The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Kimberly Winston gets some atheists’ reactions to the pope’s suddenly not condemning we godless to the fires of Hell. 

However! A Vatican spokesman puts the whole “infallible pope” thing into question by saying, no, atheists are going to Hell. 

(But you know what the Church is okay with for real? Eating alligators.) 

Now you can help out Rebecca Vitsmun by buying up “Actually I’m an atheist” t-shirts.

Glenn Beck is a Blitzer-Vitsmun-Oklahoma-atheism truther!!! Thanks, Obama! 

Lawrence O’Donnell notes the good news and feelings for we nonbelievers in the places you’d totally expect: the Catholic Church and Arizona.  

Boy Scouts of America end the ban on gay scouts. Adult staff and volunteers are another matter. Oh, and atheists are still a no-go.  

Islamist students in Afghanistan think the government is being waaaay too liberal on women’s rights by, you know, acknowledging that they might have some. 

Hey, you cynical journalists, it’s not “stealing” $238,000 when the psychics are just trying to banish evil spirits!  

And come to think of it, so much money is psychically dirty. Stop picking on gifted psychics who simply want to cleanse clients of its evil. 

Daniel Dennett tells the Guardian that free will is “not the overwhelming supercalifragilisticexpialidocious phenomenon that you thought it was.” 

Parti Quebecois’ “Charter of Secularism” becomes a “charter of Quebec values” as some touchy religious accommodation topics get kicked down the road. 

Atheists are banging their heads against the wall over the imminent signing of Texas’s “Merry Christmas” bill. 

Three Londoners are convicted of attempting a terrorist plot. One of them, Richard Dart, said in the courtroom, “I don’t wish to stand up, I believe ruling and judging is only for Allah.” 

A faith-healing church in Philadelphia looks to be responsible for as many as 24 children’s deaths. 

Time to get your masters of science in things that aren’t science.

Quote of the Day 

Carrie Poppy tries to make sense of an oxygen bar. The attendant explains what will happen:

[The oxygen dispensers] will deliver us pure oxygen—double the amount we usually get in the air! It helps cure hangovers. (“Hangs-over,” I pretend to correct him, for no reason at all. He looks at me the way I should be looked at.) It ends fatigue. It helps with muscle pain and weakness. It curbs jet lag. It dissolves headaches. The headaches bit is pretty exciting for me. I have been getting chronic headaches for almost a year, and some of them become crippling migraines. I would suck on a garden hose for twenty minutes a day if it made those go away. 

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Horror in London, as a man identified as a soldier is hacked to death by what seem to be Islamist militants, who film the attack in broad daylight. 

In a tweet, Reza Aslan seems to know what happens next:

Alright Muslims. You know the drill. Some Muslim somewhere did something crazy. Get out there and start apologizing for it.

Andrew Sullivan, in reaction to the attack:

Two things are true here. The first is that this was a religious sacrificial murder, authorized by God in the eyes of the killers. The second is that this is clearly motivated by blowback from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first is indefensible on any grounds. The second is a reminder that in the war against this religious barbarism, occupying Muslim countries is not an answer. 

For those at Women in Secularism last weekend, you know that Katha Pollitt had some fascinating stuff to say about sexism and religion. Now you can hear her expand on that very topic, as she’s the guest on the latest Point of Inquiry.

The most excellent Brian Engler has posted the first batch of photos from the conference, and you can see them here. Now, to look at these pics, you’d never even know I was there. My plan is working.

CFI-Indiana’s Reba Boyd Wooden is heard on Indiana public radio to talk about the upcoming Supreme Court case on prayer at government functions. 

The Economist‘s Erasmus columnist says that simply repealing blasphemy laws where they exist won’t solve the foundational problem:

For social harmony to exist, other preconditions have to be in place. A minimum number of people have to subscribe to the principle that living together peacefully and constructively (in a household, a village, a clan or any other sort of group) is a desirable end; and that in pursuit of that end, it may sometimes be a good idea to show a minimum of good manners or self-restraint. 

According to NYT, the Mormon animators at BYU “[have] become a farm team for the country’s top animation studios and effects companies.” Cartoons full of values “without being preachy.”

Quoting Sagan rather than Yahweh upsets Rep. Juan Mendez’s Arizona House colleague Steve Smith, who makes sure to squeeze in an extra prayer to “repent.” 

Arizona Republic reporters discuss Mendez’s non-prayer in this video, and they seem sympathetic generally.  

Chelsea Clinton is now co-director of a “multifaith” institute at NYU. I checked, and there are no variations on “no faith” that I could see.

I guess many Oregonians’ precious bodily fluids are safe, as the city votes down fluoridation. I predict less smiling over the coming years.

Have independent checks verified that E-Cat does cold fusion? What am I even talking about? Who can say? 

Want to do something for Oklahoma, but want it to be pointless and akin to throwing your money in a furnace? Go buy the victims more Bibles.

