Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Burnee links for Tuesday

Failing The Insider Test: The Problem of Hell
Why questioning atheists' source of morality is not a valid rebuttal of accusations that the God of the Bible is evil.

Religion has nothing to do with science – and vice versa | Francisco J. Ayala | Science | guardian.co.uk
Ayala says that science has no business pontificating on "values". Unfortunately he offers nothing to support his notion that religion has any business doing it either.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Scientists don't always know best - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Commentators - The Independent
We have emotions, desires, faith, dreams, uncharted (unchartable) psychological geographies, mysterious physical responses that cannot be validated by scientific methodologies and templates. Such claims for the unknowable and unmeasurable are usually met with friendly pity and mockery or faint scorn.
If they are "unknowable and unmeasurable" you have no justification for claiming them. (It's called evidence.)

Vatican reaches out to atheists – but not you, Richard Dawkins - Europe, World - The Independent
Oh really? What is the Vatican afraid of?

Faith No More: a cautionary tale | HumanistLife
Terri Julians gives a heartfelt account of losing her faith, with some advice for those who miss its comfort in times of grief.

BBC News - 'Right to live' group targets MPs
The campaigners claim that the prevailing view is that disabled people's lives are not worth living, and that this contradicts the perception that many disabled people have of themselves.
They campaigners may indeed make a claim about what is the prevailing view, but that doesn't mean their claim is true. It seems most unlikely to me, and typical of the "slippery slope" arguments used against those who are in favour of assisted dying in very specific circumstances.

God, Science and Philanthropy | The Nation
Informative (and faintly disturbing) article on the origins and current state of the Templeton Foundation.

Catholics blast 'hostile' C4 film about the Pope - Telegraph
So who would you commission to make a TV documentary about Pope Benny?

A duel at sunrise - Butterflies and Wheels
Ophelia Benson ponders why Cristina Odone clearly isn't afraid of being sued by Richard Dawkins.
She is apparently a “good Catholic,” in the sense that she is blindly loyal to the Catholic church and will stoop to almost anything to defend it – but she is not a good person. She takes advantage of other people’s principles in order to defame them.