Westboro church wins funeral picketing case

To no one’s surprise, the US Supreme Court by an 8-1 margin ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church had the right to peacefully picket funerals. This was clearly the correct decision, in my opinion, and what surprises me is that there was even one dissenter (Justice Alito).

I don’t know why people keep taking this church to court. It only gives them the publicity they crave and makes them into First Amendment martyrs. Their First Amendment rights should not be violated just because we do not like what they say.

Why atheism is winning-7: Signs of religion’s decline

(For previous posts in this series, see here.)

The idea that religion is in a period of inexorable decline is, unsurprisingly, not one that is shared by religious apologists. In fact, Alastair McGrath in his book The Twilight of Atheism argues the opposite, that it is atheism that is in decline. I have not read this book but Keith Parsons, a professor of philosophy at the University of Houston, has and in an essay that is well worth reading in full, challenges McGrath and in the process reinforces my case that it is atheism that is ascendant.

Parsons says that what is remarkable about the current debate on atheism is that it has generated enormous and widespread interest, extending far beyond the small intellectual circles that were the normal range for such controversies.

These days, says McGrath, we hear not faith’s but atheism’s withdrawing roar. Now, early in the 21st century, we are told that atheism is in decline and religion is resurgent.

How odd, in that case, to find atheist books recently heading up the bestseller lists and atheists showing up on the TV talk shows to make the case for unbelief. Is atheism becoming chic? The public response to Sam Harris’ The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, as well as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell, appears to indicate a swelling interest in arguments for unbelief. A bestselling atheist book is really quite a novelty. Speaking from my own personal experience, an atheist book typically sells in the dozens, and its author will die of old age long before seeing a royalty check.

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These people are crazy

Just when I think that the Republican congressional leadership and their nutty supporters could not get any more childish, they surprise me. They are deliberately abandoning biodegradable utensils in the cafeteria (a policy implemented by the previous congress) to bring back Styrofoam, one of the most environmentally damaging materials. The press aide to the new speaker John Boehner was so proud of this move that he felt it worth sending out a tweet.

This kind of pettiness is everywhere. After ridiculing Michelle Obama’s creation of an organic garden in the White House as an example of her environmental extremism, they are now attacking her campaign against childhood obesity as an example of the Obamas’ desire for a ‘nanny state’. Really? You really oppose urging children to eat healthily and get more exercise?

I would not be surprised if she praised motherhood and apple pie, these crazy people would claim that she is an angry feminist who hates men and is also trying to destroy the peach industry.