by Carl Howard | May 20, 2010 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Society
Today is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, an initiative launched by a Seattle cartoonist as a response to the Comedy Central/Southpark/Mohammed cartoons/Mohammed in a bear suit nonsense. Apparently the creators have now dropped the gag after it became controversial. This...
by Carl Howard | May 18, 2010 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Blogging the Bible
David and Jonathan As part of the public “debate” about homosexuality over the last few decades, some gay rights activists have claimed that the Bible is not as anti-gay as fundamentalists would believe. A staple modern discussions about homosexuality and the Bible is...
by Carl Howard | May 14, 2010 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Evolution and Biology, Medicine, Philosophy
Via Pharyngula, here’s an amazing video of an elephant’s birth which I invite you to watch before reading on. (If you’re reading this by email the video won’t render so here’s a link to it on YouTube) Let’s forget the drama of the calf appearing lifeless at first and...
by Carl Howard | May 10, 2010 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Blogging the Bible
Epic literature often introduces the main character very late in the story. The book of Samuel is one such example: it is almost entirely about King David and yet we haven’t heard a peep about him for the first 15 chapters as instead we are given the “prologues” of...
by Carl Howard | May 3, 2010 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness, Science and Skepticism
I think the most famous quote from Stalin, or at least the one most famous outside the Russian-speaking world is “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic”. This looks to be an urban legend but the sentiment is certainly true. We are...
by Carl Howard | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog Topics, Ethics, Evolution and Biology, Philosophy, Society
This past Saturday I was in lovely Kiama and decided to go for a wander through the cliffs past the Kiama blowhole. Just before the path to the cliffs, the council put up a sign to the effect of: “Warning! This is risky business. Going past this sign places in you in...
