If you survived the Rapture that Harold Camping told you about, as well as the Mayan Apocalypse, it’s time to cower for real this time: This Saturday is our day of reckoning when the world will be entirely submerged in water, all Noah-like, after an epic battle between Norse gods Thor, Loki, Odin, Freyr, and Hermóðr. Read more
Good and bad news. Pennsylvania residents Herbert and Catherine Schaible, a faith-healing couple, were sentenced today for letting a second child, eight-month-old Brandon, die last year. The Schaibles had been under a judge’s order to seek medical help for their sick children after the parents prayed over their two-year-old son Kent in 2009 instead of taking him to a hospital. Kent, who had treatable pneumonia, died too. Judge Benjamin Lerner gave the defendants a verbal dressing-down that will likely earn a place in the annals of sentencing. Read more
You may have already heard the story about Miranda Barbour, the woman who supposedly killed two dozen men she met on Craigslist… all because she was part of a Satanic cult: Originally charged along with her newlywed husband for the murder of a man she connected with on Craigslist, Miranda Barbour said in a jailhouse interview that she has killed at least 22 other people from Alaska to North Carolina, and that if released she would kill again, reports the Associated Press. The 19-year-old claimed she joined a satanic cult in Alaska at the age of 13 before moving to North Carolina, and said she has killed people in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California. But Lucien Greaves, spokesperson for the Satanic Temple (the group that made headlines by trying to put up a monument of their own in Oklahoma to contrast a Ten Commandments monument), takes issue with anyone (including the suspect) blaming Satanism for her problems and tried to set the record straight: Read more
Which Patheos blogger said this? I swear, we’ve probably watched eight rounds of curling during the Olympics and I still have no idea what the rules actually are. Are they trying to get all of their pucks (is that thing a puck?) on the bull’s-eye? Are they trying to just land one in the middle? I have no idea, and at the end of every match I’m honestly confused at why the team who won, actually won. No one in my family agrees on the rules either because the whole game is just straight up confusing even though it looks simple. Now, I could solve this problem by looking up the rules to the game online, but I’ve never been one to take the easy way to do anything. Christianity is a lot like this. No one completely understands how the game is supposed to be played. Everyone on the team has their own idea as to what the focus should be, and which rules are important. Folks watching from the outside? They’re just as confused as we are even if they don’t always realize it. Sadly, we often settle for arguing about the rules while sitting in the bleachers rather than learning by taking a chance and just getting out on the ice. Those of us on the ice? We’re all just trying to figure it out as we play, even when we talk a big game about strategy. Read more
If you’re concerned that parents feel constrained by law to hit their children, State Rep. Gail Finney, a Kansas Democrat, is rushing to your side. A Kansas lawmaker is proposing a bill that would allow teachers, caregivers and parents to spank children hard enough to leave marks. Current Kansas law allows spanking that doesn’t leave marks. State Rep. Gail Finney, a Democrat from Wichita, says she wants to allow up to 10 strikes of the hand and that could leave redness and bruising. The bill also would allow parents to give permission to others to spank their children. It would continue to ban hitting a child with fists, in the head or body, or with a belt or switch. Read more
On the heels of the awesome news about Kalei Wilson and Pisgah High School’s newly-formed Secular Student Alliance affiliate, Camp Quest South Carolina (CQSC), which also serves North Carolina and Georgia, has offered Kalei a full campership for her brave work. Read more
On its Erasmus blog, which covers religion and public policy, the Economist casts a weary eye on Denmark’s new law that outlaws the inhumane ritual slaughter of animals, concluding that it is a solution in search of a problem. No ritual slaughter takes place in Denmark on any meaningful scale, the magazine claims — not in slaughterhouses, anyway. Read more
You know who talks an awful lot about gay sex? Conservative Christian men. Especially Pat Robertson. On Tuesday’s episode of The 700 Club, Robertson responded to a question from a viewer about why he thinks homosexuality is a sin. Right Wing Watch tracked down the hilarious clip: Read more
Atheist blogger Greta Christina’s new book Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why (take a wild guess what it’s about) is now available for pre-order! I’ve seen parts of the book already and I promise you it’ll be an invaluable resource for anyone who’s on the fence about telling others that they don’t believe in God. Read more
Right after the post about the Penn Secular Society’s Apologist Bingo, we got wind of this Atheist Bingo Game. Read more
