Speaking Out Against Hate Directed at Women

May 15, 2013 By 9 Comments
AtheismPlus

This post originally appeared on Skepchick. Since the Women in Secularism 2 conference is this weekend, it seemed appropriate to repost it. There's one thing that just about every atheist activist agrees on, which is that religion has always treated women as inferior. Whether it's demonizing them as evil temptresses who brought sin into the world, demanding their silence and subordination, or treating them as male property with no desires of their own, every major church has a litany of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Garden Tagged With: , 9 Comments

The Political Dominance of Fundamentalism

May 13, 2013 By 20 Comments
PurpleAndYellow

Last week, Alex Knapp and I got into a friendly debate on Twitter about whether it's fair to stereotype conservative and fundamentalist religion as representative of religion generally. I wanted to flesh out some of my arguments there with additional data. I wish it were true that the religious left and the religious right were equally influential. If they were, they'd usually balance each other out, and there would be little reason for atheists to worry about undue religious influence in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Rotunda Tagged With: , 20 Comments

Weekend Coffee: Snap Responses to Current Events

May 11, 2013 By 4 Comments

In the Times this week, Israel's ultra-Orthodox rabbis are enforcing gender apartheid by sending their own women and girls to flood the Wailing Wall plaza, so that women who actually want to pray there can't get in: “They’re trying to change the religion and politics in Israel — they should do that in the Knesset and not at the Kotel,” Ms. Beskin said, using the Hebrew terms for Israel’s Parliament and the Western Wall. “The rules should be, honestly, just respect the tradition … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Foyer Tagged With: , , , , 4 Comments

Atlas Shrugged: Corporate Philanthropy

May 10, 2013 By 86 Comments

I've got one more point to make about Hank Rearden, and then we'll move on to the next scene. Hank's brother, Philip, asks him to donate money to a charity he's working for, an group called "Friends of Global Progress": Rearden had never been able to keep track of the many organizations to which Philip belonged, nor to get a clear idea of their activities. He had heard Philip talking vaguely about this one for the last six months. It seemed to be devoted to some sort of free lectures on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Library Tagged With: , 86 Comments

Building Walls Against the World

May 8, 2013 By 6 Comments
BricksInWall

When I wrote last month about France enacting same-sex marriage, it wasn't even on my radar that two more U.S. states were about to do the same. But now, Rhode Island (which previously had civil unions) has graduated to full marriage equality, becoming the tenth state to do so, and Delaware followed right after. With this passage, every New England state now stands united in recognizing the humanity of same-sex couples. What makes this especially heartening is that Rhode Island is the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Rotunda Tagged With: , , 6 Comments

The Savita Inquest Concludes

May 6, 2013 By 33 Comments

Last month, the official inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar concluded. In a tragic irony, the jury delivered its verdict on the very date that would have been her fifth wedding anniversary. In my last post, I pessimistically predicted that the final report would take the anti-choice position that abortion should be forbidden until the woman is clearly dying and then blaming the doctors if they can't pull her back from the brink. To my surprise, that isn't what happened. Instead, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Rotunda Tagged With: 33 Comments

Weekend Coffee: May 5

May 5, 2013 By 5 Comments
Coffee

• A Christian fundamentalist couple that believes in faith healing has now killed two of their children by refusing to seek medical care for them. This likely violates the terms of their probation, agreed to in 2011 after the death of their first child, in which they agreed to obtain medical care for any of their other children who needed it. • John Paulk, the former chairman of the "ex-gay" ministry Exodus International, has recanted. In a statement, Paulk said he no longer … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Foyer Tagged With: , , , 5 Comments

Friday Night Music: Metric

May 3, 2013 By 1 Comment

It's Friday night and I'm feeling pretty good, so let's toast the weekend with another of my favorites, the Canadian indie-rock band Metric. I like their older albums too, but the two most recent are far and away the best, so here's one from each. From Fantasies (2009): From Synthetica (2012): And don't forget, I'm still taking donations for the Secular Student Alliance's SSA Week! I'll answer any question in exchange for a contribution of $5 or more, including more about my … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Foyer Tagged With: 1 Comment

Atlas Shrugged: Rearden Family Values

May 2, 2013 By 44 Comments

Atlas Shrugged, p.38-48 After a long day at the mills, Hank Rearden returns home to his family. And holy cow, but the ensuing scene is an appalling glimpse into Ayn Rand's mind. She manages something truly remarkable: she writes so as to portray Rearden as thoroughly rude, thoughtless, and self-absorbed, while at the same time making it clear that she expects us to identify and sympathize with him and not with his family, who all seem to have very reasonable complaints. Waiting for him at … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Library 44 Comments

A Change for the Worse

May 1, 2013 By 13 Comments

Well, as you've probably noticed, the blog is back to using Disqus. This wasn't my decision, and I'm not happy about it. Disqus offers no advantages over the built-in WordPress commenting system, as far as I'm concerned. Plus, because it's based on active scripting, it's inherently slower and less accessible, and its moderation capabilities are substandard. It gave me constant headaches on Big Think, and I expect the same will be true here. If you run into any problems, as I'm sure you will, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Foyer 13 Comments