Giles for the Day

The Rev Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral has come up with some weird suggestions for appropriate responses to crises in the past, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at his advice for dealing with the outbreak of rioting and looting throughout the country last week.

While the media and the Government pondered the correct action to take to stem the lawlessness, Giles Fraser had an altogether "alternative" solution:

Do nothing.

I'm surprised he didn't suggest lighting a candle, as he has before. Presumably this crisis was so serious it required the full force of moral action to nip it in the bud. You might think it was a bit late for that, but when the action suggested is in fact inaction, it doesn't really matter precisely when you don't do it.

Glory in the the advice of the Giles here, for a limited time:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jq9jw

Or read the transcript:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jq9jw
(Yes, it's the same link — streaming audio and text on the same page.)

Or if you're a glutton for punishment, get the podcast:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/thought

(It's been suggested to me that I'd be a lot happier if I avoided Thought for the Day in general, and Giles Fraser in particular. But I listen to the BBC's premier morning radio news programme — Today — and sometimes I just can't avoid the Godspot. Fortunately my blood pressure is commendably normal, so a bit of witless pomposity does no more than limber up the critical faculties at the start of the day.)

How extreme are the Phelps'? — Skepticule Extra

The latest Skepticule Extra is now available. It was recorded last Friday and is an interview with representatives of the Westboro Baptist Church, of "God Hates Fags" fame. The interview was organised and conducted by Skepticule co-host Paul Baird, though Paul (Sinbad) Thompson and myself were also in attendance. I hardly said anything, and what I did say could easily have derailed the conversation, but Paul B knew what questions he wanted to ask and he asked them.

The resulting exchange was enlightening. The Phelps' are often painted as extremists, and watching what they do certainly gives this impression. But as was revealed in this conversation there isn't a single tenet of their faith, however extreme, that isn't fervently held by some other Christian sect somewhere around the world. The Phelps' just seem to hold to all of them.

The actual interview is about 38 minutes long, followed by a few minutes of the three Pauls discussing what they've just heard. Listen here:

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2011/08/skepextra-012-20110812.html

A belated bunch of Burnee links for Thursday

"It's gone very quiet."

(Listeners to the Skepticule Record will know that I'm quoting myself there.)

But yes, it's been quiet here in Burnee land over the last week. That's because I've been busy — mostly with audio editing (including our fascinating Westboro Baptist Church interview), but also with other non-blog-related stuff, such as attending Pompey Skeptics in the Pub, going to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, seeing a Terence Rattigan play at Chichester Festival Theatre, and spending most of last Sunday in a woodland clearing at my family's annual picnic.

Maybe I'll catch up with the blogging, or maybe I won't. Anyway, here are some links:

When I stopped being an atheist … « Choice in Dying

The Biologos video is called ”A Leap of Truth.” It’s not really worth watching, in my view. It has all the same suspects saying roughly the same things they’ve said otherwhere and otherwhen. I have to admit, though, that Alister McGrath is arguably the biggest bullshitter of them all, and is almost compelling in his vacuity.

Eric MacDonald plumbs the McGrath shallows.

Paul Simms: “God’s Blog” : The New Yorker
As a "design", this is unintelligently brilliant!

Is the internet dangerous? Taking a closer look at Baroness Greenfield’s concerns — Risk Science Blog
Susan Greenfield is given a fair hearing, but still lacks evidence.

The Daily Mail knowingly and commercially used my photos despite my denying them permission. - Wonderland
Let's pretend to be ethical when it suits us. (But mostly, to hell with ethics.)

New episode of Skepticule Extra

(Note, this is not the special interview episode recorded last Friday — this was recorded a week ago.)

In the latest episode of Skepticule Extra the three Pauls concentrate on education, including faith-based academies, eating your words in class, plus we educate you in nefarious institutional shenanigans. Listen and get up-to-date now, so that you're ready for episode 12 (which you definitely don't want to miss).

Anarchy in the UK — can I blame the Christians?

Reports of violence, looting and arson in many places throughout Britain in the last few days is met by peace-loving, right-thinking people with nothing short of bewilderment: what on earth do these looters think they're doing? How can they possibly believe they have justification for lawlessness and criminality of this kind? How can they do these things and live with themselves?

