The Vatican and same-sex marriage

In the wake of the approval on election day of three referenda in the US approving same-sex marriage and the defeat of one measure that would have banned it, and with Spain upholding its same-sex marriage law and France and the UK poised to introduce legislation to do the same, the pope has dug in his Prada heels and vowed to never stop insisting that marriage is only between a man and a woman, with a Vatican spokesman arguing, “If not, then why not contemplate freely chosen polygamy, and naturally so as to not discriminate, polyandry?” [Read more…]

How did the religious vote?

Before the election, there was much speculation about how evangelicals would feel about voting for a Mormon. Having contraception become a key issue also made predicting the religious vote hard.

But despite the Catholic church hierarchy pretty much declaring war on the Obama candidacy, exit polls show Catholics broke for Obama 50-48%, pretty much the same as the rest of the electorate. [Read more…]

They’ll have to pry this pineapple from their cold, dead hands

In England, the Reading University Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society (RAHS) was kicked out of a fair aimed at first-year students when they tried to advertise a forthcoming debate on the topic “Should we respect religion?” Their offense? As part of their display, they had in their stall a pineapple with the label Mohammed. [Read more…]