Ted Haggard updates: He’s straight! Really. Another reverend even said so. So it must be true. Here’s Reverend Tim Ralph: “He is completely heterosexual… That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn’t a constant thing.” So if you’re a guy, and you have sex with a guy, but it’s not “constant,” you’re still straight. And if you’re just “acting out” when you get sodomized, you’re still straight. Which sounds odd, considering many… Read more
David C. Egner of RBC ministries wrote a daily devotional yesterday that discusses Proverbs 11:30: “He who wins souls is wise.” Guess who they mentioned in in the piece?! Go me. But apparently, $504 is nothing compared to what you should be paying to convert souls to Christ. According to Egner: The apostle Paul gave a lot more than $504 in his endeavor to bring the gospel to people who had never heard of Jesus Christ. He traveled many long,… Read more
Dr. Richard Hanley is a professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware. He’s writing a book about South Park, to be released in late March. It’s called South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating. It’s blasphemous. Provocative. And… um… penetrating. (Are you excited yet?) It may possibly be the most offensive philosophy book ever written. Here’s the beginning of the first chapter, titled: “May God Strike This Book Down!” (Click on the picture and expand it.) You… Read more
I’m back from the 3rd annual meeting of the atheist leaders across the country. (And no, they’re not all “atheists” but I’m just ignoring label differences right now.) Like so many of these types of get-togethers, it’s hard to get everyone to agree on anything, but I did like one major idea that was proposed. On the National Day of Prayer, many secular groups choose to participate in the National Day of Reason. This year, let’s get as many groups… Read more
The meeting of atheist leaders is tomorrow, and I’ll be back late Monday night with all the fun news. Until then… A couple friends and I were sent by a benefactor to a fundraising event for the Young Democrats of America tonight. Forget the whole part about how it was utterly chaotic, how people were rude while the speakers were at the podium, and how everyone there gave off a vibe of “I want to be a politician when I… Read more
This Saturday, for the third year in a row, the leaders of nearly all the major atheist/humanist organizations in the country will be meeting in Washington D.C. to discuss ways to collaborate, share resources, and decide best methods to share our message with others. Participating organizations include: American Atheists American Ethical Union American Humanist Association Anti-Discrimination Support Network Association of Humanistic Rabbis Atheist Alliance International The Brights Camp Quest Center for Atheism Freedom from Religion Foundation Humanist Institute Internet Infidels… Read more
In case you missed it last night, Brian Sapient and others from the Rational Response Squad were featured on Nightline last night, discussing the Blasphemy Challenge. It seemed to be a fair portrayal. Much better than the one you saw on Fox News Channel… here’s the video. Enjoy! [tags]Brian Sapient, Rational Response Squad, Nightline, Blasphemy Challenge, Fox News Channel, atheist, atheism, Christianity, Christian[/tags] Read more
Allow me to speak Macaca for a moment. Bollywood star (and former Miss World) Aishwarya Rai is engaged to Abhishek Bachchan. (That’s like the Indian celebrity equivalent of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.) Aishwarya is said to be a manglik. This means she was born at a time when “Mars [was] in the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house of the Vedic astrology lunar chart.” If two mangliks get married, it’s ok. But if a manglik marries a non-manglik,… Read more
Dave Bruemmer of Cal State Fullerton wrote a couple articles regarding his de-conversion from Christianity in the school’s newspaper, The Daily Titan. In the first article, he talks about the time he finally decided to become “Bible literate”: Had I kept my studies narrowed to evangelical interpretations and listened to only a specific genre of Christians, I doubt that I ever would have changed my mind or questioned things. It was when I opened my mind up to outside ideas,… Read more
Mike Jones, the male escort who outed evangelical leader Ted Haggard, is back in the news. Jones was doing some research for his forthcoming book (published by Seven Stories Press) and visited New Life Church to get a first-hand account of what it’s like in there. He said of his visit: “It wasn’t to rub anyone’s face in it by any means. I was wanting to get some perspective, to see where they are coming from, what the magnet is.”… Read more
