A Tribute to Derren Brown

In my article The Importance of being satirical I talked about the effectiveness of entertainment in communicating important principles and ideas. I can think of no-one better to personify this idea than psychological illusionist and mentalist, Derren Brown. I expect the vast majority of my UK readers will be familiar with Brown and his work, […]

Carnival alert

The 35th Carnival of the Liberals, featuring my article Catholic Discrimination Agencies, is now available at Framed. Please take a look, and enjoy some top class liberal writing.

The importance of being satirical

The threat of religious faith to society and civilization, to progressive thought and development, to the well being of human beings and the planet we inhabit, has never been greater. As many commentators have observed, the cocktail of archaic, ancient world beliefs upheld with impenetrable faith, and deadly 21st century weapons of mass destruction, makes […]

A ray of sunshine in the dark

Have you ever caught eyes with a stranger across a room, just for a moment or two, and felt that you made a connection with them? Like you shared a moment together, like they would remember it forever and maybe look back on it many years later in their life. Not as a story to […]

Catholic Discrimination Agencies

A battle has been raging in Britain for some months now over new anti-discrimination legislation being introduced by the government. Under the new laws, no adoption agency will be allowed to reject any application from potential parents on the grounds of their sexual orientation. The objection from the Catholic Church has been as fierce as […]

Astrology – the real ones

Whenever I am getting to know someone new, and I reach the point where we both outline our beliefs, I always ask them if they believe in astrology first. I find that their response tends to give a fairly accurate indication as to where they draw their ‘rationality line’, separating the things they need evidence […]

From indifference to passion – my deconversion

Most people who are born into strongly religious families are raised with their parents’ beliefs and hold them, unquestioned until death, although not before passing them on to their own offspring. I am glad that I was not born into a deep, religious environment because I doubt that if I had I would be an […]

What free thought means to God

I am a free thinker. To me, that means that there are no restrictions, checks or filters on the information my mind processes. Raw data, as my mind computes it, does not have to be fed through a belief system before I can decide whether to accept it or reject it. I can assess any […]

A Tribute to The Skeptic’s Dictionary

If you go to any internet search engine and type in “paranormal” or “supernatural”, you will be provided, within a fraction of a second, with more pro-paranormal/supernatural material than you could possibly consume in a lifetime. Everything from ghosts to graphology, from Kabalah to karma, from Nostradamus to the Loch Ness Monster. Website after website, […]

A Victory for the Drug Law Defenders

Earlier this month, an extremely dangerous, persistent drug criminal was read the riot act in a British court and threatened with a prison sentence for any further offence. This heinous villain, this monstrous mobster, this threat to the very fabric of our society, was none other than 68 year old grandmother of two, Patricia Tabram […]