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…]

Who’ll be the first?

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 bad stuff from ‘the good book’

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…]

The puzzle of internecine religious violence

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…]