In his final New Rule of the night, Bill Maher disputed the idea thrown out by some that atheism is a religion. It’s a refrain you hear from people who can’t stand both groups and believe that dogma is dogma, plain and simple, but Maher argued that treating atheism like a religion would be like saying “abstinence is a sex position.” After all, when was the last time a non-believer ever claimed to see the silhouette of Christopher Hitchens on the side of a tree?

Are claims that conservatism is “anti-science” as valid as those that science is “anti-conservative?” No one has really asked or found an answer, but a new study from Brock University in Ontario will be sure to spark that very conversation. Psychologists have found that racism and general prejudice as well as social conservatism are linked to low IQ levels.

On his Meet the Press appearance today, Jon Huntsman made an appeal to the Republican party to reject some of the more extreme arguments being pushed by an arguably anti-intellectual wing of the party and embrace modern science instead of dismissing it. David Gregory highlighted Huntsman’s past statements criticizing the more extreme elements of his party.

Michele Bachmann‘s former campaign manager Ed Rollins was grilled by Hardball host Chris Matthews Wednesday about whether he still wanted her to be president. Rollins’ response was an ambiguous “she will evolve,” followed by a refusal to answer whether he wanted her to be Commander-in-Chief.

When questioned by Matthews on whether he is still involved in the campaign, Rollins lukewarmly said, “I’m available if she needs to call me and ask me for anything.”

Al Gore pushed the rhetorical envelope yesterday when he compared skeptics of climate change to racists during the Civil Rights Movement. Gore was sitting down for an interview with Alex Bogusky of the Climate Reality Project, and suggested that young people today whose parents do not believe in climate change are asking the same questions now that race-conscious young people in the 60s asked their parents.

CNN is wrapping up 2010 by taking a look at the most obvious scientific discoveries of the past year. You know the sort: research-based “findings” that are emailed your way by certain relatives, along with a .gif of Mickey Mouse giving a thumbs up… or that are used as time-fillers by news networks and blogs on particularly slow news days.

British meteorologist Piers Corbyn appeared on Fox and Friends to not only celebrate his accurate prediction of a bone-chillingly cold winter, but to also share his disgust with the “failed science” known as global warming. Despite it often being mentioned that the scientific community agrees about global warming, Corbyn is proud to go against the grain and advocate for his hypothesis of the coming global cooling.

Within minutes of the earthquake just off of Chile’s coast early this morning, the US Geological Survey had it pegged – an 8+ on the Richter scale, ten times as strong as Haiti’s 7.0. A short time later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration presented a map of expected energy distribution throughout the Pacific Ocean. [...]

The Snowpocalypse has given skeptics a reason to dance on the frozen grave of climate change, from Sean Hannity to Matt Drudge to Senator Jim Inhofe‘s grandkids. Needless to say, it is driving the greener-than-thou community and the scientists who actually study this material crazy. Case in point: former DNC chair Howard Dean on ABC News last night expressing complete loss of belief in the legitimacy of Republican global warming detractors and claiming they simply “don’t believe in science.”

This week, the New York Times Magazine was dedicated to their newly traditional Year In Ideas thinkpiece. It’s always a fantastic collection of new discoveries, shifts in ways of thinking, and products that we’re likely to hear more about in years to come. It tries, in many ways, to be predictive; to isolate still-germinating concepts [...]