Sharon Hill and Consumerist remind us to be wary of even scammier Oklahoma fake-charities. 

60 cases have been filed by Catholic business owners trying to skirt the contraceptive coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act.

Muslim Village: Bangladeshis begin to ask the government to give in to the radical Islamists’ demands for tougher blasphemy laws, if only to bring peace back to the country. 

Christian Science Monitor reports on a “surge” in blasphemy charges in Egypt against Christians, made “on the flimsiest of evidence.” 

Chris Burke at the On Campus blog is troubled by what he sees as the state of science in Canada. 

At Discovery News, CSI’s Ben Radford looks at the fraud committed by the now-convicted Christine Daniel for her quack cancer treatment.  

And lemme tell you, when I think “Ben Radford,” I think “love labyrinth.” Whoa, was that out loud? 

I’m all excited about NASA’s asteroid mission, even though their video has hints of cheese. 

Anteater Jesus! 

Quote of the Day 

Now I feel kind of bad for yesterday’s exorcism image I made about the pope. Okay, no I don’t. But still, I never thought I’d live to see a pope say anything like this:

The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can… “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!”.. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.    

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

The anti-blasphemy machine rolls on: Turkish writer Sevan Nişanyan is sentenced to 58 weeks in prison for “insulting the religious beliefs held by a section of the society.” 

GOP Lt. Governor nominee E.W. Jackson of Virginia (Democrats are a “coalition of the godless”) says that anyone who criticizes his hard-right positions “is attacking every church-going person, every family that’s living a traditional family life, everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live.” Chaser: 

I would just say people should not paint me as one-dimensional.

You’re making that hard, dude. 

Indiana Public Media looks at the upcoming Supreme Court case on prayer at government functions, and gets insight from CFI-Indiana’s Reba Boyd Wooden. 

Stephen Prothero says that the Court isn’t really going to be taking up the question of whether any prayer is okay, but what sort: sectarian or inclusive? 

Arizona State Rep. Juan Mendez (a secular humanist! In Arizona!) opens a House session not with a prayer, but with Sagan:

For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love. 

Oh, this is going to be good: Carrie Poppy visits an oxygen bar.  

Ross Douthat: Suicide rates are up because religion and marriage are down. Nate Cohn: Nuh-uh.

NJ Priest who violated a court-mandated ban on his interacting with children gets his hearing. Says Bob Hoatson, a former priest, now head of Road to Recovery:

I’m here to see a 10-year attempt to hold [Rev.] Fugee and the archdiocese accountable after they have been coddling him and moving him from place to place, and then arrogantly proclaiming he’s an innocent man. The review board that returned him to ministry should be disbanded, and we need a broom to sweep the archdiocese clean. 

Did Pope Francis once perform an exorcism...by accident? 

Gwynn Guilford at Quartz: Rhino horns are fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars from rich Vietnamese who consider the horns to have magical “cancer-zapping” properties.  

Jamsheed K. Choksy on the U.S.‘s position toward countries with bad religious freedom records:

What needs to happen is that the government of the United States needs to take these reports and make them central aspects of American policy and foreign relations. 

Alasdair at Skepchick on being an atheist teacher at a time of horror or tragedy like that of the Sandy Hook massacre:

An atheist teacher is, I’d argue, even better placed to help young people to deal with events like these than someone with a deeply religious worldview. We see the world the way it is. We know that there’s nothing out there guiding us, that terrible event like these are not part of some grand “plan”. We know that the only comfort we have is each other and that it’s our responsibility alone to look after those more vulnerable than ourselves. The stark and unfeeling picture that some people paint of atheists could not be further from the truth. 

50,000 (!!) children are accused of sorcery in Congo. I don’t know what to say about that.

Tornado truthers. Yep. Thanks, Obama! 

Islamist leader held in Bangladesh allegedly cops to an extremist plot to oust the current government. 

At RNS, Tom Ehrich says Christianity is in the midst of a new “revolution,” in which it suffers a “collapse from the inside.” 

78-year-old anti-gay rights activist commits suicide at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.  

Sally Steenland at Center for American Progress makes the religious Americans’ case for keeping prayer out of public schools. 

PZ showers our own Michael De Dora with love. I’m glad that Michael is no longer seen as a witless wanker. He is NOT witless! 

Quote of the Day 

This one is easy. You’ve already seen it, probably. Wolf Blitzer asks tornado survivor Rebecca Vitsmun if she “thanks the lord,” to which she replies, smilingly:

I’m actually an atheist. 

* * *  

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Obviously, most Americans’ hearts and minds are concentrated on the victims of the tornadoes in Oklahoma and across the Midwest. We’ll have a formal statement soon, and in the mean time please consider donating to help those affected.

