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Higher bullshitting

Oct 13th, 2011 1:02 pm | By

Andrew Sullivan thinks “militant atheists” have an excessively crude epistemology. (Via WEIT)

First he tells us how his works.

As to Coyne’s challenge to present a criterion of what is real in the Bible and what is true, I’d argue that empirical claims -   like, say, a census around the time of Christ’s birth, or the rule of Pontius Pilate in Palestine at the time – can be tested empirically. But the Gospels themselves have factually contradictory Nativity and Crucifixion stories…and so scream that these are ways to express something inexpressible – God’s entrance into human history as a human being.

If you are treating these texts as if they were just published as news stories in the

… Read the rest

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That kind of ruckus

Oct 13th, 2011 11:42 am | By

Separation of church and state? That’s terrorism!

The mayor of Whiteville, Tennessee said his community is  under attack from a national atheist organization that is threatening to sue  unless they remove a cross atop the town’s water tower.

“They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned,” said  Mayor James Bellar about the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “They are alleging that some Whiteville resident feels very, very intimidated by this  cross.”

And that makes them terrorists. Saying a minority feels intimidated by a majoritarian religious display is terrorism, which is why the United States has never had any truck with pestilential terrorist ideas about the protection of minority rights. Thank god for loyal patriotic majoritarian anti-terrorism public officials like the mayor … Read the rest

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Finally, a game for girls *

Oct 13th, 2011 | Filed by

All about clothes, shopping, dieting, flirting, and hairstyles. What else do they care about, after all?… Read the rest

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Tennessee mayor calls secularists “terrorists” *

Oct 13th, 2011 | Filed by

“We don’t have people of that belief here and if we do they’re not going to raise that kind of ruckus for the rest of the town.” Gee I wonder why.… Read the rest

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Finders keepers

Oct 12th, 2011 4:21 pm | By

Dear old tradition.

Bride kidnapping, or “bridenapping”, happens in at least 17 countries around the world, from China to Mexico to Russia to southern Africa. In each of these lands, there are communities where it is routine for young women and girls to be plucked from their families, raped and forced into marriage. Few continents are not blighted by the practice, yet there is little awareness of these crimes, and few police investigations.

Well, you see, it’s something that happens to women and girls, and it doesn’t matter what happens to them. They aren’t really people you know. They look like people, sort of, but that’s deceptive – it’s just an outer thing, like the skin on a mango. … Read the rest

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Kidnapping women into marriage *

Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by

“It’s often seen as a cultural practice and not a crime. Women are considered as commodities – both by the husband who takes them and their own families who accept a deal.”… Read the rest

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Ferocious extrapolation

Oct 12th, 2011 9:37 am | By

The new bandwagon (or meme): moan a deep moan about the persecution of Christians in places like the UK and the US. A guy called (inelegantly) Tom J Wilson does a particularly maudlin version for the Huffington Pest.

The fact that British police would consider the displaying of Christian scripture an illegal offence is a concerning indication of the mentality that British society has come to adopt towards all things Christian.

For anyone who follows the British media’s reporting of American politics, the continuous attempt to run down certain American politicians on account of their faith rather than engaging with their politics has now become a rather boring familiarity.

Bush and Palin are crazed evangelical fundamentalists we are forever

… Read the rest

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Child sacrifice in Uganda *

Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by

The mutilated bodies of children have been discovered at roadsides, the victims of an apparently growing belief in the power of human sacrifice.… Read the rest

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UK Christians suffer extrapolation *

Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by

“It is as if there is a systematic effort to extrapolate British society from its Christian heritage.”… Read the rest

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Ireland rejects UN HRC findings on abortion legislation *

Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by

No abortion even “when pregnancy poses a risk to the health of the pregnant woman.”… Read the rest

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The Onion on progress for women in Saudi Arabia *

Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by

They  have been allowed to leave their homes under the guardianship of a male relative and celebrate the right to vote.… Read the rest

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More godless groups in the world

Oct 11th, 2011 11:11 am | By

Leo Igwe sent me the link to a heartening article about the global energization of atheism.

At the World Humanist Congress in Oslo in August, delegates from India,
Uganda, Nigeria, Argentina and Brazil — all countries where belief in a supreme deity or deities has a strong hold — reported mounting interest in their philosophy.

Like their counterparts in Europe and North America, they argue that morality
is based in human nature and does not need a father-figure god to back it up
with punishment in an afterlife, in which they do not believe.

“There are more godless groups in the world than ever before,” Sonja
Eggerickx, a Belgian schools inspector who is president of the International
Humanist and

… Read the rest

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Humanists, atheists drive for wider global impact *

Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by

Switzerland, India, Uganda, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, Ireland, Malawi, Israel – even the US military.… Read the rest

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Terry Glavin on Afghanistan and Absurdistan *

Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by

There’s a lot of crazy talk among pundits in the NATO capitals about how things haven’t changed for Afghan women.… Read the rest

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Apostles have been raised up by God

Oct 11th, 2011 10:06 am | By

Via Ed Brayton, Terry Gross talks to the apostle C Peter Wagner. Be afraid.

On demons

“As we talk, in Oklahoma City there is an annual meeting of a professional
society called the Apostolic — called the International Society of Deliverance
Ministers, which my wife and I founded many years ago. … This is a society of
a large number, a couple hundred, of Christian ministers who are in the ministry of deliverance. Their seven-day-a-week occupation is casting demons out of people. And they have professional expertise in this and they happen to meeting — to be meeting right now. My wife is one of them. She’s written a whole book called How to Cast Out Demons.

… Read the rest

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A foxhole atheist speaks up

Oct 11th, 2011 9:28 am | By

A-News talks to Justin Griffith, FTB colleague, Military Director of American Atheists, and the guy behind Rock Beyond Belief.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhKKLhGijuQ

 … Read the rest

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C Peter Wagner on Fresh Air *

Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by

One of the biggest changes from traditional churches to the New Apostolic Reformation is the amount of spiritual authority delegated by the Holy Spirit to individuals.… Read the rest

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United for separation of church and state

Oct 10th, 2011 5:36 pm | By

Another reply to Wallis and Pinsky. (I like it when the objects of theist bullying fight back. Sue me.) This one is by Rob Boston of Americans United.

There are people in this country who belong to fundamentalist Christian religious groups and who believe that they have the right (and perhaps the duty) to run your life.

That is a fact. These people exist. I’ll be spending some time with them this weekend at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit.”

It’s also a fact that some folks would like to pretend that these people don’t exist, or that they are a fringe group that can be easily dismissed. Some evangelicals are embarrassed by the antics of politically active,

… Read the rest

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Scenic interlude

Oct 10th, 2011 5:13 pm | By

I took a dog friend to the beach at Golden Gardens this afternoon. It was beautiful and stormy.

… Read the rest

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Dude – Title II of the Federal Civil Rights Law of 1964

Oct 10th, 2011 5:08 pm | By

The Center for Inquiry reports:

Prejudice against atheists manifested itself again when The Wyndgate Country
Club in Rochester Hills, Michigan (outside of Detroit), cancelled an event with
scientist and author Richard Dawkins after learning of Dawkins’s views on
religion. The event had been arranged by the Center for Inquiry–Michigan (CFI), an advocacy group for secularism and science, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

The Wyndgate terminated the agreement after the owner saw an October 5th
interview with Dawkins on The O’Reilly Factor in which Dawkins
discussed his new book, The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really
True.

In a phone call to CFI–Michigan Assistant Director Jennifer Beahan, The
Wyndgate’s representative explained that

… Read the rest

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