I tend to think of only younger people becoming atheists — sometimes between the ages of 13 and 16 — and it jolts me a bit every time someone tells me they lost their faith when they were 30 or 40. I don’t know how they deal with it. It’s such a major change. Similarly, when people ask me how I can be a vegetarian, I tell them it’s not that big of a deal. I was raised with it… Read more
Unlike the last one, these better reflect how people ought to be thinking about the Pope. His words just get more under my skin the more I think about it… From Chan Lowe: From Mike Luckovich: From Tony Auth: (via Slate) Read more
Here’s an interesting cartoon from the New Zealand Herald News: “He might be in touch with God but he’s definitely not in touch with reality”? Blogger Ken had the same reaction I did to it: I think that it’s safe to assume that anyone who claims they are in touch with God is out of touch with reality. It’s bad enough the Pope has that much influence. It’s even worse when he makes irresponsible statements like he has been. (via… Read more
Friday night, I went to the wedding/reception of a Catholic friend. There were Bible readings and prayers and all that, but one aspect of the religion was new to me. Chicken was being served for dinner. This was a problem, though, since it’s Lent and Catholics can’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent. In 1966 Pope Paul VI reorganized the Church’s practice of public penance in his “Apostolic Constitution on Penance” (Poenitemini). The 1983 revision of the Code of Canon… Read more
The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association announced the winners of the 2009 Christian Book Awards on Thursday. The winner for 2009 Christian Book of the Year? (Drum roll, please.) The Bible. Really. I’m shocked, I tell you. … How would you like to have been nominated in that category? “Yay! I’m up for Christian Book of the Year! I wonder what else is nomina—… Oh $#%&!” (They wouldn’t swear, of course… I’m picturing in my mind the person screaming “Ohhhh noooooooo”… Read more
Ted Haggard and his wife will appear on the courtroom TV show Divorce Court on April 1st (not a joke, though). They won’t be getting a divorce or anything like that. Rather, they will tell the presiding judge Lynn Toler and the viewing audience that divorce isn’t the answer. Well, if you can survive an extramarital affair with a gay male escort, I’m sure you can survive damn near anything… The Haggards say their marriage and Christian faith are stronger… Read more
Considering over 4,300 participated in it (or at least said they would), I’d say Atheist Pride Day was a success. It’ll be even better the next time around, I’m sure. Speaking of which, if you’d like to be involved in the planning of making it bigger and better, join the Atheist Awareness Facebook group! (Thanks to Neil for the link!) Read more
Reader Demyx has recently begun taking martial arts classes and enjoys them… but there’s one problem: The problem is that they’re constantly talking about “chi energy” and other pseudoscience stuff. This really bothers me. I mean, martial arts has actual health benefits (at least in the sense that I’m getting some exercise, if nothing else) so why do they constantly need to frame it in terms of magical thinking? Am I being oversensitive? Is there any way to do martial… Read more
Hello everyone, it’s Ron Gold here. Anyone living in Texas, Connecticut, Minnesota, or a handful of other states is probably aware that blue laws are still on the books in many areas. Blue laws, for those lucky enough not to be familiar with them (and who missed Trina Hoaks’ post on them last month), are archaic laws that seek to make religious beliefs part of the secular code. Frequently, they were designed to enforce the holiness of the Lord’s Day,… Read more
