disputabletruth's posterous http://disputabletruth.posterous.com Most recent posts at disputabletruth's posterous posterous.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:23:21 -0800 Antivaxxers: another faction of the active-ignorance http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/antivaxxers-another-faction-of-the-active-ign http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/antivaxxers-another-faction-of-the-active-ign When preschool entertainment and vaccination controversy collide

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/brain-flapping/2013/jan/04/vaccination-chil...

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Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:56:00 -0700 Recovering from religion http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/recovering-from-religion http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/recovering-from-religion

Recently I have come across many resources loosley grouped under the banner of recovering from religion.  The first is the Recovering from Religion website which offerns an online support community of news, articles and networking.  If your in the religion business, the The Clergy Project is a private invite-only source to help the clergy through their period of enlightment.  For some it is a very difficult process and this online support system offers a great deal of help for people who think often they are the only ones experiencing these difficult times.  As a plug to the Godless Bitches their latest podcast interviews a clergy member who has been through The Clergy Project and documents their experiences with it.  Often societal and familar pressure forces people to remain in the closet.  These resources are eye-opening and offer real support people through a process which can be difficult for many.

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Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:54:00 -0700 A discussion of something from nothing. http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/a-discussion-of-something-from-nothing http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/a-discussion-of-something-from-nothing

There are two explanations for where life originates.  One states a magic man did it.  Another delves into evidence reason and logic.  This video discusses the latter.

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Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:06:03 -0700 Religious "Therapy" http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/religious-therapy http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/religious-therapy A theme for this week has been religious "therapy". Over the last few nights we watched the excellent documentary on Netflix called "For the bible tells me so" which documents several religious households and how they came to terms with having a gay child. When I say came to terms, what I really mean is how a family which has bigoted views once they become personal. Personally having a gay child would be indifferent to myself other than to worry that they may be harmed in some way. Anyway I digress the documentary was often heartwarming and sometimes sadly tragic.

Today I stumbled across another documentary, Religulous, again, and just read an article on The Guardian: Does the scientific support cited by anti-gay campaigners add up? (http://t.co/Jhdcoajo).

All three articles touch on religious therapy, particularly therapy to turn you straight. It is very sad to see what ought to be rational people peddling this bigoted shite. It is the equivalent of therapy to make you non-Jewish or non-black or non-bald. The oppression of women, homosexuals and the outer-group of religion is tolerated because it falls under the banner of religious freedom and whilst I defend that right I am also using my freedom of speech to call it out as wicked.

Would you give someone therapy for being heterosexual?

No. Didn't think so.

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Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:21:00 -0700 If I had a religion this song would say it all. http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/if-i-had-a-religion-this-song-would-say-it-al http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/if-i-had-a-religion-this-song-would-say-it-al

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Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:12:41 -0700 Water has hydrating properties? Who knew? http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/water-has-hydrating-properties-who-knew http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/water-has-hydrating-properties-who-knew

P196

More credulity.

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Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:02:13 -0700 Faith "Healers" acting immorally. As the French would say, "Quel Surprise" http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/faith-healers-acting-immorally-as-the-french http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/faith-healers-acting-immorally-as-the-french A group of faith healers who claim they have miracle cures for cancer and HIV have been condemned as "irresponsible, even criminal" by a professor of complementary medicine, following a BBC Newsnight investigation.

The group of healers, collectively known as ThetaHealing, claim that their technique - which focuses on thought and prayer - can teach people to use their natural intuition and "brain wave cycle" to "create instantaneous physical and emotional healing."

ThetaHealing have about 600 practitioners in the UK who charge up to £100 per session.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9519657.stm

http://www.atheistmedia.com/2011/06/bbc-newsnight-faith-healers.html?utm_sour...

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Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:36:23 -0700 Atheist Themed Movies for 2011 http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/atheist-movie-round-up http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/atheist-movie-round-up

It looks like there are a few atheist themed movies and documentaries being released in 2011.

 

Film 1 - New documentary about the LaClair case

"A couple of years ago, a student, Matthew LaClair, exposed his teacher, David Paszkiewicz, as an evangelical creationist who was using a public school classroom as a pulpit. He did this by the simple expedient of bringing a hidden voice recorder into the room and catching Paszkiewicz preaching instead of teaching (the recording is on the web)." - Full Story

 

Film 2 - Gawd Bless America

"Gawd Bless America" is a Documentary Comedy coming to theaters this June 2011. The film follows Blake Freeman, who sets out to disprove the notion that aliens, people with psychic abilities and ghosts live among us.

IMDB Link

 

Film 3 - The Ledge

Possibly the most high profile film of the three is The Ledge starring Charlie Hunnam, Patrick Wilson and Liv Tyler.

"A thriller in which a battle of philosophies between a fundamentalist Christian and an atheist escalates into a lethal battle of wills."

