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Cut It Out, Atheists! Why It’s Time to Stop Behaving like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins
If you’re at all familiar with atheism in America, then the following two scenes should probably come as no surprise: Biologist Richard Dawkins exhorting his followers to mock and ridicule believers with contempt, Bill Maher telling MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that “religion is a neurological disorder.” [Read more]
Rise of Catholic Insurance Plans Raises Questions About Contraceptive Coverage
Catholic and other religious hospitals and universities have been arguing in federal court for much of the past two years that they shouldn’t have to offer or facilitate birth control as part of their employee health plans because it violates their religious beliefs. [Read more]
Law Society Under Growing Pressure Over Sharia Wills Guidance
Secularists and human rights campaigners have stepped up their calls for the Law Society to withdraw its controversial practice note on sharia succession rules. [Read more]
Pope Calls Muslims to Rebuke Extremists
Pope Francis called Sunday for Muslims and all religious leaders to condemn Islamic extremists who “pervert” religion to justify violence, as he visited Albania and held up the Balkan nation as a model for interfaith harmony for the rest of the world. [Read more]
UFO Religion Plans to Distribute Pamphlets in Florida Schools
The UFO religion wants to distribute religious materials in the U.S. state of Florida, after the Orange County School Board allowed Evangelical Christians to hand out Bibles. [Read more]
Civility Does Not Mean Ignore Injustice
There is a place for mocking bad religious ideas. There is a catharsis in lashing out against religion that once held us down. And we can see it in the blind anger involved in the burning of the ISIL flag. [Read more]
From Pole to Pulpit, a Club and a Church Do Battle
To shield churchgoers from the topless protesters, curtains are hung around the parking lot of New Beginnings Ministries. The pastor, William R. Dunfee, said families including children have been entering through a back door. [Read more]
What Happens to Christianity When People Stop Believing in Hell?
The Lake of Fire, Everlasting Punishment, Perdition, Gehenna, the Inferno, the Abyss, Outer Darkness Where There Shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth . . . . Hell has many names and conjures many images—all of them aimed at triggering a sense of horror. [Read more]
Pope Says Extremists Pervert Religion
The Pope like so many is determined to show that it is the perversion of religion that explains extremism. Many extremists say they are being more true to their religion. Should we believe them or their apologists? [Read more]
Why is Christian Education Europe Promoting Child Abusers?
Sources closer to ACE than me tell me that paddling is a thing of the past in UK schools that teach the ACE curriculum. But they’re still selling spanking manuals. [Read more]
Morality Isn’t (Usually) a Zero Sum Game
At NPR’s 13.7 Cosmos and Culture blog, Tania Lombrozo discusses a commenter’s response to my recent article on why atheists should be vegans. [Read more]
Why Smart People Are Not Always Rational
For those who haven’t heard of it, Mensa is a club and the only requirement for membership is that your IQ is in the top 2% of the population. That’s 1 out of 50 people, so it’s not all that exclusive if you think about it. [Read more]
Thrilling Ark News from Ken Ham
The great man himself — Ken Ham (ol’ Hambo) — the Australian entrepreneur who has become the ayatollah of Appalachia, famed for his creationist ministry, Answers in Genesis (AIG) and for the infamous, mind-boggling Creation Museum, brings us news of his Ark Encounter project. [Read more]
Jews Join Hundreds of Thousands at Largest-Ever Climate Change March
Organizers estimated 400,000 people showed up to the “People’s Climate March” on Sunday, September 21 to protest rising sea levels caused by the burning of fossil fuels. [Read more]
Montana Gay Couple Denied Communion After Marriage
A gay couple has been told they can no longer receive Communion or participate in church ministry after a new priest at a Roman Catholic church in central Montana learned they had been married in a civil ceremony more than a year ago. [Read more]
Anti-Islam Ad Campaign to Run on New York City Buses and Subways
Blogger paid $100,000 to place ads, one of which was rejected by MTA on grounds it could ‘incite or provoke violence’. [Read more]
The Fifth Horseman: The Insights of Victor Stenger (1935–2014)
Victor J. Stenger was a particle physicist, philosopher, author, skeptic, and friend. I first came across his name shortly after we founded Skeptic magazine in 1992 when I read his 1990 book Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses. [Read more]
Anger As Non-Catholics Forced Off the School Bus
Parents in Flintshire have complained of religious discrimination after it emerged that non-Catholics wouldn’t be permitted to use a bus provided by the local authority to a Catholic faith school. [Read more]
Accommodatheism I: Salon Proposes That We All Stop Criticizing the Low-Hanging Believers
I decided to Coyne a new world to replace “faitheism,” and it’s in the title. “Accommodatheism.” It’s the tendency of some nonbelievers to try to make common cause with believers, or at least to stop criticizing them. [Read more]
Is ISIS Islamic? Is It a State?
ISIS—the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (sometimes known as ISIL since al Sham is the Arabic name for Levant, which in turn is the old name for Greater Syria)—is a radical movement. [Read more]
What if Homeopathy Really Worked?
