The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses eight parenting tips for God — we had some fun with this one in case you can’t tell: The video was inspired by this post by Michael Sherlock. (Also, Canadians, you know I love you!) 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
In an excerpt from his book Drugs: The Science and Culture of Psychotropic Drugs at The Atlantic, Richard J. Miller examines the claim that intense religious experience, and religion itself, can be traced back to the consumption of hallucinogenic drugs, or, “entheogenic” drugs. It’s hard to deny that there is a strong connection between religion and these substances, with, as Miller notes, countless references to particular drugs in various religious texts (from “soma” in Hindu scripture to “the drug of forgetfulness” in The Odyssey), and considering the “spiritual” impact psychotropics have been shown to have. Take this bit of research by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert cited by Miller: On Good Friday 1962, two groups of students received either psilocybin or niacin (a nonhallucinogenic “control” substance) on a double-blind basis prior to the service in Boston University’s Marsh Chapel. Read more
Ah, the timeless question that has plagued mankind since the dawning of, well, 2007 or so: What religion is President Obama, really? I think it’s a fairly silly question. But we have right-wingers who suspect, nay, insist, that he’s a Muslim. On the other side we have atheists like Bill Maher who are certain that Obama is one of us (though Maher also thinks the Pope is an atheist, which I think is quite a reach). For me, personally, I think it’s best to take the man at his word, that he’s a Christian, until some overwhelming evidence suggests something else. Like, for example, him saying “I’m actually an atheist.” That would probably convince me. All that said, his particular version of Christianity remains murky to many who care about this kind of thing. As the holidays now pass us by, Ashley Parker at the New York Times notes that the Obamas have not attended any Christmas church services since coming to Washington, nor have they chosen an “official” church as their religious home in DC, choosing instead to visit a variety of them, and even then they haven’t gone all that often. Read more
Two years ago, Riaz Ahmed, now 34, and Ijaz Ahmed, 38, claimed to have seen God. Due to the vagaries of religion, such a claim may mark someone as supremely devout, or possibly a little loopy. But in Pakistan, where even something as innocuous as quoting the Qur’an can get you in trouble with the law, seeing God marks you for death under the country’s blasphemy law. Judge Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal on Saturday awarded death sentences to two men he found… Read more
Jennifer Michael Hecht, one of my absolute favorite writers, recently appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball, along with fellow atheist Ron Reagan, to talk about her article in Politico Magazine about atheism as “the last taboo” in American politics. Though it’s a brief segment, they took a serious look at the “poison pill” problem we all presume atheists would face in political contests, particularly in regard to the presidency. Michael Smerconish was the guest host, and it was encouraging to hear him so eager to, as he put it, “test the hypothesis” that an avowed atheist would be effectively barred from high office in the current political climate. As Hecht says in the segment, the culture is just crawling its way out of the religious tensions associated with the Cold War (“godless communism” vs. American Judeo-Christianity) and 9/11, and that the time really has come for nonbelieving politicians to make themselves known. Read more
A new billboard launched by American Atheists this week to advertise their upcoming convention in Salt Lake City hits the residents where it hurts. The ad features parents West and Lennie Monnett along with their two sons and niece (of whom they’re guardians) — declaring that they’re not Mormons and not just “ex-Mormons”; they’re atheists: Read more
In Georgia, two soused Christians were having a theological argument. To no one’s surprise, it soon devolved into a violent farce. Two residents of Cartersville may have not directly broken one of the Ten Commandments, but they did break the law when their fight over the sacred covenant turned violent. According to police reports, Carolyn Unfricht and Daniel Camarda were inside a Cartersville hotel arguing about the Bible and specifically the Ten Commandments. Read more
Even if you never saw The Passion of the Christ when it first hit theaters (and I have yet to see it), you probably couldn’t escape hearing about it. The Mel Gibson-directed, hyper-violent, all-Aramaic-and-Latin telling of Jesus’s last days was an enormous hit, with the faithful showing up to see it by the busload. Recently, the ironically-named History Channel had its biggest hit yet with a miniseries based on the Bible. The lesson here is that giving religion the Hollywood touch can mean big, big bucks. Well, get ready, because there’s about to be a flood (ahem) of biblical blockbusters coming our way. But this time, they won’t be subtitled or relegated to basic cable. As reported by Nick Allen at The Telegraph, the A-listers are about to take on several episodes of God’s book. Read more
Russia-based news network RT covers the apostasy case against Raif Badawi, and his possible execution, in the video below. It includes reaction from Amnesty International, and some context from human rights activist Hala Al-Dosari, who notes that there is little to no actual evidence of Badawi’s alleged “apostasy,” other than a “general description of his attitude as unacceptable” to Saudi authorities. As noted previously, Badawi has already been convicted and punished once, with seven years in prison and 600 lashes. That’s not a typo. Six-zero-zero. Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question (albeit a little belatedly): Is it hypocritical for atheists to celebrate Christmas? 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
