February 2012
7 posts
Anonymous asked: Hi Alex, I had a discussion with someone on Hayley Stevens' Facebook wall regarding whether somebody should be able to say 'I believe XYZ' in writing and without evidence. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?
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Just what has Elizabeth Windsor ever done for us?
I’m typing this, QWERTZ keyboard and all, from an internet café in central Berlin since the broadband connection in my flat died yesterday. Taking the S-Bahn on my way here, I stumbled across a copy of today’s Daily Telegraph, discarded no doubt by a British tourist underway from Schönefeld airport. On its front page, an article by Victoria Ward is headlined, ‘Queen renews her...
26 tags
Camp Quest don’t get to be a charity, but guess...
A little under a year ago, Camp Quest UK applied for charitable status. Being run on a tight budget by a team of volunteers, this is something that would help them a great deal, both with tax issues and with the amounts of funding they’d be able to raise. Their application was turned down, by way of a rather long e-mail I’ve been shown by their director Sam Stein; below is a truncated summary of...
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How to get on FOX News? Support real medicine
Correction: it turns out that, contrary to what FOX and the Western Daily Mail reported, the ASA didn’t instruct HOTS Bath to add the words ‘We believe’, but rather rejected this as a ‘compromise’ when the faith healers proposed it. See me renewed thoughts on the matter, in light of this, here.***My skeptical compatriot Hayley Stevens, who is a ghost, will be on TV...
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Thanks for your #solidarity, Socialist Workers
Below is a poster a godless friend at LSE saw, and was thoughtful enough to photograph. It advertises an event which happened there last night with the Socialist Worker Student Society on campus, titled ‘More than opium – why the left defend religious rights’.Forgive me for using such a bleed-heart leftist adjective, but the odour of bullshit here is frankly oppressive.‘Religious rights’ –...
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Graphic design for atheists at Queen Mary
The atheist, secularist and humanist society at Queen Mary – yes, the people who were just threatened with violence at their own event – recently asked to do some design work for them, specifically creating a new emblem to replace the old one from their ‘Queen Mary Atheism Society’ days. (‘Atheist, Secularist and Humanist’ – it’s the new black, isn’t it?) The images above are some of the final...
January 2012
22 posts
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(Re)queering our campuses: some godless ideas
On Facebook this week, my recent post about religionists using queer language drew several interesting comments. In particular, I got messages from various members of my university’s LGBT society, which I mentioned very briefly without being as generous as I might have been. One feels acutely aware in the wake of #Occupy that ‘What do you actually want?’ isn’t always worth answering, but in this...
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An atheist trolls LSE student union via e-mail
Recently, Paula Kirby commented on RD.net that sometimes atheists who’ve been treated unfairly on grounds of offensiveness might consider ‘playing the offence card’ themselves, to see if it’s as effective when targeted at other groups. I’ve just been in contact with one of Ophelia Benson’s readers, who sent his own complaint to LSE’s student union with...
18 tags
More fun facts on JFS and JONAH
JFS, a state-financed Jewish secondary school in London, recently made waves in the blogosphere by referencing religious de-gaying in one of its lessons. (This, by the way, is the same school whose admissions practices were questioned in 2009 when it wouldn’t give a child a place because his mother wasn’t raised a Jew. Remind me: who last cared how many Jewish grandparents you had?)The ‘service’...
13 tags
My fellow queers, religion wants our lingo.
There are lots of things I like about being queer. I like the men, of course – loveable nerds and handsome transmen and occasionally a silver fox. I like satanic Swedish biker girls with tattoos and anger. I like bisexual black American women who are into reading, and I fucking love that God hates me so much. (The feeling’s mutual.) I like still not having to admit I don’t give blood because...
17 tags
'Islamophobia'? That's not a word we need.
Over at LSE, our student union friends have a general meeting coming up. A motion titled No to racism – no to Islamophobia! is being debated, which Ophelia’s already dissected gallingly at Butterflies and Wheels. (You can read the full thing here.) I’ll leave most of it for her and her readers, since I can’t outdo her, but I want to address how it defines its major term:Union resolves1. To...
