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Razib Kahn has a most disturbing chart: Kahn explains the above: On the x-axis you see the proportion who accept that adulterers should be stoned. On the y-axis you see the responses to amputation and apostasy. The red points are the proportion who agree with the death penalty for apostates, and the navy points those [...]
Archive for the ‘Civil Liberties’ Category
How Would Apostates, Adulterers, And Thieves Fare In A Democratic Egypt?
February 18th, 2011 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Law, Law, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs 
3 Comments »Can You Really Love Religious People If You Hate Their Religion?
February 15th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Atheists do not exactly claim to “love sinners but hate sins” (if for no other reason than that most, if not all, of us reject the category of “sin” as a meaningful or valuable way to talk about ethical failure). Also, atheists may be more realistic than to think that we really do, or feasibly [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Love, Love, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Prejudice, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Virtues, Virtues 15 Comments »Innocent Woman Tased
February 14th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Is it always excessive force to taser someone who is not posing a serious physical risk to others? Your Thoughts?
Posted in Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, News, News Discussion, News Discussion 
Tags: Liberal Viewer, Stephen Colbert No Comments »Just How Much Control Over Their Children’s Thought Are Parents Entitled To?
January 31st, 2011 Daniel Fincke In reply to yesterday’s open philosophical question whether a Swedish law banning any school, even private ones, from indoctrinating students by teaching their religious tenets as truths (with the ulterior motive of undermining Islamic schools’ abilities to radicalize their students), Mary Young makes a rigorous and eloquent case against such bans well worth highlighting (and [...]
Posted in 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Creationism, Creationism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Education, Featured, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Racism, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Dogma, Dogmatism, Homeschooling, Indoctrination, Islamophobia, Parents' Rights 21 Comments »TOP Q: “Is It Unjust To Outlaw Schools, Even Private Religious Ones, From Teaching Religious Doctrines As Though True?”
January 30th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Sweden is planning to make it illegal, even for private schools, to teach religious doctrines as true. Their content may be discussed, of course, but they will not be able to be presented as facts. In The Guardian, Andrew Brown explains the issues involved and the ulterior motives which may really explain the legislation: The [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Creationism, Creationism, Education, Featured, Free Speech, Free Speech, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Today's Open Philosophical Question (TOP Q) 9 Comments »TOP Q: Where Are The Lines Between Peaceable Death Penalty Advocacy And Criminal Incitement?
January 29th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Last week a heinous, conscience-shocking injustice occurred when the brave, openly gay, Ugandan gay rights campaigner David Kato (pictured above) was murdered shortly after a Ugandan newspaper featured him on the cover with the headline: “100 PIctures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak” and the words “Hang Them” next to it. The AP photo of the newspaper [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Bible, Bible, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Free Speech, Free Speech, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Islam, Islam, Law, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Today's Open Philosophical Question (TOP Q) Tags: Death Penalty, Hate Speech 1 Comment »NYPD Blue Moons The FCC With Court Approval
January 4th, 2011 Daniel Fincke A good day for freedom of speech as the censorious FCC loses its case trying to levy a fine for a naked butt on NYPD Blue: NEW YORK – The Federal Communications Commission cannot fine broadcasters for showing a woman’s nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of “NYPD Blue,” a federal court ruled Tuesday, citing [...]
Pakistani Governor Murdered For Opposing Blasphemy Laws
January 4th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Enraging news: Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — The governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province was assassinated by his own security guard Tuesday, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, apparently because he spoke out against the country’s controversial blasphemy law. The security guard was arrested, Malik said. The shooting occurred at Islamabad’s Kohsar Market, which is frequented by [...]
