Dan Linford started a Facebook discussion with this reminder, which he gave me permission to quote:
Here is your daily reminder that the following two statements are not consistent with each other and that I can imagine no reason for holding both to be true other than prejudice:
1. Religions are more about their official doctrines or statements in their holy books than what the adherents actually believe; [Read more…]
Houzan Mahmoud linked to an article about the 7,500 Kurdish women who fight ISIS in Syria.
“We have to be free from the Syrian government,” says YPJ member, Evin Ahmed, 26, (pictured above). She continues, “We need to control the area ourselves without depending on them. They can’t protect us from [ISIS], we have to protect us [and] we defend everyone…no matter what race or religion they are.” [Read more…]
Terry Pratchett gave a talk in 1985 titled Why Gandalf Never Married.
(Well first of all because Tolkienland is almost entirely male. Tolkien clearly didn’t want no stinkin’ women cluttering up his myth. Women are downers; everybody hates them.) [Read more…]
Another uh oh atheism has a dudebro problem article, this time from Amanda Marcotte.
She points out that you would think atheism would be a natural for women, given the way religions view women. (Spoiler: as inferior, and not fully human.) She points out that feminism has had a long tradition of outspoken atheists and religious skeptics. [Read more…]
There’s a compilation of scathing reviews of the new “Left Behind” [shudder] movie.
There’s one funny line.
“The running time is spent avoiding religion to such a loony extent that no one explains that this mass vanishing is God’s work until the film is nearly over. It’s almost as though screenwriters Paul Lalonde and John Patus believe people might buy a ticket to Left Behind and not know the twist, like someone sitting down to watch Godzilla and being shocked by the entrance of a giant lizard.” —The Village Voice
That’s one movie I will not be seeing, not nohow.
Robyn Pennacchia takes a look at sexism in gaming & atheism & similar as a matter of people in counter-cultural “communities” thinking they get a pass on little foibles like sexism precisely because they are counter-cultural. That’s a very important point that should get more attention and emphasis. [Read more…]
Via Ghaffar Husain of Quilliam: The Islamic State puts price tags on women, literally, and sells them.
By the end of August, the Islamic State had abducted up to 2,500 Iraqi civilians, most of them women and children, according to a new United Nations report based on more than 450 interviews with witnesses. [Read more…]
Sarah Khan, director of Inspire, has a short outraged public post on Facebook.
I’m #makingastand. I will not be celebrating Eid in remembrance of Alan Henning. There is nothing to celebrate. My faith has been hijacked by extremists. Wake up Muslims. Before more innocent people are murdered in the “name of our religion.” Reclaim our faith back from these monsters.
Sad, and right, and inspiring.
At Patheos – on the Catholic Channel – there’s a blog called Headlines from the Catholic World. On that blog there’s a post with the teasing title “Catholic Church the only body ‘effectively acting to eradicate pedophilia’.” There really is; I’m not making it up.
A former Vatican spokesman has written, against the backdrop of the house arrest of a former nuncio being investigated for abuse of minors, that the Church is the only international body acting effectively against pedophilia. [Read more…]
The bastards have killed Alan Henning.
Henning, a 47-year-old taxi driver from Salford in northern England, was part of an aid convoy taking medical supplies to a hospital in northwest Syria in December last year when it was stopped by gunmen and he was abducted. [Read more…]