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Thursday, 28 February 2013

Things Christians say, part 43: Bless the pope.

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A weekly series of responses to the things Christians say to atheists, based on the video reproduced here on 30th January 2012 .  The aim is...
2 comments:
Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Diderot, on theologians.

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" Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely d...
1 comment:
Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Catholic light switch

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Catholic light switch Given the latest news from the Catholic church, this almost seems appropriate.
Monday, 25 February 2013

Icy surprise in the hedge rows

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Having mentioned one icy mystery last week, here is another that I have spotted in southern England this week.  We have had a spell of brig...
2 comments:
Sunday, 24 February 2013

Correcting the Ten Commandments

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Correcting the Ten Commandments Attempting to visit the Stone Museum in Great Bedwyn today, I found this amusing plaque on the wall. S...
1 comment:
Saturday, 23 February 2013

Saving Sophie

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I was in Newbury (Berkshire, UK) this afternoon, looking (with a little dread) at the rate that the water was flowing on the Kennet and Av...
Friday, 22 February 2013

Francesca Stravrakopoulou - Think Week

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Of the events that I attended in Oxford Think Week, Saturday afternoon's talk by Professor Francesca Stravrakopoulou was the most inte...
Thursday, 21 February 2013

Sex and Death

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Another Oxford Think Week activity, on Saturday 16th February included a talk by Professor Beverly Clack about Sex and Death .  Before the ...
Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Richard Dawkins and Stephen Law - Think Week

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On Friday 15th February as part of Oxford Think Week, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Law met on stage in the Sheldonian Theatre. The discussi...
Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Pecha Kucha

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Last week a colleague introduced me to another new concept. It is a teaching technique (with a competitive element). At the time he was pr...
Monday, 18 February 2013

Swedish icy mystery

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My friend and colleague, Tom, was visiting family in Sweden recently and on a forest walk he came across this remarkable and so far unexplai...
Sunday, 17 February 2013

Circular Reasoning Works

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Circular Reasoning works!
Saturday, 16 February 2013

Where the pope will be hiding . . .

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Following on from yesterday's post , apparently the pope is planning to hide himself away in that non-country called The Vatican, in or...
Friday, 15 February 2013

Monopoly provides the answer to the question "What does a retired pope do next?"

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In general terms this is a virtually meaningless question because most popes do not abdicate and retire.  No doubt it will be a while before...
Thursday, 14 February 2013

Peter Atkins talks about absolutely nothing

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No really . . . he was talking about the absolute nothingness before the beginning of the universe, as part of Think Week in Oxford!  The t...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Why aren't ghosts naked?

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We all know people who claim to have seen ghosts, even if those people are usually sensible enough not to have told you about what they have...
Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Why are there no dragons?

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For Darwin Day, it seems appropriate to write a post about evolutiion. Evolution seems to have produced a wide range of surprising abiliti...
Monday, 11 February 2013

Sunny brain, rainy brain

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Elaine Fox made a presentation to Oxford Skeptics in the Pub last week, in a meeting attended by an unusually large number of people.  The ...
Sunday, 10 February 2013

Entertaining anagrams

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Once in a while you come across a really entertaining anagram.  20 years ago I found myself amused by the irony of the anagram of government...
Saturday, 9 February 2013

Polka-dot trees

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Visiting Aix en Provence, I found that many of the trees have been wrapped in red fabric (with white spots).  Was this frost protection? ...