Tim Minchin: Come Home (Cardinal Pell)

Tim Minchin has written a song about Cardinal George Pell, in which he lambasts Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric over the fact he won’t be returning from Rome to testify at the royal commission into institutional child abuse.

“It’s a really nice song, the chorus just goes ‘come home, Cardinal Pell / we hear you’re not feeling well’,” Minchin said at a press conference in Perth on Friday. “There’s also a bit where I call him a fucking coward.”

Pell is due to appear via video link at a royal commission to give evidence about child sex abuse that occurred within his parishes. Victims were hoping Pell’s medical condition would improve so he could appear in person, but on Monday were told he was still too unwell to make the flight from Rome to Melbourne...

The Australian singer-songwriter said his song about Pell, which will “be on the radio in three days”, is also about home. “I think George probably doesn’t realise how much we want him here.” ...

Guardian.

Here's an Australian TV debate between the cardinal and Richard Dawkins on religion and morality and that 4 THE LOLZ!!

Richard Dawkins: The Gay Delusion

Graphic by the young, left-wing, queer atheist blogger Alex Gabriel.

Richard Dawkins is back in the news again after causing great offence on Twitter AGAIN, this time arguing for aborting foetuses with Down's Syndrome.

Odd though how little his UTTERLY BARKING THEORIES on the survival of 'the gay gene' so often get overlooked when people catalogue his more ludicrous ideas.



PS See also Would you let parents destroy 'gay' embryos?, Mary Wakefield, The Spectator, March 2014.

Richard Dawkins: The Gay Gene!

This turns into a Peter Cook sketch.
Hilarious!

Richard Dawkins: Thought For The Day

"Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist."

Richard Hawkins interviewed by John Harris in a Guardian podcast.

You can still watch Richard Dawkins' excellent two-part series The God Delusion on 4OD.

The Christmas Lecture: "Get A Time Machine..."

There's a very interesting essay on Richard Dawkins website about change and how we make it.
And boy, does Fagburn love anything to do with the mighty Richard Dawkins.

The Gays Are Winning – And the Religious Right is Losing: What Nontheists Can Learn from the Success of the Homosexual Rights Movement
By Gregory S Paul

"The gays are winning. The culture war. The same culture war that religion is losing. Do not think that the gains of the former are not connected to the loses of the latter. Do realize that atheism is the friend of gay rights in a way that religion can never be, and that the gay cause is to the benefit of secularism. And that the rise in the fortunes of gays has important lessons for the atheist cause.
"When I pointed out that the gays are winning a couple of yearsat OpEdNews it did not seem as obvious what with the laws and amendments banning same sex marriage. And hate crimes against homosexuals continue. But the opening of the U.S. military to the service of out of the closet gays for the first time in the nation’s history, the lopsided Senate vote to that effect with major Republican support, and the large majority popular support for the historic change is making the success of the same-sex crowd undeniable. But to get an even better appreciation of how far gays have come let’s conduct a thought experiment.
"Get a time machine. Go back to, say, 1958. Destination, any well-populated place in America will serve our purposes. Stand on a heavily traveled sidewalk with a clipboard and pencil and pretend you are doing a survey. Ask folks as they pass by if they think gays, err, homosexuals, will ever be able to get married. Or serve without discrimination in the Army. Here's what will happen. Chances are fair you will get beat up, especially if you are in the south. After all, they are still into lynching the occasional black. Even if you don't get assaulted, people will look at you like you are insane. What's that? Homos carrying guns in the Marines. Getting married? Who could be crazy enough to imagine such a thing? What are you, some sort of pervert? Perhaps a faggot red (back when red meant pinko)? Who did you say you're taking this survey for? Get back on the time machine, quickly. Move forward in time to, say, 1988. Do the same thing. Chances that you'll get beat up will be far less. And remember to say gay, not homosexual. But the ultimate response will be similar. Gays, getting married? Say what..."

Now read on...

Happy Christmas.