religion
razib | October 26, 2009The US State Department has released International Religious Freedom Report 2009. Here the list of countries where "violations of religious freedom have been noteworthy."
Afghanistan
Azerbaijan
Brunei
Burma
China
Cuba
Egypt
Eritrea
Fiji
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Laos
Malaysia
Nigeria
North Korea
Pakistan
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Sudan
Tajikstan
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
H/T: Talk Islam.
pharyngula | October 26, 2009Paul Haggis, a Hollywood bigwig, has publicly renounced and rebuked $cientology. His reasons: they lie, they disregard basic ethical concerns, they smear their critics. Hasn't everyone known this all along? The anti-reality field at those scientology centers must be very strong.
Now let's see a few more celebrities ditch the nonsense, and they'll have nothing left to prop them up.
pharyngula | October 26, 2009Christopher Hitchens has been debating a Christian pastor named Douglas Wilson on the subject of whether Christianity has been a force for good in the world. These debates were recorded, and assembled into a film called Collision. I haven't seen it, and I doubt that it will be showing in my small town theater, but I'll be looking for it on DVD. This is obviously not a movie review, then…I just want to comment on one point Wilson throws out.
"It's not a question of whether we have faith, it's what we have faith in," says Wilson. "Christopher has faith in the role of scientific inquiry,…
pharyngula | October 25, 2009Somehow, this story is just too cliched.
Pastor Marc Grizzard claims the King James version of the Bible is the only true word of God, and that all other versions are "satanic" and "perversions" of God's word.
On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church will set fire to other versions of the scripture, as well as music and books by Christian authors.
Book burning, sectarian intolerance, and overalls? Good grief, man, that is just playing to the stereotype of the southern good ol' boy. Every educated Southerner is cringing at what you're doing to…
emjohnson | October 25, 2009
Answer: Everyone that couldn't afford it, if his representatives are any indication.
From People for the American Way:
Focus on the Family's James Dobson, on a recent conference call for anti-choice activists, sounded both those charges, calling reform legislation a "huge abortion industry bailout" as well as a "health care power grab by the federal government." Operation Rescue similarly conflates the anti-choice and anti-government arguments, urging activists "to act now to stop Obama's radical, socialistic abortion agenda..." The Christian Broadcasting Network has provided a major…
grrlscientist | October 25, 2009tags: religion, flowchart, humor, funny, diagram
Flowcharts are a great way to make sense out of confusing scenarios, and there's no scenario that's more confusing than trying to figure out what religion you should follow. This helpful flowchart was created to guide you through this complex process:
Can you all spot the error in this diagram?
[Some perspective: If every one of you wonderful people who has been flooding in to my blog these past 18 hours had donated ONLY ONE DOLLAR EACH to my DonorsChoose "Challenge" classrooms, they would have $40,000+ to spend on teaching materials to help…
grrlscientist | October 25, 2009tags: atheism, African-Americans, christianity, muslims, JohnBeezy3, streaming video
This video discusses something that I've often wondered: Where are the Black Atheists?
stoat | October 24, 2009Not Vicki this time. No, its the one about those naughty left-footers poaching the bums on our seats. Speaking of bums, apparently the apostates say: "The Church of England is, in the view of many of us, ceasing to be the church of Jesus Christ and becoming the church of political correctness, not only the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate - to which we object - but also in many attitudes to human sexuality from divorce and remarriage, to homosexuality."
As an observer of all this, I find it confusing. Suppose I was to believe in Christianity - Jesus Christ is the Son…
pharyngula | October 24, 2009What a useful way to look at it: Vatican, Inc is hoping to improve their bottom line by acquiring a competitor, Church of England, Ltd. About 600 Anglican middle-managers are in talks with the Catholic Church to rip up their theological roots (which, it turns out, aren't all that important) and rejoin the old establishment. This could get interesting, since many of those Anglican priests are married; will Catholicism suddenly change course and allow a privileged subset of their priests enjoy sex?
One has to wonder why so many Anglicans are suddenly jumping ship. It might be because Pope…
pharyngula | October 23, 2009This is Ali, a six month old baby in Southern Russia.
