THAMNO

It’s no secret that I profoundly dislike the word “proud”.
Originally, I disliked it because people who are “proud” that they achieved something, tend to be unbearably egotistic, even solipsistic, and almost always arrogant and thoroughly unpleasant. That has not changed, but its almost generalised misuse on the North American continent has not increased my love [...]

I have always defended freedom of religion. Not because I like religion. There is nothing likable about it. My opinion would be different if children wouldn’t be taught that it is true and that the deity of their parents really exists.
Why? Because many of the holy books contain some good stories. Noah’s Ark comes to [...]

“First do no harm” is a laudable principle when it is applied by people with a functioning brain. It is a highly dangerous fallacy when it is not.
When I have an acute appendicitis, I want my doctor to harm me. He/she is to take out her/his scalpel, cut me open and rip the darn [...]

In a new blog article, Prof. Edzard Ernst reminds us of a 2003 article in the British Medical Journal about a randomized controlled trial for parachutes. He concludes that the frequent quoting of this article by CAM fanatics shows three things. Firstly, they don’t understand the concepts of EBM, secondly, they have also misunderstood the brilliant article about parachutes and thirdly their sense of humor exists only in homeopathic dilution.

I think people should be stripped, shackled, hung naked from the ceiling of an airplane like roasts, with a metal probe going from mouth to anus through the alimentary tract, while guards are pointing guns at them. It speaks for itself that they should be heavily sedated to prevent grunting, talking and the like, for [...]

The traditional response to this is: of course, they have only one God. But is this really true?
God
God itself is a creature with some remarkable properties. It is at once three creatures (God, the Holy Ghost, Jesus) and one. These three creatures seem to be able to split off and rejoin the One at will. [...]

Many people do not take citizen journalists seriously, for one simple reason: they are not being paid, and they are therefore not credible. What of it? And is that really the only problem with citizen journalism?
Money is important. I am mostly interested in science, and I am in the fortunate position to have a few [...]

I argue that children should indeed be protected from religion.

On their website, well-known physicist-turned-priest John Polkinghorne and Nicholas Beale offer six lines of evidence for the existence of God. How serious is this evidence?

Most people refer to God as a “he”, but is that correct? Is God a boy or a girl, or something else? I believe that God is of the neuter gender.