Gary William Murning Online

I’m never very good at working out time differences, but I believe that by now Pope Benedict XVI should have landed in Australia. And guess where his plane lands for refuelling… yup, Darwin airport!

Nice.

Anyway, to the real point of this post. The trip is, in effect, a belated apology/damage limitation exercise concerning sexual abuse committed by Australian Catholic priests, and during his flight, he reeled off the usual, by now well practised spiel to reporters about how the Catholic Church has to prevent, heal and reconcile, and then went on to add:

“It must be clear … that being a real priest is incompatible with this (sexual abuse) because priests are in the service of our Lord.”

Ah, so that’s what makes sexual abuse such a bad thing. It isn’t the horrific effect that it has on the abused individual — it’s because it doesn’t fit a priest’s job description and, one assumes, is an offence to the Lord.

It seems to me that these apologies have very little to do with helping the abused. The healing that concerns him most is not that of the victims but of the Catholic Church itself.

Insult piled upon insult. Atrocity upon atrocity. Nothing ever really changes, however much they might like to pretend that it does.

I haven’t done a science related post in a while, if memory serves me well, so today I thought I’d share this great YouTube series on the history of the universe with you. There is much in it that many of you will already be familiar with, but it is nonetheless an excellent, simple explanation of many complex ideas. A valuable refresher and an excellent introduction for the beginner.

From potholer54’s YouTube site:

WE NEED YOU! — I am looking for people who can “seed” the Made Easy series, either hosting it on their websites, mailing DVDs to schools or to other ’seeds’, or spreading through BitTorrents. If you can help spread a bit of science and counter the rolling tide of creationist ignorance, please get in touch. Message me with a description of what you can do. Thanks!

The ‘Made Easy’ series is designed to explain the evidence that shows how we got here, from the Big bang to human migration out of Africa. A better quality version will soon be available for free download from a website — details to be announced. I will be happy to send DVDs free of charge to schools after the series is finished.

The ‘Made Easy’ series of videos can be freely copied and distributed for educational purposes, but cannot be used for commercial gain in whole or in part. They cannot be altered, transformed or added to. If you use repost these videos you must attribute them to ‘Potholer54 on YouTube.”

Name: Potholer.

I’ve been a journalist for 20 years, 14 years as a science correspondent. My degree is in geology, but while working for a science magazine and several science programs I had to tackle a number of different fields, from quantum physics to microbiology. My particular talent was my ignorance. By not understanding half of what I was assigned to cover, I had to reduce scientific discoveries from the complex to the simple. If I wrote it in a way that I could understand it, then my readers could understand it.

Part one of an excellent interview with Richard Dawkins.

I haven’t done this for a while, because I’m not all that sure that video content goes down too well with my regular readers, but this is a good one. Take a moment. You might like it.

(The parting in his hair does worry me, though.)

Now, before I post this link, let me just preface it with a wee disclaimer.

1. I know this isn’t typical of Americans. Most are surprisingly normal, once you get to know them (although you, my friend, can be a bit of a nutter when you’ve had a few… or even when you haven’t ) So I’m not American-bashing.
2. Christians are people, too. And a large percentage of them are actually really great human beings who think Darwin rocks and don’t even believe in Hell anymore. So this isn’t a Christian-bashing piece.
3. Stupid people deserve respect. They are… oh, sorry, no, wait! Scratch that. This is a stupid-people-bashing piece!

So, to the article. This just cracked me up. Not only because it’s just so amazingly self-centred and disproportionate (sorry, people, God’s a bit preoccupied in China and Burma right now), but also because, well, it’s got a former beauty queen (I’m assuming that that means she’s ugly now) and someone called Rocky in it.

Oh, and if that doesn’t make you smile (I am, admittedly, easily pleased) how about this?

“These prices will come down, just like the walls of Jericho came down in the Bible.”

Does this mean he’s planning on sounding his horn?

Carrying on from here, few more of my favourite blogs…

1. Rambling On. Lottie and her very precise Virtual Bitchslaps (and more!).
2. Hayley’s Online Soapbox. A very refreshingly sceptical and investigative approach to the “paranormal.
3. Andrew’s Tech Blog. Newly discovered. A wealth of techie info from a very nice guy whose brains I want to pick
4. Richard Dawkins’s “In the News” Section. News stories with on science, atheism and religion.
5. Wired Science. Science blog network from Wired.
6. On the Road Again. My stand-up mate, John.

[Please be aware that not being included in the list does not necessarily mean your blog falls into the "badly written blogs that claim to speak with authority on subjects they quite clearly know nothing about" category.]

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but what with my “creative endeavours” and whatnot, I just haven’t got round to it.

Until now.

The blogoshere is growing on a minute by minute basis. It’s estimated, in fact, to be growing so fast that by 2020 it will have broken free of its technological confines and turned the world and everything in it to a fish-paste-like mush… or was that nanobots? Either way, it’s a force to be reckoned with — and as our blogging skills increase I’m sure the trend for so-called “real journalists” to start sweating a bit and worrying about their job security will also continue to grow. Exponentially.

