The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how courageous it really is to wear a Christian t-shirt in Texas (Hint: Not very): You can read more about this story here. 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
Just a couple of weeks after Bob Jones University told the ministry Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) that its services wouldn’t be needed anymore in investigating instances of sexual abuse on campus, another fundamentalist school is in the spotlight now for pretty much the same awful reason. At Patrick Henry College (below), a private Christian school that sends a disproportionate number of graduates into political fields and has been dubbed “God’s Harvard,” it appears that reports of sexual abuse have not been taken seriously even after female students step forward with their stories. Kiera Feldman has the harrowing story in New Republic: Read more
Considering Facebook now has more than 50 different options for gender identity, it’s only a matter of time before they do the same for specific religious preferences… Read more
In India, reincarnations of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, have been proliferating like shopping-mall Santas. The latest example: Chandre Orean, 35, from West Bengal, who gives daily blessings to devotees in a small shrine at his home. He and Hanuman are totally like twins: Why do throngs of Hindus flock to Orean? Because he has cultivated a 14.5-inch tuft of hair that grows, Hanuman-like, from the bottom of his spine. Touching it is thought to bestow good luck (but do avoid fingering the dingleberries). Read more
Last week, atheist Kelsey Hazzard, who runs the group Secular Pro-Life, was scheduled to speak at the University of Georgia to the members of Students for Life about the secular case against abortion. Which apparently left vandals in a state of confusion because it’s not very often that the worlds of atheism and abortion collide in this way. I’m not sure if it was the Christian side or pro-choice side that was more upset about it, but someone felt compelled enough to destroy the posters: Read more
This month, the Marlowe Theater in Canterbury, England, marks the 450th birthday of the man it was named after: playwright Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of William Shakespeare. The theater will put on some of Marlowe’s greatest works, including Faustus and the Jew Of Malta. Marlowe was probably a government spy before he turned to writing, and all his life he enjoyed hanging out with characters of ill repute, including brawlers and swindlers. He was once arrested on suspicion of having tried to counterfeit coins, a capital offense, but nothing came of the accusation. Read more
Last week, Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias spoke at the University of Pennsylvania. The event, sponsored by local Pastor Aaron Campbell and not a campus Christian group, had been in the works for years. How would you respond to that even if you were an atheist on campus? Read more
Texas Baptist College really wants foreign students to attend the school. But in order to maintain their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) status allowing them to accept those students, they have to be incorporated within the state. But in order to be incorporated within the state, they have to be an accredited institution of higher learning. Which Texas Baptist College is not. Because it’s not *really* a school where you go to learn things. It’s one of those indoctrination camps where you learn how to become a servant of the Lord and little else. It’s a school where the application asks if you’ve attended a movie in the past year, and if so, when. (Same with dancing.) Anyway, this is not a school that’ll pass any sort of accreditation test anytime soon. So, claiming they’re remaining “true to our convictions of remaining independent, the school is just changing names instead. Texas Baptist College no longer exists. Read more
In the Chitral Valley in Northern Pakistan, a decades-long influx of Sunni Muslims has gradually changed the dynamic between followers of Islam and the indigenous Kalash, … a polytheistic people who claim descent from Alexander the Great and who have maintained separate cultural traditions to the predominantly Muslim country. In a 50-minute video released earlier this month, the Pakistani Taliban are vowing action against the Kalash — for having the wrong religion. The filmed statement … opens with a scenic view of the mountainous valley that is popular among domestic tourists and famed for its annual polo festival. The narrator warns the Kalash, who are thought to number only 3,500, to convert to Islam or face death. Read more
Pro-equality campaigners notched their belts late last week when Invoking Abraham Lincoln and the nation’s historic struggle against racial discrimination, a federal judge declared … that Virginia’s laws that limit marriage to a man and a woman violated the due process and equal protection provisions of the 14th Amendment. … The ruling, which overturned a constitutional amendment adopted by Virginia voters in 2006 as well as previous laws, also said that Virginia must respect same-sex marriages that were carried out legally in other states. If the Court of Appeals upholds Thursday’s decision, the repercussions in the South, where opposition to same-sex marriage has been strongest, could be wide. Restrictive state amendments would most likely be voided in other states of the Fourth Circuit, including North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. (Maryland, the fifth circuit member, approved same-sex marriage in 2012.) Read more