18 tags
'Pricks': Piers Morgan, Rick Santorum and...
Good, isn’t it, how power couples have their names combined? (‘Bennifer’; ‘Brangelina’; ‘Ditchkins’; ‘Klaine’.) I’ve just seen Piers Morgan and Rick Santorum discuss abortion, and can’t help feeling they should now be known throughout the world as Pricks.If you haven’t seen The Guardian’s coverage of their conversation, have a look for further evidence – as if you needed it – of Santorum’s...
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#rally11feb to defend free expression
According to a statement LSE student union just put out, they’re now pursuing a complaints procedure with their atheist society. The full statement, which you can read here, is several paragraphs long, so I’ve slightly condensed it:LSE SU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society posted cartoons, published by the UCLU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society, depicting the Prophet Mohammed and...
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LSE's student union copy UCL's
Yesterday I wrote about LSESU telling their atheist society they’d been Islamophobic. It now turns out it was nothing to do with Marshall’s blog. Here’s part of the e-mail I got today from the society, who’ve just met with their union to discuss the issues:Essentially, a large of group of Muslim students felt offended that there were pictures of Mohammed on the facebook group. As a result, they...
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Now LSE's atheists are accused of Islamophobia
Atheists at UCL get bullied by their union. Atheists at Queen Mary get threatened in person by Muslims. Now LSE’s atheist society has been told it’s Islamophobic. (If I were in the godless group at King’s College, I’d be worried.)One of committee members at LSE, Marshall Palmer, moonlights as a comment writer and submitted an opinion piece to to the student paper about recent events at UCL. When...
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Robbie and Jen, you're both my new atheist heroes.
Update: as sometimes happens in the blogosphere, it’s seems there’s been a case of Chinese whispers. A contact of mine at the BBC has just been talking to Jen Hardy, and tells me she won’t be resigning after all - crossed lines between me and Maryam, obviously! I’m going to leave this post up, since everything I say about her and Robbie still applies, and if anything...
Q&A; about charismatic prayer
This was initially a set of questions and answers, transmitted via the 'Questions' link at the top. Those exchanges tend to clutter up my front page so I've conflated it into a single post, which is what I'll do with these Q&As; in future.
***
Questioner (anonymous): In your latest post about soul survivor you wrote something about people being prayed for on the floor. I don't quite understand what you meant, do you not agree with people being prayed for when they are on the floor? x
Alex: Well, I mean in cases where being on the floor isn’t incidental. In contemporary evangelical churches (a lot of NewFrontiers ones for example), it’s quite commonplace for church members to collapse to the floor, shaking apparently with the power of the Holy Spirit. A friend and I were discussing this actually, and he said that he used to collapse to the ground just because that was the thing to do. Of course, if someone is on the floor for non-religious reasons like injury or dizziness, praying is still probably not the best thing to do first!
Q: So, if someone is on the floor because they feel overpowered my the holy spirit, why don't you think it is right to pray for them? I didn't mean you personally doing it, because I completely understand why you wouldn't if you don't agree with it. It's just that I don't understand why you don't agree with it at all. And also, if you didn't keep using over complex words to make yourself seem of a higher status than me, that would be greatly appreciated. I have seen it happen may times, and don't see how they are being 'lured' into this? may, actually most, are standing, praying on their own, and just rock, then people pray...
A: Because I don’t want to engage in an act of Christian evangelism. I think that particular technique relies on luring someone into an extreme emotional state, and then taking taking advantage of that to advance your religious beliefs, rather than making a rational, intellectual argument. Also: I wasn’t trying to be condescending, and I’m still not. This is the same kind of language I use in my blog posts, and with most people who talk to me online.
Q: They pray because they believe that God can do great things while so connected to the person. People believe that it a good, strong connection and that healing often happens when people fall with the holy spirit, that is mainly why they pray.
