Terry Firma, though born and Journalism-school-educated in Europe, has lived in the U.S. for the past 20-odd years. Stateside, his feature articles have been published in the New York Times, Reason, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Wired. Terry was the founder and Main Mischief Maker of Moral Compass, a now-dormant site that pokes fun at the delusional claim by people of faith that a belief in God equips them with superior moral standards. He was the Editor-in-Chief of two Manhattan-based magazines until he decided to give up commercial publishing for professional photography... with a lot of blogging on the side. These days, he lives in an old seaside farmhouse in Maine with his wife, three kids, and two big dogs.
When Reza Aslan defends Islam against charges that it is, in practice, often a violent and oppressive religion, he likes to point to one country that he claims has embraced modernity and equality: Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. In a new video, a YouTube creator who goes by Sp00ky Skeletonman is challenging Aslan’s nonsensical assertion (at 0:11) that “In Indonesia, women are absolutely one hundred percent equal to men.” Read more
When you carry a firearm into an airport security checkpoint, I suppose it could be an honest mistake. But if you do it again? That signals bad intent — or, maybe, it’s a message from God. An Omaha pastor was stopped at an Eppley Airfield’s security station with a loaded handgun in his carry-on and is facing prosecution … because it’s not the first time he’s done it. Read more
If you ever needed proof that a bizarre claim is easily spread, while the distribution of the “never mind” update gains no traction at all, this is it. Last week, El Diario in Spain reported that students at that country’s University College of Barberán would be required to attend a seminar by a priest, José Antonio Fortea Cucurull (below), on the topic of Evil. More specifically, Cucurull, who does the first two syllables of his name proud, was planning to talk to the students about how to fight demons and spirits; he is, after all, a professional exorcist. Read more