Posted in Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Free Speech, Free Speech, Islam, Islam, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Theocracy, Theocracy, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: Blasphemy Laws, Pakistan, Rehman Malik 1 Comment »ProfMTH Pwns William Lane Craig Over Ignorant Demand For “Strict Constructionism”
July 14th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Free Speech, Free Speech, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Law, Law, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: 1st Amendment, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, Justice Antonin Scalia, ProfMTH, Strict Constructionism, William Lane Craig No Comments »France To Ban Burqa-Like Veils
July 13th, 2010 Daniel Fincke EuroNews.net writes: A law banning the wearing of a full Islamic veil in public in France has been adopted by the lower house of parliament. The ruling UMP and the New Centre party voted for the ban on the burqa or niqab while the Socialists, Communists and Greens abstained. The law goes to the upper house in [...]
Posted in Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Feminism, Feminism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Islam, Islam, Law, Law, Law & Politics, News, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Women's Issues, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Burqa Ban, France, French Burqa Ban, Veil No Comments »“Mickey Mouse Jesus” Gets Art Curators Convicted Of Inciting Religious Hatred In Moscow
July 13th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The LA Atheism Examiner reports: Two art curators, Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, were convicted Monday by a Moscow court of “inciting religious hatred’ for putting on an exhibet called “Forbidden Art” in 2007. A Mickey Mouse Jesus, a Coca Cola Christ with the slogan “this is my blood” and a Christ on the cross [...]
Posted in Arts, Christianity, Christianity, Free Speech, Free Speech, Jesus, Jesus, Law, Law, Religion, Religious Satire, Religious Satire Tags: Andrei Yerofeyev, Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyanksy, Blasphemy Laws, Gleb Yakunin, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse Jesus, Russian Orthodox Church, Yuri Samodurov No Comments »FOX News’s Judge Andrew Napolitano: Bush And Cheney Should Be Indicted (And Lambasts Obama Too)
July 13th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A great interview with Ralph Nader: Napolitano’s new book, in which he discusses all these issues, is Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History. Thanks to Aram for the link. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, George W. Bush, George W. Bush, Law, Law, Law & Politics, News Discussion, News Discussion, Politics, Politics, Videos Tags: After Words, Andrew Napolitano, C-Span, Habeus Corpus, Ralph Nader, Thurgood Marshall, Torture No Comments »The Latitude Offered For Claims Of Religious Exemptions To Laws On A State By State Basis
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke What do the distinctions in the map mean in specific legal terms? This post runs down the history and present kinds of religious exemptions in American law. (The map comes from the same blog, The Volokh Conspiracy) Your Thoughts?
Gay Rights Advocate Decapitated In Uganda
July 6th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Unspeakably sad and outraging: A search for a missing pro-gay priest, the Rev Henry Kayizzi Nsubuga, who disappeared almost two and half weeks ago after delivering a scathing speech at St. Paul’s Church, Kanyanya supporting homosexuality in Uganda, led the joint search team of Integrity Uganda and Namirembe Diocese to the severed head of another [...]
Oil Spills Onto 1st Amendment, Making It Unreadable, Invalid
July 2nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Anderson Cooper reports: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Free Speech, Free Speech, Law, Law, Law & Politics, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Politics, Politics Tags: 1st Amendment, BP, BP Oil Skill, Media No Comments »Penn Jillette Again On The Difference Between Muslims And Christians In Taking Criticism
June 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I already highlighted Penn Jillette’s Vanity Fair interview in which he praised Christians for being better at taking criticism than Muslims, but this quote from his new Las Vegas Weekly interview, which I found via Boing Boing and Reddit, conveys his feelings as much as his thoughts, and those feelings are both depressing on the one [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Bullshit, Las Vegas Weekly, Penn and Teller, Penn and Teller's Bullshit, Penn Jillette, Scientology 2 Comments »Supreme Court Upholds University Non-Discrimination Statement
June 28th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Zack Ford explains: Here’s a brief recap of the situation: The University of California has a nondiscrimination policy. If you want to be recognized as a student group (i.e. use the university’s name, access funding for student groups, reserve campus spaces, etc.), you must abide by the nondiscrimination policy. The Christian Legal Society at Hastings [...]
