Finally, the color-coded terror alert system is useful for something: A ranking of your odds of death by appendicitis versus death by al-Qaida.

I’m blog important! I’ve recently been inducted into the Scribe Collective, the secret cabal of religious super villains who run the Daily Scribe. (The link includes a secret photo of me with one of our crack commando mercenaries.)

If you’re not familiar with the Daily Scribe, it’s a blog network for religious bloggers who boast some form or another of religious credentials. At this point we have blogs representing most of the major religious traditions, and we’re hoping to find good blogs from them all. Drop by to read the best religion blogging on the web.

We’re always looking for good religion blogs, so please let me know if you want to nominate someone. Or if you want to put your own blog up for membership, you can apply here.

(Thanks to fouralarmfire for the title.)

Hours of homework a night makes kids hate learning and, to boot, doesn’t help them learn at all. Ten minutes a night per grade level is plenty.

I can’t say enough good things about the just-published article “Secularism and Tolerance After 9/11” by Doug Muder of Free and Responsible Search. My thanks go out to him, Philocrites, and the UU World crew for making it happen.

Doug’s article is a review of recent books by pop secularists Sam Harris (The End of Faith) and Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell). He is following up on his UU World article with some more posts on his blog:

• Can we “just say no” to irrationality?
• Heroes and Martyrs
• Reviewing Harris, Dennett, and Aslan

I found myself leaving a long comment, so I’ve turned that into a post here. Click to continue reading “We are dependent rational (religious) animals”

Is that they’re not four days long. (Wisdom courtesy my wifefriend Whiski.)

The Muscular Dystrophy Association still hasn’t fired Jerry Lewis for saying things like, “You’re a cripple in the wheelchair and you don’t want pity? Stay in your house!” And it’s gearing up for yet another mawkish telethon.