Perhaps I can offer a hypothesis. Nothing more — this is not a researched analysis, just a thought, based on recent discussions in various places (notably on the Skepticule Extra podcast).

The perpetrators of these crimes, it would appear from news reports, are mostly young. Where do they get their moral guidance? In days gone by they would have received it from religious sources, in school, in church, from their parents. These days, however, young people see through the associated baggage that accompanies religious morality. They see that the God-myth is just that — an unsubstantiated fantasy with little relevance to their everyday lives.

Recognizing the God-myth for what it is may not be difficult. But there's a harder question, which is this: where does morality come from?

The answer given to this question, I contend, may lead to a mindset allowing the lawlessness witnessed this week. Religious apologists — in this country mostly Christian — insist that without God-given morality you have no basis on which to distinguish right and wrong. Advocates for humanism have long argued that such a claim is unfounded, but Christians stick obdurately to the idea that without God, "everything is permitted". This is false, but enduring. It's this nihilistic notion that appears to have permeated the minds of lawless youths tossing petrol bombs into high-street shops. They've rejected the God-myth, but unfortunately bought into the Christian proprietorial account of morality.

But you can be good without God, and the insistent Christian denial of this fact has, in my view, contributed to the current trouble.

Oh Kalamity — a cosmological debunking

The Kalām Cosmological Argument is a favourite of William Lane Craig. It's formulated in such a way as to preempt objections, though as I've previously mentioned on numerous blogposts this disingenuous wordplay — an attempt to insulate the argument from criticism — fails.

This great video is as comprehensive a take-down of the Kalām's flawed logic as we're likely to see for some time — at least until some new cosmological theory emerges from legitimate science. The analysis and arguments presented here are thorough, properly referenced and in many cases from the very mouths of the cosmologists themselves.

http://youtu.be/baZUCc5m8sE


Here's the info on the video, copied from YouTube:

We hope this is the definitive take down of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. We show how it is contradictory and that the physics being used to support it doesn't do so. We also had this video reviewed by Marcus, one of the Cosmology Advisers on Physics Forums to make sure there were no errors, his words
"I think it is excellent.Your narrator comes across as really smart and personable....I don't see any glaring errors, really amazingly good
it's charming, intelligent, visually engaging, sporadically really beautiful like the brief cut of the Hubble telescope and the volcano etc. Well-made!"

And here's what P. Z. Myers says in his Pharyngula post (credited to Skepchick) that alerted me to it:

This is a wonderful video debunking the Kalam Cosmological Argument. What I really like about it is that it takes the tortured rationales of theologians like William Lane Craig, who love to babble mangled pseudoscience in their arguments, and shows with direct quotes from the physicists referenced that the Christian and Muslim apologists are full of shit.

Watch and enjoy.

Burnee links for Sunday

HOW TO BUILD A NEWSROOM TIME MACHINE « journoterrorist
An exercise in doing journalism the old-fashioned way.

Atheism is an essential part of skepticism | Pharyngula
P. Z. Myers on why it's a bad idea to make a walled garden into which skepticism cannot go.

Abortion: pregnancy counselling centres found wanting | Life and style | The Guardian
This is what happens when organisations with an agenda — in lieu of the state — are allowed to provide public services. Contrary to what we're told, choice is narrowed rather than widened.

New Humanist (Rationalist Association) - Anjem Choudary exploits Norwegian tragedy to publicise his 'Sharia Controlled Zones' for UK cities
Choudary is a notorious media whore, so the seriousness of this proposal is to be questioned. On the face of it he's suggesting that his private police force will be above English law. Clearly that won't be allowed.

Research linking autism to internet use is criticised | Society | The Observer
Susan Greenfield is at it again (has she ever stopped?) — making wild unsubstantiated claims about the evils of the internet while refusing to produce even one single shred of evidence to support any of them.

"I'm not just sitting here staring out of my window and making something up to talk about," she said.

Really? You're not? Then how come it appears to practically everyone else that "making something up" is precisely what you are doing? (Hint: you're a scientist. Evidence.)