Friday Religion and Free Thought Report

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Secularist Conference to Discuss Rise of Religious Right

Richard Dawkins and AC Grayling among participants in London conference at which Isis will be key talking point. [Read more]

Religion Has a Role, Just Not in Government

I’m going to pull a Republican rhetorical move and state I am not a Constitutional scholar. Recently, though, I wonder if Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is either. [Read more]

‘YOLO’ is an Atheist Conspiracy, Claimed ‘Duck Dynasty’ Cousin Running for Congress

Meet Zach Dasher! He is currently running for Congress in Louisiana, as a Republican, against another Republican–the infamous “Kissing Congressman,” Rep. Vance McCallister. [Read more]

Supreme Court to Decide Whether Inmates Have Religious Right to Grow Beards

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Holt v. Hobbs, a case that will test the limits of religious liberty for prison inmates. [Read more]

Islam Isn’t a Race, and So What?

Certain views on Islam can be bigoted, and in fact resemble many other forms of bigotry. What seems most controversial, though, is the suggestion that islamophobic views might be racist. [Read more]

Resisting Conformity at the Margins of Marginal Christianity

Despite a growing number of ethnographies of individual emerging church congregations, as well as critical overviews of the emerging church conversation as an identifiable form of religious discourse, many scholars of religion have either never heard of the ECM or claim. [Read more]

Translating Jesus [My Deconversion]

The church leader needed to make up the numbers and was in full force selling Jesus. As I listened it just started to get more and more absurd. This is my “Translation” of a conversation made to a new ambitious young recruit that changed my life forever. [Read more]

Christians Urge India’s Prime Minister to Halt Torment in Madhya Pradesh

Speaking to AsiaNews, the president of the Global Council of Indian Christians expressed alarm over reports involving authorities’ apparent lack of control over Hindu majority extremists who have attacked Christians in the state. [Read more]

Judges’ Religious Service Criticised by Secular Lawyers

Secular lawyers have called for a separation of the Church of England from judicial affairs after judges marked the start of the legal year with an Anglican service. [Read more]

Ten Quick Responses to Atheist Claims

You don’t have to read hundreds of books before you can discuss your faith with an atheist. Sometimes claims and questions that are just short soundbites can be answered just as quickly. [Read more]

Does Evolutionary Theory Need a Rethink?

Mainstream evolutionary theory has come to focus almost exclusively on genetic inheritance and processes that change gene frequencies. [Read more]

Leaked Memo Highlights New Axis of Pseudoscience Between Dr. Oz and Consumer Reports?

For those concerned about Consumer Reports steady slide into promoting pseudoscience, a visit to CR headquarters by celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz should be cause for alarm. [Read more]

Nigerian ‘Pastor’ Says He Robbed to Build Church

Nigerian police have arrested a man who says he is a pastor from Lagos and two other men in a gang for hijacking a 25-foot (8 meter) container carrying 25 units of heavy duty outdoor split type air conditioners worth over $152,000. [Read more]

Indiana Trooper Pulled Over Woman to Ask if She’d Accepted Jesus Christ as Her Savior: Lawsuit

An Indiana woman says a state trooper pulled her over this summer and asked if she had accepted Jesus Christ as her personal lord and savior. [Read more]

Call to Secularise NHS Chaplaincy Services

Secularists have criticised new draft NHS England chaplaincy guidelines for failing to adequately recognise the needs of patients who do not identify with a religious faith. [Read more]

5 Reasons Young People Are Indifferent or Outright Antagonistic Toward Religion

Millennials are less religiously active than almost any other living generation. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, nearly 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 33 say they are not affiliated with any religion. [Read more]

Woman Rejected For Tour Guide Position, Christian Beliefs Ridiculed

Bethany Paquette is a proud graduate of Trinity Western University, a Christian college in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. [Read more]

Austrian School Drops Yoga on Religious Grounds

Yoga teacher Ingrid Karner says she was told to stop classes at the school in the southeastern village of Dechantskirchen after a complaint “that it’s not allowed, according to the Bible.” [Read more]

Vox on Islamophobia: It’s Not Just Maher

Max Fisher at Vox has a long and refreshing look at Islamophobia in the media. He lays out the fundamental problem. [Read more]

Christian Pastor Offers Atheists $100,000 to Prove God Doesn’t Exist, Atheist Proves Pastor is Dumb

Evangelical pastor and Internet celebrity Joshua Feuerstein lives in a bubble. It’s a bubble so encapsulating, he can’t see how ridiculous he looks challenging his ideological opponents to prove a negative.

[Read more]

Who is Carrie Underwood and Why Do I Get Hate Mail from Her Fans?

Musical talent generally has never been associated as a gift from the Judeo-Christian god. In general, the trope in western culture is that an unearthly skill in music is the purview of the devil.

[Read more]

Seminaries Awarded $1.5 Million to Include Science in Coursework

Responding to a real or perceived gap between science and faith, 10 U.S. seminaries will receive a combined $1.5 million in grants to include science in their curricula, the American Association for the Advancement of Science announced Wednesday (Oct. 8).

[Read more]