tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48266000344663992722024-03-19T08:15:49.004+00:00Notes from an Evil Burnee...because I'll surely roast in HellPaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comBlogger874125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-57727379351157208842024-01-16T09:00:00.001+00:002024-01-16T09:18:02.906+00:00Belief is not a choiceLast week I shared in the Skepticule Facebook group an article from Unbelievable? about an atheist woman who had become a theist (specifically a Christian, since Unbelievable? is a branch of Premier, which is a Christian organisation). My objection to the article was mainly that it was entirely based on the erroneous idea that belief is a choice. There followed this exchange (my comments in blackPaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-34964708503551730912022-06-07T19:54:00.002+01:002023-07-10T15:46:28.415+01:00A coherent definition of "the soul" (whether or not it exists)?This is an exchange of comments that took place last month in a thread about the existence/non-existence of "the soul" as a result of a post about abortion titled A biologist explains why ‘heartbeat laws’ are nonsensical by Dr. Abby Hafer at OnlySky. (I've included one comment by Anri for the sake of continuity — see the original post for the rest of the comments.)In my initial comment I start byPaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-81692655722863752262022-03-26T18:56:00.001+00:002022-03-26T22:46:17.772+00:00Rising to the baitPosted today by Hemant Mehta in his column at OnlySky, this item is guaranteed to get people from all sides riled up. Mehta summarises with his first paragraph:“Robert Foster, a former Mississippi lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate whose Christian faith has always been a large part of his identity, says that anyone who supports transgender rights should be executed via firing squad.”It's safe Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-44541192231823788322022-02-19T17:40:00.000+00:002022-02-19T17:40:04.992+00:00Debate, or train crash? Matt Dillahunty vs Michael EgnorTwo hours, or more? Did I really want to watch a debate that long on the topic Does God Exist? Maybe I'd watch the first 20 minutes, and give up if it didn't seem to be going anywhere. In the event I watched the whole thing without a break (and slept in the next morning).It started off amicably enough, though the production quality of this live-streamed YouTube video left a lot to be desired, Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-25479993969745568152021-09-11T22:59:00.001+01:002021-09-11T22:59:40.604+01:00Absolutely go and listen to Pseudopod #771 right nowReaders of this blog (if there are any, considering the paucity of posts recently) will be aware that I have narrated for three of the Escape Artists short fiction podcasts for many years. My British voice has been in demand for fantasy (I narrated the very first story for PodCastle — the fantasy fiction podcast) and for horror, at Pseudopod — the horror fiction podcast. Apparently I'm scary Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-5407648576750819512021-02-23T18:34:00.003+00:002021-02-23T18:34:59.733+00:00Fitbit goes wooAs a Fitbit user I regularly get notifications to 'go Premium', which I ignore as I have no reason to pay for features I don't need. But if anything is likely to make me consider going in the opposite direction — that is, ditching Fitbit altogether — it's their latest embrace of arch-pseudoscientist Deepak Chopra.And when it comes to the mind-body connection, there’s no one more
knowledgeable Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-13732153950595714032020-12-09T20:48:00.005+00:002020-12-09T21:02:38.427+00:00Wasteful WitnessesThis was sent to me, or rather to "The Householder", by post (2nd class) at my street address. I don't know a great deal about Jehovah's Witnesses but I can understand that the pandemic has limited their door-to-door activities. This handwritten card, however, seems rather wasteful of resources. It doesn't appear to be personalised in any way, so it could have been printed in bulk. WhatPaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-20693641023933225472019-09-17T16:53:00.000+01:002019-09-17T16:53:12.771+01:00No smoking here, dummy!
I'm retired now, but I can't help musing on certain things when I see them. One of those things I saw recently was on top of a partially built house in a new housing development near where my parents live. It was a chimney stack on top of a roof. Except the roof was as yet no more than flimsy timber trussed rafters. There was no actual chimney below the roofline to support the bricks-and-mortar Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-13451340487547569892019-02-09T13:48:00.000+00:002019-02-09T13:48:39.200+00:00Non-faith primary school caves to minority creationist pressureThis would be disgraceful enough if the school in question was a religious or faith school, but Hartford Manor Primary School in Cheshire is a 'community school', of which there are precious few available for children whose parents don't want religious indoctrination to be part of their education.
