Jonathan MS Pearce

Bert Bigelow

Book Review: Blaming Jesus for Jehovah

Book Review Blaming Jesus for Jehovah By Robert M. Price In Chapter I, the author says, “I love the Bible.” But at the end of Chapter VI, after compiling a long litany of atrocities, inconsistencies and contradictions, he says that the Bible is so inconsistent that it cannot even be

Donald Trump

John Oliver Destroys Trump, I mean Drumpf

John Oliver is brilliant, for sure. But he outdoes himself here. There is some truly shocking stuff therein. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGc2nN9OguQ[/youtube]

Epistemology

Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #9: Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?

Having posted the Philpapers survey results, the biggest ever survey of philosophers conducted in 2009, several readers were not aware of it (the reason for re-communicating it) and were unsure as to what some of the questions meant. I offered to do a series on them, so here it is

Jesus

Fist of Jesus - Zombie Apocalypse!

It's a few years old, now, but if you haven't seen Fist of Jesus, well, you haven't lived. Here, for your visual pleasure... You will never see Jesus in the same light again: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuKV2Z3eYTY[/youtube]

Iran

Iran election: Reformists win all 30 Tehran seats

This is something my fellow Patheos writer, Kaveh Mousavi, will surely write about over at On the Margin of Error. This is really, really encouraging in a world seemingly full of discouraging news... From the BBC: Allies of Iran's reformist President Hassan Rouhani have won a landslide victory

atheism

Saudi Arabia sentences Twitter atheist to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes

Yup, what a lovely country we wholeheartedly appear to politically support. The Independent reports: A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his atheism in hundreds of social media posts. The report carried in Al-Watan says the 28-year-old

consequentialism

God Is A Moral Consequentialist!!

Here is an essay that I wrote some time ago, raising points that William Lane Craig has failed to deal with. This one comes up an awful lot in my discussions on morality. See what you think. See this and other such pieces in my reasonably priced ebook: The Problem

atheism

Proof Copy of New Book Looks Tip Top

I am pretty excited that my new book is finally nearing completion. After some teething problems with the ebooks, they are now polished and available, and the paperback is following hot on their tails (all through Onus Books). Filling the Void: A Selection of Humanist and Atheist Poetry is a

Labour

Nick Clegg: Tories Trying to Americanise UK Politics to One Party State

Nick Clegg was leader of the Liberal Democrats who were in coalition with the right-wing Conservative government in the last Parliament, and was our Deputy Prime Minister. The Lib Dems got stung this last election to leave a straight Tory majority. Now Clegg is spilling the beans in the Independent

Donald Trump

Trump and the Iowa Wrestlers - Um, Totally Racist...

In case you haven't seen the video taken at a Iowa Trump rally, it is well worth a watch, if only to put your head in your hands and wonder about the modern world. What takes place can only be described as racist. In fact, some commenters to

Andreas Schueler

Quote of the Day - Andy Schueler

Ha ha! Frank has been commenting here for a few weeks and has not added much to any discussion other than annoying and unwarranted assertions. He never backs any claim up whatsoever with his short, inane comments. Andy nailed it when he said: You have written over 13000 comments on

atheism

Steep Canyon Rangers' Atheist Hymnal

This has been around for a few years, but well worth a listen. Tee hee! [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogta8alHiU[/youtube] I have seen some comments here and there from religionists who seem to think that Steve Martin is attacking atheists. This is clearly, to me, a

Creationism

Why Specificity In Intelligent Design Is Useless - Guest Post by Smilodon's Retreat

Here is a guest post from a friend of mine from my days of blogging at the Skeptic Ink Network. I thought it would be apt given the huge discussion going on here, and some other discussions involving evolution and Creationism here at ATP. Thanks to Smilodon's Retreat

Catholic sex abuse scandal

Hundreds of child sex abuse complaints made against Christian Brothers

The Royal Commission has their work cut out for them in investigating historic sex abuse from clergy and religious institutions in Australia over previous decades. As the Guardian reports: In Australia, 853 people have made a claim or substantiated complaint of child sexual abuse against one or more Christian Brothers,

Donald Trump

Trump on The Game of Thrones

Too good not to share. And then there is this (Thanks JedRothwell below):

Donald Trump

My Succinct Trump/US Presidential Prediction

Holy cow, Trump is a scary prospect. Like a smiley Hitler with more money and less intelligence. [caption id="attachment_7320" align="aligncenter" width="550"] By thierry ehrmann from Saint Romain au Mont d'Or, France, Europe (Donald Trump, painted portrait _DDC9085) [CC

determinism

Deterministic Bohmian Interpretation of Quantum Back in the Game

For those determinists out there, the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics has often been seen as a thorn in the side. Actually, over recent years, certain more deterministic interpretations have found more favour. However, not many people were expecting the one of the godfathers of quantum physics to make a

Education

New figures show 40% of latest Free School proposals were from faith groups

The BHA reports (and for those who do not know what "free schools" are, see here): The Department for Education (DfE) has now published the names, locations, and religious characters of all Free School applications from the ‘tenth wave’, revealing that two fifths of applications submitted were from

atheism

Filling The Void with Atheist and Humanist Poetry

Finally, a project that I have been working on for some time has come to fruition. Filling The Void: A Selection of Humanist And Atheist Poetry is released through Onus Books and features a foreword by Andrew Copson, the Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association, and an afterword by

Happiness

The Psychological Need For Certainty = Goddidit

Psychologically speaking, humans really struggle with a lack of certainty, with ambiguity and the unknown. If you think back to your own behaviour and pasts, I am sure that you can find anecdotal evidence for this. This is compounded by the desire for a just world, one that is fair,

extremism

Former Yazidi Sex Slaves Form All-Female Battalion 'Sun Ladies' to Launch Assault on ISIS

In an interesting devlopment, former Yazidi sex slaves have taken to revenge in forming an all-female battalion to fight their oppressors. As Alalam reports: Hundreds of former ISIS sex slaves have joined an all-female battalion to launch a massive assault against their abusers in Iraq. The Yazidi women – who call

Education

First Female African-American Prof sacked, I Mean Parts Ways, With Wheaton College

There is a very important debate going on about whether higher education institutions should be properly accredited if they constrain their faculty to only believing, or adhering to party lines. These is something deeply anti-intellectual, anti-educational about such conformist and dogmatic approaches to life and learning. Critical analysis and critical

Epistemology

Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #1 - a priori knowledge: yes or no?

Due to this post being lost in the handover from SIN to PAtheos, I am reposting it for the records, to add to the list of other philpapers ones. This one is a shorter one than many of the others. So having posted the Philpapers survey results, the biggest ever

Education

Should We Teach Our Kids Analogue Time? And Board Games vs Computer Games

Okay, so a total digression from my normal topics, but... I was wondering about the skill of reading an analogue clock. Why do we still have them? Are digital clocks far superior, given their 24hr ability? And are analogue clocks' days and associated reading skills numbered, like (arguably) handwriting?

Philosophy

In the Meantime... Some Philpapers Links and Explanations

Patheos will be down for maintenance for most of today, so I will give you the back catalogue of my philpapers philosophical explanations as I am presently working on my new one, which I should have written by the end of tomorrow. Having posted the Philpapers survey results, the biggest