Of course, homeopaths claim that such results already exist, but, as the only thing homeopaths have ever tested positive for is rigging or misinterpreting studies, I will ignore them. [Read more]
Becoming Free
Blame it on my parents. They always told me to “think for yourself”. I doubt they ever considered what would happen if I really did that. Now, I suspect what they meant was, “Think what we tell you but do it in your own words.” Too late. [Read more]
Distribution of Bibles Near Lux Upsets Parent
The parents of a Lux Middle School student concerned about people distributing Gideon Bibles as school ended Monday want to see district policies requiring schools to alert parents and more closely monitor such activities. [Read more]
Monstrous Futures: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, Harbinger of the “None” Generation, Turns 40
New generations will wonder at the immensity of our monstrous imaginations while many relish anew their dreams of an enchanted world. [Read more]
Pennsylvania County Must Not Prosecute Teen For ‘Desecration’ Of Jesus Statue
Law Regarding ‘Desecration Of A Venerated Object’ Conflicts With First Amendment, Church-State Watchdog Says. [Read more]
Teachers Shouldn’t Be the Victims of Religious Discrimination
Parents with children at a primary school in East Sussex expressed outrage this week, when it became clear that the school’s popular headteacher, who was drafted in to save the failing primary, could not stay on permanently because he isn’t Roman Catholic. [Read more]
Atheist Church to Meet at Old Town Hall
The Sunday Assembly Cleveland is holding its first meeting on Sunday, Sept. 28 at the Old Town Hall in Strongsville, located at 18825 Royalton Rd., at 10:30 a.m. [Read more]
The Alleged Faith of Atheists
Here you are doing your atheist thing, pointing out the self-contradictory nature of the Christian God, arguing that no fossil in the record has ever been discovered in the wrong strata, demonstrating that the resurrection accounts in The Bible are conflicting, etc. [Read more]
Mike Huckabee Says Conservatives Can’t Accept ‘Ungodly’ Court Rulings On Gay Marriage, Abortion Rights
Vision America’s Rick Scarborough hosted a conference call with Mike Huckabee and Tony Perkins that, as far as we can determine, was designed to promote the “Give Me Liberty” events that Scarborough has been organizing throughout the nation in an effort to encourage pastors to mobilize their congregations ahead of the midterm elections. [Read more]
Israel to Extradite Russian Priest Sought for Sexual Assault
Gleb Grozovsky, 35, was arrested on Sunday by Israeli police after Russia issued an international arrest warrant over an alleged sexual assault on two girls, Israel National News reported. [Read more]
New Poll Finds “Growing Appetite” for Mixing Religion and Politics
Heading into the mid-term elections, and looking ahead to the 2016 presidential campaign, these results should prove unsettling for advocates of untangling religion from electoral politics. [Read more]
German Muslims Condemn Islamic State in Nationwide Day of Prayer
German Muslims have condemned the actions of Islamic State in a nationwide day of prayer and vowed to stem the tide of youngsters heading to join radical militants in Syria and Iraq. [Read more]
Crisis of Faith: Religious Facilities Rely On Misleading Tactics, Dupe Women
A new VICE documentary reveals that publicly funded, religiously motivated crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) represent a growing national problem. [Read more]
Rabbis Seek Healthy Israel Dialogue After Gaza
During an American University panel on the recent war in Gaza earlier this month, Rabbi Shira Stutman related a story of a friend who was scandalized to learn that her rabbi served on J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet. [Read more]
Gerald A. Larue Dies at 98; Former Minister Debunked Biblical Stories
During an academic career spanning five decades, Larue became a widely cited expert on topics including Satanism, visions of Mary, and death and dying. [Read more]
Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change
Climate, Faith and Hope: Faith traditions together for a common future. Statement made by representatives at meeting called by World Council of Churches and Religions for Peace. [Read more]
Pope Francis Appoints Panel to Streamline Annulments
Pope Francis has appointed a group of theologians and canon lawyers to study ways to make the annulment of Catholic marriages – often a complicated and lengthy task – simpler, the Vatican announced. [Read more]
Christianity in Iraq is Finished
President Obama mentioned the need to help Christians and other minorities, expelled from cities and villages in northern Iraq, return from where they came. [Read more]
Tennessee Cheerleaders Cleverly Defy School Prayer Ban. Or Did They?
Did Oneida, Tenn., high school cheerleaders violate the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution? Or did they manage to cleverly avoid the legal boundaries established in a similar 2000 Supreme Court case? [Read more]
World Should Prepare for 11 BIllion or More People
The persistence of that relatively high birth rate stems from a wide range of factors, including cultural influences, economics, and a lack of access to birth control or family planning. [Read more]
ISIS and the Good Samaritan
Last night was the season premiere of 60 Minutes. The show focused on the rise of ISIS and the West’s work-in-progress response. It was a heartbreaking and disturbing thing to watch. [Read more]
Being ‘Openly Secular’ Is the First Step To Eliminating the Stigma
For many people of good will, the controversy will rile them up. “Why make a big deal out of words that the majority of Americans believe in?” Just cross your fingers if you must, and say the words. Why rock the boat? [Read more]
Rick Joyner Says Some Christians Can Cure Ebola Simply Through Their Presence
During his recent visit, Joyner learned that there is no Ebola virus in Heaven and that Christians are capable of taking authority over the disease here on earth.
[Read more]
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