Monday Religion, Superstition, Ritual and Blasphemy Report

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abortion, antichrist, assauly, atheology, belief, bible, biology, children, christian, coming out, creationism, darwin, diversity, extremism, freedom, godless, hate-crime, IDF, ISIS, islam, israel, jesus, jihad, lawsuit, michael sherlock, MISD, mustafa akyol, ouija, pamphlet, pat robertson, power, privilege, public, rabbi, religion, religious right, school, science, seminary, sikh, social justice, theism, tolerance, voyeurism, women, work

Pamphlet Showing Bible Sexually Assaulting A Woman To Be Given To High Schoolers

An atheist group plans to distribute pamphlets whose covers depict a Bible sexually assaulting a woman to high schoolers, CNS News reports. [Read more]

A New Kinder, Gentler Atheism

Searching for the meaning and consolation offered by religion—but without bringing God into it. [Read more]

Freedom to Believe: Ex-Priest Lectures About Atheism, Ironic Message

Dan Barker was here to give a speech on keeping church and state separate. Barker was an evangelical pastor who spent nearly 20 years in the ministry before he deconverted to atheism. [Read more]

Diversity of Godless Americans in the United States

Today secularism and godlessness define an increasing number of people’s lives and public institutions. This social development cannot be ignored. [Read more]

A Message to My Old Christian Friends

I encourage you to read your bible from beginning to end as Yahweh wishes you to do. You will not know the story and it’s principles otherwise will you. Jesus can’t help you on this one and neither can I. [Read more]

Theology vs. Atheology: Systematic Engagement with Religion and Theism

Theology and atheology are systematic ways of thinking and talking about god-concepts, religious symbols, religious beliefs, religious traditions, and how they relate to human society. [Read more]

Owning Up to Privilege and Moving Social Justice

“Here,” ordered the atheist/feminist author Sikivu Hutchinson, giving her impersonation of a member of the so-called New Atheism. [Read more]

Creationism — So What?

There’s a relatively new website that seems to have a load of writers of the right-wing persuasion. Wikipedia has a brief writeup on them: The Federalist. [Read more]

Freedom of Religion, Belief Must Be Protected in Workplace Says UN Expert

United Nations human rights expert Heiner Bielefeldt has told the U.N. General Assembly that freedom to express one’s religion or belief without discrimination should be protected in the employment area. [Read more]

Lawsuit Over MISD Religious Plaques Postponed

Patrick Greene, the man threatening to sue the district, said he is starting a new job and will be away from his home computer. [Read more]

ISIS ‘School of Jihad’ Teaches Torture, Beheading, Gunmanship to Children

Official Islamic State media entities have been promoting a video titled “School of Jihad,” which shows children, some younger than ten, being taught how to behead and torture “infidels” and learning how to properly handle automatic rifles. [Read more]

Is Islam a Religion? Christian Seminary Debates Accusations of Islamophobia in the US

With the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) gaining power and territory in the Middle East, questions regarding Islam and the beliefs and traditions among Muslim sects have been asked repeatedly. [Read more]

‘Islam Without Extremes’ – by Mustafa Akyol. A Critique

Perhaps you may think it an exaggeration, but I am quite convinced that the World will be shaped over the next several decades predominantly by how it responds to the threat from Islamist extremists. [Read more]

One Lesson From The Voyeur Rabbi Scandal: Women Must Be Part of Every Board Room

It has now been more than a week since the revelations occurred in the media of the alleged voyeuristic spying committed by one of the most influential and powerful Modern Orthodox rabbis in America, Rabbi Barry Freundel. [Read more]

The Christian Way to Deal With Your Kid Coming Out

Four years ago our daughter came out to us. She was 20. Here’s one of my first thoughts: we’ll never be the same in the church. No kidding. [Read more]

On the Night That Jesus Was Born…

As a Christian, you assume that is one part of one coherent Biblical account. As you read the Gospels, you forget the details from Matthew that are not found in the Gospel of Luke and vice versa. [Read more]

The Science (and Non-Science) of the Ouija

The Oujia board, also known as a witch board or spirit board, is simple and elegant. The board itself is printed with letters and numbers, while a roughly heart-shaped device called a planchette slides over the board. [Read more]

Sikh Student Allowed to Bring Dagger to Public School As a Gesture Toward Religious Tolerance

Now, according to KING5 (the NBC news channel in western Washington State, a Sikh student at Aubern’s Guildo Rey Elementary School is to be allowed to carry a kirpan with him to school, despite the fact that the school has a zero-tolerance policy for weapons. [Read more]

Pat Robertson Finds ‘Atheist’ Who Says God Cancelled Her Abortion Appointments

Anny Donewald, a former sex worker and rape survivor, told CBN host Terry Meeuwsen that she eventually realized that money was not the secret to happiness. [Read more]

When We Say “All Religions Are the Same”

When we say all religions are valid ways to access the same divine, that can make it seem like there is no need for a variety of religions. [Read more]

Power and Powerlessness in Religion

Up until last week, Barry Freundel was the rabbi of a large Orthodox Jewish shul in Washington D.C. He was a leader in modern Orthodox thought and an intellectual force in the Jewish world. [Read more]

Darwin, Science, & the Antichrist

Antichrist — there’s an app for that: or there soon will be. It’s so wildly incoherent that we can’t find any theme that even purports to hold it together. All we can do is give you a series of sentences we pulled out of the thing. [Read more]

Biology Professor Tells Students: Science and Religion Cannot Be Reconciled

David P. Barash, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Washington, makes it a point at the beginning of each academic year to lecture his students on what he considers to be the basic premise underlying his biology course: that science and religion are totally incompatible. [Read more]

Michael Sherlock’s Atheist Atrocities

Michael Sherlock writes a rebuttal against the popular misconception that Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot were atheists and had they been real Christian their atrocities wouldn’t have happened. [Read more]

Israel’s Other Religious War: The Ultra-Orthodox vs. the IDF

VICE News travels to Israel to speak with hardline members and leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community as well as soldiers in the Netzah Yehuda, the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox battalion, to get their take on the government’s decision.

[Read more]