1. Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science

Comment #125821 by Student Grant on February 12, 2008 at 5:46 am

Steven Pinker would be an excellent choice.

2. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111539 by Student Grant on January 15, 2008 at 1:03 am

Mr Scales,
Best wishes from an ex-serviceman (and foxhole atheist) for a full and speedy recovery from your medical treatment. I hope you have many more years of fighting the good fight for reason and humanity.
And of course THANK YOU for what you have done for us.

3. Review of Richard Dawkins' new book 'The Fascism Delusion'

Comment #69013 by Student Grant on September 9, 2007 at 1:44 pm

Terry Eagleton! Come out of the woodwork and confess! You wrote this!

4. Honest Mistakes or Willful Mendacity

Comment #68482 by Student Grant on September 7, 2007 at 8:43 am

I'm reposting this from the link to the original article.
Don't be frustrated people. The fact that the supernaturalists constantly have to resort to dishonesty in responding to The Dawk/Harris et al is symptomatic of two things; 1. The weakness of their case 2. The fact that they are unaccustomed to having to defend their delusions.
Expect them to twist and manipulate the facts and you won't be disappointed. Remember that the religious mind can justify almost anything in defending its own version of 'truth' (including, in extreme cases, mass murder). Telling a few 'white lies' to misrepresent an opponent's position wiould not even register as being morally questionable.
Committed delusionists like Cornwell will probably never be influenced by rational argument, and they are not who we should be seeking to address. There will be many listeners to The Today Programme who will read TGD and the responses of the flea circus, and discover for themselves who is telling the truth and whose pants are on fire. The more exposure RD/TGD/the flea circus receive, the better. Bring it on.

5. Interview with Richard Dawkins and John Cornwell

Comment #68413 by Student Grant on September 7, 2007 at 5:23 am

Don't be frustrated people. The fact that the supernaturalists constantly have to resort to dishonesty in responding to The Dawk/Harris et al is symptomatic of two things; 1. The weakness of their case 2. The fact that they are unaccustomed to having to defend their delusions.
Expect them to twist and manipulate the facts and you won't be disappointed. Remember that the religious mind can justify almost anything in defending its own version of 'truth' (including, in extreme cases, mass murder). Telling a few 'white lies' to misrepresent an opponent's position wiould not even register as being morally questionable.
Committed delusionists like Cornwell will probably never be influenced by rational argument, and they are not who we should be seeking to address. There will be many listeners to The Today Programme who will read TGD and the responses of the flea circus, and discover for themselves who is telling the truth and whose pants are on fire. The more exposure RD/TGD/the flea circus receive, the better. Bring it on.

6. Only secular schools will overcome sectarianism

Comment #65746 by Student Grant on August 26, 2007 at 9:13 am

re

Comment #65743 by xurble

Mixed race schools clearly haven't solved racism, as it is rooted in much more than education alone. There is no single 'silver bullet' which can eradicate it. But imagine if there were such a thing as 'white-only' or 'black-only' or 'asian-only' schools. Remind you of anywhere? The glorious apartheid Republic of South Africa? 1960s Bible Belt USA? How racist were those societies?
Now transfer that perverted ideology to religion - 'protestant-only'/'catholic-only' schools. That form of religious apartheid exists in Northern Ireland and is on the march in Britain. It is not a case of overstating the benefits of integrated secular education, it is only one (admittedly major) part of eradicating religious bigotry.
The point is that it is almost impossible to overstate the harm that segregation (whether racial or religious) does to society.

7. Only secular schools will overcome sectarianism

Comment #65736 by Student Grant on August 26, 2007 at 7:52 am

Re

Comment #65726 by IanRobinson

No argument from me about getting rid of religious schools. I think we differ over our definitions - as far as I can see, practically all schools in Northern Ireland are religious schools, whether they are run by the state or the catholic church.
I also went to a state school in the 70s and 80s, officially open to all comers. Of about 1200 pupils, five were catholics. It was de facto a protestant religious school. All RE teachers were from protestant churches, we were never exposed to any forms of belief other than evangelical protestant christianity, never mixed with catholic clergy or pupils - in effect, every bit as much a sectarian religious school as any christian brothers college.
As far as the chances of any of this changing substantially in the near future are concerned, don't hold your breath.
According to Archbishop Brady (catholic primate of all ireland), the expansion of integrated education in Northern Ireland would cause 'a very great hurt'.
Presumably he found the last forty-odd years a more comfortable experience.

