Dan Carsen, an education reporter for WBHM radio in Alabama, interviewed Bill Maher in anticipation of his show in Birmingham this weekend, and the full audio interview is now available online. Read more
Michael Mosley says, at BBC News, Over the last couple of months I have been deliberately infecting myself with a range of parasites in an attempt to understand more about these fascinating creatures. Perhaps the greatest surprise is the extent to which parasites are able to subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) manipulate their host to their advantage. Read more
Here’s how good it is to be Dan Branch: You can run for Attorney General of Texas while running a campaign ad in which you tout your role in passing a mandatory moment of silence bill which you even admit is all about “… our faith and our relationship with The Almighty.” In other words, the potential legal advisor to the state passed a law that, one could argue, is unconstitutional. Read more
If Alaskan Republicans get their way, then taxpayers will soon be footing the bill for students who attend religious schools. As it stands, the state’s Constitution forbids that. Article 7, Section 1 states: No money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution. But Reps. Wes Keller, Lora Reinbold, Bob Lynn, and Bill Stoltze are attempting to eliminate that line altogether with House Joint Resolution 1: Read more
We’re losing one of the good ones. Rep. Rush Holt, a Democrat from New Jersey, announced yesterday that he won’t be running for re-election later this year: Read more
Pastor Ryan Bell, trying to get better acquainted with the atheist world, recently started immersing himself in it for one year. John Christy, another devout Christian, is at least 1/52nd that committed. He did the same thing, but initially for just a week; that engagement began to stretch toward a year, though, once he decided to make a documentary about his experiences, called My Week in Atheism. The Christian Post reports: John Christy, a devout Christian filmmaker and student of religion, and David Smalley, an atheist activist and radio host, have released a new documentary film they made together, “My Week in Atheism,” about their friendship caught between the two opposing worldviews. The film premiered over the weekend at the Crest Theater in Sacramento, Calif., showing the two traveling together to secular conventions, university campuses, and a live talk show, and how they maintain a close friendship while protecting their worldviews and activism. “The way the world is today, people too often view others with different beliefs as their enemies. But David and I have developed a deep friendship — even though we talk, and argue about religious differences all the time,” said Christy in a statement. “As I’ve gotten to know David more, I appreciate his challenge to my faith. Rather than digging in my heels to defend myself, I’ve tried to take an honest, intellectual look at what motivates atheism and why I believe what I believe,” added Christy, who has a B.S. in Religion and Theological Studies and plans to get an M.A. in Christian and Classical Studies in 2015. Here’s the film’s trailer: Read more
Via the Associated Press, more venality, subterfuge, and malefaction from the Catholic Connoisseurs of Choirboys: When Los Angeles police were investigating allegations of child abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in 1988, they asked for a list of altar boys at the last parish where the priest worked. Archbishop Roger Mahony told a subordinate not to give the list, saying he didn’t want the boys to be scarred by the investigation and that he felt the altar boys were too old to be potential victims, according to a deposition made public on Wednesday. The detectives investigating allegations against Nicolás Aguilar Rivera, a visiting Mexican priest, ultimately got the names of the boys from parish families. They determined that the priest molested at least 26 boys in his 10 months in Los Angeles, according to the priest’s confidential archdiocese file and police records made public by attorneys for the victims. Read more
State Senator Dan Patrick, a radio talk show host from Houston, is currently running for Lieutenant Governor of Texas. He already voiced his support for teaching Creationism in science classes during a televised debate last December, where he added, “The breakup of the family in this country has started when we took God out of the classroom.” Now, his latest campaign ad educates voters on what really matters: His record. His policies. His platform. God. Read more
The Christian proprietors of an assisted-living facility in Los Angeles stand accused of, among other things, retaliating against the disabled they served if their clients didn’t attend religious services. Kang Won Lee and Jung Hwan Lee, husband and wife, own the two houses in Los Angeles’ historic Adams district that became the subject of a lawsuit filed by the office of L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer the other day. The Lees ran the two homes, Agape Mission House and Agape Home Church, as unlicensed facilities for the physically and mentally disabled, the city alleges. The couple had the properties licensed as charities. Read more
Don’t worry! You don’t have to watch “The Lock In,” the Christian “horror” movie about a church lock-in that involves dirty magazines… because Dusty Smith watched it for us and offers this (NSFW) review: I take back what I said earlier. Now, I have to watch this movie… Read more
