After multiple tornados ripped through Oklahoma and other states over the weekend, one of the survivors Paul Lord predictably said, “We are truly blessed. God saved us, and that’s what it’s about.”
No, its not. What it’s about is that god did not save five other people, three of them children. [Read more…]
Mike Huckabee has launched a new national radio talk show that is aimed at the same conservative audience as Rush Limbaugh, except that he promises that it will be more civil. He may be sensing an opening to attract those who are getting tired of Limbaugh’s ugly bombast. [Read more…]
Catholic seniors in a Catholic high school directly challenged Catholic bigwigs from the archdiocese who convened a special assembly just for seniors to try to persuade them to vote against gay marriage in Minnesota on a constitutional amendment next fall. [Read more…]
Sanal Edamaruku is the head of the Indian Rationalist Association and has a flair for the dramatic.
Long-time readers of this blog will recall the time I wrote about a Hindu ‘tantric guru’ (whatever the hell that is) who claimed that he could kill someone without touching him or her, just by performing rituals. Edmaruku challenged the guru to kill him on live TV and hilarity ensued as he laughed and taunted the guru as the latter desperately went through his entire repertoire of mumbo-jumbo to no avail. Now that is what I call must-see TV. [Read more…]
Even the most die-hard anti-Christian is likely to concede that a lot of the music inspired by Christianity is excellent, although the words are often simply appalling. Growing up in the Methodist Church with its emphasis on singing, I used to love the hymns we sang in church and the Christmas carols. [Read more…]
On The Daily Show Jon Stewart suggests ways to try and even the score.
(This clip appeared on April 9, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
What does it mean that the four people who entered the race suggesting that it was god’s idea in the first place (Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachman) have now all been eliminated? God’s power seems to have waned quite a bit from the days when he created the universe and parted the seas. Now he cannot even get his people the Republican nomination. Perhaps appearing on pieces of toast is the best he can do now. [Read more…]
There can be, of course, no single agreed-upon answer to this question but it makes for a lot better title than the real point of this post, which is what do I, as an atheist, want.
What I want is what I imagine most people want, a world in which there is peace and justice and freedom from hunger. So what has atheism got to do with those goals that have no connection with religion per se? It is that I see religion as breeding sectarianism and tribalism and conflict, all major obstacles to achieving them. So getting rid of religion would be a major step forward. [Read more…]
I am sure some of you have heard the hilarious story of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church patriarch Kirilli I that has been all over the blog world. But just in case you missed it, here it is. [Read more…]