tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50552239833551738442012-01-31T12:24:11.182-05:00A blog at the intersection of law and atheism.Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-47011283927227186122009-09-22T15:14:00.002-04:002009-09-22T15:20:08.346-04:00

I love Andrew Sullivan's blog, but I completely agree: his thinking turns to mush as soon as he begins talking about his faith. He starts using all sorts of nonsense phrases that resonate with other believers, but mean nothing when looked up in the dictionary. For example:For me, the unique human capacity to somehow rise above such suffering, while experiencing it as vividly as any animal, is

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-62178595239455714232008-08-18T17:58:00.000-04:002008-08-18T17:59:47.536-04:00

Just once, I want to see a gymnast do a floor routine to "Boris the Spider"

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-82463506961278334092008-07-15T09:52:00.002-04:002008-07-15T09:58:15.204-04:00

Many on the left are upset about the recent New Yorker cover that depicts Obama as a terrorist inside the White House. They argue that idiots (a category that does not include them) will see the cover and think it is serious. I have serious doubts about that, but lets put those doubts aside for a minute.All of this still assumes that "idiots" read the New Yorker, or even look at it. Have you

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-1420335087853329642008-07-12T22:17:00.002-04:002008-07-12T22:19:33.537-04:00

This is a bit older, but I thought it was worth posting because (1) I missed it when it came out, and (2) it's incredible.Read Andrew Sullivan's review of D'Souza's book "The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11".We all know that D'Souza is an insufferable gasbag, but Sullivan's review shows how D'Souza is openly calling for theocracy in America. Fascinating.

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-15235978340946586772008-05-01T11:04:00.019-04:002008-05-01T17:36:23.783-04:00

The latest issue of the Southwestern University Law Review contains an article by Professor Jana McCreary called This Is the Trap the Court Built: Dealing with the Entanglement of Religion and the Origin of Life in American Public Schools, 37 SWULR 1. In the same issue, Peter Irons responds to Professor McCreary in an article called Darwin, Dogma, and Definitions: A Reply to Professor McCreary,

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-84642324831953240462008-03-20T18:26:00.002-04:002008-05-01T13:19:14.170-04:00

As often happens when discussing Intelligent Design, I find today that Judge Jones beat me to the punch. Discussing Behe in the Kitzmiller opinion, Jones said:the ID argument is dependent upon setting a scientifically unreasonable burden of proof for the theory of evolution.

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-32888782952823883612008-03-18T16:34:00.006-04:002008-05-01T13:18:48.141-04:00

Here's an old statement from Dr. Behe that reveals why nothing will ever be good enough for creationists:[Supporting evolution] is like arguing that because a man can jump over a fissure that's five-feet wide, then given enough time he could jump over the Grand Canyon. Now, a believer in the unabated rule of natural law would argue that the man could jump over the Grand Canyon if there were

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-25750055136138527832008-02-12T16:13:00.001-05:002008-02-12T16:17:29.767-05:00

You may remember these children's lyrics:Tell me why the stars do shine / Tell me why the ivy twines / Tell me why the sky is so blue / And I will tell you just why I love youBecause God made the stars to shine / Because God made the ivy twine / Because God made the sky’s so blue / Because God made you, that’s why I love youSomeone from MIT rewrote the lyrics. Tell me why the stars do shine /

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-63490750697798597132008-02-02T13:28:00.000-05:002008-02-02T13:41:24.581-05:00

It's still not clear how "the surge" will turn out, but I think that the result will not hurt the Democratic nominee in either situation. First, let's assume that violence remains low. (Yesterday's horrible bombing excepted.) As many commentators have noted, the Iraq war has not been on the front page for a long time. Issues like the economy have continued to gain in importance. In short, "

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-92001557869567538892008-01-19T18:33:00.001-05:002008-12-09T21:13:20.213-05:00

The New York Times did a great job putting this picture of Mike Huckabee on the front page this morning. That ain't the Constitution he's signing. I suppose I would be a lot more worried if I thought Huckabee had any chance at the nomination, much less at the Presidency itself. Still, could vice-President Huckabee help re-cement the Reagan coalition?I think the idea is not implausible. It

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-29751883966384673372008-01-14T10:00:00.000-05:002008-01-14T10:06:14.671-05:00

Why do you think Dan hasn't gotten anywhere with this idea? I think it's a great idea (except that the school day is crowded already). I really think the "liberals took the Bible out of school" crowd would have to tone it down a bit.Anyway, the talk is here.

