The always-droll team at Cracked worries about many sudden signs that the end times are finally here — including the polar vortex, heat waves, unprecedented Chinese smog, and dinosaur erotica. Cracked’s Hillery Alley says that the apocalypse is upon us and produces five news reports (in addition to the four mentions above) that bolster her case. I decided to turn it into a little quiz. The following five photos are associated with January news reports that would make Harold Camping wannabes do a little jig. Can you look at each photo and name the news event? Read more
Yesterday, the Museum Of Idolatry blog posted an image listing the reasons Elevation Church — home of Pastor Steven “No One Can Know My Salary” Furtick — is the best place to work. While most of the list is what you’d expect from a church, some of the items reek of Pastor Worship. Read more
Here’s a question for you: Why would a high school football team’s Twitter feed include a picture of a mass baptism… followed by someone thanking the team’s coach for his faith and leadership? And why would that same coach lead his team in a rally that ends with, “Let’s thank the big guy in the sky”? Answer: Because Coach Hal Capps of Mooresville High School in North Carolina doesn’t seem to know the difference between church and the workplace. Read more
No “missionary position” jokes, please. From the Orlando Sentinel: A former missionary for the Sanford-based New Tribes Mission was sentenced to 58 years in federal prison Tuesday for sexually abusing girls who were part of an indigenous tribe in the Amazon, and filming the acts. Authorities said Warren Scott Kennell befriended and abused girls over a several-year period, while he was establishing a church with the Katookeena tribe [more commonly spelled Katukina]. Homeland Security Investigations agents began investigating the 45-year-old after receiving a tip that he posted pictures on a website used by people who trade child pornography. After his arrest, law enforcement officers found several thumb drives and an external hard drive that contained almost a thousand child-pornography images. Read more
Christian pseudohistorian David Barton used to be a math teacher. But at some point, he transitioned into teaching history, another subject he knew next to nothing about. Today, he goes around miseducating everyone he comes into contact with. His inability to be a credible historian is well-documented to the point where a book he wrote was pulled from shelves by his Christian publishers for containing too many lies. And earlier this month, Barton was shown telling a crowd that he speaks to more than 600 different groups a year… despite working all day long on his ranch during the summer. But his inability to interpret statistics properly is now coming to light and every new example is just a delight to behold. Read more
There’s a simple reason Intelligent Design and its unwanted cousin Creationism aren’t taught in public schools: They’re not science. It has nothing to do with some “anti-Christian” agenda on the part of administrators or teachers. But the way South Dakota Senate Bill 112 reads, you’d think teachers were under attack for doing the right thing. Instead, the bill would allow teachers to preach Intelligent Design despite the fact that it’s essentially synonymous with pushing religion in the classroom: Read more
I don’t think the Christian Post understands the unintentional humor in a couple of articles they posted yesterday… In anticipation of the Super Bowl, they wanted to provide football fans with Bible verses that directly or indirectly support their favorite team. (Some of the verses are offered tongue-in-cheek, but that’s not really the issue here.) Read more
Just over a week ago, I posted about Kansas City Star columnist Cindy Hoedel and her “coming out” column in which she told readers she was an atheist and that this was the year she hoped society would finally start accepting atheists. I wasn’t too thrilled with the column because, as much as I appreciated her publicly discussing her non-belief, I didn’t like that she implied she was among the first to do anything like that or that conversations about atheism in the media were anything new. Okay, all that aside, there’s a very welcome update to the story. Hoedel published her latest column yesterday and she wrote about the response to that column. As expected, she got a ton of responses… but they were overwhelmingly supportive: Read more
“Family Guy” haters, get ready for some internal conflict. The Library of Congress just acquired the “Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive” and it’s a treasure trove of Sagan artifacts that his fans will love digging through. Hell, there are (silent) home movies of Sagan as a kid! Read more
Last time we heard from filmmaker Zenon Kalafaticz, he had created an English-language documentary about how atheism fares in Poland. His latest work focuses on atheism in The Gambia, an African nation that’s 90% Muslim. Specifically, he shows the work of the Gambia Secular Assembly. I haven’t had time to watch the whole thing yet, but this appears to be a fascinating look at atheists in an area of the world we rarely pay enough attention to: Read more
