On The “Compassion” In The Catholic Bishops’ Letter To Congress Against Gay Rights

Recently, United States bishops petitioned Congress to not protect gays from being fired for their sexual orientation.  Andrew Sullivan already precisely attacked the bishops’ immoral political calculation by which they explicitly committed themselves to a perverse moral contradiction whereby they simultaneously concede that homosexuality is to a significant extent not a choice and argue that […]

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Workshop To Teach Public School Teachers How To Proselytize In School

Because no legal or moral principles matter more to some fundamentalists than their drive to evangelize: “Every day, 55 million American children and their teachers show up for school. For the nearly 90% who attend a public school, the ACLU and other anti-Christian organizations have systematically stripped almost every vestige of Christianity from their schools. […]

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The Rise Of Islamo-Erotica

(Image: “God Is Great” by Makan Emadi) Betwa Shermer has a really interesting piece about Muslim artists in America who incorporate nudes into their art.  Defenses of nudity in art as permissible by Islamic standards: The Lebanese-born artist, who now lives in New York, insists that the taboo stems from a conservative society and not […]

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Is Shari’a Law “Inevitable” For UK Muslims?

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, claims it is: Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4′s World at One that the UK has to “face up to the fact” that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system. Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social […]

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Should Church Vandalism Be Considered A Hate Crime?

That’s essentially what New York state senator Jeffrey Klein is arguing when he explains proposed legislation to make vandalizing a house of worship a felony. And I agree with him.  Desecrating the grounds of institutions that represent specific subset communities is not simply attacking the specific owners of that property but sending a threatening message […]

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Angry Atheist Debate About A Mosque Near Ground Zerosts

Saturday I put together a large post highlighting a spectrum of thoughtful and/or provocative opinions on the recently approved plan to build a mosque a couple of blocks away from the former site of the World Trade Center in New York.  That day, for the sake of balance, I wanted to find someone who could […]

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8: The Mormon Proposition

8: The Mormon Proposition, a new movie out in theaters next Friday and available on DVD in July, explores the way that a tax exempt organization has waged a “secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights”: Thanks to Richard for the link. Your Thoughts?

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Burqa Banning: A Religious Or Cultural Issue?

Another thoughtful and passionate debate on this difficult issue from the land down under: Your Thoughts?

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Mikey Weinstein: Saving The U.S. Military From God

Foreign Policy has a profile of Mikey Weinstein who tirelessly works to combat the efforts of fundamentalist Christians to co-opt the U.S. military for purposes of religious recruitment and religious crusades: Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein shares his hate mail with both friends and strangers the way elderly people show off photos of their grandkids. He […]

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Teachers Suspended For Sprinkling “Holy Water” On Atheist Colleague

Last weekend I discussed the incident in which a teacher accused two other teachers of bullying her over her atheism by threatening to sprinkle her with “holy water” (in the form of a bottle of perfume).  I agreed with the atheist teacher’s assessment that she was being bullied but did not think the passive aggressive […]

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Should Religions Be Exempt From Laws Otherwise Applicable To Others?

ProfMTH explores the issue with a wealth of information, siding against such exemptions: The second video is chock full of legal information.  The most interesting bit in here is where he discusses Antonin Scalia’s strong case against religious exemptions and Sonia Sotomayor’s general support for them. 1. Regarding Christian Legal Society v. Martinez– –the decision […]

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Teachers Accused Of Bullying Atheist Colleague

South Florida News reports: The district is looking into whether the women at Ely High School tried to bully the counterpart into becoming a believer. “The students whom I interviewed said that’s absolutely untrue,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Johnny McCray, who represents both teachers, Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson. He says the two didn’t have […]

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Nigerian Witch-Hunter Tries To Silence Critics

Below is the just the first two parts of the British documentary “Saving Africa’s Witch Children”, which exposes the horrendous child abuse carried out in Africa under the pretense of exorcism, followed by today’s New York Times article relaying the denials and excuses offered by Helen Ukpabio, a dangerous promoter of these heinous practices: [Helen] Ukpabio’s critics […]

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Frenchwoman Rips Off Muslim Convert’s Burqa

The Telegraph calls it “burka rage”: A 26-year-old Muslim convert was walking through the store in Trignac, near Nantes, in the western Loire-Atlantique region, when she overhead the woman lawyer making “snide remarks about her black burka”. A police officer close to the case said: “The lawyer said she was not happy seeing a fellow […]

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Justice Stevens and the Separation of Church and State

The Center For Inquiry pays tribute to retiring Justice John Paul Stevens for his record of affirming the necessity of a wall between church and state: He was a stalwart defender of church-state separation, and through his persuasive powers he was often able to garner a Court majority to support a proper reading of the […]

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120 New Jersey Clergy Petition In Favor Of Marriage Equality

via Rosi Efthim, Pam’s House Blend, and Friendly Atheist: 120 Clergy from 19 Faiths in the State of New Jersey Monday, January 4, 2010Senate President Richard J. Codey Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. The State House Trenton, New Jersey 08625 Dear Governor Codey and Speaker Roberts: We are 120 clergy members across New Jersey from […]

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Retired Lt. General Insists All Muslim Men 18-28 Should Be Strip Searched

Retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney: I can’t put my own view any better than David Brooks and Glenn Greenwald already have. Greenwald: The Constitution is grounded in the premise that there are other values and priorities more important than mere Safety.  Even though they knew that doing so would help murderers and other dangerous and […]

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Man Fired For Telling Coworker Her Homosexuality Was “Bad Stuff”

This poor man had to suffer hearing a woman make references to her fiance a whole four times.  It’s damaged his psyche to the point where he can’t stop himself from saying the word homosexual six times in the space of two sentences.  He just can’t stop repeating the horrible word: “This woman repeatedly and […]

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Hate Crimes Demonstration: The “YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!” Edition

So last month fundamentalists were lying that extending hate crime protections (which already protect religious people to no complaint from anyone, including those so afraid of “thought police”) to gays would result in arrests for anti-gay remarks in sermons.  Dan Savage had an ingenious idea for showing the lie that this claim was.  The idea […]

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ZJ On Mormons And Civil Liberties

Everyone should see this video: Your Thoughts?

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Gay Marriage = Religious Freedom

Another great video from before the inception of Camels With Hammers worth catching up on in case you missed it.  This one is from robtish, who has other terrific videos on his youtube channel. It’s not just a cheerleading or general argument video but an in-depth information video with a bunch of important facts refuting some […]

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Boehner’s Spokesman: Belonging To A Religion Is Not A Choice, Being Gay Is

The shameless willingness to bullshit in the name of discrimination and special treatment makes the blood boil: You were born a Christian, not born gay. Religion is not a choice. Or so the spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) would have you believe. Questioned about why the House’s top Republican opposes a hate […]

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Geert Wilders Arrives In UK

The story: From Wilders’s press conference: Here was Pat Condell’s response last winter when the UK banned Wilders from visiting: Your Thoughts?

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Atheism, Albuquerque, And “Weird Al” Yankovic

Recently Hemant Mehta did an excellent job of mobilizing criticism of Albuquerque city councilman Don Harris for creating campaign literature that attacked his opponent for, among other things, being an atheist and contributing to a “Charles Darwin” scholarship.  Harris, to his credit apologized for trying to exploit his opponents views on religion in  the campaign, […]

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Fearmongering To Combat Same-Sex Marriage

Another ad filled with distortions: (via Joe.My.God) Your Thoughts?

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