Watching the bible-bashing Liberal MP David Clarke ranting on Stateline why was one reminded of right-wing shill Alan Jones and flatulent royalist David Flint

Here’s what Jefferson, 3rd President of the USA, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Founding Father, said about religion in a letter to Adams:

America’s Best Christian, Mrs Betty Bowers, explains to less informed Christians (and hell-bound others) the curious details of the Lord’s concept of marriage.

Sam Harris’s TED Talk will challenge even many heathens and infidels as he takes on the Christians’ last stand – that you can’t be moral without a god

if Dennett and LaScola are right that belief is mostly aspirational for most people, it follows that few people actually do believe but merely wish they could

they voluntarily clap on their chains, hood their heads and lock their prison doors, while offering up a prayer of gratitude for their relief from uncertainty

Children do what is natural because they are human. Then religious parents turn their “sinful” natural lives into a horror story in which they are the monster.

The situation in Palestine now inexorably drives and inflames global politics. 9/11, Afghanistan, the rise of islamic fundamentalism all feed from this one trough. Not any amount of cosmetic or diplomatic pretense, no “negotiated compromise”, no artificial “roadmap to peace” will make any difference at all.

god may be dead but don’t let’s upset the natives – they’ve got guns and bombs and exploding underwear and if you’re unkind to them they might set them off. So let’s pretend for the sake of a peaceful life that he’s not dead, okay?

Okay, so, we’re not saying Islam (qua Islam) is a necessarily violent religion but, well, let the islamists tell you themselves.

religious zealots and catholic crackpots taking over civil society to spread their preposterous beliefs and protect their absurdities from public critical scutiny. So the Republic of Ireland has just brought in its new Blasphemy Law. Not everyone is happy about that, including Atheist Ireland which has published a list of 25 so-called “blasphemies”.

Harlan Ellison on religion: Ellison is a Sci-Fi writer with a boxfull of credits. He’s proof not every Sci-Fi writer is a religious nutcake like Elron Hubbard.

PZ MYers says, “religion should be strong enough to stand against academic rudeness and mockery without this pathetic bleating for shelter from skepticism.”

The Liberals and Nationals are positioning themselves way to the far looney right of Australian politics, like the teminally-twitching Republicans in the US.

Transparency International has released its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2009. There are some very surprising results