The Morning Heresy 9/18/12: Cupcake Rage
September 18, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Rebecca Watson begins a petition on behalf of Alber Saber, the Egyptian atheist blogger arrested for running an atheist Facebook page, and recalls the drive for Alexander Aan:
A few months back, freethinkers campaigned to free Indonesian atheist Alexander Aan, resulting in a failed petition and a lot of soul-searching from secular organizations trying to figure out how to do better next time. If you read the comments on that last link, you’ll see a whole bunch of atheists who were very angry that someone was pointing out that the atheist community completely failed to help someone in great need. I’m hoping those folks have as much energy to devote to getting angry over the arrest of yet another young atheist
Now go sign and share the damn thing.
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The Morning Heresy 9/17/12: The Vast Chasm
September 17, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Most of the news today, folks, is about the protests and mob violence ostensibly in reaction to hurt religious feelings. A lot of the commentary is rather surprising, and much of it disappointing.
Reacting to the spreading violence and unrest across the Muslim world, UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay says the right thing, and then the wrong thing, decrying violence as a response to religious offense, and then reminding us that those giving offense could be in legal trouble.
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The Morning Heresy 9/14/12: Fatuous and Smug
September 14, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Businessweek looks at the prospects for atheist merchandising, and how business around the movement is evolving beyond tchotchkes.
I interview friend-of-the-Heresy Sharon Hill on the topic of her CSICon presentation, and she offers me (and all of us) some very useful advice about conversing with the less-than-skeptical...
Helping the Truth Get its Shoes On: Sharon Hill and the Long Slog of Skepticism
September 13, 2012
Sharon Hill has been helping folks discern flim-flam from fact for going on two decades now, exposing “sciencey” sounding nonsense in all manner of formats. She’s a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer and the CSI website, she’s the impresario of Doubtful News, a one-stop shop for clarity in a very polluted media landscape, and she’s on the panel of the new Virtual Skeptics video podcast.
Inspired by her upcoming presentation at CSICon 2 in Nashville next month, CFI’s Paul Fidalgo talked to Sharon about what makes her tick, how we can process the implausible claims made in the modern news media, and how to talk about it with friends and family when they seem to be buying the hype.
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The Morning Heresy 9/13/12: More Pills Than There are Atoms in the Universe
September 13, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Things remain ugly amid the violence, protests, confusion, and absurd statements surrounding the events in Egypt, Libya, and now Yemen (oh, and Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia).
Foreign Policy has the background on the infamous tweet that made everyone think (including me) that the US government was beginning its response to the attacks with a condemnation of free speech. (It wasn't - the tweet from the US embassy in Egypt was written before the attacks and was meant as a diplomatic "cool your jets" message of sensitivity.)
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The Morning Heresy 9/12/12: Violence over Blasphemy in Egypt and Libya
September 12, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Our big story is the country's big story: Anger in Egypt over an American-made film by an Israeli-American real estate developer that purportedly "insults" Islam and the prophet Muhammed has erupted into violence and protests at the US Embassy in Egypt. This violence then spread to the US mission in Libya, where the ambassador there, J. Christopher Stevens, and three of his staffers were killed. This is the first death of a US envoy abroad in more than 20 years.
The Morning Heresy 9/11/12: Typically Ridiculous
September 11, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
CFI's Debbie Goddard tells a heartfelt personal story to illustrate the need to take part in the Light the Night effort to fight cancer.
At CSI, LaRae Meadows scores an interview with SETI founder Frank Drake, of the alien-life-predicting "Drake Equation" fame.
Michael Nugent reports that Alexander Aan's prison sentence has been upheld despite appeals.
Crommunist on the Atheism+ fracas, so well put in this small sentence fragment:
The fallout has been typically ridiculous.
The Morning Heresy 9/10/12: An Indistinct Heat Signature
September 10, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
With Pat Robertson on hand, Mitt Romney falsely implies that President Obama wants to take the word "God" out of the Pledge and off the currency. If only!
Hemant has a good post on where atheists ought to concentrate their electoral efforts.
Sarah Posner highlights CFI boss Ron Lindsay's take on the religious kerfuffles of the party conventions.
The Morning Heresy 9/7/12: Couldn’t Happen to a Lovelier Bunch
September 07, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Rimsha Masih is granted bail.
Council on Foreign Relations blog looks at Pakistan's blasphemy laws, hopes the Rimsha case may spur change.
The Economist is aghast.
The Morning Heresy 9/6/12: Splatform
September 06, 2012
Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Filed under Too Good to Be True: The godless Democratic Party platform gets re-god-ified during a messy, noisy floor vote - Hemant has a roundup. Interestingly, it was the delegation from Utah that fought the changes the hardest from the floor, though many protested merely the other "omission," that of support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
CFI boss Ron Lindsay shrugs, and looks for the silver lining.
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