1. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72833 by dmshinty on September 23, 2007 at 5:42 am

The Government says "parents have the right to withdraw their children from collective worship."

I suspect that they are betting that parents will not withdraw their children. Presumably because they will fear the consequences to the child of setting them apart and because it's something that a parent would have to take time to do.

If the Government were fair about this they would make parents OPT IN to a daily act of worship.

2. Interview with Richard Dawkins about 'The Enemies of Reason'

Comment #63151 by dmshinty on August 13, 2007 at 9:07 am

I agree with matt1986 and MrEmpirical. The interview seemed fair and balanced. RD seemed quite at ease with the questions being asked. We've all seen him go through far worse!

I'm far from being an expert, but it seems to me that an interview on a daytime show in America would have been intensely hostile. This was more like a quiet chat among friends in a pub.

3. Muslim heads stuck firmly in the sand

Comment #56761 by dmshinty on July 17, 2007 at 6:18 am

"What we Muslims need to do is go back to our books: we need to debate the teachings that are used to radicalise young men and legitimise the killing of innocent people. We need to discuss and refashion the set of rules that govern how Muslims — whose homes and souls are firmly planted in the West — live alongside non-Muslims. Only when we do this can we successfully dissect the radicals' interpretation of Islam and fight back against terrorism."

You could, of course, drop the religion that teaches these things. Treat god as an iron age idea that is out of it's time and live among the other people of the world with reason and understanding.

4. Won't anyone stand up for God?

Comment #54602 by dmshinty on July 8, 2007 at 4:34 am

"Atheists have to face the conundrum: why do so many people believe in God when there is no God to believe in?"

Just because 2 billion people believe a thing, does not make that thing any more true than if only one person believed it.

All 6 billion people could believe that the moon is made of cheese but it still wouldn't be true!