Wowie-wow-wow-WOW. The already-loathsome Daily Caller outdoes itself by harassing and insulting one of our own. Read about the saga of SCA’s Lauren Anderson Youngblood and the “Dick pic” email from Christopher Bedford. You rock on, Lauren. <communications directors’ secret high-five-handshake>

Ryan Koronowski dismantles the gee-that’s-really-wrong WaPo op-ed on climate change by House science chair Lamar Smith.  

Maggie Koerth-Baker at NYT looks at why the otherwise-sane buy into insane conspiracy theories:

“If you know the truth and others don’t, that’s one way you can reassert feelings of having agency,” [University of Westminster’s Viren] Swami says. It can be comforting to do your own research even if that research is flawed. It feels good to be the wise old goat in a flock of sheep. 

GOP Lieutenant Governor candidate in Virginia calls the Democratic Party the “coalition of the godless.” If only!i

National Geographic lists six woman scientists who have been dissed by history or their profession, with their crucial contributions largely ignored.

A new group of priests and nuns known as Catholic Whistleblowers forms to shine a light on the crisis of sexual abuse within the Church. 

Presbyterian Church of Scotland’s general assembly votes to allow gay ministers.

Yes, they’re giving acupuncture to turtles. 

Pope Francis calls for less worry over theology, and more concern for the poor. 

Saudi newspaper that slobbers praise on King Abdullah is accused of blasphemy for overdoing it. 

David Cameron faces revolt from fellow Tories over gay marriage. 

The Catholic World Magazine reports that “evolutionists” like PZ Myers and Jerry Coyne are up in arms over Ball State University’s teaching of intelligent design. 

I’m embarrassed to see that there is a “Paranormal Corner” section in a South Jersey paper, and this edition clears up the difference between “intelligent” and “residual” hauntings.  

Ooh-ee-ooh-ah-ah, here’s $210,000 to make her love me. 

Forum 18 updates on the status of religious dissidents in Kazakhstan, including two jailed Christians and an atheist kept in a psychiatric facility. 

I’m kind of like this: The agnostic pessimist, by Toothpaste for Dinner. 

Bob Blaskiewicz is the guest on Strange Frequencies Radio, talkin’ Burzynski and conspiracies.

Quote of the Day 

The U.S. State Department releases its 2012 International Religious Freedom Report, and Secretary John Kerry has this to say about the “troubling trend . . . of laws governing blasphemy and apostasy”: 

These laws are frequently used to repress dissent, to harass political opponents, and to settle personal vendettas. Laws such as these violate fundamental freedoms of expression and religion, and we believe they ought to be repealed. And because we defend others’ rights of expression, we are also ensuring that we can express our own views and practice our own faith without fearing for our own safety or our own lives. That is why, as I travel the world, I do press leaders to do more to safeguard freedom of belief and to promote religious tolerance. And that is why I urge all countries, especially those identified in this report, to take action now to safeguard this fundamental freedom.

* * *  

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

The conference was great. It had a high bar to meet with last year’s huge success, but it was easily cleared. Talk to talk, panel to panel, and the amazing freaking voice of Shelley Segal, it was a real and substantive pleasure to be at Women in Secularism 2. 

We, of course, had our controversies. CFI chief Ron Lindsay has posted the prepared text of his opening remarks that caused an enormous amount of debate and very strong feelings, reactions to which can be found all about the interwebs. 

I know, many, many folks are itching for video of the conference talks. While you wait for us to crank up the movie machine, sate your desire with videos from last year’s conference. 

Amanda Greene at RNS looks at the rise of humanist weddings, noting CFI’s own Secular Celebrant program. (And there’s another piece on the topic at Rochester, MN’s Post Bulletin.)

HuffPo: Persecuted Bangladeshi bloggers, even though two are out on bail, are under constant threat over their atheism. 

The Surpeme Court will hear a case about prayers at city council meetings. 

Gage Pulliam, the high school student whistleblower over a Ten Commandments display, scores an activist award from FFRF. 

Sharon Hill at HuffPo tries to unobfuscate some lexicographical bewilderment about skeptic terminology with some etymological pedantry. 

Right wing Christian groups cry foul, claiming they were inappropriately targeted by the IRS, because Obama. SCA says the IRS is not doing enough.

Pew looks at the religious makeup of U.S. immigrants, including results that show “nones” holding steady after an uptick in 2004. 

Michelle Boorstein at WaPo: Seminary graduates don’t always become priests, but use their education to spread the Good Word in all manner of professions. 

Ben Radford did a quick guest stint on Big Picture Science, talking about those folks who think they can nourish themselves merely by breathing.

At LiveScience, Ben looks at the practice of dowsing and notices— hey!—it’s not working! 

97% of climate scientists are on board with the truth of global warming! That should settle everything. 

Massachusetts psychic takes advantage of the vulnerable with free readings to parents who have lost a child. Classy way to get folks hooked.

Harvard Humanists Greg Epstein and James Croft will co-author a book on atheist/humanist “churching,” The Godless Congregation. 

