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Skeptic Summary #248

Idiots all around, Dawkins and Wright, the CreoZerg, Atheism defined and more!

Ad hominems, again - Once an idiot, always an idiot. Apparently.

Richard Dawkins interviews Wendy Wright - You’ll wish it was audio only.

Editor’s Choice: I don’t think I can make it to this… - The “CreoZerg” happened, with very few problems.

Atheism, as described in the pages of the Uncyclopedia — Well, what can I say? This really is an evil pick. Two of them, really, but who’s counting? Here is an excerpt from the article:

Atheist Beliefs

Because Athe is regarded as the highest and most advanced being in the universe, communication between Her and Her lowly creations is regarded as a blasphemous concept in Atheism. Atheists believe that to regard oneself as so important that Athe the almighty has time to stop watching TV just to listen your prayers is the ultimate case of egotism. Atheists don’t flatter themselves in that way. As such there are no holy scriptures in Atheism, and prayer, i.e., attempted communication with a superior being, is strictly forbidden. Anyone who dares to indulge in such activity as the perusal of scripture or prayer ceases to be an Atheist or gets slapped with a tuna; repeat offenders are slapped with a swordfish or turkey. Most Atheist converts will most probably read the Dummies’ Guide to Atheism (a.k.a. The God Delusion). This is not obligatory though, since that is a very long and boring book designed primarily for 70 year old university professors reading by candlelight…

There is some very educational stuff here. Lots of it I didn’t know before. Lucky for us, there is always something more to learn. Have fun.

SkeptiQuote: I don’t want to be respected for my beliefs, I want you to respect the facts. — Richard Dawkins

Wednesday: Much like last week, the New Atheists v. Accomdationists and the birthers were hot topics for chat. On the other hand, new this week was the uncovered plot to disrupt townhall meetings. “We didn’t get our way so let’s disrupt the entire system” is the ultimate cry-baby strategy. Also mocked was demon-slayer.org for gems such as “We are true slayers, trained in the old ways.” Chat ended with talk of Creationists on the forums and cheese.

Come chat with us.

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Battle of Los Angeles

Glaciers a canary in the coal mine of global warming

Happy 265th Birthday

Hit and myth: curse of the ghostwriters

In-vitro meat: Would lab-burgers be better for us and the planet?

The Scareship Age

Skeptic’s Dictionary Newsletter #106

Skepticality #106 — TAM7 Wrap-Up

Three Amigos or Three Stooges?

What’s New by Bob Park

Your family dog may be smarter than your toddler

Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them.

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, by Jeff Sharlet.



“Checking in on a friend’s brother at Ivenwald, a Washington-based fundamentalist group living communally in Arlington, Va., religion and journalism scholar Sharlet finds a sect whose members refer to Manhattan’s Ground Zero as ‘the ruins of secularism’; intrigued, Sharlet accepts on a whim an invitation to stay at Ivenwald. He’s shocked to find himself in the stronghold of a widespread ‘invisible’ network, organized into cells much like Ivenwald, and populated by elite, politically ambitious fundamentalists; Sharlet is present when a leader tells a dozen men living there, ‘You guys are here to learn how to rule the world.’ As it turns out, the Family was established in 1935 to oppose FDR’s New Deal and the spread of trade unions; since then, it has organized well-attended weekly prayer meetings for members of Congress and annual National Prayer Breakfasts attended by every president since Eisenhower. Further, the Family’s international reach (‘almost impossible to overstate’) has ‘forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most oppressive regimes in the world.’ In the years since his first encounter, Sharlet has done extensive research, and his thorough account of the Family’s life and times is a chilling exposé.”

— Publishers Weekly

Forum Topics:

1. The Supper
2. Stop laughing, dammit! This is serious shit!
3. PZ expelled from Expelled — Dawkins slips in!
4. Wow, this is outrageous
5. The shallow end of the gene pool…
6. Why go ad hom? I don’t understand.
7. New World Order happening right now!
8. Possum on the half shell
9. Beelzebufo ampinga
10. Logical fallacies: this oughta be good!

Articles:

1. Evolving a Venom or Two
2. Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark
3. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle
4. Skeptic Summary #152
5. Miracle Thaw Tray
6. The Bible’s Bad Fruits
7. Scientific Truth
8. TAM5
9. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony!
10. Cold Reading

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