A: Okay, but this is something that’s often used to recruit new church members or lead people to declare themselves Christians. (At Ignite for example, I’m told that’s what usually happens before people sign the ‘declaration’ given to them that they’ll go to church, pray etc.) If you want to convince people your religious beliefs are true, and persuade them to join your religion, I think using emotional appeals is a dishonest tactic. Christianity is a set of claims, and claims are justified with evidence, not psychodrama.
Q: I get where you are coming from, but are emotions not what lead us into doing most things in our lives? And, I don't think you understand that people don't do it for show. Maybe your friend did, but I know of no one whose fallen purposely. Generally, from what I know, it is something that often people aren't really aware of until they come out of it. I just really hope that you clear all of these things you have been told before about Soul Survivor so that you can go with an open mind!
A: Well even if I go with expectations, my experiences will either support or contradict them. ‘It is something … people aren’t really aware of until they come out of it’ - are you aware that stage hypnotists replicate that effect all the time, without any supernatural involvement? Derren Brown in particular, as the other questioner on here just pointed out, has used his shows to explore the way this works in religious conversion and once made a room full of non-religious people instantly declare themselves believers. I think my friend’s point was that a subconscious desire to conform while in a crowd led him to act unusually, rather than any external force. (Compare to far right political concerts, where chanting in a concert atmosphere cements people’s loyalty and measurably makes their views more extreme.) In any case, ‘I believe this because I had a strong emotional impulse and lost consciousness briefly’ isn’t really a good defence of a belief.
Q: Peoples don't loose conciousness. It's not the physical falling but the spiritual happenings. It's the things people experience when in these states, and it is so different for everyone, some people feel the presence of the holy spirit, others the presence of Jesus, like he is there with them in the room, others the presence of God, feel him, hear him anything. The reason for the falling, is thought to be the shutting off of the body to concentrate on God alone. Deren Brown isn't reinvent? Plus, I'm not saying [you] should get involved in it at all, if [you don't] want to then I complete respect that, I just wanted to say that it isn't simply someone falling over. You cannot prove that is in no more than a "psychological trick", which frankly I find that use of phrase fairly offensive, but I believe for it to be more than the physical fall.
A: I think that’s been proven, for the reasons I’ve given. What would you see as good evidence that it’s purely psychological? What would convince you of that, in principle? I mention Derren Brown because, if we can show the same thing is achievable without any religious elements, what reason is there to assume a god’s involved? By ‘lose consciousness’, I mean they aren’t conscious of what’s happening to them (i.e. don’t realise till they’re out of it, like you said). Again my point is that feelings, even exceptionally strong ones, aren’t good grounds for beliefs.
I'm going to Soul Survivor! Here's what to expect.
And for my next trick: further to this post from Monday, I booked my place last night for Soul Survivor 2012 at the end of July.Wow. Just wow. I never for a moment thought I’d raise the whole £100 within a day – the readers of this blog are amazing, and everyone who made donations to help send me there, consider this post a thank you note.While people were donating though, a lot of people asked...
9 tags
A lead on the threats of violence at Queen Mary
First they came for the atheists at UCL. And I wasn’t at UCL, but I was pissed off.Then they came for the atheists at Queen Mary. And I’m not at Queen Mary either, but now I’m fucking incandescent.If you weren’t already aware, the atheist society at QM – completely separate from the one at UCL – just tried to hold a discussion on Sharia law with Anne Marie Waters. This is what, in their...
12 tags
Ever had death threats from the faithful? I just...
This is a blog post Jen McCreight put up last summer, after American Atheists filed suit against the ground zero cross. Christian masochists reading my blog, please consider it a disclaimer: I’m about to discuss being threatened online by Muslims, and I just wanted to stop you claiming any moral high ground for your religion.Right. That’s out of the way.On Thursday morning, at the height of...
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Anarchy and atheism: the media's tunnel vision...
The last few days of have crazy, and honestly I’m still a little concussed by the traffic this blog’s now getting. Something I first mentioned here on Tuesday has since been covered by The Guardian in two separate stories. I mean… what?Since UCLU have now closed shop for the weekend, as most student unions do, I’m going to take a short break from what’s happening there and address an issue about...