A cursory perusal of the school's website reveals no religious agenda (as it shouldn't), and yet inPaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-53444384158796561032018-07-04T21:48:00.000+01:002018-07-04T21:48:12.225+01:00Be reasonable about near-death experiencesWhen I heard that the latest episode of Michael Marshall's podcast Be Reasonable would feature Eben Alexander I wasn't sure I actually wanted to listen to it. But it came up on my iPod while I was cooking dinner this evening, so out of simple inertia I listened. And it confirmed my previous opinion of the neurosurgeon who claims to have been taken on a tour of Heaven while in a coma:
Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-35002035595519696662018-04-06T17:11:00.000+01:002018-04-06T17:11:18.115+01:00Whither the atheist movement?James Croft on atheism and the alt-right:
Since my earliest involvement in the
movement, it has been clear that movement atheism is concerned more with
offering a response to religion as it is with crafting a positive
atheist identity. It is, in large part, an oppositional movement
concerned with the limitations and predations of religion, drawing its
energy from the many outrages Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-12889232220000991482018-03-28T20:10:00.000+01:002018-03-28T20:10:39.062+01:00A list to keep by your front door
Aaaand... I'm back! (For how long, who knows?)
Anyway, I give you this list, courtesy of Godless Mom, aka Courtney Heard over at Patheos Blogs, of eight times the predictions of the Jehovah's Witnesses have turned out to be less than entirely accurate — for example:
The Watch Tower Society believed that Jesus had been amongst us since 1874 working towards his kingdom on earth. The WatchPaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-63008037590189108862017-01-18T17:09:00.000+00:002017-01-18T17:09:00.271+00:00My path to audio stardom - a tiny bit of progressHot on the heels of my last blogpost I bring you another narration announcement. Tales To Terrify is five years old, and to celebrate they have published a full-cast audio production of Kim Newman's horror short story, "Where the Bodies are Buried":
http://talestoterrify.com/tales-to-terrify-259-fifth-anniversary-special-kim-newman/
It's a long one (nearly an hour) and features yours truly Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-84419895690650985122017-01-15T22:38:00.000+00:002017-01-15T22:43:25.378+00:00Spooky tale — Lovecraftian shivers from Ramsey CampbellMy latest narration is now freely available for your listening pleasure at Pseudopod.
"Cold Print" by Ramsey Campbell is a story about a solitary gentlemen with a taste for books of a dubious genre. If you love the Lovecraftian this is for you. Enjoy.
http://pseudopod.org/2017/01/14/pseudopod-525-cold-print/
Direct link to mp3 audio:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/pseudopod/Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-13816385494092934252016-12-12T15:44:00.000+00:002016-12-12T15:44:13.959+00:00Unbelievably vague mysteryThe latest Unbelievable? radio show is a discussion between Mike McHargue (who describes himself as a non-theist Christian) and Ben Watts (an atheist).
What, exactly, is a non-theist Christian? Perhaps it's an atheist who follows the teachings of Christ. Except, presumably, those teachings about God. Definitions aside, you might reasonably ask how someone becomes a non-theist Christian. In Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-62718549699399153252016-11-16T12:53:00.000+00:002016-11-16T12:53:12.607+00:00Dear Paul, Darwinism is cultural poison.I spent some time today clearing my email inbox, and came across this heartening missive:
Dear Paul:
A new survey of more than 3,000 Americans powerfully confirms that Darwinism is cultural poison.
The wide-ranging survey found that evolutionary theory really does undermine many people's belief in God and absolute morality.
Behind the statistics are real people. We'vePaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-40174678983511744672016-10-04T00:22:00.000+01:002016-10-04T00:22:27.246+01:00Where is God hiding? (warning: contains sarcasm)
“Atheists often object that God should just make himself clearly obvious if he exists. So why doesn't he?”
