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.
I found much to enjoy, even relish, in the friendly conversation between Ayaan Hirsi and Sam Harris that you can read in its entirety here. Hemant quoted some great highlights from it earlier, but there are a couple of other passages that stood out for me, including those about liberalism. Read more
In the video below, an agitated New Hampshire father named William Baer is arrested for getting mouthy at a school board meeting in Gilford, New Hampshire, two days ago. He begins talking out of turn at 0:22, and after about half a minute an honest-to-god cop motions for him to submit to arrest, which Baer, flummoxed and incredulous, ultimately does. By 1:59, he’s in handcuffs. Off to the paddy wagon with him, I guess. Read more
For obvious reasons, it’s rare for anything that’s published on Friendly Atheist to get attention on the “Islam” subreddit. Yesterday was an exception. A discussion broke out there that ran the gamut from concern and outrage over the Boko Haram mass abduction, to (surprise!) the good old No True Scotsman fallacy, to a Patheos-bashing the likes of which you’ve never seen. Here are three interesting /r/Islam responses to the Boko Haram blog post, from across the spectrum. Read more