But, let’s face it, there’s a whole heap of dross out there. Silly, personal websites I have no objection to. They serve a purpose for the individual concerned and more power to them. What I don’t like, however, are the badly written blogs that claim to speak with authority on subjects they quite clearly know nothing about.

With this in mind, I thought I’d take a few moments to introduce you to some of my fellow bloggers who don’t fit into this category. These are the blogs I read on a daily basis. And they are a bit good.

See what you think.

1. The Odd Blog. Mike’s mix of Internutter de-masking and commentary.
2. PD Smith. Science writer par exellence.
3. The Will Rhodes Portmanteau. Will’s political blog.
4. Nectarville. Bekki’s blog. Slow down, girl!
5. Pharyngula. ”Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal.”
6. KurzweilAI.net. Science and futurism.

… that’s all for now, but more will follow soon.

[Edit: Please be aware that not being included in the list does not necessarily mean your blog falls into the "badly written blogs that claim to speak with authority on subjects they quite clearly know nothing about" category.]

Monique Davis has one of the most offensive and dangerous attitudes I can imagine. In an exchange with atheist activist Rob Sherman she was heard to cry, “You have no right to be here! We believe in something”. Read the full article here.

(Please note: this is not another atheist Vs. Christian piece, although it may appear so on the surface. This is a rights issue. Ms. Davis clearly wishes to deprive Mr. Sherman of his.) 

After whinging about a lack of balance in the whole atheist v. creationist debate, Kenny the Christian comes along and perfectly illustrates why.

Dawkins warns of human extinction
by Catriona Ross

Reposted from:
Inverness Courier

GOD does not exist, people who believe the earth is 6000 years old are “loonies and idiots” and teaching children to fear the fires of hell is plain evil.

Just a few of the contentious opinions put forward by outspoken atheist Professor Richard Dawkins to an 850-strong audience in Inverness on Wednesday.

The lecture and discussion, organised by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Millennium Institute, has sparked lively debate.

The world-famous evolutionary biologist and Oxford don spoke on “Science and The God Delusion” at the free talk at Eden Court Theatre.

Beforehand, the UHI was slammed by a leading member of the Free Church, David Robertson, who accused it of bias for giving Professor Dawkins a platform.

However, many members of the public, who packed the theatre, seemed to approve of the Professor Dawkins’ views.

Extracts read from his bestselling book “The God Delusion” drew loud applause and afterwards long queues snaked from the table where signed copies were being sold.

A staged discussion with fellow atheist Paula Kirby covered topics ranging from atomic structure, Darwinism, geology, creationism and the dangers of religious fervour.

Professor Dawkins accused religion of causing many past and current conflicts in the world. “People can believe what they want, but I wish they would leave the rest of us alone,” he said.

“The current threat of jihad is brought about by religious fundamentalism. Do you think there would be suicide bombing without extremism of this kind?”

He also hit out at “Christian bigoted busybodies” who protested against new science such as stem cell research.

During the following debate hosted by BBC Good Morning Scotland’s Gary Robertson, a variety of matters were raised.

In response to questions about population growth, the environment and the future of humanity, Professor Dawkins said the threat of extinction was real and very disturbing.

“Humans may be unique in having the consciousness and ability to look into the future. Ninety nine per cent of species have become extinct. I don’t think there has been a mechanism by which a species took steps to halt a headlong rush to extinction.”

A member of the audience who talked of his salvation by Jesus was dismissed by the Professor as being deluded.

“The human mind is extremely susceptible to hallucination,” he said. “You are no doubt very sincere but I think you’re hallucinating.”

A protester who gave his name only as Kenny the Christian stood outside as people filed into the lecture.

The 62-year-old said he had travelled from Dornoch to tell people about God’s love. “I am here motivated by the love for the people who are attending this meeting,” he said.

“Secular fundamentalism is sweeping this nation and people are being deceived by the devil. The devil works through people.

“Mr Dawkins is the devil’s speaker and he has expressed this boldly. He believes in evolution, that nothing produces everything. But God produces everything.”

A spokeswoman for UHI said they were delighted at the calibre of the event and high standard of debate.

The lecture was the first in a series of three at Eden Court. The Rev Prof Andrew McGowan, principal of Highland Theological College UHI, will give his inaugural lecture on the role of theology in the university on 10th June.

On 27th October Dr John Lennox of Oxford University, author of “God’s undertaker: has science buried God?” will respond to Professor Dawkin’s lecture.

Kenny, Kenny, Kenny… God doesn’t exist — and if God doesn’t exist, guess what. The Devil doesn’t either. Now shush for a bit while I outline my new book, The Devil Delusion.

Richard Dawkins on the strangeness of science.

Oh, damn. Now I’ll have to find another silly law to break on an almost hourly basis. Any suggestions?