The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, was created for a religious education class. The teacher sent me a bunch of questions posed by his students (who were approximately ten years old) and I attempted to answer all of them: We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next! Read more
If you’re planning to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in a couple of weeks — and I’m sure you are — you’ll see Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin… and American Atheists?! Yep, the atheist group just announced (via email) that they will be manning an informational booth at the infamous gathering for those on the rightmost edge of the political spectrum: Read more
When priest Gil Gustafson was caught, tried, and convicted in a child sex abuse case in the 1980s, his superiors excommunicated him from the Church and never spoke of him again. Ha ha. As if. No: the Twin Cities Archdiocese made sure that Gustafson was essentially set for life. [It] continued his priestly salary and health insurance, covered his living expenses and psychological treatment and paid for his education and training, according to church records and a former archdiocese accountant. It has given him jobs in the chancery, helped him establish his own consulting business, and steered clients his way. And it gets better worse. Read more
Church members in Vacaville, California are trying to spring their pastor free on bail — again. Mark Lewis, a suspect in a troubling case involving stalking, arson, attempted murder, and possibly criminal conspiracy, was out on $500,000 bail last month. (I wrote about the Reverend Lewis here.) Then, a funny thing happened. Read more
Louisa Hodkin and Alessandro Calcioli love each other and decided to spend their lives together. They got married in London yesterday. That wasn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Read more
I can’t tell if this is ironic or just unintentionally cruel… or maybe both. The Mississippi Baptist Convention is hosting a one-night conference later this week with the theme: “In the Name of Jesus Rise Up.” That’s a reference to a story in Acts 3 where Peter heals a crippled man simply by asking for Jesus’ help: Read more
If I were addicted and wanted help, I might rather suffer the consequences of abusing drugs or alcohol than pretend that the required verbal ablutions in Alcoholics Anonymous meant anything to me at all. Six or seven of the famous twelve steps refer to God or to prayer. The final step is to achieve sobriety and experience it as a “spiritual awakening.” Through it all, prayer is a staple at almost every AA meeting. Read more
What would you do if your son came home from his public school and asked you, “Dad, do you know who Kent Hovind is?” Besides telling him, “A guy who’s in jail because of tax evasion,” you might bring up that he’s a shameless promoter of Young Earth Creationism. And what caused your son to ask you that question, anyway? It turns out his Biology teacher was showing them clips from Hovind’s pro-Creationism video “Lies in the Textbooks” (full sermon below): Read more
If you’re wondering what’s happening in this video, it’s Paul Hill, the executive director of Vibrant Faith Ministries, performing a karate routine while reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Read more
Peter Foster, the U.S. editor for the British Telegraph, says we may all have been missing a tantalizing trend. Read more
