Irshad Manji can teach proud skeptics a thing or two about moral courage. Yesterday, I'd never heard of this lady. By chance, I caught a radio interview with her. I immediately sensed I was hearing something very special. Irshad is a bit unusual -- A lesbian Muslim who openly challenges Muslims to think for themselves. She questions the entire foundation and history of Islam from the inside . This gets her into a lot of hot water. When I went to see her talk last night at the Calgary Public Library, she had a uniformed police guard sitting very prominently in the front row. Enlightened skepticism flows from this lady like a fire hose.  Among many of her ideas (read her books!) are: The Arabs have colonized the Muslim world , hijacking the very soul of the religion.  Most Muslims are not Arabs, but they follow the Arab interpretation of Islam blindly, which includes the "meme" that what the Arabs say should be accepted without question. Ishad asks a lot of questions, whi

Irshad Manji can teach proud skeptics a thing or two about moral courage. Yesterday, I'd never heard of this lady. By chance, I caught a radio interview with her. I immediately sensed I was hearing something very special. Irshad is a bit unusual -- A lesbian Muslim who openly challenges Muslims to think for themselves. She questions the entire foundation and history of Islam from the inside . This gets her into a lot of hot water. When I went to see her talk last night at the Calgary Public Library, she had a uniformed police guard sitting very prominently in the front row. Enlightened skepticism flows from this lady like a fire hose.  Among many of her ideas (read her books!) are: The Arabs have colonized the Muslim world , hijacking the very soul of the religion.  Most Muslims are not Arabs, but they follow the Arab interpretation of Islam blindly, which includes the "meme" that what the Arabs say should be accepted without question. Ishad asks a lot

This from the eSkeptic .. (subscribe now!!!) Science Education is No Guarantee of Skepticism Bottom line: The way "Science" is taught in the schools, it fails to provide the "Baloney Detector" that Carl Sagan felt was the #1 piece of intellectual equipment that schools should be providing for their students. Thankfully, the issue is front and centre in the serious scientific community, specifically the AAAS , the one of the premier organization of professional Scientists. http://www.eurekalert.org/scienceforkids/ The main problem is simple: Schools tend to teach Scientific "facts" but not the  process  of Science or the Scientific mind-set, which is inherently skeptical. Kids need to be taught to think "What is really going on here?", to pose theories, to discuss them, to do experiments and conduct investigations. Most importantly, they need to learn to discuss their observations and learn how to rule out theories that are not backed by experien

This from the eSkeptic .. (subscribe now!!!) Science Education is No Guarantee of Skepticism Bottom line: The way "Science" is taught in the schools, it fails to provide the "Baloney Detector" that Carl Sagan felt was the #1 piece of intellectual equipment that schools should be providing for their students. Thankfully, the issue is front and centre in the serious scientific community, specifically the AAAS , the one of the premier organization of professional Scientists. http://www.eurekalert.org/scienceforkids/ The main problem is simple: Schools tend to teach Scientific "facts" but not the  process  of Science or the Scientific mind-set, which is inherently skeptical. Kids need to be taught to think "What is really going on here?", to pose theories, to discuss them, to do experiments and conduct investigations. Most importantly, they need to learn to discuss their observations and learn how to rule out theories that are

No Virginia there is no Santa Clause. Santa is a myth, like a story we all act out for fun. Nobody lied to you. We just gave you a part in the story because we love you and we don't want you to be left out. No Virginia, the Universe was not cobbled together in Santa's workshop or anybody else's workshop. No there is no Old Man in the Sky who will reward good people and get even  for you for the bad stuff people to do you. Terrible things happen to good people and terrible people get rich and famous. Life is not a game. It doesn't come out even. No, Virginia there is nobody listening to your private thoughts, or tinkering with the laws of Physics to make your wishes come true. Sorry Virginia, but Grandpa and your cat Puffy are dead, like the chicken you had for dinner. Gone. But they both loved you very much. Remember that. Hold on to that. No, Virginia God didn't write you a book to tell you what to do. God is like Santa. He's a character in a book or a characte

