Monthly Archives: June 2007

Lutheran update

Posted on June 29, 2007 by acb

I think I have made an interesting mistake. I mentioned in my CiF piece two Lutheran pastors who seemed to have gone crazy. The second was the odious Dr Lerle — and students of wilful self-deception are urged to the … Continue reading →

Posted in God, War | 1 Comment

Dembski and holocaust denial

Posted on June 29, 2007 by acb

I should have a piece up about this shortly on CiF but it’s worth noting that William Dembski, the main proponent of ID, has been defending, as a martyr to free speech, one of the most vicious anti-semites and holocaust … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | Comments Off on Dembski and holocaust denial

Fundamentalism when you hate your neighbour

Posted on June 29, 2007 by acb

One of the paradoxes of modern religion is that the intolerant forms grow with immigration. As a general rule, you get liberal churches in monocultural places, and fundie ones in multicultural ones. This is depressing, but I had just come … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 6 Comments

Fragment of a Transylvanian Journey

Posted on June 28, 2007 by acb

In 1993 (I think) I found myself travelling in Transylvania with a fundamentalist missionary named Gary Cox — a good man, though not my type at all — and Sandy Millar of HTB, who had two strapping young acolytes: Giles … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Travel notes | Comments Off on Fragment of a Transylvanian Journey

Unfortunate google

Posted on June 28, 2007 by acb

I can’t remember why I wanted to look up the term “sausage fest” though it certainly wasn’t because I am reading The Line of Beauty. In any case I may have found an instance where someone — in this case … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Net stories | 1 Comment

Childhood’s End

Posted on June 25, 2007 by acb

There is now a site where Swedish children can input their addresses and then be sent texts to tell them when the ice cream van is due. (via) All that is missing is another site where older readers can arranged … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Sweden | 1 Comment

Dan Dennett review

Posted on June 25, 2007 by acb

I found this review of Breaking the Spell from two years ago while looking for something else. It was in the Guardian at the time, but it still makes sense, at least to me. It is hard being an atheist … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God, Journalism | Comments Off on Dan Dennett review

This has to happen to someone

Posted on June 24, 2007 by acb

Google desktop comes with a pop-up notifier for new mail, as does Thunderbird. I assume that other programs do too. These are not like the old-fashioned biff-ish ones, which simply showed you had mail of some sort. They pop up … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Net stories | Comments Off on This has to happen to someone

On the overuse of “Poetic”

Posted on June 24, 2007 by acb

I’m sympathetic, in principle, to the idea that parts of the Bible need no historical truth for their value. The Book of Job, for example. None the less, we can’t let people get away with saying anything historically false must … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God, Science without worms | Comments Off on On the overuse of “Poetic”

Who could resist this book?

Posted on June 24, 2007 by acb

Apparently written by an Orthodox Jewish mathematician, who has also written on game theory in Pentateuch. If Pascal had had these mathematical tools, might he have bet differently? Superior Beings: If They Exist, How Would We Know? Game-Theoretic Implications of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature, Science without worms | 1 Comment