IMDB Link

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Sun, 29 May 2011 22:11:53 -0700 Abortion needs to be taught in our medical schools http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/abortion-needs-to-be-taught-in-our-medical-sc http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/abortion-needs-to-be-taught-in-our-medical-sc Abortion needs to be taught in our medical schools - PZ Myers - Pharyngula - RichardDawkins.net bit.ly/lYdDHd

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Thu, 12 May 2011 05:50:57 -0700 Washington Post gets DawkinsSlapped http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/washington-post-gets-dawkinsslapped http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/washington-post-gets-dawkinsslapped That's the right response: So…the Washington Post asks Richard Dawkins about the goofy Harold Camping/End of the... bit.ly/jFbcKw

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Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:35:00 -0700 Hitchslap - Hitch Delivers in classic Hitchens style http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/hitchslap-hitch-delivers-in-classic-hitchens http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/hitchslap-hitch-delivers-in-classic-hitchens

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Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:17:00 -0700 Faith "healing" : Derren Brown - Miracles for Sale http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/faith-healing-derren-brown-miracles-for-sale http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/faith-healing-derren-brown-miracles-for-sale

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Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:03:02 -0700 Ratzinger, assertion isn't an explanation. http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/ratzinger-assertion-isnt-an-explanation http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/ratzinger-assertion-isnt-an-explanation Pope: Humanity isn't random product of evolution - Nicole Winfield - AP -

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI marked the holiest night of the year for Christians by stressing that humanity isn't a random product of evolution.

Benedict emphasized the Biblical account of creation in his Easter Vigil homily Saturday, saying it was wrong to think at some point "in some tiny corner of the cosmos there evolved randomly some species of living being capable of reasoning and of trying to find rationality within creation, or to bring rationality into it." ...

RichardDawkins.net bit.ly/dPmsBY

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Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:48:00 -0700 Hitchens' address to American Atheists http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/hitchens-address-to-american-atheists http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/hitchens-address-to-american-atheists

From: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/04/hitchens_address_to_american_a.php

Dear fellow-unbelievers,

    Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons of this for many years to come, but for now I have found my trust better placed in two things: the skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstitition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency. 

      That essential sense of decency is outraged every day. Our theocratic enemy is in plain view. Protean in form, it extends from the overt menace of nuclear-armed mullahs to the insidious campaigns to have stultifying pseudo-science taught in American schools. But in the past few years, there have been heartening signs of a genuine and spontaneous resistance to this sinister nonsense: a resistance which repudiates the right of bullies and tyrants to make the absurd claim that they have god on their side. To have had a small part in this resistance has been the greatest honor of my lifetime: the pattern and original of all dictatorship is the surrender of reason to absolutism and the abandonment of critical, objective inquiry. The cheap name for this lethal delusion is religion, and we must learn new ways of combating it in the public sphere, just as we have learned to free ourselves of it in private. 

    Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations. 

       As the heirs of a secular revolution, American atheists have a special responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution that patrols the boundary between Church and State. This, too, is an honor and a privilege. Believe me when I say that I am present with you, even if not corporeally (and only metaphorically in spirit...) Resolve to build up Mr Jefferson's wall of separation. And don't keep the faith.

    Sincerely

Christopher Hitchens

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Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:24:00 -0700 Richard Dawkins - Global Atheist Convention 2010 http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/richard-dawkins-global-atheist-convention-201 http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/richard-dawkins-global-atheist-convention-201

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Mon, 18 Apr 2011 08:23:00 -0700 Focus on the "family" true tolerance crap... http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/focus-on-the-family-true-tolerance-crap http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/focus-on-the-family-true-tolerance-crap

Focus on the Family, the awful Colorado Springs based organisation that promotes right-wing Christian/Oppressive values, launches a True Tolerance campaign.  To help with "bullying" in school.  The campaign doesn't start out well:

Concerned about homosexual advocacy in your child's school?

Err no.  I want my children raised to be aware of all elements of society.  That the world in which they live in is made up of people of many colours.  I am concernted with children being raised to belong to a cult that, by ideology, directs people to dislike, "save", or hurt other groups in the name of 2000 plus year old fictional book.

Read more here

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Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:32:01 -0700 Shouldn't these books be combined? http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/shouldnt-these-books-be-combined http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/shouldnt-these-books-be-combined

P136

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Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:33:00 -0700 Reclaim Easter http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/reclaim-easter http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/reclaim-easter

Inspired by Hitch:

The Human species has been around for about 100,000 years.  For much of that time we have been dying in the most horrendous circumstances.  Some believe that for 98,000 of those years a "loving" god stood by and watched us perish.  Finally deciding to intervene 2000 years ago by requiring that himself/his son die by a blood sacrifice for a game that he invented.

Easter, like Christmas, is another annual festival co-opted by Christians as their own, to fulfil a marketing scam during the genesis of their religion."Come join us, we have all the same festivals as you."  Time to leave immoral Bronze-Age thinking where it belongs.

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Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:36:00 -0700 Has my cheese resurrected? http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/has-my-cheese-resurrected http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/has-my-cheese-resurrected

This morning I entered the kitchen to make a cheese sandwich. Upon opening the fridge the cheese was no longer there. Given this time of year I was wondering whether the empty refrigerated tomb was a sign my cheese had resurrected?

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Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:16:24 -0700 What would we do without the GOP to protect us from the grave threat of public broadcasters, Planned Parenthood, scientists, unions & women? http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/what-would-we-do-without-the-gop-to-protect-u http://disputabletruth.posterous.com/what-would-we-do-without-the-gop-to-protect-u What would we do without the GOP to protect us from the grave threat of public broadcasters, Planned Parenthood, scientists, unions & women?

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