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.
Watch this 28-second clip of ESPN reporter Doris Burke interviewing basketball star Kevin Durant: Burke: What goes into a streak to get you to the level you’ve been at over these last twelve games? What goes into that, Kevin? Durant: God. That’s all I can say. Jesus Christ. Burke: [Laughs] Okay, thank you. You had nothing to do with it? Durant: Naw, nothin’. It’s all Him. Burke: Thank you. Read more
Bank employees in Holland are being asked to swear a very peculiar oath for a country where easily 45 to 60 percent of citizens can be classified as nones: “I swear that I will do my utmost to preserve and enhance confidence in the financial-services industry. So help me God.” Which god? This one? Actually, that Businessweek translation is a little on the tame side. The Dutch text is “Zo waarlijk helpe mij God Almachtig,” which literally means “So truly help me God Almighty.” The vow is an attempt to boost ethics among bank personnel and increase consumer confidence in financial institutions. Read more
You may remember that in in 2005, Italian-Canadian sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro crafted a life-size chocolate Jesus that greatly offended Catholic League grandstander Bill Donohue. Donohue told Cavallaro that the artwork was ”one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever,” and added, ”You’re lucky I’m not like the Taliban, because you would lose more than your head.” Donohue had better break out the nitroglycerin pills again, because artist Mirco Della Vecchia just rendered another Catholic figurehead in chocolate. Read more
I really hate the fact that a British judge gave the nod to this petty, doomed-to-failure legal case brought against Latter-Day Saints Church president Thomas S. Monson (pictured below). Let’s do this Q&A-style. Who’s trying to sue Monson, and why? Meet Tom Phillips, who served in England as a Mormon Bishop before deciding ten years ago that it wasn’t for him. He left the Church, became an atheist, and now writes for and edits MormonThink, a website critical of the Mormon faith. Phillips lodged a fraud complaint with a court in England, identifying two British subjects, Stephen Bloor and Christopher Ralph, as Monson’s victims. Read more
Conversion is a dirty word in atheist circles. We don’t attempt to convert, we tell ourselves and each other. We merely aim to — well, something else. Plant a seed of reason. Promote logic. Support science. Anti-theists may go a step further: Call out religious hypocrisy. Tear down clergy who steal and rape. Make mincemeat of superstitions. All those things are worthwhile to do for their own sake, or I suppose we wouldn’t do them. But I suspect that few of us could honestly argue that we didn’t want to change minds — away from theism. Which we would legitimately and correctly call conversion if the word wasn’t weighed down with a ton of religious baggage. I have a fairly close relative, on my wife’s side of the family, who, over the past few years, has abandoned his Christian faith. He came out to me as an atheist six months ago. I don’t know for sure if something I said or wrote might have set off or accelerated his drift, but if so, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased. I’d be even happier if it was something I did or didn’t do — in other words, if his change of heart was precipitated by how I live… which I hope, despite the bite in my writing, is with love and without malice. This hopeful blog post by J.M. Green over at Debunking Christianity, titled “Lighting the Fuse,” made me think about (de)conversion. (Funny thing, metaphors: Green talks about lighting a fuse, while the cover of ex-Christian William Lobdell’s book shows almost the opposite image — a just-extinguished candle — to express the same idea.) Green writes: Read more
