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And, decompressing after my bounce dive to Germany, I almost slept through it. Thanks to Keippernicus and a half-dozen science blogs for bringing me up to speed.<\/p>\nAnd, decompressing after my bounce dive to Germany, I almost slept through it. Thanks to Keippernicus and a half-dozen science blogs for bringing me up to speed.<\/p>\n
Blasphemy Day<\/a> (“\u2026because your god is a joke”) exists as part of “\u2026a movement to dismantle the wall which exists between religion and criticism.”, to “open up all religious beliefs to the same level of free inquiry, discussion and criticism to which all other areas of academic interest are subjected.” Anyone who’s spent more than two minutes on this ‘crawl can guess where I come down on that score: those who believe in creepy all-powerful invisible peeping toms should be relieved of their car keys and urged to seek psychiatric counseling, not exalted as “people of faith” and granted blanket immunity from critique. But that’s just me (and, it would seem, 15% of N’am’s current population<\/a>\u2014 up from only 8% a decade ago, which is heartening). The choice of September 30 commemorates the 2005 publication of a series of Danish cartoons which dared to portray Mohammed in pen and ink (a capital offense, if you go in for that kind of addled thinking). Again, regular visitors may remember that this issue led to my own falling-out<\/a> with the spineless wonders at On Spec<\/em>.<\/p>\n So let us commemorate this special time, each in our own way. I myself will make an extra effort towards profanity in the hours remaining, and point out that the two expletives in the title of this post are equally blasphemous: Zounds<\/em> (“God’s wounds”, a crucifixion reference) was once considered every bit as offensive by the god-fearing as christfucking<\/em> would be today. I might also mention that The Colbert Report<\/em> is showcasing Richard Dawkins tonight and Francis Collins tomorrow. The former needs no introduction; the latter, among other accomplishments, wrote a best-selling evangelical tome which left me unimpressed<\/a>. It should be an interesting double header.\u00a0 Too bad they couldn’t have come on at the same time.<\/p>\n