Via reader Norm, I came across an article in The Onion that contains an exclusive interview with god where he was asked about what happens after we die. It appears that despite his omniscience, god is as mystified as the rest of us about what happens after we die, and he struggles with the same hopes and fears about it that many people have.
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Mark Tiborsky, an indefatigable member of the Northeast Ohio secular community who is actively involved in the Freethinkers, Center of Inquiry, and Coalition of Reason has issued a press release about my upcoming debate with Rev, Joe Puckett, where I will be affirming the proposition that god does not exist.
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It is a given that Christianity is the most common religion across the US. But the Washington Post has a nice set of graphics that provide a state-by-state breakdown (and even down to the county level) of the second most popular religions, and there were some surprises.
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We tend to think that opposition within the Abrahamic religions to the teaching of evolution and sex education in schools is driven by Christians and Muslims, and that the Jewish religion is more flexible in its ability to interpret its scriptures and thus has no problems with either.
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The terrible way that the nuns in the Catholic church treated unwed mothers and their children in Ireland has been documented over and over again, but new horrors keep emerging. The latest is the report in the Washington Post about the discovery of the remains of nearly 800 children found in a massive septic tank at the back of a home run by nuns. These children are supposed to have died between 1925 and 1961.
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It appears that there is a new version of the film based on the Left Behind books to be released on October 3. For those not familiar with this series of best sellers, they are based on the Rapture that supposedly will occur at the ‘end times’ as foretold in the Book of Revelation, when the true Christians will suddenly be all taken up to heaven before Jesus returns to destroy the evildoers (i.e., those left behind) in years of bloody warfare. Or something like that, it’s all a bit confusing. But one thing that is sure is that there will be blood. Oh yes, lots of blood. The books revel in it.
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Pope Francis may not have changed anything as far as rigid Catholic doctrine goes but he has been outspoken about the problems of inequality and the need to improve the conditions of the poor, and this is an area where he can take action without contravening entrenched dogma.
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One of the worst aspects of most religions is that it lays down major guilt trips on people. It does this by making people believe that that a whole range of things (thoughts as well as actions) that we would consider normal are actually sinful, then it postulates an omniscient being who knows everything including those thoughts, and then promises a lifetime in hell for those who transgress. True, it allows for absolution for those who grovel appropriately but it surely must be keeping people in doubt as to whether they have groveled enough to avoid eternal damnation.
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I was surprised to hear a report on NPR by Blake Farmer about the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptists compete with the Catholic church for being the Christian sect that most stridently opposes equal rights for the LGBT community. But the report quoted some pastors at the meeting who shocked the audience into silence by saying that it was time to tone down the anti-gay rhetoric when other problems such as divorce were much more important moral issues.
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A recent Pew poll surveyed voters’ attitudes about a range of qualities of people and what would make them more likely to vote for, less likely and indifferent. It turns out that for voters, being an atheist is the least desirable quality in a candidate for elected office, with 53% saying that they were less likely to vote for an atheist, while 41% said it would not matter and just 5% saying it would make them more likely.
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