sun 11:00 AM | Jerusalem | Sun 5:00 PM | Chatham Island | Mon 2:45 AM | ||||
| Buenos Aires | Sun 11:00 AM | Beirut | Sun 5:00 PM | Kamchatka | Mon 3:00 AM | ||||
| Montevideo | Sun 11:00 AM | Amman | Sun 5:00 PM | Anadyr | Mon 3:00 AM | ||||
| Brasilia | Sun 11:00 AM | Nairobi | Sun 5:00 PM | Kiritimati | Mon 4:00 AM |
First they ban Richard Dawkins’ website, then they buy out the entire print run of the Turkish translation of The Ancestor’s Tale in a day. Clearly, we need to start making smuggling runs, bringing in copies of The God Delusion and printed pages of the daily commentary on richarddawkins.net, so we can make a fabulous profit.
There’s a certain romance to the idea of being a grim, scruffy smuggler, braving the rugged Aegean coast in daring midnight runs to bring atheist literature to underground freethinker salons of swarthy, hard-bitten raki-guzzling Turks.