8. Only secular schools will overcome sectarianism

Comment #65722 by Student Grant on August 26, 2007 at 3:16 am

I've lived in both Scotland and Northern Ireland and there is a major difference in levels of sectarianism between the two countries. If you want to be certain of seeing sectarian bigotry in Scotland, you have to seek it out (at Rangers/Celtic matches, sectarian parades, etc). As mummymonkey says, most of the time it is invisible. In Northern Ireland it is omnipresent and infects every aspect of society. The root cause is the complete control that religions have over children's education here. In Scotland, I found that although sectarianism existed, it was less endemic and crucially, much less tolerated by society in general. In NI it is actively encouraged by the main political parties. Sinn Fein and the DUP are well aware that their votes depend on division. If education were secular, support for both parties would suffer. I don't expect to see an end to educational apartheid here soon.
To UK readers of this, I would remind you that your hard-earned tax money (which should have been spent on education) is funding the promotion of religious intolerance in Northern Ireland, Scotland and, with Blair's promotion of faith schools, in England and Wales as well now. You may feel annoyed enough about this to contact your MP and sign the petition mentioned by Corylus.

9. Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

Comment #65610 by Student Grant on August 25, 2007 at 5:42 am

This is not intended as an ad hominem point but I'm sure McGrath's mangling of his speech to hide his Northern Ireland accent is symptomatic of someone who has a strong desire to conform to an assumed (and unnatural) role. I'm from Belfast (and sound like I am) and find few things more grating than the sound of an affected 'Oxford Common Room' accent from someone who clearly does not naturally speak that way.
McGrath's whole demeanour smacks of someone who is more concerned with presenting an image than engaging in serious conversation.
Contrast this with The Dawk, who sounds like what he is - an ex-public school Oxford Prof who wants straight answers to straight questions.
McGrath seems to concentrate more on presentation - affected accent, head cocked in a pose suggestive of intellectual curiosity, repeated meaningless preambles while he scrambles about for a way to avoid having to give a straight answer - while RD makes succinct, clear statements and questions.

By the way, in Belfast we have a special word for people who lack self-confidence and are intimidated by people or surroundings which they feel are 'above their station' and modify their accent to suit. We call them 'arseholes' (OK that bit was ad hominem).

10. Charles Brooker's screen burn

Comment #62707 by Student Grant on August 10, 2007 at 11:52 pm

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Brooker is one of reality's few friends in the meeja.
I've forwarded the link to Brooker's piece to everyone in my address book. For UK users of this site, I suggest we get a message about the programme out to as many people as possible this weekend. Tell all your friends, particularly if (like me) you have some who are 99% rational but still give braintime to anecdotes that appear to support woo("I know it's probably rubbish but I met this guy once who had chakras realigned/tried herbal medicine/consulted a psychic/etc., and he swore by it....").

11. Interview with Alister McGrath, author of 'The Dawkins Delusion?'

Comment #21019 by Student Grant on February 7, 2007 at 9:59 am

At last, Northern Ireland leads the Western World in something;
'Northern Ireland Heads Western Bigotry Index'
http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2007/2980.html
Is there a connection between our pre-eminence in both bigotry and superstitious beliefs? With journalists like Judith Cole we'll never know.

12. Interview with Alister McGrath, author of 'The Dawkins Delusion?'

Comment #21014 by Student Grant on February 7, 2007 at 9:43 am

41. Comment #20960 by Luthien on February 7, 2007 at 5:59 am

Deal. I posted this to the Belfast Telegraph tonight.
"Sir
I found Judith Cole's interview with Alister McGrath to be typical of the poor standards of journalistic integrity shown by the Northern Ireland media when dealing with the Christian churches and their spokespeople. 'Cosying up' hardly does justice to an interview in which Judith Cole allowed Prof McGrath to present his beliefs without once being asked to substantiate them with evidence, or give his reasons for supposing that his beliefs are superior to those of other faith groups.
It is tragic that even after thirty years of sectarian slaughter the representatives of religion get such an easy ride when they come into contact with those on whom we depend to ask the 'difficult questions'.
Prof McGrath is (for the second time) publishing a book with Dawkins' name in the title in order to jump on the bandwagon created by the global success of Dawkins' 'The God Delusion'. McGrath's business sense cannot be faulted - by undertaking this interview he was on to a free promotion for his book, without the inconvenience of having to provide rational answers to searching questions. This was great advertising but shoddy journalism."

Whether they publish it is another matter.....

13. Interview with Alister McGrath, author of 'The Dawkins Delusion?'

Comment #20933 by Student Grant on February 7, 2007 at 3:37 am

This interviewer is pretty typical of the local press in Northern Ireland. Despite thirty years of sectarian slaughter, the churches and their spokespeople invariably get an easy ride when presenting their mythology. Sadly, religious belief is still seen as the default setting for a 'normal' worldview, and rationalism is perceived as being weird, and potentially dangerous - again, despite approximately three thousand deaths in religious conflict. This is hardly surprising when you consider the influence that the churches still have on education here - practically all children are taught in sectarian schools and exposed to an inordinate amount of religious indoctrination. Though the virus didn't get us all, it still makes me EMBARRASSED TO COME FROM NORTHERN IRELAND.