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-52373688988896290232008-01-08T17:18:00.000-05:002008-01-08T17:28:36.244-05:00

The other week The Economist (normally a quality publication) ran a story about religion in American politics. The story included this quote:The founders barred the establishment of a state religion, [Romney] said, but “they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square.” This was a sop to Christians who fret that militant secularists have gone too far in banning, for

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-40965620062625097182008-01-07T00:08:00.000-05:002008-01-07T00:12:58.925-05:00

This morning he said that "special interests [are] stealing our children's futures and killing the middle class." Can you possibly be more overblown? I picture Monty Burns sitting in a boardroom. "Next on the agenda, stealing the children's futures. Eeeexcellent."The video is below the fold, and the quote is at 8:40.

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-37757675839248373212008-01-04T13:23:00.000-05:002008-01-04T13:28:50.600-05:00

Obama won the Iowa caucus last night. In case you missed it, the text of his wonderful acceptance speech is below, but I encourage you to find the video if you have time. He's a great speaker. Senator Barack Obama: Thank you, Iowa.You know, they said this day would never come.They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-59803803816276659872007-12-21T17:30:00.001-05:002008-01-04T13:30:05.023-05:00

I had never heard of Occam's Dildo before reading this, but it makes sense once you think about it. It means that all other things being equal, humans will prefer the answer that is the most arousing.It's a bit hard to see how that fits in the atheist/theist debate. Oh yeah Sky Daddy, tell me what to do....

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-22849724282867905812007-12-18T14:41:00.000-05:002007-12-18T14:47:18.769-05:00

Jackson and other black celebrities read the Bible in this new audiotape. Do you think he does The Scene? You know what you're about to watch....

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-86589667361346955722007-12-18T10:18:00.002-05:002007-12-18T11:12:17.546-05:00

You want something worth changing?Replace "atheist" with "Jew" or "Black" and ask yourself whether it would be OK to let these clauses sit there, even though they aren't used. No person who denies the existence of the Supreme Being shall hold any office under this Constitution.~ South Carolina Const., Art. VI, sec. 2, "Person denying existence of Supreme Being not to hold office".No person who

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-89062882683772476432007-12-17T10:14:00.000-05:002007-12-17T10:34:12.976-05:00

I'm genuinely interested in answers to this question. Imagine for a minute that Francis Scott Key was an atheist. When writing the Star Spangled Banner he now includes the line, "Oh how great is our country that I put my faith in thee / not in any God, but in my countrymen I trust"Many years later, a less-religious United States is attacked at Pearl Harbor. Someone decides to spread pro-US

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-9304530664316412282007-12-17T08:12:00.000-05:002007-12-17T10:53:01.797-05:00

In my last post in my blog series about Michael Newdow's challenge to the pledge and motto, I blogged the actual pledge argument in the Ninth Circuit. This gives us a good idea how the case will turn out and what the court's reasoning may be. In this post, I will blog the motto argument. You can listen to the argument by going here and searching for 06-16344.(0:27) Newdow gets to lead off this

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-9637704429992703632007-12-16T22:47:00.000-05:002007-12-16T23:03:46.616-05:00

It looks like the U.S. may join an agreement to limit carbon emissions. The latest round of negotiations was moving. (Something I didn't think I would ever say about treaty negotiations.) But I wanted to record something for history's sake. If we don't get this done, if our planet is severely hurt by our dawdling, it is the fault of the Republican Party. They are the party of climate change

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-9696422995453474822007-12-15T18:37:00.001-05:002007-12-15T18:52:17.633-05:00

I didn't see this blogged when it occurred about a month ago. Kevin Padian (of Kitzmiller fame) engaged in a debate/interview in Grace Cathedral.The video was on Fora.tv If you don't know about this website, it posts lots of serious talks and speeches. Many of them are quite good.The calm, quiet discussion by Padian is interesting. I think Padian is too accommodating, but I still liked the

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-61457916375999596622007-12-13T10:31:00.001-05:002007-12-13T21:54:30.607-05:00

As part of my series on Newdow's challenge to the pledge and motto, I'm now going to focus on how the proceedings are proceeding. Last week, the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in the pledge and motto case. This post blogs the pledge argument, and the next post will blog the motto argument. These arguments may give us a sense of how the cases will turn out. You can listen yourself by going here

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-57801512774258601172007-12-11T20:29:00.000-05:002007-12-11T22:47:03.461-05:00

Exodus 22:18 is fairly explicit. "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live." Hard to "interpret" that one! Luckily, we haven't had any witches around here since Salem. Unfortunately, it looks like some have turned up in Nigeria. Christians there have organized to follow the command of their Lord - despite the fact that many of the witches are children. (The church leaders themselves are making

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-55339225105520161022007-12-11T15:34:00.000-05:002007-12-11T15:59:46.549-05:00