Governor of Georgia (the state) lets the Bibles in state park cabins stay because they were “donated,” and says anyone cam submit literature. Cue American Atheists.

In Georgia (the country) gay rights activists are set upon by a mob led by priests. 

At rates that are faster than previously thought, Christianity is on the way down in the UK, and Islam is on the way up. 

Religious members of Afghanistan’s parliament manage to defeat a law banning violence against women. 

Alexandria Lakes Area Tea Party aims to convert George Soros. 

China says: No sex for Buddha, please. 

Sikivu Hutchinson, a speaker at last year’s WiS, discusses her new book Godless Americana with Religion Dispatches:

[H]umanism can be culturally relevant to communities of color. Traditional mainstream white-dominated freethought/atheist/humanist models don’t offer an adequate basis for social justice. They don’t address the intersection of women’s rights, civil rights, anti-racism, heterosexism, the racial wealth gap, and educational apartheid. 

On polygamy, fundamentalist Mormon Claud Cawley looks to dispel what he says is the “misconception that men among the [fundamentalist] community look to plural marriage as a means to satisfy their lust and exploit and degrade women.” 

Leon Seltzer at Psychology Today distinguishes between what he sees as dogmatic and non-dogmatic atheists:

[I]f scientists in general—and physicists in particular—can’t ever be absolutely certain about Absolutes, how much more difficult must it be for metaphysicists to attain such certitude? To answer my own question: very difficult, indeed! 

Hawker of fake cancer cures Christine Daniel gets 14 years in prison. 

KCEN in Texas notes with surprise that atheism may not be all that scary. 

Former Microsoftian is scared of WiFi death beams. 

Apparently, famous people love them some Chopra. 

Okay, best for last: Slate compares the speeds of various sci-fi spacecraft! It’s so cool! But I have to say, I’m iffy on his Millennium Falcon boosterism. And where’s Enterprise-D???  

Quote of the Day 

Herb Silverman is troubled by the two tracks to Catholic sainthood:

No matter how good a life you led, even by Catholic standards, you would still have to perform two miracles after death if you didn’t die as a martyr. If you threw yourself in front a train to stop it from killing a hundred children, two miracles would still be needed. In other words, you would not be as worthy as one who led a morally corrupt life but died while refusing to convert. 

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Women in Secularism 2 kicks off today! To judge by the tweets of attendees, there is an enthusiasm for this conference that I’ve not seen for an event at least since the Reason Rally. And not for nothin’, but the WiFi in the hotel lobby is great, and the hotel Starbucks employees are really nice, so things are already looking up. For live updates, images, and bad jokes, watch the Twitter hashtag #wiscfi (knowing that it will also have its share of detractors in the stream) and the official CFI Twitter account @center4inquiry...which is me!

Matthew Brown at Deseret News (who does a lot of great church-state coverage) looks at the “softening” of the White House faith-based initiative, as emphasis moves from money to the sharing of information and being generally helpful.

Lawrence Krauss joined CFI’s Office of Public Policy in sending a letter to Rep. Lamar Smith, chair of the House Science Committee, asking him to scrap his ill-advised proposal to hamper NSF funding:

These requirements represent a serious misunderstanding of the nature of scientific inquiry and discovery and, if approved, would not facilitate, but instead obstruct productive scientific research. 

Just posted, particularly for those who are conference-starved, but unable to get to WiS, we have the video of Brian Leiter from his talk at CFI’s “Why Tolerate Religion?” symposium last month. 

At Discovery News, Ben Radford on the phenomenon of folks witnessing people getting up from their graves, because:

. . . especially in Third World countries where modern medical treatment is rare, and confirming death may sometimes be little more than guesswork.  

And at Yahoo News, Ben looks at the claim that a British girl in India was killed for her organs. Fun stuff, Ben! 

Ideas Roadshow has video of a conversation with CSI fellow Jill Tarter on her work with SETI.  

WiS speaker Vyckie Garrison is in a BBC report on the Quiverfull phenomenon.

World Council of Churches expresses concern about the situation in Bangladesh:

It is very disheartening to hear about this development of communal hatred in Bangladesh, once known for its tolerance and now grappling with religious intolerance and politicization of religion. The systematic violation of human rights is most unfortunate and needs to end. As you know, the WCC is committed to supporting all persecuted minorities, irrespective of their religions, as the human rights and dignity of every person should be upheld. 

You won’t BELIEVE how this Bigfoot shooting in Pennsylvania turned out! Oh wait, yes you will.  

When Harry Potter gets to that ripe old age when thoughts of his mortality come into view, he may want to join the Order of the Good Death:

. . . a collective of death professionals, artists, and academics who promote real talk about death and dying. While its name has an occult quality, the Order’s mission is actually quite public: to encourage people to be “death positive,” or open to exploring their thoughts, feelings, and fears about mortality. 