The above is how a link on Facebook introduces an article in Premier Christianity magazine entitled “Why is God hidden?” with the strapline “Joshua Parikh tackles the tricky question of why God's existence isn't more obvious to nonbelievers.”
The article begins by exposing the author's Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-28220616010431741222016-08-29T14:14:00.000+01:002016-08-29T14:14:19.460+01:00Belief in God is not "properly basic"Stephen Law's undercutting defeater for “properly basic” belief in God held no sway with his debating opponent Tyler McNabb on last week's Unbelievable? radio show.
Stephen Law presented sound philosophical arguments demonstrating that Tyler McNabb's belief was not justified. But Tyler McNabb announced that he was nevertheless going to continue believing it anyway. Towards the end of the Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-73355472312966369442016-08-16T20:32:00.000+01:002016-08-16T20:32:29.603+01:00What the hell is "Darwinian Eugenics"?For reasons, I'm on the mailing list of Creation Ministries International. Their latest e-missive comes with this subject-line, "Darwin's death-camp doctors — and dwarfs", with the following body:
During the 1930s and 40s, the Lilliput Troupe family of singers dazzled audiences with their unique vaudeville performances. The only all-dwarf show then, their small stature earned them fame—and, Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-85466172184104733642016-04-27T11:09:00.000+01:002016-04-27T11:09:05.707+01:00Burnee Spring LinksJesus and Mo
Profound!
creatures avoiding planks
Fun!
God's Most Famous Conversation Ever | God
Well, there you go...
Imitating a xylophone - YouTube
Some people collect stamps.
Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science to Merge with Center for Inquiry | Center for Inquiry
I'm not sure I know what to think about this....
Open Letter To Karen Armstrong on ‘The Myth of Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-73132275585482659432016-04-24T11:14:00.000+01:002016-04-24T11:14:29.409+01:00The Artist Series: Alexey TitarenkoFor my photography friends —
Ted Forbes of The Art of Photography has today released the first of his crowd-funded video documentary series on living photographers:
https://youtu.be/whoZ8SRgi2s
For a closer look at some of Alexey Titarenko's ethereal long-exposure shots, check out his book The City Is A Novel:
Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-33031172938226138232016-04-17T11:58:00.001+01:002016-04-17T11:58:48.244+01:00Lies, bullshit, and statisticsTim Harford in the Financial Times, with what could be the most important article of the year (and why I despair of today's media politics):
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2e43b3e8-01c7-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62.html
This is the real tragedy. It’s not that politicians spin things their way — of course they do. That is politics. It’s that politicians have grown so used to misusing numbers as weapons Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-83951580829358667602016-04-16T15:08:00.000+01:002016-04-16T15:08:18.223+01:00Darwin Day Lecture 2016 — pics!Here are my pics taken at this year's Darwin Day Lecture given by Professor Jerry A. Coyne, at Logan Hall, Institute of Education, University College London:
The BHA's video of the event can be found here:
https://youtu.be/sazo1J4Zsj4
Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-11347271034989060042016-04-12T12:20:00.000+01:002016-04-12T12:20:02.539+01:00Noah's Anecdotal ArkI'm on the mailing list of Creation Ministries International (because... see this post from a while back, about my previous local creationism encounter).
So today I learned that Australians Rod and Nancy Walsh will shortly be touring the UK giving presentations and answering questions about Noah's Ark and the Global Flood. The nearest venue to me is Southampton, on Thursday 28 April, but judgingPaul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4826600034466399272.post-40336077171985205672016-02-13T22:38:00.000+00:002016-02-13T22:38:13.597+00:00The ultimate photographic adventureFor my photographer friends (and my skeptical friends, because I'm aware there is some overlap, and I think this has some relevance to skepticism) I'm linking to a video that I think you'll find interesting and inspirational.
First, some background. Some years ago when I decided it was about time I took my interest in photography more seriously, I began consuming a load of free internet Paul S. Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580170289410948764noreply@blogger.com