This post is a challenge to evangelicals (and non-evangelicals) everywhere. I am tired of hearing day-after-day that "atheists don't have a source for morality". It gets repeated endlessly on the internet. I am told repeatedly that Dostoevsky destroyed atheism when he said "If God does not exist, everything is permitted." (Even though he apparently never said that.)I have yet to see a debate

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com66tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-48783681797451709942007-12-10T18:21:00.001-05:002007-12-13T10:31:10.206-05:00

Here's another post in my series on Newdow's challenge to the pledge and the motto. In my last post, I opined that Newdow's motto case has some merit, but not as much as his pledge case.But Newdow lost his motto case at the trial level. Why? In an earlier post I explained our three-tier court system for non-lawyers. Each tier is binding on the tiers below it. It turns out that the Ninth

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-6905991228145570692007-12-10T16:57:00.001-05:002007-12-10T18:21:02.217-05:00

This is another post in the blog series I am writing on Newdow's challenge to under God in the pledge and In God We Trust as the motto. In my last post, I examined whether Newdow's pledge case had legal merit. In this post, I will examine his motto case. The motto case has some key factual differences. First of all, the language at issue has been around a lot longer. (The term "In God We

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-70054415768443422802007-12-08T18:56:00.000-05:002007-12-10T12:18:33.428-05:00

I've been writing a series of blog posts on Michael Newdow's challenge to "under God" in the pledge and "In God we trust" as our national motto. In this post and the next post, I will ask a simple question - does Newdow deserve to win?This is not a law blog (although I am a lawyer) so I will keep things lite. Non-lawyer, have faith. The challenge to "under God" has a lot of merit, in my opinion

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-30419728616442884532007-12-06T11:32:00.000-05:002008-12-09T21:13:20.706-05:00

This is the second post in my blog series on Newdow's challenge to the phrase "under God" in the pledge. In this post, I will look at the whole litigation from a bird's eye view. This will help you understand what is going on, what has gone on, and what is likely happen as it goes on.First, the non-lawyer should know that the Courts of the United States are divided into a 3-tier system. The

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-87891924157624256702007-12-05T20:31:00.000-05:002007-12-06T19:53:45.162-05:00

Hitchens explains that the Maccabees in the Temple of ancient Greece are similar to the Branch Davidians in the Compound of Waco, Texas.The difference is that the Maccabees won and broke off from the government to form their own religious land. Hitchens bemoans this fact, and others weigh in: AlthouseHuffington The God BlogThinking CriticallyDawkins

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-9309950441742185592007-12-05T15:01:00.000-05:002007-12-10T12:19:03.692-05:00

I'd like to start my blog series on the pledge challenge by Michael Newdow by starting with Newdow's first Supreme Court case. I start here because it is intriguing, and, at points, hilarious. Everyone was worried that Newdow (an inexperienced lawyer handling his own case) would screw up one of the most interesting and divisive arguments the Court has ever heard. In fact, the Chief Justice had

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-71849897939311834292007-12-04T23:15:00.000-05:002007-12-17T10:14:25.129-05:00

Several years ago, an atheist named Michael Newdow became famous for challenging the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. His argument was that the government should not take a position on theological questions. By including "under God" in the pledge and the asking children to say it, the government took the position that there is a God and children should worship him.He sued to

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-937632020679899982007-12-03T20:04:00.000-05:002007-12-06T19:54:44.710-05:00

Mike, that crazy heathen, is passing along an idea to send teddy bears to your local Sudanese embassy. Kind of a "Teddy Ruxpin in your face!" gesture.Embassy info is located below the fold.... AmericaEmbassy of the Republic of Sudan2210 Massachusetts Ave. NWWashington D.C., 20008CanadaEmbassy of the Republic of Sudan354 Stewart StreetOttawa, Ontario K1N 6K8England3 Cleveland RowLondon, SW1A

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-90024253382391091372007-12-03T14:03:00.000-05:002007-12-06T10:10:46.059-05:00

During the Dennett-D'Souza debate the other night, D'Souza used the following argument to refute Dennett and convince the audience to believe in God.::drumroll:: Pascal's Wager ::cymbal crash::I have a confession. I found this completely convincing. Dennett just blew the argument off, but I was floored by it.Unfortunately, my conversion was not entirely smooth....I had three problems:First,

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055223983355173844.post-46634916633003509752007-10-17T16:36:00.000-04:002007-12-03T15:28:16.390-05:00

I watched a show about Christian home schooling the other day. Of course, there was the usual nonsense about evolution being the devil's work, but this part really made me mad. The mom explained that she didn't mind her kids learning math because, unlike evolution, "God created math."Excuse me?This is a perfect example of a something that I dislike about those who believe in a "personal God."

Titanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721438382399594973noreply@blogger.com1