Sunday, February 05, 2006

Dishonest wasps

Battle of the blotches

If your face doesn't fit. :D

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

"Blair's no-show causes defeat on hatred Bill"

It's quite amusing that Blair lost this by not bothering to vote. Mwhahahaha.

I'm glad the bill was amended so that only threatening language is actionable, abuse/offence are still legal. Where would comedy be otherwise? And freedom of speech generally, of course.

A lot of my views as an atheist are probably abhorrent and/or offensive to theists, as indeed some of their beliefs are abhorrent and offensive to me. It was far too vague, no matter what promises about fine-tuning were made.

Penn Jillette

I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

Loved his article on "This I believe".

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

A case for Judge John Deed?

Italy judge considers Jesus case

In Italy, an atheist is trying to take a priest to court for possible fraud:

"Mr Cascioli sued Father Righi in 2002 after the priest attacked him in print for casting doubt over the legitimacy of the Christian gospels.

The atheist contends that Christianity relies on purely anecdotal evidence.


Lawyers for the priest and Mr Cascioli appeared before the judge in a brief hearing on Friday to argue whether the case should be thrown out and if Father Righi should stand trial, the AP news agency reported.
A decision is expected on Monday.


"The point is not to establish whether Jesus existed or not, but if there is a question of possible fraud," Mr Cascioli's lawyer, Mauro Fonzo, told reporters. "

I don't suppose it'll get to trial, but it strikes me as rather amusing. :)