Now, if you are going to call yourself "pro-life", you have to be concerned about climate change. So, what to do if the same politicians who are pro-life are climate change deniers?
In a first-of-a-kind study, scientists examined the relationships between fetal development and pregnant women's exposure to ... Read more
Jamelle Bouie in Slate: In the swing state of Iowa, according to the latest poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, Bernie Sanders leads Dona... Read more
Pure, unmitigated horse manure from Lindsey Graham. Democrats believe in helping people, of course they'll vote for the funding. But let's not forget ... Read more
There is a point where Fox News just becomes a giant troll joke. No one could take this crap seriously, right? Take yesterday's little chat about Hil... Read more
The Nightly Show's Larry Wilmore opened up his show this Monday with a shot across the bow at Donald Trump, and his recent comments on the shooting at... Read more
Fox's Bill O'Reilly seemed a bit confused during his Talking Points Memo this Monday evening, when he lashed out Hillary Clinton and "liberals" in gen... Read more
Throughout the 2016 GOP presidential primary season, the beltway media has really enjoyed depicting Gov. John Kasich of being a true moderate Republic... Read more
This is a brief follow-up to the blockbuster Exxon story, about how the company knew as far back as 1977 that burning fossil fuel was a big cause of c... Read more
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden dropped a new bombshell: The UK intelligence agency GCHQ is using Smurf code names for its phone spying tools. Dreamy Smurf, Nosey Smurf and Tracker Smurf can gain control over your smartphone and there's very little you can do about it, according to a BBC Panorama interview. http://youtu.be/5Rg1pcf502Q
The publisher of a high school world geography textbook announced on Friday it would change the wording of a caption that described slaves brought to ... Read more
“We’re taking a stand today to fight for pregnant women who are denied potentially life-saving care because doctors are forced to follow religious directives rather than best medical practices,” ACLU of Michigan Staff Attorney Brooke A. Tucker said in a statement. “Catholic bishops are not licensed medical professionals and have no place dictating how doctors practice medicine, especially when it violates federal law.” http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/10/02/lawsuit-michigan-catholic-hospitals-denying-care-pregnant-patients/
When faced with a big challenge where potential failure seems to lurk at every corner, you’ve probably heard the advice, “Be more confident!” But where does confidence come from, and how can you get more of it? Here are three easy tips to boost your confidence.
https://youtu.be/l_NYrWqUR40
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) -- who is challenging House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the conservative alternative to replace House Speaker ... Read more
Angry over what they characterize as misleading Republican leaks to the press, Democrats on the committee investigating the attack on the American con... Read more
Carly Fiorina is so opposed to Planned Parenthood, which she believes is "pushing women into late-term abortions so they can more successfully harvest... Read more
Around 8 p.m. on September 29, the Liberty Counsel, Kim Davis's legal representation, tweeted a report from Inside the Vatican that Pope Francis had a... Read more
Ingenious scam artists, the only criminals we refer to as artists, are taking advantage of the situation by contacting people by email posing as their credit card company informing them that in order to issue a new EMV chip card, they need them to either update their account by confirming some personal information or click on a link to continue the process. This is a case of you are in trouble with either option... http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/10/03/weisman-emv-chip-credit-cards-scams/73203584/
The conflicts between Shia and Sunni Muslims go back to the seventh century and the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Yet a spotlight has been shone recently on the differences between the two branches of the religion as the number of clashes between both groups has intensified. The vast majority of...
These Amazon "shopping hacks" will help you get things like a free Prime membership extension or digital credits, and even seven-day price protection ... Read more
WOI anchor Sabrina Ahmed told Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson that his plan to make immigrants take jobs without giving them the same rig... Read more https://youtu.be/B8L23rnnNXc
This time it hits close to home for me. The Newbury Park Planned Parenthood is just a few miles away from my home, in an area which certainly has its ... Read more
Presidential hopeful Donald Trump may not seem like commander-in-chief material to Americans, but in certain African countries, he fits the bill. http://youtu.be/2FPrJxTvgdQ
Steve Doocy was overjoyed this morning because the Police Chief of Childress, Texas, who put 'In God We Trust' on the back of all police cruisers, told atheists to 'go fly a kite,' when they protested this violation of our First Amendment. ... Read more
Jackie, William and Rachel each came from religious homes. So what made them question, and ultimately reject, the belief systems of their childhood? We let them explain...in their own words.
