Quotation from John L. Esposito’s The Future of Islam, page 6: If a group of Jews or Christians had been responsible for the bombing of the World Trade Center, few would have attributed it to the beliefs of mainstream Judaism or Christianity. The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin by a Jewish fundamentalist was not … The “heart” of a religion

I’ve written occasionally about how atheist billboards in the US have a way of attracting vandalism. Some conservative Christians have noticed as well. Recently I’ve run into two examples of justifying such vandalism. One, which has already been well-savaged by PZ Myers, is a WorldNetDaily piece by one Chrissy Satterfield. Mind you, WorldNetDaily is a … Christian vandalism

Some End-times obsession: And a nice right wing paranoia-story:

The Metropolitan Opera has reportedly commissioned a new opera from Osvaldo Golijov, a composer whose work I usually like. Apparently it’s going to be about the “relationship between science and religion.” That could be interesting. On the other hand, I suspect it’s most likely to to resolve into some pap about ultimate harmony. It won’t … Opera on science and religion

I was looking over reports of a “Quran and Scientific Truths” conference held in Istanbul, Turkey. (I can find only this in English; there’s a lot more in Turkish.) There’s nothing all that new in it—mostly the usual science-in-the-Quran nonsense. But, as always, the conference included a host of Turkish academics in engineering and science … What are they thinking?

The political versions of religious nonbelief usually include affirmations of rationality in public policy. The recent Copenhagen Declaration on Religion in Public Life has “We submit that public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma.” All this assumes that there is a single agreed upon form of rationality. Maybe it also … Rational policy?

I’ve just finished a collection of John Gray’s essays, Gray’s Anatomy. Gray is perhaps my favorite conservative thinker—conservative in the European tradition, which has some intellectual depth, rather than the mindless combination of Jesus and market-worship that is American movement conservatism. I’m not conservative myself, since my temperament inclines me not toward “if it’s not … Gray’s Anatomy

Let me put in a plug for Maarten Boudry, Stefaan Blancke, and Johan Braeckman’s paper in Foundations of Science, “How not to attack Intelligent Design Creationism: Philosophical misconceptions about Methodological Naturalism.” Here’s the abstract: In recent controversies about Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC), the principle of methodological naturalism (MN) has played an important role. In this … Methodological naturalism

The insurance company is bound to claim this was an act of God. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/15/king-of-kings-ohio-jesus_n_612360.html

Martin Gardner died at age 95 on Saturday, May 22nd. “This past weekend the world darkened with the loss of one of its brightest lights: Martin Gardner, polymath extraordinaire, founding father of the modern skeptical movement, and a friend. R.I.P. Martin.” – Michael Shermer Interview of Martin Gardner by Michael Shermer:http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/10-05-26/#tribute NY Times Obituary:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/us/24gardner.html?scp=1&sq;=Martin%20Gardner&st;=cse