Jesus and Mo aren’t very keen on secularism. Not only that, but Jesus reads the Daily Fail.… Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Here’s a cheerful item:

According to news reports on Wednesday, an Egyptian man and his family tied up their daughter and threw her into the Nile river as a result of a divorce to her aging husband, who mistreat[ed] her and abused the young woman.

Luckily, a fisherman saw the girl and rescued her before she died, Emirates 24/7 reported.

According to their report, the girl had initially refused to marry the elderly man, but then acquiesced to her family pressure and wed…

After she and the man divorced over abuse, she returned to her family, who when the girl refused to remarry the man, was tossed into the river in an “honor crime.”

It’s interesting how women and girls … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Three MPs (UK) are trying to get the Advertising Standards Authority to change its ruling about advertising that claims prayers can heal diseases.

Last month, a Christian group in Bath were banned from using leaflets that said: “NEED HEALING? GOD CAN HEAL TODAY!… We believe that God loves you and can heal you from any sickness.”

The ASA said the claims were misleading and could discourage people from seeking essential medical treatment.

Here’s the letter they sent:

Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury Chairman, Advertising Standards Agency 21st March 2012

We are writing on behalf of the all-party Christians in Parliament group in Westminster and your ruling that the Healing On The Streets ministry in Bath are no longer able

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Justin has some shocking news – Fort Bragg wont let us feed homeless vets at the atheist festival

I fought very hard for this to happen at the festival this weekend. We went back and forth for several months. The ‘pro-starvation’ camp has prevailed.

The idea was simple.

Our festival is already paid for, via a generous donation from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation (directly deposited into our accounts at American Atheists). So here we are with a free festival on our hands. We would have put the word out to bring canned food (and similar items). Next, we would drop off the food where it needs to go.

It’s a win-win. Obviously we get a measure of publicity that is

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

There’s a new course at UBC this spring: ‘Ecology, Technology, Indigeneity and Learning: Contexts, Complexities, and Cross-cultural Conversations’ May 7 – June 15, 2012. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:00 – 4:00pm
Here’s the skinny:

Ecological and technological educational discourses are often taught as separate discourses downplaying, or ignoring altogether, their interconnectedness, complexities, and complicities, as well as their diverse cultural contexts. This course offers students an opportunity to critically explore how to reconnect and reshape these storylines into enactments of equity, social justice, cultural inclusivity, environmental sustainability and environmental justice.

Students will be introduced to the voices of Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized peoples impacted by neoliberalism and global economics who share their struggles for survival, cultural regeneration and protection/reclamation of

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Rowdy irreverent people in Mexico city protest the pope’s visit. I want to be friends with all of them!

Wisely, the pope is not going to Mexico City. He’s going to a city where people like him.

I wonder if his BFF Sayeeda Warsi is going to meet him there so that they can plan the war on militant secularism some more.

h/t Roger… Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

One such time is when a clerical type (or “expert” or “scholar” or other male boffin who dispenses religious rules) tells a woman she has to open her legs whenever her husband tells her to and that if she doesn’t she’s a sinner and that godknowsbest.

It’s Sheikh Assim Al-Hakeem I’m talking about this time. A woman said her husband was issuing the open legs command three times a day and it was too much, what should she do.

It is not permissible for a wife to refuse fulfiling her husband’s desire. You should answer his calls as this is not phisically hurting you.

If you can’t do that for no legitimate reason, you are sinful. You should ask him

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The Muslim Council of Britain says no thanks to marriage equality for gays.

Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the MCB, said: “Whilst we remain opposed to all forms of discrimination – including homophobia – redefining the meaning of marriage is in our opinion unnecessary and unhelpful.

“With the advent of civil partnerships, both homosexual and heterosexual couples now have equal rights in the eyes of the law. Therefore, in our view the case to change the definition of marriage, as accepted throughout time and across cultures, is strikingly weak.”

He added: “Like other Abrahamic faiths, marriage in Islam is defined as a union between a man and a woman. So while, the state has accommodated for gay couples, such

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

It’s a funny word, “works.” What do people mean when they talk about what works? Well it depends – if they’re talking about a toaster or a lawnmower it’s obvious enough what they mean. But the word is often used when the thing supposed to be working or not working is not a thing at all but something much larger and more nebulous, like a political system or a reform movement or a controversy, and then the meaning of “works” becomes not obvious at all.

I briefly joined in yet another argument with James Croft about his (as far as I can tell) favorite subject: whether or not “the atheist movement” is “working” and how he and his colleagues can … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Any interesting news on the Reason Rally? Twitter isn’t all that informative, possibly because for once people are too engaged to waste much time tweeting. I did like this one -

“300 years after the enlightenment we have to have a rally for the fucking obvious” – Tim Minchin #reasonrally

It’s a thought I have often often often, or it might be more accurate to say I never stop having it. Why are we still having to say this when it’s so fucking obvious?

Dawkins made a similar point in the Washington Post a few days ago.

How have we come to the point where reason needs a rally to defend it? To base your life on reason means

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Anti-abortion campaigners in the UK are saying horrendous things to schoolgirls age 14 and 15 – not just that it causes breast cancer and infertility, but

Conceiving a child after rape is the “ultimate unplanned pregnancy”, but to have an abortion at this stage can be a “second trauma,” children at a secondary school in Cambridgeshire were told.

“For some people who’ve been raped and had the baby, even if they don’t keep it, something positive comes out of that whole rape experience,” pupils aged 14 and 15 were told.

Something positive comes out of that whole rape experience. Something positive comes out of that whole rape experience. Oh yes, carrying a rapist’s baby to term and then giving it … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)