New study confirms what we can see: Exposure to Christian concepts and images predisposes one to seeing things in black-or-white terms. According to Pacific Standard:

As the researchers write, this attitude no doubt gives people structure in their lives and contributes to their well-being. But it’s also a plausible route to prejudice and general close-mindedness. 

Skepto-atheists are kickstarting all over! Aubrey Adrianson is looking for funders for her next book, A Secular Parent’s Guide to Teaching Religion.

Okay, so we have a new social media intern for Point of Inquiry, and he’s doing a bang-up job. Check out his handy work in the latest “weekly wrap-up” at the POI blog. 

Ed Buckner finds Bibles in a Georgia state park cabin, and the governor gets them sent back. Huh.  

Georgia atheist activist Mike Smith will run for mayor of LaGrange after a not-so-successful run for the state House. Keep at it, Mike, say I. This is how we do it, one election at a time. 

Anti-Shariah law in Oklahoma gets fuzzier to not accidentally trample on Christianity or business.  

According to the Saudi religious police, if a man uses Twitter or other social network, he “has lost this world and his afterlife.” 

At Vice, Adnan Khan posits that atheist prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard still opposes gay marriage because of straight-up electoral math. 

A new organization looks to do for a broad range of folks what the Clergy Project does for clergy: The Apostasy Project. 

Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph settles a lawsuit over its employment of Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who took pornographic photos of a 2-year-old.

“I look back on it now and think, ‘How could I have been so stupid?” says the beleaguered victim of a fraud psychic, bilked of over $73,000.

In honor of Women in Secularism, I present the reason many of us are here today, in an attitude voiced by the not-really-all-that-relevant Pat Robertson:

Here’s the secret. Stop talking (about) the cheating. He cheated on you, well, he’s a man. . . . What you want to do is make a home so wonderful that he doesn’t want to wander. 

Quote of the Day 

William MacAskill at Quartz calls Homeopaths Without Borders “one of the worst charities in the world”:

Besides minor ailments, HWB also treats malaria, typhoid, cholera, dengue fever, advanced diabetes, and educates about the “beneficial effects” of these treatments. Laugh or cry? I can’t decide. There’s something really wrong with a company that deludes the barely educated global poor with the false hope of a malaria treatment–when they could have been seeking assistance that might actually save their life. It’s even more wrong that it can get the tax exemption status known as 501(c)3 in the 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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Must-read: Ken Chitwood at the Houston Chronicle reports on the state of women’s equality in the skepto-atheosphere, providing background for the Women in Secularism conference (starting tomorrow!), and talking to CFI’s Melody Hensley. 

(Speaking of the conference, yes, there will still be a Morning Heresy tomorrow, hopefully going up around its usual time.) 

Amanda Marcotte, one of the WiS speakers, relates a heartening geek culture anecdote to the situation within skepto-atheism.

Two-thirds of Canadians are Christian in some way, but that about a quarter are “nones.” 

Psychiatrist diagnoses a young girl with a spiritual malady, becomes her “spiritual mentor,” loses his license. 

Charges against Kiera Wilmot, the high school student who did an explosive science experiment, have been dropped.

John Quiggen runs the numbers on how much we’d have to pony up for a space colony to one of the recently-discovered Earth-like planets, and estimates:

. . . a cost of around $100 trillion per light-second for 10,000 people. 1200 light-years is around 30 billion light-seconds, so the total cost comes out roughly equal to the value of current world GDP accumulated over the life of the universe. 

Apparently atheists can’t lose in the Massachusetts special election for U.S. Senate, as both candidates get an “A” from the SCA. I am skeptical, guys.

New Kickstarter project looks to fund the making of a documentary about pastor-turned-atheist Jerry DeWitt, called The Outcast of Beauregard Parish. 

YOU get a Forkosch! And YOU get a Forkosch! And that’s it. Susan Jacoby and the team behind the Free Inquiry expose on religious tax exemptions will be presented the Forkosch Award at the CFI Summit in October.

High school student Katelyn Campbell makes noise about being forced to be proselytized to in public school, and gets her speaking slot pulled at graduation.

Embryonic stem cells are being cloned. I’m sure this will satisfy everyone. 

After a North Carolina local school board refuses to give up prayer at meetings, member Leonard Pryor resigns in protest, and then the board reverses itself. 

Reuters described “apartheid tactics” separating Myanmar’s minority Muslims from Buddhists. 

NYT on how rough Christians have it in post-revolution Egypt:

. . . Mr. Mubarak made a point of protecting minority groups to nurture loyal constituencies and patronage systems that he could leverage against his Islamist rivals. Though secular tension sometimes turned violent during his 30 years in power, it was generally contained by the state security apparatus. Since the election a year ago of a government dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, however, attacks on Copts and their institutions have multiplied. 

