In anticipation of the 7th season premiere of the always-hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm tonight, check out this religion-related clip from season 5. The setup: Larry David is pretending to be an Orthodox Jew. He gets stuck on a ski lift with an Orthodox Jewish woman. According to Jewish law, a single woman is not allowed to be next to a man who is not her husband after sundown… Let the hilarity ensue: I’m with Larry. Some religious people are just… Read more
Hey, Mike Clawson here again. Sorry I’ve been scarce around here this past year. Between going back to graduate school (working towards a PhD in Religion/History), and taking care of the kiddos so my wife could work on her book (Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices, now available on Amazon!) and travel for speaking gigs, I haven’t had much time to keep up with all the interesting conversations going on here at Friendly Atheist, much less post… Read more
When President Barack Obama wanted to speak to schoolchildren about the importance of staying in school, working hard, and washing your hands, the school sent out four separate notices to parents. When the Boy Scouts of America — with their history of discrimination against atheists and members of the GLBT community — want to use class time to recruit new members, the school said nothing to parents. That prompted Jennifer Burks to write this letter-to-the-editor: On the second day of… Read more
Remember the Kirk Cameron/Ray Comfort video promoting their new “revised” version of On the Origin of Species (with a 50-page introduction written by Comfort that he thinks “debunks” evolution)? Comfort and Cameron are planning to give away free copies of the book at colleges across the country on November 19th in an effort, I presume, to set a Guinness World Record for miseducating the most people in one day. But who needs to respond to the 50-page introduction to the… Read more
Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang run the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool. They’re Christian. Back in late March, a Muslim woman was staying at their hotel. I’m not sure what prompted it, but a discussion about religion ensued between the guest and the owners. The conversation is said to have begun after the couple was challenged about their Christian beliefs. It is understood that among the topics debated was whether Jesus was a minor prophet, as Islam teaches, or whether he… Read more
Too funny… how did I not see this earlier? It comes from comedy troupe POYKPAC: (Thanks to Jeff for the link!) Read more
Jen just became a lawyer in Missouri, having passed the state’s Bar Exam. She attended her enrollment ceremony the other day but faced a dilemma. She was told that all the new lawyers would recite an oath at the end of the event. It sounded harmless at the time. Once she received a copy of it, though, she was disturbed to see four little words at the end of it: So help me God. Not “a god” or “god,” but… Read more
I love this story because I’m not sure if anyone wins or loses. Daniel Jones was recently kicked out of a UK Tesco grocery store for wearing religious apparel (a hood). He refused to take it off. Here’s the story:. He said he’d gone to the store to buy something to eat during his lunch-break when staff approached him and ordered him to the checkout where they explained he would have to remove the offending hood or leave the store…. Read more
It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day! I’m taking this opportunity to share a very special discovery. Do you like pirates? Do you like metal rock music? Them your band for the day is Alestorm. They play “True Scottish Pirate Metal”. Here’s the first song on their album “Captain Morgan’s Revenge.” The singing (pirate singing if ever I heard it) starts around 45 seconds in, with lyrics of: Many moons ago, in a faraway land We met an old man with… Read more
A month ago, there was a news story about a Florida high school principal (Frank Lay) who asked another administrator to “offer a prayer of blessing during a school-day luncheon for the dedication of a new fieldhouse at Pace High School.” It wasn’t the first time Lay ignored the church/state wall. He was facing jail time and a $5,000 fine since he violated a court order demanding he not proselytize in the public school. Yesterday, a judge issued a ruling… Read more