It's a miracle! Every Monday and Thursday, fresh quotations from the Quran 'magically' appear on his legs, belly, or arms when he's home alone with his mommy and daddy, and then the pilgrims show up in the thousands to give the happy family lots and lots of attention. I simply can't imagine how red marks might appear on the delicate skin of a young baby while under the care of doting, attentive parents, or why anyone might cheat and fake a miracle…can you? The only possible explanation is that the omnipotent, omniscient master of the…
emjohnson | October 22, 2009I am tremendously excited to have David Sloan Wilson as a member of ScienceBlogs, and having had a small role in his decision is extremely gratifying. However, I take serious issue with the thesis of his first entry that bears the subtitle "Science as a Religion that Worships Truth as its God." This sat uncomfortably with me when I first saw it and it's been a persistent irritation ever since.
A light went off when I read one of the comments on his inaugural post. It was buried down the list (#54 to be precise), was only two sentences long, and would easily have been overlooked if I didn…
pharyngula | October 22, 2009Karen Armstrong has once again published a pile of meaningless twaddle in defense of religion. In this mess, she takes a series of statements about god that she says need rethinking…but as always, her "rethinking" is merely a reworking of apologetics for maintaining the status quo. It's almost as if she thinks it is a new and brilliant idea to just keep going to church and accepting Jesus into your heart. It's not.
Here's her little list of truisms that she aims to puncture.
"God Is Dead."
Armstrong says this isn't true, and points to fundamentalist upheavals as evidence that "God has proven…
gregladen | October 22, 2009Those of us who live in Minnesota have suspected this for a long time.
It is all visible in the following video. PZ is the one with the two big zeros on his shirt:
The University of Minnesota is apologizing for a bit by its Goldy Gopher mascot poking fun at a praying Penn State football player.
A video made before last Saturday's game at State College shows Penn State defensive end Jerome Hayes kneeling in prayer in the end zone, in front of Minnesota's cheerleaders.
Goldy Gopher then kneels in front of Hayes. When Hayes stands up, so does Goldy. The mascot tries to make some contact, but…
gregladen | October 22, 2009Below the fold is the video of Oprah and her encounter with Atheists.
"So you don't believe in a higher being? ... I'm puzzled. I'm confused. You don't believe in god ...? Maybe you believe in you don't know you believe ... maybe it's more spiritual ..."
Oprah, has anyone ever told you that they assume you would prefer to not be black? There are people who think that, you know. I certainly hope that if someone said that to you ... something like "I can't believe you'd want to be black. Wouldn't life just be easier if you were white...." that you would not find such a thing offensive…
gregladen | October 21, 2009For reasons you need not know, I just did something very odd ... watched about ten minutes of Oprah. And I watched as she sat and had a bite to eat with a table of atheists. Whoa.....
The atheists were Danish women in Copenhagen. They talked about the system of government, economy, social services, and so on. And at one point Oprah said "I heard you claim to be happier because you are not involved in religion" or words to that effect. Oprah seemed interested in that, but also said that she just didn't understand it.
Overall, this was a very interesting event. Oprah was displaying for…
jrosenhouse | October 20, 2009So says NPR:
Last month, atheists marked Blasphemy Day at gatherings around the world, and celebrated the freedom to denigrate and insult religion.
Some offered to trade pornography for Bibles. Others de-baptized people with hair dryers. And in Washington, D.C., an art exhibit opened that shows, among other paintings, one entitled Divine Wine, where Jesus, on the cross, has blood flowing from his wound into a wine bottle.
Another, Jesus Paints His Nails, shows an effeminate Jesus after the crucifixion, applying polish to the nails that attach his hands to the cross.
“I wouldn't want this on…
gregladen | October 20, 2009A sexually explicit illustrated Book of Genesis by controversial artist Robert Crumb, which features Bible characters having intercourse, has been condemned by religious groups.
Aside from the explicit sex scenes, The Book of Genesis by Robert Crumb also includes general nudity and some gratuitous violence.
Crumb is famous for his "Fritz the Cat" cartoons.
Religious leaders have stated that since the bible is part of people's religion, it has to be treated differently than other themes and that Crumb is wrong to make this version of Genesis. Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute:
"It is…