The Oscars, “the annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,” are not normally a subject for an atheist website; however, this year, Spotlight, The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire… Read more »
It will come as no surprise that the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and its supporters are outraged to learn that forty state-run media outlets in Iran have raised $600,000 (£420,000) to add as bounty to Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa on the writer Salman Rushdie, because of his novel The Satanic Verses. They have started… Read more »
Protecting kids from homeopathic stupidity, that’s what. Under the new policy, Health Canada will no longer approve any health claims for homeopathic cough, cold and flu products aimed at children unless they are backed by scientific evidence. The change will end the near-monopoly that homeopathic manufacturers have in marketing cough and cold remedies to children.… Read more »
heart Many thanks to this week’s guest scriptwriters, Dr Elaine Starkey and Sarah de Nordwall, who provided us with such eloquent explanations of religious belief in last week’s The Big Questions (fun begins about 12.30 minute mark). Note that they are not answering the charge of wishful thinking, as the boys are in this strip… Read more »
Umberto Eco, best known for The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum, died on February 19. In an article for Boing Boing, Rob Beschizza introduces Misreadings, Eco’s book of short essays, and provides an excerpt from the essay “Regretfully, We Are Returning Your . . .,” which contains Eco’s “summary of the Bible, presented… Read more »
The post “Imagine A Special Place in Hell” generated a modest amount of reaction in the comment section and in email messages to me. “Henry’s Rant,” which began as a private email, is posted with permission as the first of what I hope becomes a series of “Henry’s Rants”: Hi Veronica: I fully agree with… Read more »