In response to my two earlier posts where I condemned the practice of circumcision (see here and here), commenter TGAP Dad took issue with my response to a comment in the second post in which I said that “The only reason people do it is because parents want to indelibly mark their religious beliefs on the child”, pointing out that in his own experience growing up in an almost exclusively Christian community, circumcision was still routinely practiced, disproving my statement since Christianity does not require the practice as a religious identifier. [Read more…]

In an article in Salon titled Don’t Trust the Godless, Jesse Bering says that even though he is an atheist, he trusts religious people to do the right thing more than the godless. As an example, when he looks for a cab in a strange city, he prefers to take one that has prominently displayed religious icons such as crucifixes and Bibles over those that don’t. He seems to have swallowed whole the idea that belief in god makes people behave better because of their fear of divine retribution. [Read more…]

Via blog reader Tim, I learned that yesterday about 150 Mormons in Salt Lake City publicly declared that they were leaving the church. They committed a mass symbolic act of filling a basket with formal letters asking that their names be removed from church rolls. [Read more…]

Those who defend the practice of circumcision tend to fall into two camps. The first argue that to forbid it is to violate the religious freedom of the groups (mainly Jews and Muslims) who practice it. This is absurd. No one is saying that people should be forbidden from getting circumcised. What we are saying that circumcision should not be forced on anyone else. If any adult wants to get circumcised, they should be allowed to do so. But to allow parents to mutilate their babies to satisfy their own religious beliefs is simply wrong. You shouldn’t be allowed to establish your bona fides with god by mutilating your children. [Read more…]

I find it surprising that male circumcision is still considered to be an acceptable practice although female circumcision is not. I am well aware that the latter is far more serious than the former but both irreversibly violate the bodily integrity of a child and should not be allowed. Those who believe that the practice provides some benefit can choose to do it for themselves when they become adults. [Read more…]

Thomas Euteneuer, a Roman Catholic priest who was described as a ‘rock star’ in the anti-abortion movement and the president of Human Life International, reportedly one of the nation’s largest anti-abortion groups, resigned after a woman alleged that his exorcisms to rid her of her demons were actually a series of sexual molestations. The woman has now filed a lawsuit seeking $5.35 million in damages against the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, its bishop and HLI. [Read more…]