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The atheists of UCL have won. But there's a catch.
UCL’s atheist, secularist and humanist society, who’ve been all over the internet in the past few days, have just put out an announcement:We can now tell you that the University College London Union has recognized that mistakes were made and that the initial correspondence with our society was flawed. The Union is to review its stance on such matters and has said that this will not happen again....
30 tags
An open letter to UCL's Ahmadiyya Muslims
Oh, Ahmadiyya Muslims of UCL. Oh AMSA, I’m sorry.Sincerely, I hoped this wouldn’t end up being about you.When your statement yesterday (about events that started on this blog) appeared in New Humanist – and then on Pharyngula, and then on Maryam Namazie’s blog among others – the atheist society made as clear as it possibly could that you weren’t the problem.The petition they’ve been...
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Atheists face Muslim-led censorship from UCL Union
Final update.***Further update: in under 24 hours, the above petition has gained over 1000 signatories from around the world. This blog post was reproduced on richarddawkins.net, prompting Richard to add his name as well as numerous other significant figures, and RDFRS UK gave us their support via the incomparable Paula Kirby. The National Secular Society stood behind us, as did the National...
14 tags
In defence of Diane Abbott
No, I’m not her biggest fan myself: yes, it annoys me that she sent her son to a private school; yes, how she ran for the Labour leadership on a ‘grassroots’ platform but was just as self-advancing as the boys in suits. Yes, I find her smug and condescending. But given that as I write this on Sunday morning, her name is still to be found all over Twitter, the time has probably...
8 tags
Keep digging, Cee Lo. John Lennon's only six feet...
Well, aren’t we all wound up with Cee Lo Green recently? In case you weren’t already aware, this is what he did to John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ on New Year’s Eve. Changing ‘no religion too’ to ‘all religion is true’? Not by any means cool. My first reaction was irritation, as it usually is when the religious hijack secular music for their own ends. We’ve just had the festive season, and, seriously,...
12 tags
Channel 4, are you showing your political hand?
Ahhh Channel 4, broadcaster of Queer as Folk, Skins and Black Mirror. Home of the young, hip, ‘alternative’ television viewer, friend to the Twitterite left. How edgy thou art. How risqué. How reliably with it. But hold on. Haven’t you also spent the last few years telling women, via Nicky Hambleton-Jones and Gok Wan among others, how to look (and feel) suitably screwable? Haven’t you been giving...
December 2011
4 posts
30 tags
100 interesting atheists in Britain - who aren't...
PrefaceHere are some of the best known figures associated with atheism, in the UK and more generally: Richard Dawkins. Daniel Dennett. The late Christopher Hitchens. Peter Atkins. James Randi. Simon Blackburn. Sam Harris. Colin Blakemore.Here are all the speakers from the 2011 convention of the AHS: Norman Warner, Baron Warner. Gerard Phillips. Andrew Copson. Johann Hari. AC Grayling. Robin...
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A word about atheism and 'going negative'
Recently I’ve been doing some work with the Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society at LSE, who like most godless student groups - including the one I’m part of in Oxford - put up a stall at their annual freshers’ fair to court prospective members. All over YouTube, videos from often overconfident theists are plastered which bear the title ‘Questions for atheists’ - but I somewhat doubt any of...
10 tags
Semper memento: on the life and death of...
Yesterday, Christopher Hitchens died. In anyone else’s case, that sentence might have potential. It might be half a punchy byline, or help to preface an opinion piece. 2011 has been a good year for the reaper, and were I eulogising Pete Postlethwaite, Amy Winehouse, Steve Jobs or Gil Scott-Heron - all geniuses in their own ways - I might at this point know how to follow the news of their death...
I'm rebooting this Tumblr. Now turn on and tune...
If for some deprived reason you’re a regular viewer of this page, you’ll have noticed some drastic changes in the last few hours. The fonts I use have changed, new links are visible in the overheard, and most obviously all my prior posts have now been deleted. I’m starting fresh, and this post is the first in my rebooted Tumblr, so let me take a moment to explain why. There’s a wonderful TED talk...