Widespread Ignorance Bordering on Idiocy

December 31, 2013


What better way to close out the year than with a huge blow to the head that is Pew's data showing that fully one-third of Americans don't accept evolution, and that a majority of Republicans (you know, the party that controls the House and the Supreme Court) reject it. And, just to make sure you understand that "unaffiliated" or "nones" does not equal "atheist," 20% of the unaffiliated reject evolution as well.

Human Rights Without Frontiers publishes a comprehensive report on the imprisonment of religion dissenters around the world. I focus on the blasphemy charges and persecuted nonbelievers, and Brian Pellot notes the horrible irony of the offenders sitting on the UN Human Rights Council. 

Chuckle at the silliness that is the War on Christmas with AU's Rob Boston and Point of Inquiry's own Josh Zepps

Tom Flynn says the Suzanne Moore Guardian piece on the conflict between atheism and "ritual" is a great example of the difference between secular and religious humanism.  

Luke O'Neil at Esquire bemoans the rampant fakery that has eaten the Internet:


M. Sophia Newman that since Pussy Riot was never formally charged with "blasphemy," but something more like "hooliganism," their pardoning may have little implication for actual blasphemy convictions. 

Susan Gerbic posts a year in review for the diligent work and trench warfare that is Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia. 

Harriet Hall works to disabuse us of the idea that doctors are just out to make money, as opposed to alt-med hucksters:

As new evidence becomes available, they are constantly changing their practices to eliminate the unnecessary and the ineffective. The contrast with CAM providers is striking. 

My kid seems to go nuts when he has sugar, but apparently it is one of many winter science myths

I haven't read this Charles Simic piece at NYRB yet, but you know I will, because it starts like this:


Richard Dawkins talks to Slate about his public persona:

[S]ome people find clarity threatening. They like muddle, confusion, obscurity. So when somebody does no more than speak clearly it sounds threatening. 

With a lot of dilapidation, Kolkata, India has become a breeding ground for ghost stories and alleged hauntings.

Franklin Graham tries to pull rank on Pope Fluffy when it comes to how much we should hate gays. 

Deborah Orr expresses what I imagine will be a controversial sentiment about religious rights:

[I]f some people are allowed to practise their religious beliefs, then all should be able to. How easy that is to say. How hard it is to implement. Multiculturalism, really, can be seen as an attempt to put that simple, treacherous idea into practice. It can also be seen as an aspect of identity politics that has fared less well than others. With good reason. For human rights to flourish, religious rights have to come second to them. We are all human. We are not all of the same religion, or religious at all. One cannot protect religious rights if they are used as a reason to abuse human rights, human equalities, as so often they are. 

Peter Boghossian talks about dispelling religious belief on the Humanist Hour. 

Quote of the Day

Really interesting piece by Robert McGinley Myers on the placebo treadmill that folks can get stuck on:


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