All about clothes, shopping, dieting, flirting, and hairstyles. What else do they care about, after all?… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Tennessee mayor calls secularists “terrorists” 
Oct 13th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“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
Finders keepers
Oct 12th, 2011 4:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonBride 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
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Kidnapping women into marriage
Oct 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“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
Ferocious extrapolation
Oct 12th, 2011 9:37 am | By Ophelia BensonThe 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.
… Read the restThe 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
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Child sacrifice in Uganda
Oct 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
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
UK Christians suffer extrapolation
Oct 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“It is as if there is a systematic effort to extrapolate British society from its Christian heritage.”… Read the rest
Ireland rejects UN HRC findings on abortion legislation
Oct 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No abortion even “when pregnancy poses a risk to the health of the pregnant woman.”… Read the rest
The Onion on progress for women in Saudi Arabia
Oct 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They have been allowed to leave their homes under the guardianship of a male relative and celebrate the right to vote.… Read the rest
More godless groups in the world
Oct 11th, 2011 11:11 am | By Ophelia BensonLeo Igwe sent me the link to a heartening article about the global energization of atheism.
… Read the restAt 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
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Humanists, atheists drive for wider global impact
Oct 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Switzerland, India, Uganda, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, Ireland, Malawi, Israel – even the US military.… Read the rest
Terry Glavin on Afghanistan and Absurdistan
Oct 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
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
Apostles have been raised up by God
Oct 11th, 2011 10:06 am | By Ophelia BensonVia Ed Brayton, Terry Gross talks to the apostle C Peter Wagner. Be afraid.
… Read the restOn 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.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A foxhole atheist speaks up
Oct 11th, 2011 9:28 am | By Ophelia BensonA-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
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
C Peter Wagner on Fresh Air
Oct 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
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
United for separation of church and state
Oct 10th, 2011 5:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother 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.
… Read the restThere 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,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Scenic interlude
Oct 10th, 2011 5:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonI took a dog friend to the beach at Golden Gardens this afternoon. It was beautiful and stormy.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Dude – Title II of the Federal Civil Rights Law of 1964
Oct 10th, 2011 5:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Center for Inquiry reports:
… Read the restPrejudice 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
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
More from “religion makes people good” dept
Oct 10th, 2011 10:59 am | By Ophelia BensonHaredi protesters pitch a fit about a new girls’ school – a religious school! - next to “their” neighborhood.
Senior Beit Shemesh rabbis took part in the rally, in which participants called for “maintaining the purity of the haredi neighborhoods against strangers plotting to desecrate them, backed by the evil regime.”
Got it all, dunnit – purity, strangers, plotting, desecrate, the evil regime. You can’t get much more viciously crazy and anti-human than that.
… Read the restA female journalist was assaulted by a small group of young protestors, who
cursed and spat at her as well…According to the students’ parents, groups of radical haredim arrive at the
school from time to time and swear at the girls.Two haredi men were
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Haredi men throw shit, call little girls “sluts”
Oct 10th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In September they staged a protest against the school and the “evil regime” that approved its founding. A female journalist was assaulted and spat on by a group of men.… Read the rest
