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  • Yep that's it! Tx :)

  • Rumored to have played a role in imagining the structure of DNA. We have geniuses in here? ;)

    It's nice to see David Nutt play a role he was treated rather unfairly over his report on drug risks.

    There's a book called Elephants on Acid which quotes a few LSD studies too worth a read.

  • more deep fried dog whistle bullshit from privileged tory fuckstain zac goldsmith.

    fuck off forever and take that fat waste of skin organs with you, you specious pound store enoch powell.

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/12/zac-goldsmith-accuses-rival-sadiq-khan-of-giving-cover-to-extremists?CMP=share_btn_tw

  • The bookies have Khan as a shoe-in at the moment. Zac can blow his whistle as much as he wants - he's not getting in.

  • I have always liked, and trusted, Trevor Philips as a journalist, but this is an interesting analysis of his recent research.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/12/what-do-muslims-think-skewed-poll-wont-tell-us

    How do we flag up the kind of segregation, self imposed or not, that can lead to the kind of radicalisation that brought about the Brussels and Paris attacks, without further alienating moderate Muslims? Would radicalisation happen anyway, even if we improved integration? Can opinions on homosexuality, marriage etc that Philips looked at in his poll, really tell us anything about the potential for radicalisation anyway? Intractable minefield.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oPTrQ5phv0

    "Man makes modest investment and pays all his tax". Love the complete panic in her voice when she realises this tax expert isn't going to say what she has clearly been instructed to get him to say. I'm not sure how she could have been less informed on the subject.

  • I think they had the same chap on Five Live the other day, with similar results.

  • Check this out. Think you'll find it interesting. Great piece, I thought.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071459c

  • Not funding faith schools is a start the National secular society and British humanists had some worrying news on those.

    Other than that we have to mix and that's not easy. I mix mostly with work, which is diverse but I'd need to go out and go to multicultural group meetings otherwise. We all easily get stuck with ppl "like us" :)

    The northern Ireland and Irish Atheists make a point of it to connect with faith groups that share goals or just to mix.

  • Not funding faith schools>

    I don't think we should stop funding faith schools. I don't think 'faith' or religion in themselves are the problem. Infact I think it is essential we don't lose touch with old texts like the bible and the koran which are the basis, directly or indirectly, of alot of modern thinking. I know many people, myself included, who were educated in a religious environment went on to be atheists, or agnostics, with a healthy understanding of that with which they disagree. Hate speech can happen at any institution.

    The northern Ireland and Irish Atheists make a point of it to connect with faith groups that share goals or just to mix.

    Yes, this is definitely something to aspire to. Alot of young, liberal, metropolitan people in the circles I move in take a dismissive attitude toward religion, which helps no-one.

  • Faith schools lead to segregation and therefore are a problem, see Northern Ireland. Selection is based on the religion parents give their kids (it's not that you can choose) leading to kids being segregated from a very young ago.

    http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2016/04/inclusive-schooling-is-part-of-the-answer-to-the-social-segregation-of-muslims

    Secular education on religion including everyone's festivals (sugar fest, lent, easter, christmas etc.) yes please.

    Living in Northern Ireland I see the toxic influence of religion. DESPITE most people of course not being bigots it skews public policy and leads to bad sex-ed, shaming of LGBT people and women and a lot of other issues.

    We have creationism in schools. What rot! And those things unfortunately come from religion.

    Despite any religion having moderate streams (the Islamic world used to be a world leader in science hundreds of years ago until a regressive doctrine took over, Protestantism also fosters some origins of scientific thought) the nasty dumb ones take over. And again the Tories let it happen with their "education" minister.

    However, we are all entitled to our beliefs and I see a lot of stereotyping which helps absolutely nobody. I probably have more in common though with a left liberal secular muslim than a right wing gun toting atheist... :)

  • Why should faith schools be funded? It is incredible to me that we have systems and institutions in place to reinforce segregation at such a young age.

  • DESPITE most people of course not being bigots

    Seriously, you keep saying this - which I guess may be true in circles in which you mix, leading to a little confirmation bias. Try scratching the surface a little, and examining the communities in NI you're less familiar with - potentially the older, less urban, less educated sections of the population?

    What proportion of NI's MPs vote consistently for bigoted/against liberal policies? How many of them stand proudly on bigoted manifestos? People vote with their own prejudices, and NI has plenty more than most places.