Leaders of Christian groups that don’t agree on anything besides the idea that Jesus was way cool get together in DC to consider a “national day of civil discourse.” Hmm. 

Mayoral candidate “endorsed by Jesus Christ” comes in last place. THANKS, JESUS. 

Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland, who resigned for unspecified sexual no-no’s, reportedly with other priests, will leave the country to engage in “prayer, penance and spiritual renewal.”  

France worries over the ingredients of jihad fermenting in its jails. 

The Economist on the Web as a kind of oasis of the mind for Muslim kids:

. . . the web seems to offer an escape of a healthier kind. As a counterpoint to a real-world existence where they are obliged to think, pray and behave by hard-and-fast rules, the net can bring them into a modern or post-modern realm where many different ideas and cultural styles can be questioned, discussed, discarded or combined. 

Nature profiles the great work of the NCSE. 

At Skeptical Inquirer, Terrence Hines reviews Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters. 

Oh, who cares about the humanities anymore? Olivia James at the CFI On Campus Blog, that’s who.  

Also at the Campus blog, Seth Kurtenbach takes on Penn Jillette with “belief, add truth, justification, and some special sauce.” 

Aliens also seem to find Canadians pleasant, as UFO sightings are way up.  

Quote of the Day 

Moroccan atheist in hiding, Imad Iddine Habib:

Dear friends, we have a long way to go to break down those Middle Aged myths and ways of thinking, those oppressive and repressive rites in the name of religion or culture, those violations of human rights in the name of cultural relativism… We have to fight for this long awaited world, where people will live equally regardless of their gender, religious beliefs, or sexual orientations, where we will live in harmony with our environment, a world where wars and un-civilisation will only exist in history books.

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Persecuted Bangladeshi atheist bloggers Subrata Adhikari Shuvo and Russel Parvez are released on bail.

From our Office of Public Policy, we’re on board with 70 other groups pushing to keep abortion restrictions out of the congressional appropriations process.

A lot of Point of Inquiry action:

• A brand new episode with environmental writer and fracking non-hater Michael Levi is up 
• The POI blog looks at some highlights from the Jared Diamond video episode
• Indre and Chris will be podcasting in front of a live audience at the upcoming CFI Summit

Women in Secularism 2 is, like, just about here! I feel like I just got back from the last one! Secular Woman announces grant recipients for the conference.

Mayoral candidate in North Miami claims an endorsement from Jesus Christ. You’d think you wouldn’t waste news like that on a mailer, but you’d have a big press event with JC himself and the old arm-rasing hand-holding thing. Anyway, let’s say that I’ve just been endorsed by Optimus Prime.

This August, get your hands dirty with some real-world skepticism at The Skeptic’s Toolbox. 

Lutheran pastor Dan Delzell tells it like it is in the Christian Post:

Your response to the Christian Gospel will reveal whether you are listening to Jesus, or to Satan. There is no getting around it. Whether you take a public position on the matter or not, you are in one camp or the other. That is because there are only two camps to which souls can belong.

Oh, and also, “Satan hates everybody.” FYI.  

Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Sherry Rehman, charged with blasphemy, resigns. 

Jakarta Globe covers the U.S. State Department’s criticism of Indonesia’s human rights record, specifically citing its blasphemy laws. Meanwhile, police in Indonesia kill a man suspected of being an Islamic militant attempting a bomb attack.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (yes that’s his name) declares a state of emergency as Islamist “insurgents and terrorists” cause widespread violence and death. 

Our own John Shook will teach the CFI Institute online course “Secularism and Atheology: The Agendas” starting June 1. 

Islamic group in Sudan criticizes the government for not doing enough to curb atheism and apostasy. 

Following Islamist riots in Bangladesh, anger is boiling anew among the populace over “blasphemous” desecration of Qurans, collateral damage in the violence. 

Ben Radford at Discovery News looks at the truth behind the panic of children and “stranger danger”:

In fact, children are in far more danger of being abused, kidnapped or killed by their parents than any stranger on the street. 

Orac rages against the quacks dissing Angelina Jolie. 

Zachary Heiden of the Maine ACLU tells the Bangor Daily News why prayer in school is different than prayer in the statehouse:

Nobody has to be in the Legislature. No one is forced to be in the Legislature the same way they are forced to be in school. The courts have said it’s OK for there to be prayer in the Legislature or other government meetings as long as the prayer is not overtly sectarian. 

HuffPost Live does a panel on whether religion makes you healthier. (It has a clever title: “The God Placebo”)

Humanist weddings in the UK will of course lead to Jedi weddings. 

Even Shape magazine is getting skeptical of Dr. Oz. 

Quote of the Day 

RNS’s Lauren Markoe interviews Candida Moss, author of The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented A Story of Martyrdom:

When people talk about being persecuted in modern America, I think it’s dangerous. I’m talking about everyone from Rick Santorum to Mitt Romney to Catholic bishops, and Bill O’Reilly talking about a war on Easter. The problem with this is that it destroys dialogue. Persecutors don’t have legitimate complaints so you can’t really have productive discussions. But you can disagree with someone sharply on the basis of your religious beliefs without accusing them of persecution. When you say they’re persecuting you, you’re basically accusing them of acting with Satan. 

