In recognition of upcoming Mother’s Day, this is the first of a trio of letters I received from three different young men who come from Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu backgrounds respectively. Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, I am 22 years old, and I have deeply religious Muslim parents from the Middle East who immigrated to western Europe before I was born. My mother has always had a difficult life. She grew up in… Read more
One of the complaints Christians (especially younger ones) often have with atheists is that we tend to lump them all together. It may be easy to separate evangelicals from more liberal Christians… but we don’t make much of an effort to separate “old guard” evangelicals from the ones who have a different take on many of the big social issues of the day. Tom Krattenmaker has written about this “new breed” of Christians in a book called The Evangelicals You Don’t Know: Introducing the Next Generation of Christians (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013). It’s a fascinating look at how a new generation of evangelicals is pushing back against tradition and working to modernize the faith. (Full disclosure: I provided a blurb for the back of the book.) Krattenmaker is also the author of Onward Christian Athletes: Turning Ballparks into Pulpits and Players into Preachers about the intersection of religion and sports. In the passage below, he talks about how “old guard” evangelical Christians have hurt their own cause by pushing so hard against gay rights: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Last week, atheists distributed books and pamphlets at 11 high schools in Orange County, Florida in response to a similar distribution by Christian groups earlier in the year. I’m hoping to have more information on how that went soon, but one response was worth sharing: At Boone High School in Orlando, one student named Heather told a television reporter that she poured water on the atheist literature (0:42 mark): [Click headline for more…] Read more
Christian blogger Tony Jones was asked what he thinks about prominent Christians (like Rob Bell and Jim Wallis) who are now, finally, coming around to support marriage equality: Jones says what’s on everybody’s mind — It’s relatively easy to support marriage equality now, but where were you when it mattered? — but then he adds another point (with an exasperated sigh, I might add): In the long run, what matters is not when they came around, but that they came around. To an extent, I agree with him. I would rather have evangelical Christians (and everyone else, for that matter) support marriage equality even if it takes a while for them to get there. But only on a few conditions. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Tri-State Freethinkers (covering parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) recently adopted a highway. That’s awesome in and of itself, but what makes this particular highway special is that it’s the entrance road to the Creation Museum 🙂 Specifically, it’s the road off the Petersburg Rd. exit, the main artery into Ken Ham’s kingdom. Their first cleanup was held over the weekend: [Click headline for more…] Read more
You saw Part One and Part Two. Now, Dusty continues his epic summary of History Channel’s “The Bible” by tackling episodes 5 and 6 (with tons of NSFW language): (via Cult of Dusty) Read more
The United Methodist Church is one of those denominations that (believes it) practices “love the sinner, hate the sin” when it comes to homosexuality. They won’t let “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” into the clergy, they won’t perform gay weddings, and their official guidebook (PDF) says this: The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching. Oh, but they’ll totally take money from gay parishioners. That’s perfectly fine. The New York Times’ Sharon Otterman has a story in Monday’s paper about Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree, a retired Methodist minister who performed the marriage of his gay son. Not surprisingly, the church wants him punished: [Click headline for more…] Read more
I don’t know how I didn’t hear about him until now, but hip-hop artist Gabe Caruso’s song “Gonna Have a Problem” is just awesome: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Albany Herald (Georgia) has a really positive article about the Albany Atheists and founder/President and Foxhole Atheist James Gillham: [Click headline for more…] Read more
If your identical twin is gay, what’s the likelihood you’re also gay? If the answer is 100%, then you could argue that genetics is the primary factor in determining one’s sexuality. It’s not, of course. The studies that have been done on identical twins are far from conclusive and the few that have been done have found that if one twin is gay, the probability that the other twin is gay ranges from a high end of just over 50% to a low end of around 20% or even lower (to be fair, all of those studies have shortcomings worth discussing). The point is that, while genes appear to play a role in one’s homosexuality, the exact nature of how and how much is still something scientists are trying to figure out. But that fact didn’t stop Micah Clark, Executive Director of the Indiana Family Institute, from making up his own conclusion in the wake of NBA player Jason Collins coming out: [Click headline for more…] Read more
