Ever since Black Like Me was published in 1961 chronicling the experience of a white man posing as black in the segregated South, others have tried similar things. One of the latest is Timothy Kurek who grew up as your stereotypical Bible belt fundamentalist Christian, even to the extent of attending the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. He naturally hated homosexuality in all its forms. [Read more…]
The Neanderthals are an interesting species though unfairly treated. They are frequently portrayed as knuckle-dragging idiots, serving as a metaphor for people with retrograde views, especially with respect to gender and sexuality, though there is no reason to think that they were any worse than the ancestors of our own species at that time. [Read more…]
Remember my post last month about Ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis protesting a proposed new law in New York City that would require parents to sign a consent form before the rabbis could practice a form of circumcision where the rabbi uses his mouth to suck the blood from the infant’s bleeding penis? [Read more…]
In the wake of the release of the Pew survey that showed a rapid growth in those who call themselves religiously unaffiliated, the Religion News Service surveyed some religious leaders for their reactions. Many of them focused on the fact that young people are leading the move away from religious institutions. Here are some reactions. [Read more…]
The notable silence by the Republicans on the issue of same-sex marriage during the current election campaign is a sign, if one needed one, of how rapidly sentiment has shifted on this issue. In 2004 opposition to this was very potent and was used to galvanize voters to go to the polls and vote for George W. Bush. Daniel McCarthy argues in The American Conservative that it is one more sign of the retreat of religion in the face of modernity. [Read more…]
Taliban gunmen in Pakistan shot a 14-year old girl Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck. Her offense? They claimed that she had ‘promoted secularism’ on the blog or diary she wrote for the BBC starting in 2009 when she was just 11. But all she was doing was chronicling the anxiety and tensions of a child living in a danger zone. She had written under a pen name but her identity was exposed. [Read more…]
In investigating further following my post on Pulpit Freedom Sunday, I was initially dismayed by the possibility that there was a reasonable chance that the US Supreme Court may rule that churches have the right to engage in partisan political activity and support candidates and parties while still retaining their tax exempt status. It seemed like it would be yet another case of privileging religion in public life, allowing them advantages that are denied to non-religious groups. [Read more…]
A Pew survey released today finds that the number of people who identify themselves as religiously unaffiliated is now 20%, the highest it has ever been and a sharp rise from 15% just five years earlier. [Read more…]
Those of us in the US who are atheists and other forms of skeptics and are surrounded by religious people tend to look enviously at countries in Europe that seem to have thrown off those shackles a long time ago. I have long argued that things are not nearly as bad as they seem and that there are increasing signs that disbelief in the US is growing and it will only accelerate with time. [Read more…]
Today is Pulpit Freedom Sunday, when about 1,4000 clergy around the country are going to tell people whom they should vote for in the coming election. [Read more…]