WuduMate: a symbol of what's to come?

An innocuous little brochure came to my attention at work a few weeks ago. It details a range of fittings that can be installed in toilet accommodation accessible by members of the public. Ritual washing can apparently present problems to the devout who need to perform their rite at particular times of the day, and often the facilities available are less than amenable. The front of the trifold brochure shows a man with his foot in a washbasin, and the tag-line "There has to be an easier way...."

Indeed there is an easier way*, but it's not the one that the manufacturers of the WuduMate would prefer you use. Specialist Washing Co would rather you purchase the WuduMate and install it in your publicly accessible toilets, so that people who want to wash their feet don't have to stick them in a washbasin.

The company, according to its website www.specwash.com, will supply a solution for many ritual washing requirements — at home, at work, travelling, in the multi-faith room, or in the mosque.

That last sentence above contains the essence of my unease about this company and its promotion of its products — a company that calls itself "Specialist Washing Co." Specialist washing in this case is extremely special, by which I mean Islamic. The company is not called Islamic Washing Co, or even Ritual Washing Co. "Specialist Washing" is used here as a euphemism, and though it may not have been the company's intention, the impression it gives is that they are trying to hide their true purpose — to persuade providers of public toilets to include facilities for the exclusive use of devout Muslims. Nowhere in the brochure or on the website did I find any suggestion that these facilities could be used by non-Muslims who might want to wash their feet in a non-religious fashion.

On the website much is made of the provision of facilities in multi-faith rooms. To me the idea of a multi-faith room is a particularly preposterous one. Religious faith is of course important — even a confirmed atheist like myself must acknowledge that faith plays an important and often central role in many people's lives. But the faiths professed by believers in different religions can be so at odds with each other that the idea of lumping them all together in one room seems like a recipe for conflict, or at least contradiction. Specialist Washing Co are suggesting that such rooms should be equipped with expensive and space-consuming sanitary-ware (plus the plumbing of water supplies and drainage that goes with it) for a specific religious ritual in a public place.

By all means put these things in your home, your mosque, or even your palace. But don't expect the rest of us to pay for you to carry out an elaborate ritual at our expense.

_________
*The easier way? Don't do it.

Penn and Teller: Magic on the radio - BBC Radio 4 Today Programme

A short interview with Penn Jillette on the Today Programme this morning...

"US magicians Penn and Teller are performing in the UK after a 16-year absence. The two spoke to presenter Evan Davis ahead of a performance in the Westfield shopping centre, although Penn does all the talking. They discussed how they write new material, the relationship between their ardent atheism and magic, and the power of live performance."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8818000/8818981.stm
(3'56" streaming audio)

A snippet from Penn : "We're big fans of Dawkins and Hitchens...." 

Burnee links for Tuesday

I've been neglecting the links of late, so here's a bumper crop:

Prince Charles' sinister speech attacks science and good sense. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
The heir to the throne has been saying stuff. Normally such stuff wouldn't matter, but he's the heir to the throne.

Save a life, slash the UK government’s subsidy of the libel industry « Don't Get Fooled Again
The hidden costs of libel tourism.

Everything you need to know about the internet | Technology | The Observer
Today's state of the net, and what it might or might not be in the future (written mostly for the non-net-savvy).

Joe Power, non-Psychic non-Detective: A Clarification « The Merseyside Skeptics Society
Michael Marshall expresses some lingering, nagging doubts that a successful media medium is as insightful and "psychic" as he claims.

Jesus Christ, but I hate these slimebags : Pharyngula
They cannot be serious! Oh, it's Deepak Chopra and his lot, so I suppose they are. Deluded nitwits, surely, but dangerous deluded nitwits. OK, what they're proposing isn't going to hurt anyone (it's not going to do anything at all), but these people think they are taking action. They're not. (And yet they could, if only they would relinquish the magical thinking.)

The Copenhagen Declaration on Religion in Public Life : Pharyngula
PZ Myers suggests the declaration can be used as a focus — to find out if politicians, organisations and others agree or disagree with its contents.

