The latest Skeptics’ Circle is now up at The Lay Scientist. Among the articles there, you’ll see one by The Skeptic Dad. Dad rips apart a flawed study that purports to show that we are all born believing in God.

Today’s favorite comment comes to us from Brian. In the comments to the article “Carnival of the Godless #96”, Brian writes:

For being people who supposedly have the universe all figured out, Christians sure can be a narrow-minded, petty lot given to deplorable excesses of bitching and moaning. … Apparently the comfort of an eternal life spent in blind worship to a tyrannical universal overseer is insufficient to squelch one’s urge to be an asshole in the here and now. Go figure.

Be sure to watch this documentary. Your immortal soul depends on it.

(YouTube page is here)

I found this image on Impacted Wisdom Truth, and I thought it was too funny to hold until next year to run it.

I found a great website, The Skeptic Report. In addition to covering the usual frauds—such as psychics, UFOs, homeopathy, etc.—it has a section on creationism, which I have added to my sidebar. It also has a more general section on religion. In there, I found an article on the Ten Commandments that I was planning to write. Theirs is at least as good as mine would have been, so just go read that.

The article asks:

Is American law based upon the 10 Commandments? Let us examine them.

It then looks at each commandment in turn to determine if it’s something we built our laws on. The article concludes with [slightly reformatted for emphasis]:

Out of the ten commandments:

• Four (1, 2, 3, 10) are counter to American laws.
• Three (6, 8, 9) are part of our legal system, but are part of just about every legal system in history. [and predate the 10 Commandments]
• Two (4, 5) are not a part of our laws.
• One (7) may or may not be a part of state or local laws.

Even in a state that has laws concerning #7, that still means less than half of the 10 commandments carry any legal weight, and an equal number are illegal to enforce.

Those that claim the 10 commandments are our basis for law apparently do not know the law very well. The only thing funnier is those that want it posted illegally in schools “to teach children respect for the law”.

Go over to Skeptic Report and read the whole article. Save it to your hard drive. The next time one of your fundie relatives sends you an email about how U.S. law is based on the Ten Commandments, send them a copy of this.

Creatards frequently like to drop by this site for a friendly chat. If you are inclined to extend the classic BoF hospitality to them, you might find yourself in a light discussion of trivial matters.

To assist in your enjoyment, the Watcher recently posted an article about debating tactics. It’s an excellent introduction that is worth reading. He also links to a good discussion of logical fallacies.

From Evolved and Rational, we find this:

(Break page is here)

This week’s Cectic illustrates common fundie logic: