Honor killings occur in some extreme religious sects when a woman has brought dishonor onto her family. Her own family members brutally murder her. It’s usually premeditated. The courts don’t get involved most of the time. Read these details of a recent case: … up to 1000 men from the Yezidi Kurdish community of Mosul killed a teenager who’s only crime was running away to marry a Muslim man whom she loved and converting to his religion. There are videos,… Read more
There are a few stories today about a special someone who is promoting public prayer on the steps of the Supreme Court: William “Bill” Murray, whose mother Madelyn Murray O’Hare [sic] used her son to legally end voluntary prayer in public schools in 1963, was to return to the US Supreme Court Thursday, May 3, to support a ‘National Day of Prayer’ service on the High Court’s front steps, organizers said. Murray heads the Religious Freedom Coalition, a non-profit educational… Read more
Today’s the day to take action instead of idly praying. Worthy actions include: Giving blood, signing up to be an organ donor, helping a stranger, or donating money to your favorite secular non-profit so they can continue the good work that they do! (Please take action in that order, though.) Maybe you were even more creative with how you spent the day? If you have interested stories from today’s charitable festivities, feel free to share them in the comments! [tags]atheist,… Read more
One of the most fascinating aspects of the New Humanism conference was getting the chance to listen to Salman Rushdie speak. Most of the students packed the balcony of the church at Harvard where the lecture was taking place. On the ledge of the balcony were numerous digital cameras and tape recorders trying to get a memento from the event. And afterwards, there was a mad rush for pictures and autographs. (I had to beat down 329849283 people to get… Read more
Mark Oppenheimer (who generally admires Christopher Hitchens, he says) wrote a piece yesterday for the Huffington Post where he pointed out some glaring mistakes that he noticed in Hitchens’ new book God is Not Great: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, the new book by Christopher Hitchens, contains one of the stupidest and ugliest factual errors published by a major publisher in years. Some will call the error anti-Semitic; others will just call it woefully uninformed. But it’s… Read more
Here’s one more comic to ponder today, discussing the Pat Tillman controversy… at least the religious aspect of it. Comic isn’t the right word for it. It makes me want to do anything but laugh. Here’s a link to the ESPN article mentioned in the comic. [tags]atheist, atheism, Pat Tillman, Tom Tomorrow, This Modern World[/tags] Read more
I Drew This has a great cartoon about how religious fundamentalists claim that this country is a “Christian Nation” despite the words of one of our Founding Fathers. I also enjoy that the moderator is a bird. Because that’s just random. [tags]atheist, atheism, I Drew This, Christian, Thomas Jefferson[/tags] Read more
After my appearances on Life Today, I received a number of emails from people who saw me on the show. There have also been a number of comments made on this blog from Christians more interested in preaching than having a conversation. While more letters are coming in, I thought I’d share certain excerpts from a few of the emails. They can basically be lumped into one of a handful of categories… Good: I was shocked to see you on… Read more
Matthew at Get Underground had an experience not unknown to many atheists: he had to listen to an older man talk about Jesus on a subway. It wasn’t something he asked for. He was just trying to read his newspaper, until the man started talking to him, and Matthew wanted to be polite so he indulged the older man in his dialogue: Somehow the topic of the mostly one-way conversation turned towards history. “All history is, is HIS story. And… Read more
According to a recent press release regarding the National Day of Prayer, the Freedom From Religion Foundation said this: The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the largest national association of atheists and agnostics, which reached 10,000 members last month, says public officials should not issue proclamations of prayer or direct citizens to worship. While they are correct that a “day of prayer” should be sponsored by churches and not the government, my focus is on the membership. 10,000+ members. That’s incredible…. Read more
