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Skeptic Summary

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Skeptic Summary #266

By The Staff
Posted on: 1/3/2010

Trolltheism, archeological drunks, Santa lies, deeper and deeper, climate consensus, resolutions, Tyson talk and more!


Week ending unknown 02, 2010 (Vol 7, #1)

Welcome to the Skeptic Summary, a quick week-in-review guide to the Skeptic Friends Network and the rest of the skeptical world.



Forum Highlights:
Atheism is DEAD… FOREVER & EVER!!! - That’s what he thinks…

Imbibing archaeologically - A high-spirited discussion on archaeological beer.

On Santa and other harmless fibs - Which version of Santa should we tell our children?

Editor’s Choice: Dennett answers NY Times on Dawkins’ book - Watch matt dig himself deeper and deeper.

From the Archives: Consensus falling apart by the day - Jerome talks climate change. ’Nuff said.



This Week’s Poll:
Be resolute! - And let us know about it.



Kil’s Evil Pick:
Beyond Belief ’06 — Neil deGrasse Tyson, First Talk — Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses intelligent design and the reality of what we see when we examine the universe itself.

Tyson is as always, smart, funny, thought-provoking and educational. If you have never heard him speak, or even if you have, watch this video.

There are other Tyson videos available at the above link. I can heartily recommend any and all of them.

SkeptiQuote:
…each of us time travels into the future, one year, every year.
— Carl Sagan


Chat Highlights:
Wednesday: There were a surprising number of chatters this week, given that it was New Year’s Eve eve. Among the topics were funny names (Judge Lawless, Dr. Rotter D.D.S.) and large denominations of US currency, as well as the accuracy of Wikipedia. LizW complained about some bovine puns which created a stamped of wordplay. Then a little math talk scared most out of chat. The discussion recovered by moving on to comedians Patton Oswald (not safe for work), Jim Gaffigan and Louis CK (NSFW). This continued with clips from a now canceled show Lucky Louie (NSFW). The night ended (at 3am!) with popular Internet memes, forum talk and some Java coding.

Come chat with us.


New Members This Week:
Andromeda
PJJ

(Not a member? Become one today!)




Elsewhere in the World:
The 127th edition of the Skeptics’ Circle

Atheist Ireland Publishes 25 Blasphemous Quotes

Freshwater: 2009 (but not the hearing) drags to an end

Friday Sprog Blogging: taking physics for a spin.

Ginkgo doesn’t work: Are there better ways to save your brain?

God Delusion - Markella Hatziano

Happy last few days of the second last year of the first decade of the new millennium

Moon hole might be suitable for colony

Somali shot after allegedly attempting to attack Danish cartoonist

Telling apes from humans

What Cats Are Really Thinking

What’s New by Bob Park

Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them.



Book of the Week:
Onward Christian Athletes: Turning Ballparks into Pulpits and Players into Preachers, by Tom Krattenmaker.



“It may not be entirely unfair to accuse Tom Krattenmaker, the author of Onward Christian Athletes, of wanting to have it both ways.

On hand number one, he’s uncomfortable with home run hitters who point at the sky while circling the bases and quarterbacks who answer the first post-game question — no matter what it is — by thanking Jesus for his help. Krattenmaker points out that lots of the athletes who behave this way ‘are fruits of a campaign by well-organized, well-financed evangelical sports ministries committed to leveraging sports to reach and change the broader American culture.’ He worries that since the agendas of the evangelical sports ministries to which he refers are politically and socially reactionary, the athletes receiving the word from them tend to also swallow a lot of rot. He sites the case of a young ballplayer who asks his baseball chaplain if the ballplayer’s ex-girlfriend, who is Jewish, will go to hell. The chaplain solemnly assures the young man that she will. Tom Krattenmaker doesn’t approve of ministering like that.

But on hand number two, the author figures that a good dose of Christianity would remedy a lot of what’s sinful in our games: the outrageous partying of some of the players, for example…

It’s a short but ominous step from reasoning like that to the notion that pro athletes (and the rest of us) can’t be expected to behave well without religious instruction, and it’s too bad that Tom Krattenmaker doesn’t examine in his book the proposition that an individual’s religious beliefs or lack of same might best remain his or her private concern…”

Bill Littlefield




This Week’s Most-Viewed Pages:
Forum Topics:
  1. The Supper
  2. New World Order happening right now!
  3. Atheism is DEAD… FOREVER & EVER!!!
  4. Funny FAILS
  5. Dennett answers NY Times on Dawkins’ book
  6. On Santa and other harmless fibs
  7. Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
  8. The shallow end of the gene pool…
  9. ‘Big Farmer’ condemned for disease, suffering
  10. Beelzebufo ampinga
Articles:
  1. Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark
  2. Evolving a Venom or Two
  3. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle
  4. N. 32, January 2003: Human Instincts and Virtue Ethics
  5. TAM5
  6. Miracle Thaw Tray
  7. Skeptic Summary #265
  8. Cold Reading
  9. The Bible’s Bad Fruits
  10. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony!
There were 16,322 daily visitors this week.
Last Month’s Most-Viewed Pages:
Forum Topics:
  1. The Supper
  2. New World Order happening right now!
  3. PZ expelled from Expelled — Dawkins slips in!
  4. Funny FAILS
  5. Nazi Christmas
  6. Dennett answers NY Times on Dawkins’ book
  7. The shallow end of the gene pool…
  8. Quote Mine warning propaganda poster
  9. Dracorex hogwartsia
  10. Beelzebufo ampinga
  11. Federal Reserve Act of 1913
  12. Evolution vs. ID: 6 Bones of Contention
  13. ‘Big Farmer’ condemned for disease, suffering
  14. Documentary: 1983 ‘Moonwalk’ was staged
  15. Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
  16. James Randi’s current take on Global Warming
  17. What is photorealism?
  18. What, If Anything, Can Skeptics Say About Science?
  19. Atheism is DEAD… FOREVER & EVER!!!
  20. Scattershots: gargoyles & grotesques
Articles:
  1. Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark
  2. Evolving a Venom or Two
  3. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle
  4. Scientific Truth
  5. TAM5
  6. Miracle Thaw Tray
  7. The Bible’s Bad Fruits
  8. Cold Reading
  9. SkeptiCamp Atlanta: A Personal Overview
  10. Evolution is a Lie
  11. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony!
  12. N. 32, January 2003: Human Instincts and Virtue Ethics
  13. A Review of "Leaving the Land of Woo"
  14. Is the Speed of Light Slowing Down?
  15. N. 48, April 2004: Intellectual Midwifery
  16. Mesmer, Casino Monkey, and Video Sex
  17. Come & Receive your Miracle: A Sunday Afternoon at a Robert Tilton Crusade
  18. More on the Polonium 218 Controversy
  19. Quantum Age Water
  20. Preaching that Anti-Evolution Propaganda
There were 89,823 daily visitors in December, 2009.


More issues of the Skeptic Summary can be found in our archive.

The Skeptic Summary is produced by the staff of the Skeptic Friends Network, copyright 2008, all rights reserved.



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