The Incas "fattened up" children for human sacrifice

reposted from: BBC (video)

The Incas "fattened up" children for human sacrifice, a British-led research team has discovered.

Time To Send Atheist Fliers Home With School Children

reposted from: http://atheistrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/10/time-to-send-atheist-fliers-home-with.html

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Time To Send Atheist Fliers Home With School Children

Approximately 2,000 elementary school children in Madison, WI, brought home religious fliers distributed at their public schools. The fliers encouraged families to "Plant the Seeds of Faith in Jesus in Your Child at our Sunday school." Not surprisingly, the atheist blogosphere is buzzing about this one, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the Madison School District to prevent future distribution of religious fliers in public schools. This is certainly an understandable response, but there might be a better option.

Superintendent Art Rainwater defended the district's policy of allowing organizations to send a variety of fliers home with students. It sounds like the idea is to let just about anything to be sent home with the children, avoiding the appearance of religious privilege. This sounds fine except for two things.

First, the distribution of religious material in public schools is probably not something most of us want to encourage. Second, there is a sort of review process by which school officials decide what material goes home with children and what does not.

The materials must be bundled for each class. They are reviewed by staff members in Rainwater's office, and are passed along to schools for distribution if the programs serve children, don't violate the law, are deemed "appropriate," and don't recruit students to attend activities outside their schools during the school day.

The position of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is that public schools have no business distributing religious materials and that children "are apt to confuse official school notices with religious propaganda."

FFRF's Annie Laurie Gaylor says, "Looking at this 'Jesus flier,' how can the superintendent not realize this is offensive? And if you can do it with 'Jesus fliers,' how about 'Satanist fliers'?" An excellent suggestion. We need organizations to step up and start sending Madison children home with Satanist fliers.

Actually, Dispatches From the Culture Wars has an even better idea: send the kids home with atheist fliers.

The FFRF is taking the wrong approach on this. They should start sending home fliers of their own. The school has admitted that it has a limited open forum, which means they can't refuse to distribute them. But I bet few, if any, skeptical or freethinking groups have ever taken advantage of that and tested whether it's true. I suspect they will quickly find out, as happened in Virginia, that the open forum only lasts as long as no non-religious groups use the process; once they do, support for that open forum will disappear rapidly as parents complain about the "offensive" flier being sent home.

If nobody objects, it would be a great opportunity for the parents to learn about rational alternatives to religion. If they do object, then at least the religious fliers will have to stop too and the community could learn a valuable lesson that religious tolerance is not limited to tolerance of evangelical Christianity.

If you would like to contact the Madison School District, you may do so here.

H/Ts to You Made Me Say It and Spanish Inquisitor

Letters: Theology has no place in a university

reposted from: http://richarddawkins.net/article,1698,n,n

by Richard Dawkins

Reposted from:
http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/article3015309.ece

Sir: Professor Richard Bowen thinks I should engage with serious academic theologians rather than the fundamentalist "McDonald's" version of Christianity. He and the Rev Richard Hall (Letters, 19 September) agree with Peter Stanford ("Doubts about Dawkins", 14 September) that I should read theology. Fortunately it looks as though I shall have every opportunity to do so. Oxford University has just officially noticed that its leading theological halls are not fit to admit school-leavers, so these institutions will presumably be touting for mature students.

According to a report in The Times (19 September), Wycliffe Hall and other theological establishments "could risk losing their Oxford University licences altogether". This follows a review that concludes that what is on offer at Wycliffe Hall "does not resemble an Oxford experience in its essentials" and is not "a suitable educational environment for the full intellectual development of young undergraduates". The Rev Mr Hall encourages me to engage with theology academics whose "intelligence is at least equal to Dawkins' own". Indeed I should enjoy engaging with my neighbour, the Principal of Wycliffe Hall, who said in The Independent (25 May),

"We are committed to bringing the gospel message of Jesus Christ to those who don't know. In this land, that's 95 per cent of the people: 95 per cent of people facing hell unless the message of the gospel is brought to them."

Presumably he is one of the intelligent theologians with whom I should engage.

We who doubt that "theology" is a subject at all, or who compare it with the study of leprechauns, are eagerly hoping to be proved wrong.

Of course, university departments of theology house many excellent scholars of history, linguistics, literature, ecclesiastical art and music, archaeology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, iconology, and other worthwhile and important subjects. These academics would be welcomed into appropriate departments elsewhere in the university.

But as for theology itself, defined as "the organised body of knowledge dealing with the nature, attributes, and governance of God", a positive case now needs to be made that it has any real content at all, and that it has any place in today's universities.

Richard Dawkins
Oxford

----

Sir: It is not often that a professor admits to poor scholarship, but that is what Richard Dawkins has done (letter, 17 September). Had I received an essay from a first-year undergraduate in which he admitted not having studied the position of his opponent, I would have insisted on it being rewritten. What is even more remarkable is that Dawkins seems unaware that the positivist account of science, which forms the main plank of his argument, is thoroughly discredited.

To argue for the position he advocates requires a working knowledge of the philosophy of science and religion, epistemology and metaphysics. While scientists of a previous generation, such as Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn, have shown the application required to master these fields prior to publishing their philosophical work, Dawkins has so far shown himself unable or unwilling to do so.

The Revd Dr David Heywood
Lecturer in Pastoral Theology, Ripon College, Cuddesdon Oxfordshire

Birds see magnetic fields

reposted from: SciAm (mp3)

Fringe Report: Labour Humanists' reception with AC Grayling

reposted from: http://www.labourhumanists.org.uk/

Fringe Report: Labour Humanists' reception

Labour Humanists' first appearance at Labour conference saw writer and philosopher AC Grayling speak to a fringe reception of Labour Humanist members, conference delegates, and a strong showing from the Dorset Humanists.

Professor Grayling, who is also a distinguished supporter of the BHA, spoke on the subject of civil liberties in modern Britain and the need to defend the progressive heritage the country has enjoyed. A lively debate followed, the crowd seizing the chance to ask questions and afterwards meet and socialise with fellow Labour humanists over a glass of bucks fizz.

The British Humanist Association was also on hand to speak with delegates.Their stall in the conference zone was manned at various intervals by a number of eager Labour Humanists, which undoubtedly drew new members into both the Labour Humanist and BHA fold. Alongside a raft of new members we also saw something of a run on our specially-minted Labour Humanist badges, later often spotted being worn by delegates about conference.

We are already in full swing planning for next year's conference and welcome any assistance and ideas members can offer.

Adam Harrison

Alternative Dorset Humanists Forum

Whist Daniels' php forum http://forum.dorsethumanists.co.uk/index.php remains down for service, Dorset Humanists can use this Yahoo forum:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dorsethumanist/

Tim Crane on Mind and Body

reposted from: http://philosophybites.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=261525#

Tim Crane on Mind and Body

What is the mind and how does it relate to our bodies? How can something physical think? These are fundamental questions in the philosophy of mind. Tim Crane addresses these difficult issues in this interview for Philosophy Bites.

Direct download: CraneMixSess.MP3