Is sin real – Are we really just a few heartbeats away from depravity and wickedness?

A common foundational idea of religious belief is the classic sales pitch – “here is a hideous problem within human nature, but I have a product that will fix it for you”, but if the problem itself is fictitious, then the proposed “solution” is attempting to fix a problem you do not have. It really is often … Read more

Responding to Islamic Violence – Which Interpretation of the Quran is the right one?

Adam Walker, Spokesperson of the London based Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, has written an article in the Independent entitled “Are peaceful Muslims in denial about their religion?“, and there he makes a case for the Quran being fundamentally a non-violent text. Such a stance is of course to be applauded … oh but wait, there is a bit … Read more

Islamic Terrorism – The Statistics and how we can tackle it

If you dig into the statistics concerning Islamic terrorism then what you find are some surprising facts. First, let’s start with the hopefully obvious observation. Almost every single day news reaches us of yet another barbaric atrocity that has been inspired and motivated by Islam. What should of course be immediately clear is that such … Read more

Is Atheism Evil?

Is Atheism Evil? For those that are wondering and can’t contain their suspense, the TL;DR; version is …. (insert drum roll here) … “no”. OK, so I’ve been inspired/provoked into writing a few comments in reply to a Huff Po article entitled “Is Atheism Evil?” by a chap called James Clark Kelly whose line is “Interfaith”, and … Read more

Peter Tatchell talks about the personal cost of his activism

Peter Tatchell is a gay rights and also a human rights activist, who has courageously taken a consistently brave stand. In his mind human rights are universal, so regardless of who is doing the oppressing, he will speak up for the oppressed … and rightly so. As an example, he openly criticises Hamas for targeting civilians, … Read more

Islamic Violence – What is the best most effective response to it?

How not to reply? A rather popular claim that does the rounds in response to the various rather brutal atrocities is an assertion that “they” are not “true” Muslims, or perhaps an assertion that what happened is nothing to do with “peaceful” Islam. This line of thought is fatally flawed, because it is not only … Read more