As most of those close to me know, one of my biggest beefs with the Christian Bible and its doctrine is the story of God's demand of Abraham of a blood sacrifice of his son Isaac. Not only is the Judeo-Christian God shown to be unbelievably cruel and sadistic, Abraham's blind faith in God leads him to the brink of an equally cruel and sadistic act: sacrificing his own son.…



Continue

According to the GQ Magazine, intelligence reports and briefings from the Department of Defense passed to then-President Bush included Biblical scripture on their covers.

This mixing of Crusades-like messaging with war imagery, which until now has not been revealed, had become routine. On March 31, a U.S. tank roared through the desert beneath a quote from Ephesians: "Therefore…

Continue

It is good to see a well-balanced article in the News & Observer about a local Raleigh parenting group which meets in a non-religious context.

On Sunday mornings, when many of their contemporaries are taking their seats in church pews, a group of young parents mingle in the living room of a suburban home while their children run around playing games. This congregation of Triangle…

Continue

Victor Stenger makes an empirical investigation of the God Hypothesis and delivers a geek-fest of smack-down to the theory that God can be anything close to what most theists believe. From the outset, Stenger establishes a baseline of characteristics that the God(s) in his experiment will have, populated largely with the often-stated abilities and preferences of the Judeo-Christian God Yahweh.



A challenge is issued in the first chapter to those who say that science has no… Continue

We all know Glenn Beck has the critical thinking skills of a screwdriver (but isn't nearly as useful), but he goes off the deep end (again) in claiming that gay marriage will naturally lead to polygamy:





He does not address how exactly this happens except to say that 'changing the formula' will make any number of other marriage arrangements legal (it would not). He also conveniently forgets the numerous examples of traditional marriage's Biblical ties to… Continue

The Santa Clarita City Council has voted overwhelmingly to include the Christian phrase 'In God We Trust' on the city's logos and buildings.

The Santa Clarita City Council bypassed a public vote Tuesday night and decided on its own to include 'In God We Trust' on the council chambers and government buildings where the city council sees fit.

Have no illusions,… Continue

The James Randi Foundation has a standing offer of $1M to anyone who can demonstrate paranormal powers in a controlled scientific experiment. Despite this offer being available for decades, no one has yet been able to win the prize.



The process includes two main steps. The first involves an initial test that is used to seperate this potentially powerful from those whose powers… Continue

(cross-posted on my blog: davenichols.net)



So you find yourself in dire financial straits. Debts piling up. Assets disappearing. All despair and worry. You might think you can't pay the piper one more time.



'That sounds like me, I don't know how I'll pay the water bill this month, let alone my kids' braces. Dunno if I'm going to make it through all this economic disasterism.'



But wait, don't lose faith! Benny… Continue

(crossposted on my site davenichols.net)



Hitchens wastes no time making his point clear with the title on the cover: God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. While he isn't quite thorough enough to completely validate his 'everything' assertion, he nonetheless assaults religious foundations throughout this book and makes a very convincing case that religion has undermined many of the very causes it claims to support.



He… Continue