Jonathan Sacks makes many utterly absurd religious claims in a Salon article

Salon rang up Jonathan Sacks, interviewed him, and managed to spin some truly absurd religious claims into an article they have published. How much of what comes up is actually the thinking of Mr Sacks, and how much is actually the Salon author’s agenda via a bit of quote mining, I honestly don’t know, but either way it … Read more

Are people who embrace religious ideas stupid?

The quick short answer is “no”, being religious does not make you stupid .. OK, were are done. Well yes, I did want to write a bit more. Barbara Drescher, a cognitive psychologist and blogger, has posted a really good article to the new skeptical blogging platform whose writers focus on scientific skepticism (yea) all about this very topic. There she explains that highly … Read more

Former ‘Militant Atheist’ converts and becomes Christian

So yes, finding a headline claiming “Militant Atheist converts” is perhaps click-bait, and yet I’m always curious to understand what makes people tick. The specific article in question comes from TheBlaze, and that fact alone should motivate you to question the accuracy of anything it says at all. Why? Well, let me put it this way, … Read more

Why are Conspiracy Theories embraced at “truth” within the Muslim world?

Trying to grasp why specific ideas that are complete and utter bullshit are embraced as truth is always an interesting question to ponder over, in fact I was doing exactly that a few days ago, so when I came across an article by Mehdi Hasan (a Muslim) it caught my eye. Mr Hasan, is one of those chaps … Read more

Did King David, as described in the bible, actually exist?

Francesca Stavrakopoulou is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion in the Theology and Religion department at Exeter University, but she is also perhaps better known for the BBC series that she has done. She presented a three-part BBC documentary series about the Bible and archaeology, called Bible’s Buried Secrets, broadcast in the UK on BBC 2 in March 2011. Here … Read more

How to debate effectively within the online inferno

Most of us tend to engage in on-line discussions these days, and the rather common pattern you will often observe in that context is as follows: Somebody posts something, and a vigorous debate ensues within the comments, usually one it which people are speaking over each other’s heads and not really engaging at all. At the end, nobody … Read more