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So President Obama has finally come out in favor of equal civil rights for gays. About damn time, and kudos to him for having the courage to do so ahead of the election instead of waiting until it was “safe” to take a stand. He should have done so years ago, but still, credit where [...]
Archive for the ‘Secularism’ Category
Better late than never
May 10th, 2012 
Deacon Duncan 
Posted in Civil Rights, Current Events, Human Rights, Liberty, Morality, Politics, Religion, Secularism, Society 
9 Comments »And in the end, who pays?
April 25th, 2012 Deacon Duncan The school board at Cranston RI racked up a $150,000 legal bill in their foolhardy attempt to defend the blatantly unconstitutional prayer banner in the Cranston High School. And now they’ve decided it’s unfair to expect them to pay the whole thing. Their solution? Split the bill with the taxpayers, 50/50. [UPDATE: A commenter informs [...]
An odd response
April 23rd, 2012 Deacon Duncan My latest post at Evangelical Realism seems to have attracted the attention of a self-described “New Evangelist” named David Roemer. It’s an odd response, though. My post was about William Lane Craig’s problems with the doctrine of Hell and Christian exclusivism, and, well, see if you can tell what (if anything) Roemer’s response has to [...]
Life in the Kingdom?
March 31st, 2012 Deacon Duncan Do you live in the buckle on the Bible Belt? Are you a skeptic, unbeliever, or other form of non-Christian sojourner there? The Uncredible Hallq is hosting a discussion for people to share what the secular experience is really like for someone in the midst of the Kingdom of God. Strange as it may sound [...]
Conservative trust in science in sharp decline
March 29th, 2012 Deacon Duncan From the color-me-surprised department comes news of this study showing a very clear trend towards anti-science hostility among conservatives and/or people who regularly attend church. Relying on data from the 1974-2010 waves of the nationally representative General Social Survey, the study found that people who self-identified as conservatives began the period with the highest trust [...]
Posted in Current Events, Denialism, Education, Politics, Science, Secularism, Society 10 Comments »School prayer draws opposition from—wait, who?
March 22nd, 2012 Deacon Duncan For more than 30 years, Dr. Harold Brockus was the Presbyterian pastor at the Good Samaritan Church in Pinellas Park. Sermons, missions, prayers. Everything you would expect from a place of worship and a man of God. So when a school prayer bill landed on Gov. Rick Scott’s desk this month, Rev. Brockus understandably had [...]
Protecting religions
February 8th, 2012 Deacon Duncan Ed Brayton writes: But there is an inherent danger in having the government decide which religions deserve protection and which do not, which are “legitimate” and which are not, especially since all religions are ultimately illegitimate. On the other hand, it seems absolutely clear to me that Scientology was created for the sole purpose of [...]
The year of …?
February 1st, 2012 Deacon Duncan Via Ed Brayton comes this report that the Pennsylvania House has declared 2012 to be “The Year of the Bible,” on the spurious grounds that “Biblical teachings inspired concepts of civil government that are contained in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States” etc, etc. Which of course is why the [...]
Posted in Christian Revisionism, Current Events, History, Politics, Secularism, Society 13 Comments »Baptist seminary student recalls history
January 28th, 2012 Deacon Duncan Zachary Bailes, a seminary student at Wake Forest, has this interesting perspective on the public outcry against Jessica Ahlquist in Cranston, RI. An irony not lost on students of history is that Roger Williams, the prodigious 17th century rabble-rouser, founded America’s First Baptist Church in nearby Providence in the name of “soul freedom” after banishment [...]
Defending the defenders
October 28th, 2011 Deacon Duncan Contrary to the famous myth, there are atheists in foxholes–and in helicopters, and in supply depots and in mess halls, and on and on. Unbelievers are willing to dedicate their lives (and sometimes, to risk them) in order to defend our freedoms. Now you can help defend theirs as well. Go to whitehouse.gov and sign [...]
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