Changes afoot at richarddawkins.net

This came in today on Twitter (although strangely, it’s now disappeared from the RDF Twitter feed).

It seems the Richard Dawkins Foundation have decided – wisely, in my view – to revise the mechanics and governance of their discussion forums. This has displeased some people, to the extent that they’ve posted messages villifying RD and the team in the nastiest, most vitriolic, and just plain ignorant ways possible – thus, of course, ironically justifying the decision. 

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled

You may believe in the Devil, but do you know who he really is?

Sectarian schools, not faith schools.

Let’s call a spade a spade.

There’s something very wrong with the label “faith school“. It’s a piece of PR. The word “faith” conjures up images of pious, light-bathed young girls, hands clasped in prayer, gazing hopefully towards heaven, believing that their innocuous prayers for the wellbeing of various friends and relatives will be answered by a benevolent god – or, perhaps as often, Jesus. Faith schools, they would have us believe, are places where students learn peace, love and tolerance for others.

The reality of “faith” when applied specifically to schools, of course, is quite different.

Godless foodies

It seems news of the atheist bus has reached the foodie community. In a post on today’s Word of Mouth, the Guardian’s food blog, a commenter replies to an increasingly pretentious thread on the etiquette of cheese and biscuits:

There’s probably no etiquette God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your crackers.

Big scary dark thing

What’s the scariest thing you can think of? Well, OK, apart from the fact that there’s currently someone stupider than George Bush who has a crack at the Presidency…

How about infinity? The size of the Universe and, if it turns out to be finite, what lies beyond.

How Long is Forever?

One of the fundamental tenets of Christianity – and most other religions, in various forms – is the idea that we continue to live on after death. But how long for?

OK, let’s say you’re a Christian. Or a Jew, or a Muslim, or a member of one of the many other religions, denominations and assorted cults persecuted religious minorities that believe in life after death. Presumably – for why else are you a member of your faith? – you believe that when you die, you will go to Heaven.

My question is this: How long do you think you’ll be there?

Forgive us, Charlie Darwin, wherever you are… *

News reaches us from London that the Church – the Anglican Church, that is, not the One True Church – has apologised to Charles Darwin (right at the bottom of the page, after a screed of theological equivocation) for “misunderstanding his theory of evolution”. “About time, too!”, one might be inclined to say. But various commentators – including one of Darwin’s great-grandsons – have pointed out that the only conceivable reason for such an apology is to make the apologiser feel better.