As flagged previously, this Wednesday is International Blasphemy Day. There’s a Facebook group, which provides links to useful info (including the Simon Singh support group), if you’re interested in what this is really about.
Lee Turnpenny
Musings of an oft-bemused former laboratory postdoc
Lee Turnpenny 
I am not totally sure what this has to do with science. Except that maybe to annoy Christian scientists?
I am sorry I have been away for so long. It has been a very busy time. But if this is what has become of the standard of discourse at Nature Network then perhaps I am better off not being here.
Ahhh, free speech. If you cannae say something nice, say something unpleasant instead. Frankly, there’s not enough brutal honesty on NN, too much pussyfooting around. I second that emotion. Way to get into the spirit of things, Wilson!
As Eric Cartman was fond of saying,
fuscrew you guys, I’m going for lunch.Goodness! I’ve admittedly blogged contentiously on occasion, but I didn’t consider this as being on that list. I posted primarily (albeit slightly mischievously) for information purposes, as I figured a few others round here might find it of interest; especially as it has much to do with science (at least on this planet) – although that is hardly a biding criterion for NN discourse.
When I previously flagged this up I linked to another site, which I subsequently removed: not just because I was technically in breach of NN ’s T&Cs (at a time when things were a bit twitchy round here with posts being removed and all), but because I personally found its content unpleasant, and because the page linked to something else that I considered ‘lads mag’-ishly unnecessary. However, I don’t see anything unpleasant or blasphemous, either in this post, or in the Facebook link – unless you consider discussion of blasphemy and a call to face down its criers as such. And I don’t see why ‘Christian’ (or any other adjective; why is that one more privileged?) scientists should be annoyed, unless they consider religion untouchable. The Facebook information on the UN resolution is surely unpleasant reading for any advocate of free speech!
Well, that’s enough defensiveness – I ’m off for lunch.
Sensationalist bullshit. I think Wilson’s point would be stronger if he’d said ‘Muslim scientists’, for those who are hard of thinking.
It’s like PZ Myers, innit? What’s the value in deliberately annoying people you happen to hate/disagree with, just so you look big in the eyes of your acolytes? Weak-minded fools.
Feh.
I’ve had my lunch, too.
Like PZ Myers? Dunno – I don’t read him. And I’m sure I don’t have ‘acolytes’. You’ve seemingly found something of interest here, though (hah!).
Time for a cuppa.
Ahhh, nuts, no-one actually said anything here on Blasphemy day in Europe, although it is still September the 30th in some parts of the world, as I scribble.
Perhaps Wilson meant these righteous dudes? There’s a wonderful quote from the church’s founder, Mary Glover
Well, if homeopathy can’t save me, surely the only thing that can is the sweet baby Jebus.
As as Lee perhaps originally intended, this topic has striking parallels with the recent libel case of the British
Chronically dimChiropractic Association vs. all right thinking people (including Simon Singh).Thou shalt not criticize us. Written on a stone
pamphlettabletunder which the BCA seem to exist.I blogged about this here, in a Jewish Atheist Stylee.
The ‘Christian Science’ church. Hmmm. I’ve met one or two of its characters. I mistakenly asked one if she would be kind enough to distribute copies of a research questionnaire among her congregation. She agreed, but then all went quiet. Eventually I received a message informing that, instead of individuals returning their own form, they would return just one collectively reflecting their church’s line (the antithesis of my research purpose). This totalitarianism, together with a loan of Mary’s tome, and tales of spontaneously shrinking neck tumours and suchlike, persuaded me to steer clear.