I am a graduate of medicine and theology with a Ph.D in medical ethics. I tutor in medical ethics at the University of Melbourne, am an (occasional) adjunct Lecturer in Ethics at Ridley Melbourne, and a voluntary researcher with Ethos. I am also a Fellow of ISCAST and a past chair of the Melbourne Chapter of Christians for Biblical Equality. I have special interests in professional ethics, sexual ethics and the ethics of virtue.
This post is by Jesse Galef — Ray Comfort, shown here attempting to prove God’s existence You won’t hear me say this often, but Ray Comfort seems to have been smarter than I thought – in a devious way. About a month ago, we found out that Ray Comfort was polluting the waters of scientific integrity by releasing a copy of “The Origins of Species” with his own 50-page forward criticizing evolution. He decided to give these tainted copies away… Read more
This post is by Jesse Galef — I feel comfortable saying that I don’t know something. True, on a midterm exam I’m likely to frantically scribble something down in hopes that might be correct. But when it comes to the big questions, there’s no shame in saying “I don’t know.” Neil deGrasse Tyson explains this in excellent fashion. Here he discusses the fallacy of argument from ignorance among other interesting topics (via Phil Ferguson on facebook): Somebody sees lights flashing… Read more
This post is by Jesse Galef — Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan put up a post about an extremely brutal hate-crime attack on an openly gay man. The 2-minute news report he embeds is depressing, but there was something to laugh about at the end. The studio interviewed one of the attackers’ friends, who proudly displayed this tattoo: It’s a tattoo reading “[Thou] shall not lie with a male as one does with a woman. It is an abomination. Leviticus 18:22”. Who… Read more
This post is by Jesse Galef, who used to work for the Secular Coalition for America — There’s a slightly different tagline today, as I’ve been laid off from the Secular Coalition. They’re “restructuring” the staff toward a new vision for the future and it didn’t involve me. The reaction when I tell people has generally been surprise and disappointment. A line from Joss Whedon’s excellent Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog came to mind: “‘I can’t imagine anybody firing you.’ ‘Neither… Read more
This post is by Jesse Galef — The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Salazar v. Buono, the case about an 8-foot-tall cross erected as a war memorial on government property. Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State had a great write-up on it last week on the AU blog. Last night Stephen Colbert weighed in on the issue with a great segment: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Word -… Read more