It’s not something you are going to hear much about, but Craig Hicks, the guy who allegedly just shot three Muslims in North Carolina, may have had religious motives in the killing. Was he a right-wing religious fanatic? No, of course not. If he were, you can be sure we’d all be hearing about it […]
Continue reading →In the “more evidence that people want all the trappings of religion without God” column, Iceland is set to build the first modern temple to Norse gods, without any real belief in Norse gods, of course: Icelanders will soon be able to publicly worship at a shrine to Thor, Odin and Frigg with construction starting […]
Continue reading →After the controversial magazine Charlie Hebdo was targeted by Muslim terrorists, all of France (and most of the world) got together to champion free speech, even of the most inflammatory, controversial variety. Following such an outpouring, France has made a historic decision to punish French homophobes for inflammatory speech. Double standard? In what a major […]
Continue reading →A new study (that recapitulates a 2004 study of the same kind) indicates again that religious people, especially those who regularly attend religious services, are twice as likely to consider themselves “very happy” as those who do not: The correlation between religiosity and happiness is clear, but explanations of the connection and possible causal relationship […]
Continue reading →Did Pope Francis reject the historicity of the Genesis account and embrace evolution with its billions of years? Read on to find out.
Continue reading →After the outrage bomb went off over what many considered an illegal subpoena of sermons from five Houston pastors, the city has apparently backed off. Which means it has merely narrowed the scope of its subpoena: The city had asked five pastors for “all speeches, presentations, or sermons” on a variety of topics, including the […]
Continue reading →Wow. Richard Dawkins has had a way recently of expressing his evolutionary ethics in pretty much the most tactless way possible. A few weeks ago, he was in hot water for his defense of “mild” pedophilia. Now, he’s in the hot seat again for saying it was immoral not to abort an unborn baby with […]
Continue reading →The mainstream media has tried everything to ignore the obvious: the Israel-Palestine conflict is religious more than it is political. At least one commentator has been willing to point this out: Please tell me—in light of these passages [from the Old Testament and the Quran/Hadith] written centuries and millennia before the creation of Israel or […]
Continue reading →According to the Center for Inquiry, good health care is beset by ignorance—the ignorance of faith and the ignorance of the anti-scientific (with apparently a great deal of overlap): 1. The imposition of religious dogma on health care, resulting in limited access to and even the denial of medical services; 2. The shameless marketing of […]
Continue reading →Within ten days of offering Ayaan Hirsi Ali an honorary degree for her humanitarian work to protect African girls from genital mutilation and slavery, Brandeis University is rescinding that offer. They caved into pressure from a few vocal students and Islamic sympathizers who said Ali was an “Islamophobe.” Today, Brandeis University released a cryptic statement […]
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