UK bans teaching of creationism as science in schools

The UK is kind of a mess when it comes to church-state separation. Because they don’t have anything like our Establishment Clause to set boundaries on how much the government can be involved with religion, those decisions are essentially political ones. So while the British public is far less overtly religious than people in the US, their government funds religious schools even when they teach in quite a sectarian way. Meanwhile their current prime minister David Cameron and before him the odious and unctuous Tony Blair both make public statements of their religion, with the former saying that England is a Christian country.
[Read more…]

The ghastly doctrine of original sin

If there is one Christian doctrine that I think is deeply pernicious, it is that of original sin. For those unfamiliar with it, it essentially says that the first sin was committed by Adam and Eve when they disobeyed god and ate fruit from the tree of knowledge. This act resulted in them being banished from the Garden of Eden and became the ultimate cause of all the suffering in the world today. Thanks, Adam and Eve!
[Read more…]

Framework statements for debate on the proposition ‘God Does Not Exist’

First the bad news about the upcoming debate with Joe Puckett where I will be affirming the proposition ‘God Does Not Exist’: Plans for livestreaming the event fell through. So if you want to see it live, you will have to come to Northwest Church of Christ, 3904 38th Street NW, Canton, OH on Saturday, June 21, 2104 at 6:00 pm. The good news is that the entire debate will be posted later on YouTube.
[Read more…]

Atheists who yearn for god

There seems to be a whole class of people who like to call themselves atheists but seem to go out of their way to praise the virtues of belief. Francis Schaeffer rose to prominence as one of the creators of the Christian right as a powerful political fore. His son Frank Schaeffer was once a vigorous member of that movement but then became disillusioned and moved away from evangelical Christianity to join the Orthodox church.
[Read more…]

Maybe they should rename themselves the ‘Christian Party’?

I knew that Eric Cantor was Jewish and that his defeat resulted in the loss of one of the highest-ranking Jews in congress. What I had not realized was that he was the only non-Christian among all the Republican members in the US Senate and the House of Representatives. In other words, when it came to religious diversity in that party, Cantor was pretty much it.
[Read more…]