No Virginia there is no Santa Clause. Santa is a myth, like a story we all act out for fun. Nobody lied to you. We just gave you a part in the story because we love you and we don't want you to be left out. No Virginia, the Universe was not cobbled together in Santa's workshop or anybody else's workshop. No there is no Old Man in the Sky who will reward good people and get even  for you for the bad stuff people to do you. Terrible things happen to good people and terrible people get rich and famous. Life is not a game. It doesn't come out even. No, Virginia there is nobody listening to your private thoughts, or tinkering with the laws of Physics to make your wishes come true. Sorry Virginia, but Grandpa and your cat Puffy are dead, like the chicken you had for dinner. Gone. But they both loved you very much. Remember that. Hold on to that. No, Virginia God didn't write you a book to tell you what to do. God is like Santa. He's a character in a book or

The following is the Christian definition of love and a claim that love is the most important thing. All other religious practices must take a back seat to love as it is defined here ... 1 Corinthians 13 New King James Version (NKJV) 13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all th

The following is the Christian definition of love and a claim that love is the most important thing. All other religious practices must take a back seat to love as it is defined here ... 1 Corinthians 13 New King James Version (NKJV) 13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes al

This should be a simple question but it has gotten more than a bit muddy over the centuries. People have literally been put to the sword over different definitions as to who is and is not a bona fide "Christian". I take the matter simply and literally.  A "Marxist" is somebody who takes the world view of Marx seriously and tries to apply it.They need not believe everything Marx wrote and, if they are familiar with his work at all, they know much of it is out-dated and irrelevant in 2012. A "Christian", then should be somebody who takes the teaching of Jesus and his "school" (the disciples) very seriously. He or she is knowledgeable about these teachings and makes an earnest attempt to apply them. However, he or she understands that the founders of this school lived in a given place and time, accepting the ideas of that time as they breathed in the air.  The entire corpus of teachings needs to be subjected to a bit of common sense and, yes, Skepti

This should be a simple question but it has gotten more than a bit muddy over the centuries. People have literally been put to the sword over different definitions as to who is and is not a bona fide "Christian". I take the matter simply and literally.  A "Marxist" is somebody who takes the world view of Marx seriously and tries to apply it.They need not believe everything Marx wrote and, if they are familiar with his work at all, they know much of it is out-dated and irrelevant in 2012. A "Christian", then should be somebody who takes the teaching of Jesus and his "school" (the disciples) very seriously. He or she is knowledgeable about these teachings and makes an earnest attempt to apply them. However, he or she understands that the founders of this school lived in a given place and time, accepting the ideas of that time as they breathed in the air.  The entire corpus of teachings needs to be subjected to a bit of common sense and, yes, Sk

Progress in all fields of knowledge proceeds by occasionally tossing out commonly held beliefs, sometimes at great personal cost and peril to the ones who ask embarrassing questions. Skeptics are routinely ostracised, jailed or executed for challenging authority. The history of Skepticism has its saints -- the ones who bravely for the truth and sometimes pay with their lives. If you are not sure what Skepticism means,  Wikipedia is not a bad place to start ... The modern brand of Skepticism owes a lot to people like Michael Shermer  who has done a lot to publicise and formalize the Skeptical world view. There are a lot of Skeptics out there, but few who use the term for themselves, mainly because they are confused about what it means to be a Skeptic. Skepticism is at the heart of Scientific method and every Scientist, to the extent that he's a professional and productive Scientist, must be a hard-core Skeptic. Any serious Skeptic should be familiar with the history of Science, whic

Progress in all fields of knowledge proceeds by occasionally tossing out commonly held beliefs, sometimes at great personal cost and peril to the ones who ask embarrassing questions. Skeptics are routinely ostracised, jailed or executed for challenging authority. The history of Skepticism has its saints -- the ones who bravely for the truth and sometimes pay with their lives. If you are not sure what Skepticism means,  Wikipedia is not a bad place to start ... The modern brand of Skepticism owes a lot to people like Michael Shermer  who has done a lot to publicise and formalize the Skeptical world view. There are a lot of Skeptics out there, but few who use the term for themselves, mainly because they are confused about what it means to be a Skeptic. Skepticism is at the heart of Scientific method and every Scientist, to the extent that he's a professional and productive Scientist, must be a hard-core Skeptic. Any serious Skeptic should be familiar with the history of Science,