Happy Carl Sagan Day, plus Religious and Irreligious News & Views

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Inspiration from COSMOS

Science, itself is inherently inspiring, consistently expanding the boundaries of what is possible. But sometimes it needs a translator. Few could articulate science’s wonders as well as Carl Sagan. [Read more]

Bill Nye Talks About Creationism, Evolution, and His New Book

While I love evolution (after all, I chose to study it as a career), I can’t be as forceful as Nye in saying that kids must learn it if they’re to be part of a technologically advanced society. [Read more]

The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi

The Million Dollar Challenge was the climax of the Amazing Meeting, or TAM, an annual weekend-long conference for skeptics that was created by a magician named the Amazing Randi in 2003. [Read more]

Secular Expressions for Life Events

Rites of passage are a time for solemn commitments and joyful celebrations. They are also a time for reflection. They are moments when we step back from our daily concerns and look at our lives in a broader context. [Read more]

Church Uses ISIS Flag As A “Great Tool For Evangelism”

Apparently as part of an evangelism campaign, several churches in Sydney have co-opted the ISIS flag and replaced the Arabic writing with a “Love your enemies” quote from Jesus written in an Arabic looking font. [Read more]

Why Should Theists Prove that God Exists? Why Do Atheists Ask for Proof of God?

When atheists and theists debate the existence of gods, atheists generally ask for some sort of proof of the god or gods that the theist claims exist. Why do they do this? [Read more]

Is Religion Disappearing?

Lawrence Krauss says religion will disappear in a generation. A decade or so Daniel Dennett said religion would be pretty well gone by now. Others say a critical mass will cascade into rejection. [Read more]

Should Atheists Challenge Nativity Scenes during Christmas Holidays?

All across America, conservative Christians push to have their religion privileged with special religious displays of nativity scenes while other displays are excluded. [Read more]

How the Faithful Voted: 2014 Preliminary Analysis

Voters who attend religious services occasionally (rather than more frequently), for instance, voted for Republican candidates at higher rates than in the 2006 midterms. [Read more]

Religion and Electronic Media

In an average week, one-in-five Americans share their religious faith online, about the same percentage that tune in to religious talk radio, watch religious TV programs or listen to Christian rock music. [Read more]

What Christians Are Saying When They Dictate My Experiences To Me

I use that phrase to describe Christians denying my lived reality to tell me stuff about myself that I didn’t know–and stuff that largely doesn’t seem accurate at all about my life, opinions, and history. [Read more]

Good News Club Seeks to ‘Evangelize Boys and Girls’

The Good News Club promises Bible-centered character and moral education, but what it teaches children about morals is to tell them they are sinful, will go to hell and the only way out is to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. [Read more]

Can a Priest Be an Atheist?

Despite the growing number of individuals in both the United States and the United Kingdom who identify as non-religious, the survey found that older members of the clergy were more likely to hold unorthodox views about God. [Read more]

Christian Psychiatrist Given Official Warning After Forcing Her Religious Beliefs Onto Vulnerable Patients

Joy Hamilton, chair of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel, added that “there appeared to have been little or no regard to the patients’ circumstances in seeking to provide religious messages.” [Read more]

Chicago Priests Raped and Pillaged for 50 Years

In a disturbing document dump outlining lurid clerical abuse and a trail of cover-ups, retiring Cardinal Francis George tries to clear his conscience. [Read more]

Popular Chilean Priest Brought Low by Affiliation to Theft of Newborns

77-year-old Fr. Gerardo Joannon lives in semi-seclusion, suspended from his parish work and expected to refrain from speaking publicly while the state investigates possible charges against him. [Read more]

Politics Fuels Religious Riots in Secular India

Thirty years after the notorious anti-Sikh riots in 1984, religious conflagrations are still surprisingly common in a secular country where tolerance is enshrined in the constitution. [Read more]

A ‘Blasphemy’ Blight in Pakistan

A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up last week on the outskirts of Lahore, killing more than 60 people. [Read more]

Why Christians Should Stand Up for Atheists

I have just spent several hours talking with atheists on one of the blogs here at Patheos. This wasn’t my first time talking with atheists, but this conversation was particularly illuminating and, for the most part, respectful. [Read more]

Transport to Faith Schools: Local Authorities Shouldn’t Be Subsidising Religious Segregation

The law already requires local authorities to make arrangements for pupils from low income backgrounds to attend the nearest school preferred on grounds of religion or belief. [Read more]

County Hides Ichthus on Courthouse Plaza War Memorial

Boone County removed a popular Christian icon — the ichthus, or Jesus fish — from a Courthouse Plaza war memorial in June. [Read more]

Navy Faces Suit Over Denying Humanist Chaplain

Jason Heap is certified as a humanist celebrant by the Humanist Society, which joined in the suit and is challenging both the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense for not recognizing the group as an endorser of chaplain candidates. [Read more]

The Humanist Hour #123:
Bart Campolo, a Humanist Preacher with Passion

In this episode, Bo Bennett and Kim Ellington speak with Bart Campolo, the Humanist Chaplain at the University of Southern California who recently left Christianity and became a “preacher of reason.” [Download MP3]

Rev. David Rives: Two New Videos

The rev provides a rapid-fire collection of facts that can be found in any high school text, but he emphasizes that Saturn is inhospitable to human life.

[Read more]