I heard about Agora from Jason over at the Wild Hunt. He first mentioned it in ’08, where he extolled it as likely to be a Pagan-friendly work. Well, that was enough for me, so I waited for it to come out. And waited some more. Meanwhile, Jason was giving occasional tidbits: the movie was [...]

[Read more →]

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued, in 2001, a document calling for all Catholic hospitals to ignore “advance directive[s…] contrary to Catholic teaching.”1 Further, what care may be directed by an injured person’s surrogate (in the event that the injured person cannot make decisions) must also be in compliance with “Catholic teaching”.2 [...]

[Read more →]

Over at the Wild Hunt, Jason has compiled a number of startling links about the “Third Wave of the Holy Spirit”. You know, the really scary xians. He comes at it from a small-religion perspective, but in this, we atheists must also be aware of the actions and intents of the Third Wave—and stand with [...]

[Read more →]

Nationwide, Christians who refuse to provide services on the basis of gender orientation are losing legal battles.

[Read more →]

This is how our president defined our country yesterday. Explicitly denying that it was a “Christian nation” and explicitly stating that this fact is one of our “great strengths”. It’s nice to be reminded of this—and by someone so high in the administration! It is vogue for politicians to exclaim “God bless America!” Whether or [...]

[Read more →]

It’s got it all: atheism, spirituality, god, scifi, and good music!! Hulu’s got the first four eps up right now (and it doesn’t keep them forever), so go catch up. It’s too smart and too well written to stay on the air for long. It’s the story of Kings David and Saul transposed into a [...]

[Read more →]

Texas is reviewing its science standards, specifically with the desire to remove them altogether. Skepchick has a great discussion of exactly what this means, but here’s the short version: Texas and California’s choices for scientific textbooks drives the availability of textbooks nationwide because of their massive marketshare the Texas State Board of Education (TSBE) has [...]

[Read more →]

Today, the Obama Administration signed onto the UN call for the decriminalization of homosexuality. In 77 countries, it is a crime to be attracted to members of the same sex, and in seven, merely being gay is punishable by death. This UN declaration has nothing to do with visiting rights or adoption or insurance for [...]

[Read more →]

Late to the party on this one, I know, sorry. It turns out that conservative (read: religious) states have the highest porn rates in the country. Probably because they’re not allowed to have deviant (read: fun) sex at home. Meanwhile, people living in enlightened areas of the country have other outlets for their sexual urges, [...]

[Read more →]

This is another lecture that was put on at my school, this time by the ACLU, in response to Prop 8. The California Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments about the Constitutionality of Prop 8 a week from tomorrow. In preparation for that, the local ACLU chapter invited to gay people who grew up in [...]

[Read more →]