Even the most die-hard anti-Christian is likely to concede that a lot of the music inspired by Christianity is excellent, although the words are often simply appalling. Growing up in the Methodist Church with its emphasis on singing, I used to love the hymns we sang in church and the Christmas carols. [Read more…]
On The Daily Show Jon Stewart suggests ways to try and even the score.
(This clip appeared on April 9, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
What does it mean that the four people who entered the race suggesting that it was god’s idea in the first place (Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachman) have now all been eliminated? God’s power seems to have waned quite a bit from the days when he created the universe and parted the seas. Now he cannot even get his people the Republican nomination. Perhaps appearing on pieces of toast is the best he can do now. [Read more…]
There can be, of course, no single agreed-upon answer to this question but it makes for a lot better title than the real point of this post, which is what do I, as an atheist, want.
What I want is what I imagine most people want, a world in which there is peace and justice and freedom from hunger. So what has atheism got to do with those goals that have no connection with religion per se? It is that I see religion as breeding sectarianism and tribalism and conflict, all major obstacles to achieving them. So getting rid of religion would be a major step forward. [Read more…]
I am sure some of you have heard the hilarious story of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church patriarch Kirilli I that has been all over the blog world. But just in case you missed it, here it is. [Read more…]
Taslima Nasrin is someone who has had to suffer many persecutions simply for expressing her views. Her Wikipedia page recounts her history and the times she has had to go into hiding and even leave her home country because she angered narrow-minded and vindictive people. [Read more…]
While driving along yesterday I listened to a Marketplace report on wine that said in passing that Vincent of Saragossa was the patron saint of wine and that he had been crushed to death in a wine press. [Read more…]
Today is both Good Friday and Passover, so what could be more appropriate than looking at one of those idiotic controversies that religions fight over, this time over a building in Jerusalem? [Read more…]
Vicki Kennedy, wife of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, was disinvited from being the commencement speaker at a small Catholic college after the bishop of that area expressed concern about her views. The bishop declined to even speak with her about them before intervening. [Read more…]