Proofreading matters. For anyone who doubts that let me bring your attention to the PR nightmare that followed Penguin’s publication of The Pasta Bible. –>

But proofreading isn’t as simple as just clicking on spell check. Here are some rules to help you when proofreading stuff:

The Golden Rule — The role of punctuation is to make writing easier to understand

This is the overarching rule which trumps all others. Don’t add punctuation just for the hell of it; as soon as punctuation hinders — rather than assists — a reader’s understanding, it needs to go. Occasionally you are allowed to break traditional rules in the name of this über rule (examples below).

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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

— John 3:16 (KJV)

I would say this verse is pretty much the crux of Christianity: that our souls might have salvation in the afterlife because God made the difficult decision to send His only son to earth to die for our sins. We should be eternally thankful for His sacrifice.

I have tried for years to understand and believe in Christ’s sacrifice. It’s a core belief of millions across the world, and if it’s true then the fate of my eternal soul rests on understanding it (I’m not big on blind faith), but to this day I still can’t get my head around it. As it’s Easter I’m posting this as an open letter to Christians everywhere, asking you to help me understand the core belief of your religion. To understand God.

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Latest additions to the ‘things which made me angry this week’ list…

1. A man in Indonesia faces up to five years in prison for writing “God does not exist” on Facebook. [Article][Petition]
2. A man in London has been convicted for saying “cunt” on Twitter. [Link 1] [Link 2]
3. An art student in Canada took the following photograph for her coursework: Read the rest of this entry »

While I’m sure my constant ranting is just as annoying as being woken up on your day off by someone at your door wanting to talk about Jesus, days like today serve as a good reminder of why I can’t just shut up and mind my own business when it comes to religion.

The first thing I saw when I checked the news today was this parody of the Stonewall “Some people are gay, get over it” bus ad campaign. While I had mixed feelings about the original campaign [Patrick Neylan gives  a good critique of Stonewall’s marketing campaign here] I can safely say I prefer it to this poster, which was scheduled to go up on buses around London next week. The posters are funded by two conservative Christian groups that both support the idea of a “cure” for homosexuality.

This caused me to sigh a little, but I’m not hugely concerned about this: I’m a free speech advocate, and think these banners are little more than shouting matches between two sides. They’re annoying, but not hatred-inducing. And by this evening the international outcry surrounding this poster prompted London mayor Boris Johnson to announce he’s going to stop it going up. No doubt this will lead those who believe in its cause to feel suppressed and so strengthen their belief — perhaps creating a few homophobes in the process — but at least it’ll give the rest of us less of a headache.

But the next item I read raised my blood temperature a little bit closer to boiling… Read the rest of this entry »

This ‘news’ article was originally published on MediaWatchWatch back in 2009. I’m on a mission to dig up some of the stuff I’ve had published across the internet and collect it all into one place.

I was dead chuffed when Ariane Sherine, founder of the original atheist bus campaign and editor of The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas, tweeted about it.

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