Religion can give you license to do some awful things but this is just despicable. The Incredible Happenings Ministry in South Africa recently held a “demon banishing” service. It appears that it was really just an excuse to molest and abuse young women. Two reporters were there conducting a two-month investigation of the church in question (as well as its leaders). Besides discovering proof that “prophet” Paseka Motsoeneng is a complete fraud, they gave an account of certain sexual acts… Read more
There’s never a bad time for politicians to say, “To hell with separation of church and state; I wanna rally my Christian base!” That’s why Texas Governor Rick Perry called for people to pray for rain last week. In Florida, Mayor Sonny Nobles of Live Oak took it one step further. He didn’t just wish his city a Happy Easter. He took the time to pin the world’s problems on atheists: The main point is that if people around the… Read more
My one-time-soul-owner Jim Henderson has a neat little video up where he’s talking with Ira Glass (host of “This American Life”). (I’m forever jealous.) They talk about whether the clip is really part of a training video for Christians called “Beat the Atheist” as well as Jim’s idea for a reality show. Jim appeared on TAL in 2009 on an episode called “Bait and Switch.” Ira mentioned my name in the intro to Jim’s segment. I did a little dance…. Read more
There are so many high school and college atheist groups forming out there but no one place to gather leaders together so they can discuss relevant issues. (Conferences are nice, but not everyone can attend those. Facebook is nice, but it can get overwhelming.) So we’ve started up a Student Leaders section in the Friendly Atheist Forums. Consider it a place to ask questions about how to start a group, run a group, and deal with problems in your group…. Read more
Last month, at the Northwest Freethought Conference at Portland State University, one of the speakers was Anu Garg, the founder of Wordsmith.org and A Word a Day. Anu was raised in Hinduism and his (really enjoyable) talk was titled “330,000,000 Gods, and You Can’t Find One to Suit You?” I wasn’t raised in Hinduism, but I could relate to a *lot* of he was talking about. I’ve been involved in this movement for years and, even though we always talk… Read more
