This is a guest post written by Herb Silverman. … I can’t say I’m surprised that Pope Francis (above) was Time magazine’s Person of the Year. And as an atheist, I’m not particularly disappointed by the decision. While Pope Francis hasn’t changed Church doctrine, he has at least changed its emphasis. I prefer a pope like Francis who focuses more on poverty and economic inequality than on birth control and gay marriage. I would have been more enthusiastic about Time’s choice had the Pope also acknowledged that birth control can help reduce poverty and that loving couples should not be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. In such an anachronistic and powerful institution, I would welcome small but significant reforms to Catholic Church doctrines that affect many outside the institution. Read more
This post is a twofer. First, I’m happy to share the news that the American wannabe jihadist Colleen LaRose has been given a ten-year prison term for conspiring to murder the Swedish artist Lars Vilk. Via the BBC: Colleen LaRose, 50, who dubbed herself Jihad Jane, admitted in 2011 she sought to kill [Swedish artist] Lars Vilks and recruited others to the cause. She faced up to a life term but a judge reduced her sentence in part because she co-operated with investigators. “I don’t want to be into jihad no more,” LaRose said at the hearing. Mr Vilks was targeted after he drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog. Here’s that artwork again: Read more
We already know that Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) refuses to talk about her religious faith publicly, making her the only member of Congress currently labeled as a “None.” She’s not openly atheist — but she’s not openly theistic, either. Now, it appears that newly-elected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is following in her footsteps, as Sarah Pulliam Bailey reports: Read more
For more than two months now, I’ve been trying to give the community of Morton Grove, Illinois over $3,000 that readers raised after a local American Legion post withheld a significant amount of money from the Park District when board Commissioner Dan Ashta wouldn’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The Park District rejected the donation saying they didn’t want to get “embroiled in a First Amendment dispute” (which was weird, since that was precisely what they were doing by accepting money from the American Legion on the condition that everyone stand for the Pledge). Read more
Religion & Politics asked an excellent question — “Should we teach religion in public schools? And if so, how?” — and got responses from a variety of panelists: Read more
Troy Fitzgerald, who grew up in a religious cult and is now out and proud about his atheism and sexuality, has embarked on a neat project that could really help a lot of people: It’s called Secular Safe House and it’s designed to help those atheists and LGBT individuals who have been kicked out of their homes or just need someone to talk to: Read more
The New Humanist, in its Winter 2013 issue, asks the question “Is it Time to Move on from the New Atheism?” Daily Telegraph editor Tom Chivers applauds the New Atheists — including Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett — for starting a very important debate: Read more
After a mistaken introduction in which Fox News Channel host Gretchen Carlson said it was atheists who wanted to put up a Satanic monument outside the Oklahoma Capitol building — she apologized for that on Twitter — her “faith panel” shared their thoughts on the recently-revealed Satanic monument design: Read more
Beelzebub, planning ahead to accommodate the growing number of atheists, is expanding hell into the upper layers of the earth’s crust: Read more
Usually, a newspaper’s comic page isn’t my go-to place for stories about religion but there was a fascinating storyline last week in Ray Billingsley’s “Curtis,” a strip about an African-American family. The premise was that the “most religious woman in the world” was coming to babysit Curtis and his little brother Barry (you can see the full storyline here — a couple of the strips are below): I’m not used to seeing (even fundamentalist) religion mocked with such ease in a comic strip, and I was especially surprised to see it happening in a strip revolving around a black family where church is usually as much a part of the culture as anything else. I was really curious what led to this storyline and whether Billingsley got any negative pushback from readers. He was kind enough to respond to my questions via email. Read more
