A Hindu activist group in India that had brought a lawsuit against the publisher of an American scholar’s book is getting its way in a hair-raising settlement. Penguin India, which had published Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History, has pledged in writing to stop selling the book and pulp all remaining copies. The political and religious group that forced the book’s removal and destruction charged that The Hindus was offensive and inaccurate and full of “sexual connotations.” Neither Penguin nor Doniger have admitted to any gross mistakes or mischaracterizations. Doniger is incensed about her Indian publisher’s capitulation, and issued a riot-act statement: Read more
At the church that’s situated in the White Tail Nudist Resort in Virginia, you can come just as God made you before He gave you underpants. Read more
The way it works in South Carolina, the state Board of Education and the state’s Education Oversight Committee have to agree on new educational standards before they’re adopted for the public schools to implement. On Monday night, the BOE adopted new science standards, which is all well and good… but the EOC refused to approve the following clause: Conceptual Understanding: Biological evolution occurs primarily when natural selection acts on the genetic variation in a population and changes the distribution of traits in that population over multiple generations. Performance Indicators: Students who can demonstrate this understanding can: Analyze and interpret data, using the principles of natural selection, to make predictions about the long term biological changes that occur within two populations of the same species that become geographically isolated from one another. Why wouldn’t they approve it? Ask State Sen. Mike Fair: Read more
Tim Mayhall is a chaplain at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. In my brief interactions with him yesterday, I got the impression that he’s earnest and committed to the job he loves, and that he finds it easy to make common ground with non-believers. He sees a lot of pain and fear, being that as a chaplain, he covers emergency and trauma, as well as surgical intensive care. Inevitably, some of the people he helps care for are atheists and agnostics. Mayhall got in touch after reading the articles on this site about the Ardmore, Oklahoma Catholic hospital where a receptionist told non-believer clients that atheists shouldn’t be allowed to procreate. Read more
You know, when you set Bill Nye’s words to music and beautiful images, I’m almost tempted to rewatch his entire debate against Ken Ham… Read more
The Onion reveals the breaking news: We had to pull the plug on God: I’m sure the story will be updated throughout the night. (Thanks to GodVlogger for the link!) Read more
The Oxford Handbook of Atheism is an extensive (and pricey) reference book, aimed at academics, covering the history of (western) atheism and describing the intersection of godlessness with various academic disciplines. In the excerpt below, reprinted with permission of the publisher, editor Stephen Bullivant writes about defining atheism: Read more
As the world’s love affair with Pope Francis continues unabated, there’s one sour note for the pontiff: Even a majority of Catholics don’t buy what he’s supposed to be selling, rejecting the Church’s stance on divorce, marriage rights for clergy, and contraceptives. Per Time magazine: The Vatican faces a wide ideological gap with popularly held beliefs in many countries, a new poll [of more than 12,000 Catholics from five continents] finds. On issues like contraception, gay marriage, divorce and women’s admittance into the priesthood, the Church is at odds with a majority of Catholics in many countries across the world, the poll shows. Over 90 percent of Catholics in countries including France, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, and Columbia favor the use of birth control, a position that opposes official Catholic doctrine. And more than 60 percent of Catholics in countries including France, Spain, Poland, Brazil, Argentina and the United States believe priests should be allowed to marry. Here are key results, courtesy of Univision: Read more
That’s it. That’s the question I’m trying to answer. We know there are a *ton* of contradictions in the Bible and Christian apologists love to rationalize them all away… but some of them have to be harder than others. So which contradictions are the most difficult to reconcile? Read more
In a little over two weeks, Josh Ladgrove will take the stage at Adelaide Fringe, an annual open-access arts festival, and piss off tons of people who aren’t even there. In fact, he’s already started doing just that. That’s because the Melbourne comedian, who bears a passing resemblance to Western depictions of Jesus Christ, is scheduled to perform three shows in which he appears before the audience dressed as the Savior and sticky-taped to a cardboard crucifix. Then, he invites audience members to heckle him on any subject, never knowing where those who oblige will direct him with their taunts and insults. The title of the always-changing performance? Come Heckle Christ. Read more
