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.
The serial kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro hanged himself in his cell on September 3rd, a police investigation has confirmed. The report, released by Ohio law enforcement authorities on Wednesday, also confirmed something else: Castro’s devotion to God. I noted earlier this year, shortly after his arrest in May, that Castro loved to praise the Lord. In his last Facebook status update before he was finally arrested, he wrote of how excited he was about the birth of his fifth grandchild and about the arrival of spring. He concluded Miracles really do happen, God is good 🙂 Castro had been enjoying additional religious musings on the day of his suicide. Read more
Remember how Time magazine editors have been known to misrepresent atheists? I don’t know — maybe that’s considered smart business at a publication that sees its sales spike with each Jesus cover. Whatever the case, Time is at it is again. In the “Science and Space” section (so you know it’s true!), the magazine offers this. Headline: Why There Are No Atheists at the Grand Canyon Read more
This eye-popping story is from today’s Columbus Dispatch. I can’t wait for the response from FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, and the fine folks at freerepublic.com. An Islamic flag and a Muslim prayer banner could be hung prominently in public schools if two state representatives persuade fellow lawmakers to pass the Ohio Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Rep. Tim Derickson, a Republican from Oxford and one of the co-sponsors, called the bill introduced yesterday “a preventive attempt” to block further encroachment on expression of religious freedom. He cited examples such as prohibition of prayer in schools and public places, zoning issues for churches, and public expression of religious faith, such as wearing a Star of David or displaying reverent scenes from the Qur’an. Asked if the law, had it been in effect, would have affected recent cases where Ohio schools were forced to remove images celebrating Islam, Rep. Bill Patmon, D-Cleveland, said, “You would have a better opportunity of keeping [those pictures] up.” OK, I did make a few strategic changes to the newspaper’s actual words (and, for good measure, added a little something to the photo). Here’s the original (real) story: Read more
Via the Washington Post comes this tale of callousness and perfidy. NAIROBI, Kenya — At prayer healing services in some Pentecostal churches, pastors invite people infected with HIV to come forward for a public healing, after which they burn the person’s anti-retroviral medications and declare the person cured. The “cure” is not free, and some people say they shell out their life savings to receive a miracle blessing and quit taking the drugs. “I believe people can be healed of all kinds of sickness, including HIV, through prayers,” said Pastor Joseph Maina of Agmo Prayer Mountain, a Pentecostal church on the outskirts of Nairobi. “We usually guide them. We don’t ask for money, but we ask them to leave some seed money that they please.” Yeah. “We don’t ask for money. We just ask for money.” I’m sure you understand. Read more
In an interview series called “Kind World,” on “kindness and the profound effect that one act can have on our lives,” NPR in Boston broadcast the moving story of a man who sacrificed himself for a near-stranger. It’s the case of sky-diving instructor David Hartsock who, while strapped to his new student, Shirley Dygert, experienced an almost fatal equipment failure when the duo’s parachute didn’t properly deploy. To cushion Dygert’s fall, Hartsock managed to maneuver his body under hers just before the bone-shattering impact. They both lived, but Hartsock is now a quadriplegic. Here’s the partial transcript of the show: Dygert: I thought about my mom, I thought about my kids. My kids and my grand-kids — three grandchildren — and my husband and my other son were on the ground watching this. And I just said, god, I didn’t want them to have to see this. … Hartsock: Knowing that her two sons and her husband could see their mother and wife spinning into the ground, thinking, “Oh my god, she’s going to be dead.” And I wasn’t going to let that happen no matter what. Neither Hartsock nor Dygert expressed any outright religious sentiments, though both used the word “god” in an exclamatory way, as I probably do a half dozen times a day. That’s “god” with a lowercase g. Read more
