[/caption]The big debate in atheist circles these days is the “tone debate”, which I’ve touched on here before. I’ve also mentioned American Atheists president David Silverman before in a criticism of his lousy philosophy in the (mis)handling of the “Burn a Koran Day” incident. Silverman is busy with a new philosophical defence – this time against a real philosopher – that relates to the “tone debate”, and this time… Silverman has it right on the nose. (more…)
[/caption]I read with great sadness today that Salman Taseer has been shot dead. Salman Taseer was the Governor of the Punjab region of Pakistan. He was shot by his own bodyguard with a sub-machine-gun. The reason? He was an outspoken critic of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.* Those of us in the relative security of Western democracies sometimes don’t fully appreciate the bravery and committment needed to speak-out in other parts of the world. This is a timely reminder and I hope that people will use this occasion to reflect for a few minutes on this.
