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.
Is courage piety a death wish stupidity a hereditary trait? One young pastor offers up strong evidence: The newest pastor in the “Snake Salvation” church says he will also refuse treatment if he’s bitten in the same way that killed his father a week ago. Cody Coots says he will also handle the same snake that killed his father during an afternoon service in Kentucky. The pastor says if paramedics come to help him, he’ll send them away, just like his father did. He said: “I will lay right there and say to everyone that it’s God’s will. If it’s good enough to live by, then it’s good enough to die by.” Read more
The Item is a small newspaper in South Carolina that occasionally publishes the thoughts of a faith columnist called Jamie Wilson. In her latest piece, quoted approvingly by the Christian Post, Wilson says that dwindling church attendance can be reversed with more aggressive proselytizing. That’s right. Churchy people need to become more extroverted, gosh-darnit! They should overcome their legendary reticence to yammer on about their faith already! They ought to finally get comfortable buttonholing people, and laying Jesus trips on them! Read more
Abdul Aziz Qassem, writing for the Saudi Gazette, is in high dudgeon over “The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism,” a 2012 poll conducted by WIN-Gallup International. He writes: The poll showed that the percentage of atheists in Saudi Arabia is the same as in advanced European countries like Belgium. The strangest part in the poll is the finding that the number of atheists in Saudi Arabia reached five percent. This makes the [Saudi] Kingdom the first country in the Islamic world… Read more
