"Find God, win a trip to Mecca (or Jerusalem, or Tibet)"

The title of this post links to an article about a future Turkish gameshow with the objective of converting at least one of ten atheist contestants to Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, or Christianity.

Let's Try Something New...

I'd like to see if I can get a discussion going on the blog. The topic is:

Should Atheists engage Theists in debate?

Here are some rough thoughts to get the ball rolling. Please weigh in in the comments. (Anonymous commenting now available.)

Yes: Not debating means your side won't be heard; Might convince some people on the fence; Can correct some common mistaken beliefs about atheism.

No: Not going to convince Theists; It's a false dichotomy--there's no "Atheist side" to represent; Atheists already handicapped in debate by cognitive biases in favor of Theism.

Hulu Takes Down Family Guy Episode on Atheism [Edited: Not because of the Atheism]

Edit:

Autumn comments: The issue has something to do with a joke made earlier in the show about William Shatner's wife. I have read that there is a pending libel issue because of this which caused Fox to take the show off their site and ask Hulu to do the same. The fact that this was the Atheism episode was an unfortunate coincidence.

If you're like me and addicted to both television and internet, then Hulu is like a bowl of cocaine-flavored ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Basically, it's a service that allows you to stream episodes from popular TV shows with minimal commercial breaks. One of their more popular shows is Family Guy, which recently showed an episode in which Atheism is pitted against hardcore Christianity (Spoiler: Atheism wins.)

But you can't find this episode on Hulu. Why?

Due to a legal matter, we've had to pull the episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" from the site temporarily. We'll get the episode posted back up shortly, after the content owner has resolved the issue.

I'm not going to pretend I know the whole story. It just seems a bit odd that it's this particular episode that gets special treatment. I'll keep you guys updated when if I find out more, but if you want to watch the episode, it is available on other sites on the interwebs.

Open-Mindedness

Found this video on Pharyngula:



So I'm personally into "atheist evangelizing," by which I mean explaining my lack of belief in a god to others and why this view makes more sense than believing in a god. But I'm still trying to come up with a better way of explaining to people that "I do not believe in any god" =/= "I believe that no gods exist." The video helps but it's a bit too long-winded for arguments.

No true believers in hospice beds?

The oft-toted benefits (to society) of religious faith include greater happiness and charitable giving; the oft-toted primary benefit to the individual is the promise of life beyond the grave. Linked article reports that far from fearlessly facing the ends of their lives, terminal cancer patients who reported the highest importance of religious "coping" were more than twice as likely to request invasive, painful procedures such as resuscitation even when their doctors explained that the procedure was not likely to prolong their lives nor improve their quality of life.

(As far as I can tell the study doesn't disentangle the two most obvious hypotheses: "religious people have a greater fear of death" vs. "religious people suffer less under terminal conditions.")

Naked Apes!

In Germany, where fully one-third of the populace are non-believers (according to an unimpeachable German colleague), an unofficial contest to make the best music video in honor of Darwin Day produced this.  Evolutionists will likely find it amusing; anti-evolutionists disturbing, and probably for some of same the reasons.

Podcast on Chuck Darwin

Just had to share this really interesting/touching/informative podcast on Charles Darwin. From Radio lab. Check it out here.

I love the part about Charles' relationship with Emma, his wife.