    In NI, you'll rarely meet people who aren't lovely, friendly and welcoming. That doesn't mean they don't have deep-seated discomfort with anything outside of the culture which they have been brought up in (generally conservative, often influenced heavily by religion). You may be happy where you are, but stop kidding yourself that it's better than it is.

  • Excellent. The funny thing is that I've test ridden a few bikes at this very shop and if you ask nicely they'll put the pedals on and let you take one out. Why he didn't do that then do a runner is beyond me.

  • NI is so parochial that any small enclave is usually completely one-sided (in most respects - race, religion, socio-political, socio-economic etc). When in those enclaves, they are very lovely and friendly. I for one was very sheltered growing up. My time there covered the tail end of the troubles but you wouldn't have known that round my way. There was only one "type" of people in my town so there was no conflict. Throw in an outsider and all hell would break loose.

    By "all hell", I mean "my granny constantly talks about "polish people and pakis" on her bus and she can't understand their private conversations".

  • I am against faith schools on the principle that state money should not be used to indoctrinate and brainwash children to believe ridiculous and harmful superstitions. I am, however, cognisant of the theory that it is the very integration of the CofE into the mainstream British state that makes it such a wishy-washy and fairly harmless religion these days, and that when private money pays for religious teaching extremism flourishes (see American bible belt Christianity or Salafist/Whahabi Islam).

    I am all for state funded schools teaching children about religions, as long as (at the very minimum) no attempt is made to teach the pupils that any of it is true. Preferably it should be made clear that these are just stories made up to control the populace and none of them are actually true.

    The solution may be to take the money out of the system by abolishing their charitable status and taxing religions. Imagine how much richer the country would be if all that religious wealth was taxed at 40%. And how much less likely foreign cash would be to flood into this country's religious institutions, schools and businesses.

  • I am against faith schools on the principle that state money

    Should not go to an establishment that discriminates against anybody.

    Discrimination which, by any other entity, would be illegal.

  • The huge issue with that is there is a lot of peoples lives based on the belief that their religious teachings are true. We are also often taught to hold tightly to our beliefs from a young age.

    I am an atheist and a scientist / engineer, but to expect people to 'convert' to atheism / logical thought to by atheists basically saying to believers; 'your beliefs are nonsense' will never work for lots of reasons; cognitive dissonance being a major factor.

    What I think we need is to raise the next generation to understand how to discern good information from bad, evaluate sources dispassionately and actively embrace cognitive dissonance. Basically teach kids (and maybe adults) to think critically and embrace being wrong.

    I must say from trying to apply this to parts of my life and work, it is a tiring approach, it is far easier to rely on my beliefs than to constantly question them and far easier to ignore others poor judgements than to challenge them.

    Sorry I'm rambling now....

  • The Whatsapp? message received at 2.48 makes this video imo. Woke me up anyway.

  • On the religious schools interestingly (or not) these will all avoid the current drive to become academies as they will be attached to the diocese instead.

  • Correct, I live in Belfast and work in areas with high education, so bigotry is rarer. But don't think I'm kidding myself, as in, I'm denying there are problems. I just resist general stereotyping of a black/white form.

    It's not just rural/age: In the Republic of Ireland the rural areas are not as bigoted as the public thinks on LGBT marriage/abortion access. If you look at for example abortion access the people voting for parties are LESS strict than their party leaders. Even in the DUP. It's not quite as bad as the politicians vote.

    People keep voting based on an identify of ROI/UK where the identity got mixed in with religion (even though there are protestant republicans for example).

    I don't see this change and with Sinn Fein/SDLP being happy to prop up the Catholic church it only leads to more aggravation for people that identify as protestant and the bullshitting around a border poll. The good friday agreement with its giving more power to "themmuns" parties has partially caused this.

    And so it goes round and round and round. And so NI looks like an absolute arsehole of a place as the bigots we have are 40 years behind the "bigots" voting for them.

    There are now changes though with more people voting Alliance

    TL:DR yes NI is more bigoted in some things, but it's nowhere as bigoted as the moronic politicians ppl keep voting for cos flegs.

  • CofE teachings may be "harmless" their meddling in politics is not :/

  • The Whatsapp? message received at 2.48 makes this video imo. Woke me up anyway.>

    I just commented on that video to that effect, nearly took my fucking head off, the recording volume was so low - fucking tit

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