A little bit of entertainment from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r-kIBARMpM

In December 2005, Judge Jones struck a blow against the Intelligent Design (ID) movement in Dover, PA (Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District). Perhaps just as important as the decision itself was the public reaction to it at the polling booth. Locals in Dover overwhelming “threw out the bums” and voted in moderate … Kansas Course Correction

There’s a great article in today’s New York Times entitled “Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock,” (Jul 30, A1, A21). It tells how Rev. Gregory A. Boyd of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently gave a series of sermons that essentially argued against coupling politics and religion. Or more specifically, the … Reverend Questions Church and State Entanglement

An iPod is a wonderful thing for long car trips. So this past week I listened to a podcast of a debate on the Infidel Guy radio show. It was an hour and a half long and often exasperating, so I wouldn’t have sat through it otherwise. The debate was between FFRF‘s Dan Barker and … Presuppositionalists

P.Z. Myers at Pharyngula points out Godchecker’s “Your Guide to the Gods,” a searchable database of over 2,850 gods. You can search by pantheon (African, Australian, Aztec, Caribbean, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Finnish, Greek, Incan, Japanese, Mayan, Mesopotamian, Middle Eastern, Native American, Norse, Oceanic, Roman, Slavic and Baltic, South American, and Southeast Asian), look at the … A catalog of gods

Secularists have long hoped that modernization would work against religion, or at least the more mindless varieties of religion. As we did better in fulfilling human needs, there would be less that religious belief would compensate for. In modern societies with multiple overlapping social roles and fragmented identities, religions as complete ways of life would … Modern religion

Just in case anyone is interested and can make it: I’m going to be speaking in the Summer Institute of the Jefferson Center for Religion and Philosophy in Ashland, Oregon, on August 5. They have an good lineup of speakers, including Matt Young, who should also be of interest to Secular Outpost readers. The Jefferson … Talk in Oregon

Philosopher Doug Krueger once made the interesting observation that whenever theists want to boast about their alleged successes in debates with atheists, theists always describe their opponents as “best-known,” “foremost,” the “most famous,” or the “most prominent.” For example: If I were to generalize a bit, it appears there is interest in answering the following … Who is the Most Prominent Atheist?

Access Research Network, an intelligent design organization, is selling T-shirts etc with the following cartoon: (Click to see full size) They also provide an explanation of their imagery. What’s interesting to me is their self-perception: people with science and other intellectual disciplines on their side, attacking a bunch of liberal organizations, academia in particular. The … How ID perceives real science

The transcript of PBS’s Faith and Reason‘s interview with Steven Weinberg is well worth reading. Probably because he’s a physicist, Weinberg’s views come closest to mine among the interviewees. I don’t agree with everything he says, but for once I’ll suppress my urge to nitpick and recommend that you read Weinberg directly…