Sri Lanka has apparently decided that it needs to become the Buddhist equivalent of Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries where any form of disparagement to their favored religion, however trivial, is not allowed. We had the situation of tourists who were arrested for taking a gag photo at a Buddhist temple and R&B singer Akon who was denied entry because one his videos had scantily-clad dancing women with a Buddha statue in the background. [Read more…]

David Brody writes for CBN (Christian Broadcast Network) which is an evangelical website founded by Pat Robertson and which broadcasts the 700 Club show where Robertson muses on all manner of topics, often unintentionally hilariously. [Read more…]

Now that the oral arguments before the US Supreme Court over the two same-sex marriage cases are over, there has been a ton of commentary and analyses. [Read more…]

Reader Susanne sent along an interesting link to a story about a niche German shoe company with a global clientele that found that their packages to the US were far more likely to be delayed or even lost. [Read more…]

The new pope Francis has been getting great press just for seeming like an ordinary human being in his everyday interactions. But we should not overlook the fact that on the major issues that have defined the church so negatively, he seems fully accepting of those reactionary doctrines. [Read more…]

In a post yesterday I discussed the fact that although Buddhism did not have many of the absurd philosophical baggage of other major religions, its philosophy had some negative aspects that warranted concern but usually don’t get as much attention. [Read more…]

When people try defend religions from the charge that they are riddled with superstitions and are a negative influence on society, they will often invoke Buddhism as a counter example. Even I have spoken favorably of Buddhism in the past but is should be emphasized that Buddhism looks fairly good only in comparison with religions like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. [Read more…]

The post yesterday on god as dog owner about how best to respond to religious people who say that the reason we cannot understand why a good god allows suffering is similar to why a dog does not understand why his owner takes him to the vet for what may be painful treatment for his own good. It is something that to the dog is a deep mystery because it is beyond the dog’s comprehension. In the same way that the owner’s actions are ineffable to the dog, God is ineffable to us. [Read more…]