Burnee links for Saturday (any Saturday, or indeed any day)

Given the (lack of) frequency with which the Burnee links have recently (not) appeared, perhaps this should be called Burnee links for August.

Topic of Cancer | Culture | Vanity Fair
The Hitch — down but not out.

Science and Rationalism: The argument from Sye
Via a various and intricate route that's not worth elaborating here, I came across this excellent refutation of Sye Ten Bruggencate's presuppositionalist website, "Proof That God Exists". (I was going to subscribe to "Science and Rationalism" but it appears that this post — from June 2009 — is the only one there.)

The slow, whiny death of British Christianity : Johann Hari
The secularisation of Britain is well under way, but the religious are kicking up a fuss.

The onward march of secularism | David Pollock | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
While secularism appears popular, the state appears to be ignoring popular opinion.

OVERCOMPENSATING: The Journal Comic With a Seething Disdain for Reality.

Especially read Jeffrey Rowland's comment below the comic.

Last Night's TV: Faith Schools Menace?/More 4 - Reviews, TV & Radio - The Independent
Tom Sutcliffe reviews (favourably) Richard Dawkins' latest TV programme — the first in More4's series entitled Richard Dawkins' Age of Reason (though I believe that those to come are all repeats).

The Atheist Experience™: On the difference between religion and woo
Matt Dillahunty skewers religious special pleading.

The End of Religion - Jeff Schweitzer - www.richarddawkins.net - RichardDawkins.net
Jeff Schweitzer embraces "blind, pitiless indifference" in an essay that could almost be a manifesto for atheistic humanism. Highly recommended.

Daylight Atheism > Are Evolved Minds Reliable Truth-Finders?
As a result of some discussion in the Premier forum I've been researching some of Alvin Plantinga's ideas on whether naturalism is warranted — and this post from 2006 turned up.

[Updated] Transcript from The God Debate - Richard Dawkins - The Times - RichardDawkins.net
Following Stephen Hawking's recent pronouncement about the universe not needing a creator, TimesOnline ran a debate "chat". Richard Dawkins was one of the participants, and he did well to keep calm in the face of the same old wishy-washy. Ruth Gledhill in particular seems not to care whether what she believes is actually true.

Unanswerable Prayers | Culture | Vanity Fair
He's such a card, that Hitchens.

Julian Baggini: If science has not actually killed God, it has rendered Him unrecognisable - Science, News - The Independent
Is the magisterial overlap widening?