Lately, I’ve been hearing more and more stories in the news and on blogs about religious people speaking out on quite a few topics… from a religious standpoint. Whether the topic is competing religions, education, church-state separation, politics, science, or human rights, it seems that religious folks, be they Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Mormon, or …
Tag Archives: Islam
Jerry Coyne criticizes The Guardian
Jerry Coyne criticizes The Guardian for its “faitheism and mush-headed religious apologetics” and finds a piece by Nancy Graham Holm titled “Prejudiced Danes provoke fanaticism” to be particularly despicable. In the article, Holm refers to the now infamous Danish cartoons, one of which portrayed Muhammad wearing a bomb as a turban (Holm incorrectly states it …
Facebook makes for interesting discussions
A friend of mine posted a Facebook update this morning proclaiming that she is a Christian and proud of it, asking others to proclaim the same and to pray for others who join in. Here’s the text of her post [sic… but emphasis mine]. [Her name] Is a Christian and proud to say it!! Let’s …
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Traditional Islamic Values
An Iraqi immigrant, 48-year-old Faleh Almaleki, has been arrested for punishing his daughter for becoming “too Westernized” according to this MSNBC article. Okay, maybe “punishing” wasn’t the most accurate word for me to use. Here’s what the article says. An Iraqi immigrant has been arrested in Georgia for allegedly running down his daughter because she …
Fun with church signs
Occasionally, I see a church sign that just begs to be addressed. A local church recently changed their sign to read: Time well spent is time spent in prayer. I know that the idea that a god listens to (and answers) prayers is something that is foundational to many peoples’ religious beliefs. Hearing the phrases …
Herding Cats and Situational Etiquette
In the atheist community, there are two sure things. The first is, of course, that atheists don’t believe in any gods. The other thing is that a lack of belief in any gods is pretty much the only universally common attribute of atheists. Atheist groups sometimes have trouble gaining or keeping members because, as the …
Mogahed says Sharia Law is misunderstood
Dalia Mogahed, President Obama’s adviser on Muslim affairs, seems to think that the West misunderstands Sharia law… and the reason that so many women do support Sharia is because… The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with sharia compliance. The portrayal of Sharia has been oversimplified in many …
Anti-Islam T-shirts in Florida
It seems that some Florida students were sent home or required to change their clothes when they wore t-shirts to school that violated the school’s dress code policy. The shirts, which had a verse from the Gospel of John on the front along with a plug for the Dove Outreach Center, a local church, had …
Religion as a Weapon
There have been a rash of deaths recently in Pakistan due to accusations that the victims desecrated the Qur’an. You can read about some of them here and here. The population in general, and Christians in particular, is dealing with cases of intimidation because of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The laws, one of which carries the …
I sort of agree with Brannon Howse
Brannon Howse is probably best known as the founder of Christian Worldview Network, an organization that tends to lean toward religiously-based conspiracy theories and tunnel-vision perspectives about the world approaching the "end times" of the bible. I actually listened to one of his entire podcasts about a month ago and it was astounding. It’s really …