My worst parent - Atheist dude aghast at prayer - Features - TES Connect
Judging by the comments so far (2010jun30) this former headteacher has hopelessly misjudged the audience for his or her bigoted little diatribe.
(Via HumanistLife)

New Statesman - War of the words
John Gray laments the omission of politics from modern science fiction. Methinks his reading list must therefore be restricted. SF by its nature covers all of life. It may be superficially about the future, or fantastic science, or . . . whatever, but at its heart SF is about the human condition in the present.

Sunday Sacrilege: The active hand : Pharyngula
PZ Myers looks at an episode of Bronowski's Ascent of Man.

Simon Jenkins Versus The ‘Bishops’ of Science (Mad Journalist Syndrome – Part 2) « The Merseyside Skeptics Society
Colin Harris wonders why Simon Jenkins objects so much to Martin Rees and the BBC.

Nobel laureate gives homeopathy a boost | The Australian
Simon Singh's hair must be standing on end. Oh, wait....

What evidence would convince you that a god exists? « Why Evolution Is True
Jerry Coyne ponders "ways of knowing":

Religion is not a way of knowing because it doesn’t have a way of knowing that it is wrong.

Tikkun Daily Blog » Blog Archive » What Christopher Hitchens and the New Atheists Can Learn From Malcolm X
Kick a man when he's down, that's what I say. Have people been saving up their anti-Hitch pieces for a time when he's less likely to respond? That says a lot about the confidence they have in their arguments.

xkcd: Dilution

Um, no. The symptom produced by the full-strength fluid is pregnancy. Therefore the diluted version can most certainly be used as a contraceptive.

Humanist Symposium #56

A belated reminder that the 56th edition of the Humanist Symposium has been posted at Somewhat Abnormal, and for the second time it includes a link to something of mine.

But don't let that put you off, there's lots of good stuff there too.

The ultimate quack remedy — David Tredinnick & Simon Singh — Today Programme, BBC Radio 4

Question: Does homeopathy work?

Answer: No.

This matter is settled. We don't need more research — the research has been done. It clearly shows that homeopathy is no more effective than placebo. Taxpayers' money that has heretofore funded homeopathy on the National Health Service should therefore be redirected to medical interventions that have been shown to have demonstrable effect. This was essentially the finding of the recent Parliamentary Science & Technology Select Committee Evidence Check on homeopathy.

Some people, however, refuse to take "no" for an answer. On this morning's Today Programme, Conservative MP David Tredinnick called for still more research on this failed magic:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8757000/8757810.stm
(Streaming audio, 4'41")

Simon Singh was also on the programme, and he summarily demolished David Tredinnick's best evidence. Neverthless the MP went on to call for yet more research, because homeopathy is "popular" with doctors and patients. Fortunately (given the time constraints of the Today Programme) Simon Singh was quick enough to give a highly amusing example of homeopathy's lack of plausibility, along with the financial motives behind the manufacture of its remedies.

David Tredinnick wants more research because he knows that the aggregate of research done so far fails to show that homeopathy is effective. He will continue to call for more research until it stops giving him answers he doesn't like.

That's not going to happen. Homeopathy has been fully tested — it doesn't work. There's nothing in it.

My Humanist Hero: Arthur C. Clarke

A quick announcement — over at Humanist Life my contribution to the Humanist Heroes series has just been posted:

"As a teenager I was entranced by the writings of Arthur C. Clarke. While Clarke is best known for his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on the film script for 2001: A Space Odyssey, his interests ranged from the eminently practical to the wildly speculative. He was the first to propose the use of geostationary communications satellites; he was also chairman of the British Interplanetary Society. "

Continue reading here:
http://www.humanistlife.org.uk/2010/06/humanist-hero-arthur-c-clarke-by-paul-s-jenkins/

Several others are already available, and there are more to come. Well worth perusal (and apparently there's still time to submit your own).

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.