Rachel Ford is a programmer, and since 8:00 to 5:00 doesn't provide enough opportunity to bask in screen glare, she writes in her spare time. She was raised a very fundamentalist Christian, but eventually "saw the light." Rachel's personal blog is Rachel's Hobbit Hole, where she discusses everything from Tolkien to state politics.
In a piece at NPR entitled “Why Atheists Need Captain Kirk,” University of California, Berkeley philosophy professor Alva Noë posted his thoughts on what he calls a “Spockian” worldview. He rejects this “Spock-ism” (a reference to the character on Star Trek) and its idea that science is logical, purely rational, that it is detached and value-free, and that it is, for all these reasons, morally superior. Read more
Enid, Oklahoma resident Shawna Hammond is an atheist and a Pastafarian. When it came time to renew her driver’s license earlier this month, she made the decision to wear a colander — her religious headwear — in her photo. The choice was met with giggles but not disputed at the time: a colander might be unorthodox, but it is the religious headwear of followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Hammond explained her decision to wear a colander as being an important expression of religious freedom: Read more
If you haven’t already marked your calendar, you’re going to want to get right on it, because tomorrow is “National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children,” at least according to anti-abortion advocates, who are setting up memorials, attending services, etc., all across America, to draw attention to the terrifying fact that women still have the right to choose in this country. The movement approaches the question from an wholly rational viewpoint, making cogent and entirely new arguments for limiting a woman’s right to abortion. … just kidding. Read more
Don’t fall out of your seat, but in an interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson (below) had even more to say about homosexuality, premarital sex, and the Bible. Most of it is his usual schtick of sex gives you cooties unless you’re married (presumably to a 15- or 16-year old?) and I won’t bore you with the details. What I do want to draw your attention to, however, is the blatantly false assertion he makes about what “God says” about marriage: Read more
A Missouri lawmaker and his wife are suing the Obama administration over the Affordable Care Act’s minimum coverage requirements for contraception. State Representative Paul Wieland (care to guess his party affiliation?) and wife Theresa Wieland argue that no-cost access to birth control for their daughters (two of whom are adults, ages 18 and 19) violates their religious beliefs. As it further violates their beliefs to drop their children from their plan, they are seeking a judgment to intervene on their behalf. Read more
