Tuesday 13 August 2013

Burnee links for Tuesday

Not in our name: Dawkins dresses up bigotry as non-belief - he cannot be left to represent atheists - Comment - Voices - The Independent
Fire
Yet another in a lengthening list of anti-Dawkins pieces by atheists who want the "atheist community" to disown the notorious militant baby-eating atheist deathlord. Currently it's his (possibly ill-considered) 140-characters-or-less utterings on Twitter that are causing some of his erstwhile supporters exasperated sighs mixed with genuine puzzlement. (Personally I think there should be an alternative to Twitter, devoted solely to spleen-venting and invective. Maybe it should be called Splutter.) Dawkins is to a large extent a product of his background and upbringing, which by certain accounts included a modicum of tradition-borne privilege. Whether that privilege has in the past insulated him from the immediate effects of less-than-critically-self-aware spontaneous pronouncements I don't know. One can but speculate, and await the inevitable fall-out.

RDFRS: Calm reflections after a storm in a teacup
Richard Dawkins explains what he meant. That's all right then.

Kids can't use computers... and this is why it should worry you - Coding 2 Learn
A blogpost after my own heart. Think about it: if you rely so much on one particular aspect of your life, should you really be so clueless about "how it works" and "how to work it"?

Don't be fooled. Pope by name, pope by nature | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer
More of the same, then. Which ironically could be a good thing if it signals a continuing "no compromise" approach, and the Catholic Church's continuing marginalisation.

The Inspection of Steiner Schools | The Quackometer Blog
Andy Lewis makes some cutting remarks about an incident at a Steiner school, then goes on to express more general concerns about how inspection of Steiner schools is, to put it mildly, flawed.

'Unbelieving' WLC - William Lane Craig exposed by Lawrence Krauss - YouTube

It beats me why Krauss agreed to engage again with Craig, given what happened last time.