Posted in Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Free Speech, Free Speech, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Law, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights Tags: United States Supreme Court, Zack Ford No Comments »On The “Compassion” In The Catholic Bishops’ Letter To Congress Against Gay Rights
June 21st, 2010 Daniel Fincke Recently, United States bishops petitioned Congress to not protect gays from being fired for their sexual orientation. Andrew Sullivan already precisely attacked the bishops’ immoral political calculation by which they explicitly committed themselves to a perverse moral contradiction whereby they simultaneously concede that homosexuality is to a significant extent not a choice and argue that [...]
Posted in Andrew Sullivan, Authoritarianism, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, Politics, Religion, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Same Sex Marriage Tags: ZJ Jones, ZJemptv No Comments »Workshop To Teach Public School Teachers How To Proselytize In School
June 20th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Because no legal or moral principles matter more to some fundamentalists than their drive to evangelize: “Every day, 55 million American children and their teachers show up for school. For the nearly 90% who attend a public school, the ACLU and other anti-Christian organizations have systematically stripped almost every vestige of Christianity from their schools. [...]
Posted in Christianity, Fundamentalism, Law, Law & Politics, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Rights, Separation of Church and State Tags: First Baptist Church of Central Florida, Florida Baptist Convention, Liberty Council, Religion In Public Schools, Separation of Church and School, Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools No Comments »Multicultural Human Rights
June 19th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Johann Hari makes the argument that we have the right to stand up for the rights of those in other cultures without fear that we are not “multicultural” enough: Should you shut up about human rights abuses because they are happening far away, to people you don’t know, who have a different culture or colour [...]
The Rise Of Islamo-Erotica
June 15th, 2010 Daniel Fincke (Image: “God Is Great” by Makan Emadi) Betwa Shermer has a really interesting piece about Muslim artists in America who incorporate nudes into their art. Defenses of nudity in art as permissible by Islamic standards: The Lebanese-born artist, who now lives in New York, insists that the taboo stems from a conservative society and not [...]
Posted in Arts, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Islam, Koran, Photography, Religion, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: "God Is Great" by Makan Emadi, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Betwa Shermer, Columbia University, Erotica, Harper College, Iranians in America, Islamic Art, Islamo-Erotica, Khalid Al Tahmazi, Makam Emadi, Makan Emdai, Marilyn Monroe, Nada Shabout, Normandie's Hejab, Nudes, Paintings, University of North Texas, Zainab Bahrani No Comments »Is Shari’a Law “Inevitable” For UK Muslims?
June 15th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, claims it is: Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4′s World at One that the UK has to “face up to the fact” that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system. Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social [...]
Cults Of Inerrant Leaders
June 15th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Glenn Greenwald summarizes an atrocity of institutionalized injustice, whereby the executive branch of the United States has the power to abduct and torture innocent people with impunity: The Supreme Court today denied a petition of review from Maher Arar, the Canadian and Syrian citizen who was abducted by the U.S. Government at a stopover at JFK Airport when returning [...]
Posted in Andrew Sullivan, Authoritarianism, Barack Obama, Civil Liberties, Featured, George W. Bush, Law, Law & Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics Tags: Canada, Glenn Greenwald, Maher Arar, Omnipotence, Superpower, Syria, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Torture, United States Supreme Court No Comments »Should Church Vandalism Be Considered A Hate Crime?
June 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke That’s essentially what New York state senator Jeffrey Klein is arguing when he explains proposed legislation to make vandalizing a house of worship a felony. And I agree with him. Desecrating the grounds of institutions that represent specific subset communities is not simply attacking the specific owners of that property but sending a threatening message [...]
Lars Vilks, Recently Attacked At Speech, Joins “Kill Lars Vilks” Facebook Group
June 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke After he drew Mohammed with the body of a dog, an Al-Qaeda front organization put a bounty on Lars Vilks’s head: $100,000 for killing him and $150,000 if it’s a death by slit throat. He was recently attacked at a talk he was giving when he showed photos of his controversy riling drawings. Now he [...]
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