religion

The Myth of the war on Christmas

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A war on what? The first observation to make is that the celebration of Christmas as we now experience it is very much an invention of the victorian era, and historically it was Easter that had far more significance to Christians. Much may in fact has been prompted by Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol in which he constructs Christmas as … Read more

Pakistani cleric is now victim of the Blasphemy laws that he promoted

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Blasphemy laws are meaningless bits of legal nonsense that do nothing except empower a specific religious faction to oppress and stifle almost anything that they decide they are offended about, and that “offence” is never actually defined but is usually sufficiently vague enough to be applied to whatever a random cleric thinks it needs to … Read more

10 new improved and far better commandments

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There has been a “10 ‘Non-Commandments’ Contest,” in which people were asked to offer modern and far better alternatives to the famous 10, and the prize on offer for the winner was $10,000. Who is doing this? Lex Bayer, an executive at AirBnB, and John Figdor, a humanist chaplain at Stanford University Why? The cynical might simply make … Read more

Editor Threatened with prosecution for criticism of ISIS

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You would think that outside of ISIS themselves, anybody openly criticising ISIS would be commended and supported, even within the Islamic world. Alas, apparently not. The New York Times reports … The chief editor of a prominent Indonesian newspaper, the English-language Jakarta Post, has been summoned for questioning by the police for publishing a cartoon that … Read more

Is Islam Violent … or is that thought “Islamophobia”?

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This week alone we have seen much that is truly abhorrent … Haron Monis, an islamic cleric walks into the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Sydney with his shotgun on Monday wearing a headband bearing the war cry: “We are ready to sacrifice for you, O Muhammad.” … what then follows is tragic and horrific. A band of … Read more

Christian Reply to Atheist Billboards – “Why Fight a god that does not exist?”

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I put up a posting yesterday about the observation that some Billboards will provoke a rather negative reaction, and sure enough, I’ve come across an article that illustrates this precise point quite well. Over at Charisma News we have … “Why Are Atheists Investing So Much Money on Billboards Fighting a God They Don’t Think … Read more