Now, this is how you start a brand new year of your secular student group! Bring Charles Darwin along and get your pictures taken with him, as the University of Melbourne Secular Society did: I wonder where else you could put that cutout… Maybe UMSS could lend it out to a campus Christian group for their Hell House. (Thanks to Jason for the link!) Read more
As reader Scott points out, the picture says it all. The New York Times article discusses how Kenneth and Gloria Copeland (and other prosperity gospel preachers) are encouraging followers to give them money in order to get more money back from God. “God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you,” preached Mrs. Copeland, dressed in a crisp pants ensemble like those worn by C.E.O.’s. Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the… Read more
In case you weren’t at the Secular Student Alliance conference last week (and if not, I demand a good explanation), you can now see PZ Myers’ keynote speech: Incidentally, that talk is on the SSA’s new YouTube channel, which will also have other talks from the conference in the near future. Subscribe, donate, tell your friends! Read more
Children are prone to ask questions like this: 4-year-old boy: Mom, is God real? The mom’s response is entertaining. Better than forcing an answer onto the child as if it were true, I suppose. (Thanks to Justin for the link!) Read more
Michael Baigent is the co-author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the book that provided the underlying idea behind The Da Vinci Code (that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child and the bloodline lives on). In fact, his last name is an anagram for a main character in Dan Brown’s book. His work has been both revered and vilified and, in 2007, he was on the losing end of a lawsuit against Brown. Baigent is about to release his new… Read more
Imagine your neighbor having this conversation with you: Neighbor: I wanted to ask you about [your son]… We’re going to this thing tomorrow and I wanted to know if he could come?… It’s a church thing, but the kids don’t really do a lot of the church stuff. They just play. I thought he might like it. You: Well, what kind of church thing is it? Neighbor: Well, it’s church. We go to a really nice church down the street… Read more
Remember the Nampa Classical Academy in Idaho? The charter school that planned to use the Bible as the primary source for teaching material, and had conservative Christians serving in advisory capacities? The school that was a lawsuit waiting to happen? The Idaho Public Charter School Commission has told the school not to use the Bible. The Nampa Classical Academy says it had planned to use the Bible and other religious texts as a primary source for instruction but not to… Read more
The Economist has a nice, short article about Galileo and the contributions he made. … He saw mountains casting shadows on the moon and realised this body was a world, like the Earth, endowed with complicated terrain. He saw the moons of Jupiter — objects that circled another heavenly body in direct disobedience of the church’s teaching. He saw the moonlike phases of Venus, indicating that this planet circled the sun, not the Earth, in even greater disobedience of the… Read more
Datamancer was doing a project where he needed about 4 to 5 plastic fetuses. I don’t know what project that was, but I’m curious… Anyway, apparently, plastic fetuses only come in bags of 50. I did not know this. So what do you do with the extras? You destroy them and document their fates. 4. Fetus, the other white meat. A friend of mine works in a deli and shrinkwrapped the fetus I gave him. It even has a custom… Read more
Of all the advantages of having a tax-exemption, I’ll admit this one never came to mind. … a Michigan church is $70,000 richer courtesy of the Michigan Lottery. The Covenant Life Worship Center and its 25 members in Haslett, Mich. had one of the second-prize tickets in the Lucky 7s raffle held May 4. … Michigan Lottery officials say the church will receive the full amount of the prize because it is a tax-exempt group. Pastor Marilyn Parmelee tells the… Read more
