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.
Atheist attorney Michael Newdow has long attempted to get “In God We Trust” removed from U.S. currency, trying to employ as his tools both the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But there are other, less legalistic reasons to strike religious verbiage from the nation’s coins and bills, says Redditor ENTeePJ. What’s more, those reasons might even strike Christians as halfway convincing. Read more
Johan Huibers is set to give Ken Ham a run for his money. Four years after Dutch carpenter Johan Huibers completed his fully functional, full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark — a multi-year project that followed the biblical measurements found in Genesis — the vessel is slated to travel 5,000 miles along the Atlantic Ocean from the Netherlands to Brazil. The Ark of Noah Foundation, a group based in Pasadena, California, is raising money to fund the massive trip, which will unfold during the summer of 2016 — a voyage that will be live streamed for the world to see, as the ship sails to the cities of Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro. No worries, the United States is next. Read more
Greg Locke, a pastor from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, is mad at Target after the corporate office decided that transgender customers may use whichever bathroom comports with their gender identity. So he stormed into the local Target store, asked for the manager, and gave her a piece of his mind. We’ll never know whether the exchange he describes really took place; being the armchair hero that he apparently is, he made a video about it after the supposed fact, filming himself in the Target parking lot. It’s a wonder the lens didn’t get all spittle-flecked during Locke’s two-minute diatribe, which you can admire here. Read more
For a crooner who has often been described as “all-American,” Pat Boone sure dislikes one cornerstone of American public life: the First Amendment. In the wake of his dire warnings that the recent SNL skit “God Is a Boob Man” will lead to the eternal punishment of everyone involved, Boone now also wants to see SNL and broadcaster NBC punished in the earthly realm. Read more