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Minnesota will soon be the 12th state to allow gay marriage. 

CSICOP.org starts a new column by Kyle Hill on what the real-world implications would be if some paranormal claims were true. To kick off: Magnet people—how do they work? 

Guys! It’s cool. The Catholic League says there is no sex abuse crisis. Whew! 

Also: Stop worrying, Texas, it’s now totally legal to say “Merry Christmas.” Double-whew! 

James Dobson emerges from his crypt to declare the coming death of feminism, so he can hold the door for women again or something.

Construction company extracting rock for a road “accidentally” destroys a Mayan pyramid. 

Shelley Segal did a little gig for the folks in Amherst, and we have video of her live performance of “Saved.”  

Author Jeff Sharlet went on a tweetathon yesterday attacking the concept of “dialogue” as a panacea to deep rifts:

[A] Fetish for “dialogue” assumes those you disagree w/ lack only your insight; assumes they want to “compromise.” . . . Well-intentioned liberals always ask how we can “educate” haters. Elite haters don’t need “education”; they need to be challenged.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa totally nails Obama for being nice and calling up Jason Collins after he came out as gay: Why not call Tim Tebow, huh? Why “Mister President”?!?! 

Filmmaker Vikram Gandhi aims t make a documentary about the pull of gurus, and decides the best way to do that is to pretend to be one himself. 

Real Time had a neat debate, clipped by Andrew Sullivan, on fundamentalism, imperfect revolutions, and radical Islam.  

I had never heard of “Slender Man” until last year’s CSICon, and now I wish I hadn’t because it creeps me out. 

Swaziland takes steps to control the problem of witches flying too high on broomsticks with some sensible regulation. 

Daniel Loxton on what he believes the skeptic movement does best:

When skepticism serves up opinion, it is just more noisy punditry. When skepticism can be counted on to deliver the demonstrable facts, it becomes, like Consumer Reports [or like Snopes.com], a useful public service. 

Jonathan Merritt at RNS looks at the rise and “cult-like” stature of pastor Mark Driscoll. 

Ali A. Rizvi explains how he can consider himself an “atheist Muslim” in a world in which “everyone cherrypicks”: 

For me, the answer is that Islam is a religion, but the experience of being Muslim, practicing or not, is much more nuanced and complex. 

A majority of Americans still think there was a deeper conspiracy behind the JFK assassination, but fewer than used to. 

I know you’ve seen this already, but here’s that deeply moving music video from astronaut Chris Hadfield. 

SciAm: Our little rituals before job interviews, or after someone dies, actualy have beneficial effects. 

Brainy website Big Think launches a “mentoring” video series with familiar figures to skepto-atheists like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Julia Galef. 

Tennessee public school may have opened a can of worms by allowing the Gideons to give out Bibles. 

In Saudi Arabia, help someone convert from Islam, go directly to jail. 

Thanks to Americans United, a public school in Maine will no longer be blessing boats. 

Louisiana may repeal a 1981 law (struck down by the Supreme Court but still on the books) giving equal treatment to creationism in schools. Wait, what? 

Our own Joe Nickell meets pioneering Bigfoot legend-spinner Bob Gimlin, who offers Joe three little words on a signed photo.

Joe also rounds up 10 faked miracles from history for HuffPo. 

There’s video of Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s address at the SCA lobby day, and he’d like “religious chauvinists” to “leave us Jews out.” 

Are folks prepping for Doomsday, or just spending money on a swanky bunker? Amanda Shapiro at The New Inquiry explores:

[N]ot all survivalists are interested in roughing it now or in the post-apocalyptic world. For those with means, survivalism can look a lot like planning for a very comfortable retirement.  

The Southern Hemisphere is gaining more Catholics, and there’s been a huge uptick in deacons.  

“Erasmus” column at The Economist looks at the secularity (and non-secularity) of nations’ constitutions. 

Bigfoot researcher donates a big, honking sasquatch statue to a middle school classroom. Erm, thanks? 

Many Muslims in Virginia are “furious” that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in a local Islamic cemetery.

Man do we get some weird mail at CFI. 

Quote of the Day 

HuffPo’s Paul Raushenbush has an interesting take on why Ten Commandments displays in public schools are a bad idea for the religious:

Every religious person should object to having the Ten Commandments in schools because you are allowing other people—people over whom you have no control—the responsibility of interpreting said commandments. If you take the Ten Commandments seriously, you certainly don’t want someone who doesn’t share your beliefs explaining to the classroom what they mean. 

