Sunday School AUG 5, 2012
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This week on Think Atheist Radio we have Mr. David Niose. A lawyer, after being on the American Humanist Association's Board of Directors beginning in 2005 he was named that organization's president in 2009. While with the AHA he has worked on promoting humanism while developing and implementing a legal strategy shifting the thrust of cases of religious discrimination away from the Establishment Clause as the overarching issue to simple equal rights. Mr. Niose has 
appeared on and in numerous media outlets from the BBC, FOX News, The National Journal, and Humanist magazine, all the while contributing to Psychology Today at his own blog Our Humanity, Naturally. Mr. Niose is the author of the newly published Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans. It is his new book that we asked Mr. Niose to join us to discuss. We talked about the rise of the Religious Right, what is humanism, the difficulty in replacing religion as a social institution, and much more! Listen in!
The Mars Curiosity rover is coming in for a landing! Want to watch? Here's how best to do so. Here's a guide to when it's happening in your neck of the woods. An interactive map of what the rover will be doing, how it's getting there, and where exactly it's going. On the "where's it going?" aspect, why is NASA so interested in Gale Crater to begin with? (Plus some stunning images of the landing zone) On the "what's it doing?" aspect, how about a guide to the rover's instruments: what they're for, how they'll be used. Lots has been made of how risky Curiosity's descent and landing is going to be. But temper your worry with the realization that the Opportunity, Spirit, and Viking descents were even more risky, and they went fine.
The neuroscience of moral responsibility. Are we responsible for our actions or did "my brain make me do it"?
Jerry Coyne has posted the last in a series of posts he did for the BBC on unanswered questions in evolution. How much of our behavior reflects our evolutionary past.
Michael DeDora at Rationally Speaking identifies 3 problems with the American debate on guns.
A state funded Christian school has rejected a 3 year old for having gay parents.
Why climate change doesn't strike moral outrage, and how it could.
Will alien life first be discovered on Saturn's Enceladus?
Where is the "seat of consciousness", or does it even make sense to ask that question?
A complaint alleges that a network of 300 North Carolina area churches receiving federal funding are engaging in gender discrimination.
The US is still religious, but trust in religious institutions continues to wane.
Jeff Lowder and Chris Hallquist continue their discussion of whether or not William Lane Craig is dishonest (as opposed to just plain wrong). Lowder gave his assessment here. Hallquist documented some of Craig's misrepresentations of his opponents. Then he looked specifically at Craig's case for the resurrection.
Where do supermassive black holes come from?
Artifacts discovered in a cave in South Africa are pushing the date for earliest modern humans back to twice as long ago as previously thought.
Should atheists enter into an alliance with religious progressives?
Americans United asks a town in Michigan to take down a giant cross that's on public land.
The only reasonable reply to the Problem of Evil.
The sincerity with which a belief is held doesn't excuse the fact that the belief holder is a bigot. After all, if you oppose marriage equality, if not "bigot", what else am I supposed to call you?
Yet another court has ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.
Can't discuss a candidates religion? Why not? If it motivates his or her politics, we surely should be discussing it.
Libertarian Michael Shermer has changed his mind and is now in favor of gun control.
5 reasons this week's Chick Fil A stuff is deeper than just gay marriage. But on the subject of gay marriage, it's always instructive to see just what "biblical marriage" consists of in the first place. It's certainly not what the Right wants people to think.
Scientists drilling at the edge of Antarctica have found evidence of that continent's past tropical climate.
In a major victory for women this week, contraception is now covered by health insurance, to say nothing of yearly well-woman exams and other benefits.
The most massive black hole in the universe is 6.6 BILLION times the mass of our sun. Incredible.
Scientology's concentration camp for its executives. Past prisoners speak up.
An appeals court has upheld a law banning anti-gay hate crimes, refusing to accept the argument made by some bigots that the law infringed on their religious rights [to be hateful pieces of shit].
After some more analysis the Higgs results have gotten even stronger.
With the election coming up... How would Jesus vote?
A new analysis, to be published Monday, says that "it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change."
Research performed by Media Matters for America shows that, whether it's the ozone layer, acid rain, cutting vehicle emissions, and more, The Wall Street Journal has been on the wrong side of science since 1976.
This piece on "The 5 Most Awful Atheists" is raising some eyebrows. Taner Edis and PZ Myers felt the choice of the 5 is spot on. A contributor to Jerry Coyne's site seemed to disagree with the word choice more than the choice of the 5.
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Comment by Gary Bergeron on August 5, 2012 at 10:52am -
Nelson, thanks for the cool links on the Curiosity Landing! I'm totally stoked!
Happy Weekend everybody! :)
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Comment by Ed on August 5, 2012 at 12:16pm -
On Michael Shermer and his changing view of gun ownership:
A 12-gauge shotgun, with a five shot magazine, sawed off to a 19 inch barrel loaded with double ought (00) buckshot will kill MANY people. So now do we feel obligated to ban those as well? Restricting the types of firearms available will only make the perpetrators more creative. Someone hell bent on assassinating innocents will simply not be thwarted by legislation.
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Comment by Ed on August 5, 2012 at 12:39pm
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The Church of Scientology's use of a concentration camp would seem to qualify for charges of kidnapping, or at the very least, holding individuals against their will. These shenanigans illustrate quite clearly the foundations of Scientology are on very shaky ground. These folks are of the same ilk and not far removed from those associated with the comet Hale-Bopp suicides.
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Comment by Richard E. Robertson on August 5, 2012 at 7:47pm -
Well, here's my take on the gun control issue.
http://diaryofabasketcaseprogrammer.blogspot.com/2012/08/of-arms-an...
I promised someone recently I'd write up some model legislation about the matter. This isn't a formal statute, but it's the outline of one. :)
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Comment by Reg The Fronkey Farmer on August 5, 2012 at 8:34pm -
...a little more on the Mars landing here.
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Comment by Alejandro M on August 5, 2012 at 9:56pm -
Hello. I have a fundamental problem with the "Sunday School" articles, which is the liberal bias found in them - even to the point of calling libertarians "stupid" and "awful" in this last instalment. I believe the Sunday School articles should limit to atheism and science - politics has nothing to do with atheism. I am a libertarian atheist and take exception to someone, not more intelligent than me, telling me I am stupid just because I don't share his political beliefs.
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Comment by Nelson on August 5, 2012 at 10:00pm -
Alejandro, I didn't call you or all libertarians "stupid" or "awful". The author of the article I linked to may have. But I didn't. You're certainly not compelled to read Sunday School if you don't want to. Start a blog series where you compile links on the things that you want.
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Comment by Alejandro M on August 5, 2012 at 10:07pm
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Nelson, that "you're not compelled to read me", while absolutely right, sounds awfully like what religious people say to us atheists. I still think, as one of the moderators of this site, you have a responsibility beyond anyone of us users - it's the "editorial line" of the site you're peddling, after all... and including links to sites who bash libertarians is not innocent, in my view. But hey, maybe it's only my view.
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Comment by Nelson on August 5, 2012 at 10:09pm
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I appreciate you expressing your opinion Alejandro.
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Comment by Richard E. Robertson on August 5, 2012 at 10:22pm
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I'm definitely going to want to watch Curiosity as much as any of us Earth-side can. 7 minutes of terror? I bet it's going to be longer than that with the signal delays and all.
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