Leave P-Ezed Myers Alone!!

This weeks Ask An Atheist (on the Podcast) was really interesting.  They had the now infamous Alain De Botton on and I really liked it.  He's been popping up all over the place - which from an atheist perspective is a good thing: there is no such thing as bad publicity.  He has a book, and article in the Sunday Times etc etc.

Strangely, he actually made sense - contrary to previous reports.  But not because of him, rather because of the excellent interviewing techniques of the AAA crew.  They persisted in exploring the difficult questions - but as usual they did it in a very likable way.

This demonstrates that De Botton has clearly failed in communicating his ideas - especially to an audience that is already receptive to them.  (He might think that he is building bridges with his ecumenical approach - I can assure you, on the theist side they are rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of another living strawman to poke fun at).  Ironically, he lays the label of 'poor-communicator' on Richard Dawkins - he should read one or two of Dawkins' books (not The God Delusion though).

However, he saves most of his ire for PZ (P-Ezed) Myers.  An odious little g-nome we must imagine.

Not fair.  This is definitely a case of walk a mile in a someone else's shoes.

St Valentine

I'll see your bigoted ill-informed anti-secularist rant...

...and raise you - the truth.

Nice one.

Aliens and stuff

This got me thinking.

Now, never mind god etc, but what would happen if aliens landed tomorrow - would you go to work? Or bother with the laundry - or do your shopping?  (I'm talking Vulcans in Star Trek type aliens - not your brain eating reptilians).

It would be rather momentous.  Our whole existence would change - we would have a new perspective on everything, and we would be starting a new future in outer space (presumably).

But what if...

Define atheism

Michael Nugent wrote a nice piece last Tuesday ago in the Irish Times about atheism - and other than the fact that he has the audacity to exist, there is little anyone of faith could complain about.

That didn't stop them.

Of the responses to it - this one gets my goat the most. I was going to write a response to this - but on mature reflection it seemed rather pointless, the author is a bit of an idiot and... well I don't really want to be associated with him.

I will, however, deal with this rubbish within the safety of my own blog (limited safety - as you are free to make any comment you like).

That's going on the blog

Idiots...

More Psychics

For the last post I did, I had a root around the Internet to see what people said about Psychic Sally and I came across this:

I used to work in a pub and one night they had a 'medium night'. I was pregnant with dd but you couldn't tell, and I was due to have my 20wk scan the next day. At the end of the night she told me that I was having a girl I know there're only two options with a baby, but no one at all knew that I was pregnant.

Now this is a real classic and demonstrates clearly how the con works (that's not Psychic Sally she's talking about, just some other fraudster).

I must say....

I'm appalled.

Apparently, "Psychic Sally" was being fed lines by some kind of accomplice.

This is shocking:  It's as if she is just exploiting vulnerable people with simple parlour tricks.

Say it ain't so, Sally!

I wouldn't worry to much about it - for every charlatan like Sally there are plenty of genuine mediums that have real powers.  Just send me €10 cash or a cheque made to cash and I'll post you a list of them.