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Apparently, some plants are communicating with each other. Call Peter Singer! (Or, as Ron Lindsay said in response on Twitter, “Clearly the only morally acceptable stance is to limit oneself to drinking Ensure.”)

Too many saints! Pope Francis dubs literally hundreds of new saints from the “Martyrs of Otranto” - Italian Catholics beheaded in 1480 for refusing to convert to Islam.  

Ack! No wait! Too many popes! Francis, Ratzinger, and Egypt’s Coptic Pope were all in the Vatican at once!

Last Friday, Ben Radford dished on the disaster that is fake-psychic Sylvia Browne on CKNW’s Simi Sara Show (scroll to the bottom for the “Hour 2” section) and KIRO’s Seattle’s Morning News (I can’t find a link, but trust me, I heard it, he was on).

CFI chief Ron Lindsay is not sold on the atheist-Catholic dialogue proffered by “Strange Notions”: 

[Site proprietor Brandon] Vogt may not be pursuing a genuine dialogue. Instead, he appears to be on a mission to convert people who he mistakenly believes are followers of another faith. 

Pew has new data on American attitudes concerning Muslims and terrorism following the Boston attacks. 

The 387th most popular name for newborn baby boys is “Messiah.” Just so you know. 

Church of Scientology photoshops a in stock photo crowd to make you think way more people came to a new building’s opening than actually did. 

Apocalypse predictor Harold Camping’s Christian radio network looks to be on the way to shutting down, which, one would think, he would have seen coming. 

Secularist wunderkind Zack Kopplin embarrasses WSJ’s Stephen Moore on Real Time on the issue of science funding. (Edit: It has been revealed to me that this is like a month old. Whatever, I’m just seeing it now, so it’s news to me.)  

Religious conservatives hate church-state separation, at least until Joe Biden asks faith leaders to help out on gun control. 

Columbia University’s Manan Ahmed Asif in NYT on Pakistan’s elections:

The candidates campaigning in this election, rather than arguing for the rights of all Pakistanis, have further marginalized religious minorities and given license to those who attack them. 

The Asian Human Rights Commission publishes a report on the history of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. 

Classy, guys: Chicago novelty shop sells a hijab-wearing suicide bomber doll. 

Contain your shock, Rabbi David Wolpe doesn’t think Dawkins should be considered a leading intellectual. 

Tom Krattenmaker in USA Today on atheists in the Boy Scouts:

Once the Boy Scouts open up to non-believers, they’re going to discover they have a lot to contribute — just as they’ve been contributing all along. 

Vermont on track to be the third state to allow assisted suicide. 

Rich Lowry of the National Review says that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the guy behind the “Innocence of Muslims” video, is in U.S. jail because he violated an unwritten law against blasphemy against Islam. Erm… 

Congressional report says that churches should be applying for their tax status in the same way that any other nonprofit would. Wait, what? 

Brave atheist high school student who blew the whistle on his school’s Ten Commandments plaque allows himself to be outed so his friends would not get blamed for alerting FFRF. 

The Gazette discovers atheists in Colorado Springs. Oooooh! Aaaaah! 

LA Times’ Michael McGough calls out “Catholic Sharia” in Pittsburgh’s huge overreaction to art students whose work dissed the pope.

American Atheists’ Amanda Knief tells Hemant why AA is hiring a DC policy director, when CFI, AHA, and SCA pretty much have that covered:

AA is putting a public policy director in DC in order to give atheists — not humanists or nontheists — a stronger presence when there is lobbying and to make sure AA’s point of view and its members are represented. We think this is a positive sign that four major organizations will provide representation in D.C. for the nontheistic movement. It is a sign that our movement is growing and lets the political world know that our constituency can support such efforts. It increases the credibility and the clout of all of our organizations — especially as we work together. 

Pigeon blood cures warts, with the help of God. Sure, why not. 

Rev. Skip Lindeman talks up believer/nonbeliever dialogue:

One of the tenets of my faith is that everyone is a child of God, even if he/she is not of my religion. I think Jesus was on to something when he said to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you. That sly dog! He realized that once you pray for an enemy, he’s really no longer your enemy. From Native American wisdom is the advice to walk a mile in somebody else’s moccasins before you judge him/her. That’s good advice. 

Animal corpses falling from the sky!!! 

Do not mess with sparrows, lest they go all Jurassic Park on you.

Quote of the Day 

Katherine Stewart at The Guardian on homeschooling’s insidious side:

In America, we often take for granted that parents have an absolute right to decide how their children will be educated, but this leads us to overlook the fact that children have rights, too, and that we as a modern society are obligated to make sure that they get an education. Families should be allowed to pursue sensible homeschooling options, but current arrangements have allowed some families to replace education with fundamentalist indoctrination. 

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. 

Follow CFI on Twitter: @center4inquiry 

Got a tip for the Heresy? Send it to press(at)centerforinquiry.net! 

The Morning Heresy: “I actually read it.” - Hemant Mehta