Brights News Feed

What colour is the world? It is one of those great scientific or philosophical questions.

Well, no, it isn’t really. But in 80 million tiny images from MIT, you can get a pretty good idea of the answer anyway.

The mosaic is comprised of smaller images each of which is an average of several other images each representing the same noun. The images are organised by semantic meaning, hence the areas of similar colour, such as the large green area which is related to vegetation etc.

(Via)

In October 2000 a Pakistani, Dr Younus Sheikh, was arrested on the charge of “blasphemy” and he was later found guilty and sentenced to death. He had been an active humanist and campaigner, and only after a concerted effort on behalf of humanist and other NGOs and rights groups was he finally freed in 2004, after three years spent mostly in solitary confinement.

This week, another man who by coincidence is also named Younus Sheikh — a writer who has criticized Islam — has been found guilty of “blasphemy” and sentenced to life in prison. And once again, the media outrage is limited — at this moment there are just two related news stories on Google, one from Pakistani newspaper The News, and the other from the UK’s National Secular Society.

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The influential but always controversial figurehead of philosophical post-modernism, Richard Roty, died on Friday at the age of 75.

His writings are often prominently cited as a prime example of intellectual relativism. Rorty earned often bitterly hostile reviews from analytic philosophers, frustrated by his assertions that no culture and no methodology were any better reflections of reality than any other. Daniel Dennett said he showed “flatfooted ignorance of the proven methods of scientific truth-seeking and their power” and Rorty (in his own words) was often characterized as one of the “smirking intellectuals whose writings are weakening the moral fiber of the young”.

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News broke this morning that the world-famous historic tea clipper ship, the Cutty Sark — housed in Greenwich on the banks of London’s Thames River — has suffered major damage in a blaze which is being treated as suspicious. (See Guardian: “Fire devastates Cutty Sark“)

On the same day in the same township, known as the “centre of the world” on account of being the meridian according to which all international date limes refer, the Greenwich villagers had been celebrating a new addition to their rich scientific heritage: a new planetarium with a conical design which geometrically links it to the shape of the world. (See Guardian: “Keep Watching the Skies“. Sadly, this article, also published this morning but pre-written, refers to the Cutty Sark restoration project and the plan to re-house the ship in a giant glass structure, unknowing of this morning’s fire.)

Renowned Anglican theological college, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University (UK) “is in chaos following a barrage of resignations, forcing a crisis meeting of the governing body to limit the damage to the college’s reputation… From September 2007, Wycliffe Hall will have lost all its best loved and most respected staff members. [Principal Richard] Turnbull will replace them all with conservative evangelicals. More than half the teaching staff have resigned this year. Most will not be replaced in time for the opening of the next academic year…the college will not be capable of teaching its regular curriculum.”

The above text has been circulated to all remaining members of staff at the college. Since Richard Turnball’s appointment in the top job his alleged attempts to swing the college’s theological stance sharply in the conservative evangelical direction, especially with regard to homosexuality and the ordination of women priests, have led to allegations of bullying and intimidation, followed by a slew of resignations, and an alleged attempt to quash the concerns of radio personality Elaine Storkey which has now backfired in the extreme.

According to the Guardian:

The dispute appears to mirror splits in worldwide Anglicanism - and the Church of England - over theology and homosexuality, which have been aggressively led by conservative evangelical groups.

Dr Turnbull denies being a member of conservative evangelical pressure groups, although he did sign a covenant launched last December by leaders of such groups threatening to stop associating with more liberal churches and reject the authority of bishops they disagree with.

Richard Dawkins, Enthusiastic Bright, author of The God Delusion and now of Richard Dawkins Foundation fame has a guest contributor spot in the Times of London today.

Objectively judged, the language of The God Delusion is less shrill than we regularly hear from political commentators or from theatre, art, book or restaurant critics. The illusion of intemperance flows from the unspoken convention that faith is uniquely privileged: off limits to attack. In a criticism of religion, even clarity ceases to be a virtue and begins to sound like aggressive hostility.

More here: “How dare you call me a fundamentalist“

The ecumenical theologian and co-director of Christian think-tank Ekklesia, Simon Barrow, has today published an article (aimed at his predominantly liberal Christian audience) called “Why we need to rid ourselves of the ‘god of the slots’“.

As he says in his blog, the article’s “main concern” is:

to show why “the god of the slots” in culture is the equivalent of “the god of the gaps” in science — a related, but distinct, issue.

He links the “God of the slots” to very current questions, such as the religious monopoly of Thought for the Day and hints at the validity of the British Humanist Association’s complaint against religious privileging in politics and broadcast media. In a parallel article (”Losing our (radio) religion?“) also published today, he says:

the idea that a “Christians only” or “religious only” policy is a good way to advance the churches’ attractiveness in the media (or anywhere else) seems to me extraordinarily miscalculated, quite apart from indefensible in a plural era and contradicting of the Gospel message.

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Scientists using multispectral imaging techniques have uncovered a third text hidden on the papyrus of the Archimedes Palimpsest. (Palimpsesting is a process in which the ink on papyrus is washed out using citric acid or a similar solvent and written over again with a new, more modern work.) The medieval book superficially appears to contain only Christian prayers from the twelfth century (”The Euchologion”). But a copy of work by Archimedes was discovered on the pages as early as 1906, although not fully uncovered until spectral analysis shed more light in 2002, when a copy of a treatise by fourth-century BCE politician Hyperides was also discovered.

Now, a new analysis has been reported to the American Philosophical Association yesterday, showing that a newly discovered third hidden work underlies the prayers, the Archimedes, and the Hyperides. The third work is a commentry by Alexander of Aphrodisias on Aristotle’s Categories, and translations of the first few pages already suggest that it may shed valuable light on the historical foundations of logic.

(See National Geographic)

The Christian “traditional morality” pressure group the American Family Association has posted an unscientific poll on homosexuality. Not only does the poll appear on their own site (where responses are likely to support the conclusions they want to find), but the results are rigged anyway, with every submission returning the same apparently bogus data.

The poll question is:

If a corporation supports the homosexual agenda, would you:

Be more likely to do business with that company
Be less likely to do business with that company
It would not affect my buying decision

At the time of writing, the results that will be returned after you vote are:

Be more likely to do business with that company. 6,238
Be less likely to do business with that company. 188,722
It would not affect my buying decision. 3,946

These “results” are clearly intended to imply that businesses should avoid supporting “the homosexual agenda”.

(Via Seldo)

As announced yesterday, the Humanist Society of Scotland has used Darwin Day to launch Humanist Thought for the Day, at www.ThinkHumanist.org (RSS). To start things off, A. C. Grayling talks about the Paradox of Tolerance. The HSS will be encouraging humanists from around the world to voice their own “thoughts for the day”. To that end you can get in touch with them, or subscribe to receive the podcasts by email, here.