The Morning Heresy 5/2/12: Void on its Face

May 2, 2012

Your daily digest of relevant news and links from Paul Fidalgo

The Romney campaign, pilloried by the religious right and its veto power over the GOP, is forced to let go of its openly-gay foreign policy spokesman who resigned yesterday 

Sarah Posner says the move is less about the advisor's orientation on its own, and more about the right's mistrust of Romney's anti-gay bona fides 

Ed Brayton on CFI's suit against the atheist-unfriendly Michigan country club that broke its contract with CFI-Michigan:

The fact is that if this was a Christian group that had this happen, no one would doubt that it was illegal. It is no less so here.

Courthouse News also covers the suit 

Holy crap! CFI-DC's going to have James Randi! 

And Ben Radford will be with CFI-NYC talking about psychic detectives 

Kevin Clarkston writes at African Americans for Humanism:

In its own way, "God did it" can be just as destructive as saying "The devil made me do it." While the latter allows individuals to abdicate personal responsibility for their actions, it is not taken as seriously or with as much authority as the former. 

We at CFI flex our scholarly muscles 

No, really: A new study shows that the less religious you are, the more compassionate you are 

Anthony Pinn: Atheists shouldn't lean too hard on billboard campaigns to achieve their goals 

Ophelia Benson is pretty durned excited about Women in Secularism 

Related: Ophelia on women finding their way in the secular movement:

Movement atheism is naturally combative. This could be a big part of the reason it took the movement so god damn long to realize it was forgetting to invite women to its parties. Women aren’t seen as combative.  All of the qualities that you need to be a good movement atheist tend to be qualities that aren’t valued in women. 

Mormonism is on the rise, like, really quickly

Roe v. Wade is a plot to introduce Sharia law. Yeah, I dunno. 

Oklahoma Supreme Court says personhood ballot initiative "void on its face" 

Hawaii State Senate considers bill awarding $100k to atheist activist who was roughed up after protesting senate's opening prayers 

Sam Harris responds to critics of his recent piece defending the profiling of Muslims by airport security in an addendum:

I suspect that it will surprise neither my fans nor my critics that I view the furor over this article to be symptomatic of the very political correctness that I decry in it. However, it seems that when one speaks candidly about the problem of Islam misunderstandings easily multiply.  

AZ Republic's Linda Valdez throws the laughable "threat to my religious liberty" argument back in the faces of religious conservatives 

Houston Chronicle picks up Pete Stark's National Day of Reason proclamation 

CBN does a quick video on AHA and the NDoR  

There's going to be a rally in Woonsocket in support of the cross: Woonsockapalooza?  

And even though it's happening in Rhode Island, Woonsocketgate has nothing to do with the Ahlquists 

Homeopath goes to trial for sexually assaulting teenage patient 

The second scammy psychic who tried to bilk an old lady in Hingham, Mass. turns herself in

And a totally unrelated scammy psychic in San Jose to do 5 years hard time 

It's not an unexplained appearance of the Loch Ness Monster, it's the unexplained appearance of a STATUE of the Loch Ness Monster! 

Worcester Telegram reports on the rise of secular campus groups  

Quote of the Day   

Our own Michael De Dora, from his speech to the Unite Women rally this past Saturday:

Religious institutions and their dogma have no place in public policy.

And because I know someone will take this statement as an attack on the right of religious believers to believe and practice as they would like, let me also say this: I would defend, at risk of death, the First Amendment right to freedom of religion, belief, and expression, but here is what I ask in return: please do not force your religious doctrines on me -- or on us.

Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI . Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is. 

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