On the Knighting of Salman Rushdie

Last week the author Salman Rushdie was honoured with a Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature. Rushdie has been a target of Islamic hate since his work The Satanic Verses was published in 1988. In 1989, the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini proclaimed a fatwa against Rushdie. The international Islamic response […]

The Scoreboard Fallacy

Lately, I’ve been posting more articles on various moral issues that concern me and a few random thoughts that I’ve been meaning to express for some time. In a comment on one of those articles, the Spanish Inquisitor praised me for having the “ability and desire to tackle the big issues”. It was a generous […]

An Impromptu Carnival

Even though I’ve become aware of more atheist blogs since I started this site, I’ve found myself with less and less time to actually read them. More than ever, I find myself ‘scan-reading’. In recent weeks, I’ve found that the emphasis has shifted more and more on to the ‘scanning’ rather than the ‘reading’, and […]

A New Argument against the Death Penalty

I am opposed to capital punishment. That is not to say I don’t think strong arguments can be made in its favour, on the contrary, I think it is a very difficult dilemma to decide, and by no means clear cut. Personally, I find the idea of an innocent man being executed in error so […]

Why I Changed My Mind about Abortion

I was pro-life all my life until I became an atheist. But even when I became an atheist, it took a long time before I switched to pro-choice, about a year, in fact. I knew that most atheists were pro-choice, but I didn’t want to change my mind for that reason. Atheism is not about […]

If you do nothing else today…

…take 5 minutes to go to Evanescent and watch this video of Wafa Sultan speaking. It is truly breathtaking. What a staggering intellect. I only hope that the people to whom she is speaking actually listen to her.

Positive Discrimination (wince!)

In the age of political correctness in which we live, almost every employer has an equal opportunities policy or mission statement. This is the equal opportunities policy of the Metropolitan Police Force. Equal Opportunities The Metropolitan Police Service seeks to employ a work force which reflects the diversity of background and culture within which we […]

UK Faith Schools Petition

A few days ago, I received this email from the Brights Movement. Fellow Brights A previous UK BrightenOp (November 22) drew attention to a faith schools petition at the official Downing Street website. However there is a second very similar petition at the site, and for whatever reason this second petition has accrued a higher […]

The Adoring Younger Brother

The main pillars of academic study, while differing widely in the knowledge they seek, all share a number of things in common. Science, history, philosophy and mathematics, across the spectrum, are all built on similar foundations. First and foremost, they are a quest for the truth. They all aspire to ask the right questions and […]

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.