Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the East Coast of the US. Apart from Virginia (which is a toss-up), all the other states in its path vote reliably Democratic.
If Sandy does wreak a large amount of damage, I wonder who will be the first crazy preacher to suggest that this is god’s punishment for the liberal leanings of the people in that region, their support for same-sex marriage, and their pro-choice views.
UPDATE: It looks like we may already have a winner!
The Maryland Marriage Alliance, the group leading the effort against the referendum that grants equal rights to same-sex marriages in that state, has been careful to try and not appear to be religious hatemongers, arguing that they do not oppose gays or gay rights in general, but that their goal is limited to only objecting to extending marriage to cover their unions. [Read more…]
Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that religious groups, especially the orthodox/fundamentalist ones, seem to have no qualms about meting out harsh treatment to even their co-religionists for what, to the outsider, seems like absurdly trivial reasons. In that case, it was due to the inherent misogyny of orthodox/fundamentalist religions that seek to keep women in an inferior role, with strict rules about what they can wear, go, say, and do. [Read more…]
It is not uncommon for some religious people to want to restrict the rights of people of other religions. But it always surprises me the extent to which some religious people will go to restrict the rights of other people of their own religion, usually women. [Read more…]
The Republican candidate for the US senate in Indiana Richard Mourdock has created a furor by saying in a debate with his Democratic opponent that “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.” [Read more…]
The Book of Mormon, like other religious books, has its origins myths. An integral part of their story is that god punished the bad tribe (the Lamanites) by giving them dark skin while the favored ones (the Nephites) are given light skin. Brian Keith Dalton (aka Mr Deity) is a former Mormon and he explains how this racism is embedded in the Book of Mormon as an integral part of its theology. [Read more…]
Evangelist Billy Graham has put out full-page ads in Ohio newspapers including the Plain Dealer basically calling on people to vote for Mitt Romney. [Read more…]
Dan Barker, a former preacher turned atheist and now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, will be speaking on the topic of the separation of church and state on Thursday, Oct 25th, 7:00-9:00pm in the 1914 Lounge in the Thwing Center on the CWRU campus. Thwing Center is at 11111 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland just east of Severance Hall.
The event is organized by the CWRU chapter of the Center for Inquiry and is free and open to the public.
Ed Brayton has already covered the details of the fall from grace of Dinesh D’Souza, who has resigned from the presidency of The King’s College, an evangelical school whose mission seems to be to produce Christian warriors who will shape public policy. [Read more…]