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.
Soon after Robert Williams stabbed his wife, Sakina Wallace, in the neck more than 30 times, killing her, he submitted to a police interview. On the videotape, A detective showed Williams a photo of Wallace and referred to the victim as a Muslim woman. In turn, Williams responded: “Muslim woman? If she was a Muslim woman none of this (expletive) would even exist.” At trial, the prosecutors said that Williams, 41, had gotten it into his head that Wallace was cheating on him, and that he killed her because “… he objected to her behavior in their Muslim community.” Read more
How’s this for an astrological prediction: “You may have already heard the rumors — October is not due to be an easy month in any which way. … The new moon may trigger contract negotiations, but talks are likely to hit snags.” That was Susan Miller’s reading for President Barack Obama a few months ago. Actually, it was her reading for Leos in general. Miller is apparently a famous astrologer. Aaron Hicklin, writing for the Guardian, is impressed by how “uncanny” her talent is. When he first meets her, … Miller is riding high after forecasting a diabolical month. How so? Hicklin figures that the malarkey above is actually an on-the-nose reference to the government shutdown over the budget. It doesn’t seem to occur to him that being the president of a superpower means you never have “an easy month,” and that “negotiations” hitting “snags” are part of Washington’s daily grind. Miller has nevertheless parlayed such preposterous triumphs into a neat little empire. Today millions of people look to Miller to tell them who they are, and where they are going — 6.5 million online every month, and rising. Read more
My friend Benjamin Corey, a preacher and fellow Patheos blogger, attempts to strike an enthusiastic blow for science in his latest post. Corey is a creationist, but not of the Ken Ham variety. He believes in science and in creation. My head would explode (disclosure: not actually scientifically likely), but Corey says the Bible is true, Ken Ham is mostly wrong, Bill Nye is somewhat right, and he’ll be rooting for Nye during the February 4 debate. Read more
An Afghan man is probably the first atheist ever to receive asylum in the U.K. for religious reasons. The British Home Office agreed to let him stay indefinitely after it accepted that he could face persecution in Afghanistan for having abandoned his Islamic faith. From The Independent: Although he was brought up a Muslim, since living in the UK he has gradually turned away from it and is now an atheist. His lawyers argued that their client’s forced return to Afghanistan … could result in a death sentence under Sharia law as an “apostate” — someone who has abandoned their religious faith — unless he remained silent about his atheist beliefs. Read more
