In a recent audience, where he met with dignitaries from other Christian communities, Pope Francis had a few words to say about ecumenism — a dialogue between different denominations or religious groups in search of common ground. His speech for the occasion included shout-outs to Jews, Muslims, non-Catholic Christians, and — surprisingly — “those men and women who, although not identifying themselves as followers of any religious tradition, are nonetheless searching for truth, goodness, and beauty.” The media latched on to those words with interest, proclaiming the pontiff’s intention to create new alliances between the Catholic Church and the “nones.” Was Francis really calling on the irreligious (including the spiritual-but-not-religious as well as Humanists) to “work with believers to build peace and protect the environment”? My advice to atheists: tread cautiously… Read more
To add to the current thread: Frank B. writes at the Rationalist Association that even the godless can be saved: Read more
On the most recent episode of “Cougar Town” (TBS), the character Grayson Ellis (who’s dating Courteney Cox’s character Jules Cobb) comes out as an atheist. You can see it around the 3:20 mark below: Not a bad start. A likable atheist character. A conflict of faith. An interesting storyline… unfortunately, the conflict doesn’t really go anywhere from there. It just devolves into pointless drivel… Read more
Dusty picks up where he left off, now summarizing parts 3 and 4 of History Channel’s “The Bible”: (via Cult of Dusty) Read more
Word out of the UK is that the co-owners of the Prested Hall hotel refused to hire an applicant for the job of creating advertising and promotional graphics… because he was a Christian: Read more
Angie Schuller Wyatt, the granddaughter of famous televangelist Robert H. Schuller, wrote a book exploring the intersection of faith and sexuality called God and Boobs and I published an excerpt from it last week. Afterwards, a lot of you had questions for Wyatt, who is still a Christian. I sent a handful of them along to her and she wrote back with responses, adding that the comments from all of you were “totally hilarious and nearly all respectful of my views despite our differences. For that, thank you.” Our exchange is below: Read more
Hod.org is the self-proclaimed “first independent site for religious homosexual Jews,” and they are setting out to make a change in their community. As it stands, any gay members of the Haredi ultra-orthodox community are forced to undergo conversion treatments. Hod is seeking to put a stop to this outdated, pointless, and potentially dangerous treatment by posting signs on objects through the city: The sign, attached to a bike reads… Read more
As I alluded to yesterday, half of Alcoholics Anonymous’ famous Twelve Steps (PDF) include mentions of how you must look to a higher power in order to overcome your addiction. One of the problems with that, especially in the past several years, is that atheists and agnostics who need a way to recover from alcoholism either don’t join or feel excluded from local AA groups that push religion on them. (They may be unaware of secular alternatives that are out there or simply don’t have any of those groups in their areas.) G. Jeffrey MacDonald of Religion News Service points out that AA is going through a crisis right now, wondering how flexible they can be with the religion issue: Read more
