Censureship 13 Jan 2008 Lawyers shouldn’t determine who gets to read what. Religions shouldn’t determine who gets to think what. But the worst combination is when religions use lawyers to stop criticism of their actions and beliefs. Scientology, the money making scam purveyed by the mentally deficient (I can’t think of a nicer way to say it), has prevented Andrew Morton’s biography of Tom Cruise, the couch and shark jumping actor, from being sold in Australia. This follows similar moves made, by threats of litigation as usual, in the UK. Now, I don’t know whether Morton’s biography is a piece of crap or a meticulously researched and authoritative study, but I am minded to buy a copy by the internet just to spite the Scientologists. Freedom Politics Religion FreedomReligion
Philosophy You can’t explain a variable with a constant 12 Jan 2012 Courtesy of reader Jocelyn Stoller, comes this video, of respected philosopher of science Jim Woodward discussing whether or not religious beliefs explains things like suicide bombing and the moral right in the US. Answer: not likely. Watch part 2 at Youtube. Read More
Education Science Communication and the Business Model 22 Mar 2009 There are a lot of folk who think they have a handle on how to communicate science to the general public, and a lot of folk, mostly scientists, who think nobody else does. But I was reading Carl Zimmer’s twittering today, about Rebecca Skoot getting a column gig for a… Read More
Evolution Building a Milvian Bridge 10 May 2010 Paul Griffiths is presenting our paper on evolutionary skepticism and religion at the University of Wollongong tomorrow, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood: Paul Griffiths (USyd) will be presenting at the University of Wollongong Philosophy Research Seminar series on Tuesday, May 11th. All are welcome to attend. Title: “When… Read More
This has been a pretty standard Scientology tact for some time. They’re a religion until someone publishes a critical book, and then it becomes a copyright issue. They did an attempted purge on the Internet about six or seven years ago. What seems very sad is that the courts let this crooked organization get away with it. I can’t support Germany’s attempts to outright ban them, but I certainly understand the underlying sentiment.
This has been a pretty standard Scientology tact for some time. They’re a religion until someone publishes a critical book, and then it becomes a copyright issue. They did an attempted purge on the Internet about six or seven years ago. What seems very sad is that the courts let this crooked organization get away with it. I can’t support Germany’s attempts to outright ban them, but I certainly understand the underlying sentiment.