A Paris court has convicted the “Church” of Scientology of fraud and has fined it over half a million Euros, though the court didn’t go so far as to shut it down and ban it from operating in France. The case has been under investigation for more than a decade, it seems. Unlike the United …
Author Archives: dlgilbert
Goodbye, Smallpox! Thanks, Science!
Today is the 32nd anniversary of the elimination of smallpox, according to Wikipedia. How was it eliminated? Vaccines. That’s medical science at its best… not “alternative” medicine, not homeopathy, not prayer, not the “Will of God.” Science. Real people doing real research to develop real solutions to real problems. Nothing works like science. Phil Plait …
Fun with church signs
Occasionally, I see a church sign that just begs to be addressed. A local church recently changed their sign to read: Time well spent is time spent in prayer. I know that the idea that a god listens to (and answers) prayers is something that is foundational to many peoples’ religious beliefs. Hearing the phrases …
Preachy Comment Spam
I get email notifications when someone posts a comment on one of my posts and today, over the course of about an hour, I got 7 notifications that the same person was commenting. That’s great, I thought! Someone’s actually reading what I wrote and is taking the time to give their feedback! As it turns …
Red Meat (the comic)
Red Meat has a great strip today… one that hits home with folks who tend to reject irrational and superstitious claims.
Outside the Chapel Doors
For the past few days, I’ve been mulling over the issues of health care and global warming (or climate change, if you prefer) in the context of who opposes the issues. It seems that almost every person who opposes (meaningful) health care reform and who denies global warming is either very conservative and/or very religious …
It seemed so simple at the time
Agreed then? Separation of Church and State. It is so simple any idiot 200 years from today will understand it. Right?
Charlie’s Playhouse and Evolution Toys
A few months ago, I bought the Giant Timeline Poster from Charlie’s Playhouse. I wanted to get the Giant Timeline, but I knew I didn’t have room for it (though I know better now!) and figured I could hang the smaller version on the wall somewhere so my daughter and I could have fun reading …
Casey Luskin cries censorship
Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute is all up in arms about censorship because, he claims, the Smithsonian-affiliated California Science Center cancelled its screening of the “documentary” Darwin’s Dilemma when it found out that the film was promoting intelligent design. While I agree that censorship is generally not good, Luskin seems to (again) misunderstand that …
Herding Cats and Situational Etiquette
In the atheist community, there are two sure things. The first is, of course, that atheists don’t believe in any gods. The other thing is that a lack of belief in any gods is pretty much the only universally common attribute of atheists. Atheist groups sometimes have trouble gaining or keeping members because, as the …