These interviews were filmed at the 2012 Ascent of Atheism Conference in Denver, Colorado. https://youtu.be/F0fN-EK4qmY
The No. 3 Republican in the Indiana House abruptly resigned Tuesday, reportedly over a sexually explicit video that was sent from a cellphone he said ... Read more
A new poll released by Winthrop University in South Carolina shows that many residents in the state changed their minds about whether the Confederate ... Read more
Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) is running as the alternative to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to succeed John Boehner as Speaker of the Hous... Read more
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declares that he is no longer bound by agreements signed with Israel. Read More -> ... Read more
"Nightly Show" host Larry Wilmore has questions Tuesday night for Fox News about their praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and disdain for U.S.... Read more
A majority of Americans said that any spending bill passed by Congress must include funding for Planned Parenthood, according to a survey released Mon... Read more
...But what does the Pope have to say about atheists and secularists who have been jailed, attacked or killed for expressing their own conscientious objections to religion?
"You can't take his presence with somebody as his affirmation of everything that they stand for," said Cathleen Kaveny, a theologian and legal scholar at Boston College. "He thanked her for her courage and told her to stay strong. That's a commitment to her voice in the conversation. I don't think it's necessarily commitment to her policy views." http://www.edgeboston.com/news/religion/news/185914/vatican_observers_raise_questions_over_clerk's_pope_visit_
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins on his experience with Darwinism and why creationists "don't know anything."
TRANSCRIPTION:
I think we should look at the history of religion, be fascinated by it, just if you look at the history of art and so on. But I don't think that religion has anything useful to teach us.
One of the main reasons why people are religious is because they are persuaded by the apparent design of living things and that's completely destroyed by Darwin. If you actually read any book by a biologist about evolution, it's hard to see how you could fail to be persuaded of it, the evidence is just absolutely pact. There is no doubt about it. It's not a controversial issue. History is completely certain. It's as certain as the fact that the earth and the other planets, orbit the sun.
More than 40% of the American population, if opinion polls to be believed, think that the world is less than 10,000 years old and that's a shocking figure. It shows deep profound ignorance. It sounds very laudable to teach the controversy, to teach both theories. But there aren't two theories, there is only one theory around, there is only one game in town as far as theory of science is concerned. Of course you get negative reactions from creationists, but who cares about creationists, they don't know anything.
I think it was my father who first introduced me to Darwin and Evolution. I was immensely moved by it and it did start a rollercoaster in a way and then I started to become really quite antireligious after that. I went through a sort of middle ground of what you might call Deism. I think I gave up Christianity before I finally gave up the idea of a sort of creative designer of some kind.
Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. Before that you could be an atheist, he was for example, but it was quite difficult because you had no good explanation for why living things look so well designed, Darwin provided that.
There are other reasons for being religious like moral reasons or people sometimes feel they have a personal relationship with God or with Jesus or with Mohammed or whatever it is and that kind of reason for being religious would not in itself be undermined by Darwinism, but it's quite wrong to believe that science reduces humanity, that science somehow gives you a bleak, cold, empty, barren view of the universe and of life, quite the contrary, sounds as enriching and fulfilling.
What's going to happen when I die, if I met god in the unlikely event after I died, I think the first thing I would say is well, which one are you? Are you Zeus? Are you Thor? Are you Baal? Are you Mithras? Are you Yahweh? Which god are you? And why did you take such great pains to conceal yourself and to hide away from us? http://youtu.be/_6iss-xq2-E
We hear the same Creationist arguments SO OFTEN, we decided to assemble our 10 favorites and address them here. Feel free to use this video as a response to the Creationists in your circle. http://youtu.be/SSxgnu3Hww8
Part One was so popular, and material is so abundant, we just couldn't resist another list of arguments we hear from the mouths of those defending God. http://youtu.be/xfZFsXfCy6s
Dawkins visits a Christian conference for men who struggle with the "sin of masturbation and pornography." Clip from the new Channel 4 (UK) series, "Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life." http://youtu.be/bYr48dvZ5As
In his editorial New Rule, Bill Maher explains how Pope Francis’ recent visit exposed just how little the “Christians” of the far right believe in what Jesus actually said. https://youtu.be/cE0_JhLsgPQ
Johnny Depp is out in the new movie “Black Mass,” about Boston gangster, killer, and FBI informant James “Whitey” Bulger, and how that relationship went bad. It’s a powerful, tangled tale with a lot of blood and crime and lies. A lot of mixed-up loyalties as the informant turns the tables on the law. The Bulger story is dramatic. But across the country right now, the heavy use of informants, and criminal informants, by the FBI and more is a deep and controversial part of American law enforcement. Loaded with risks and rewards. This hour On Point, the world of FBI informants, from “Black Mass” to right now.
Interview: https://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/09/25/black-mass-whitey-bulger-fbi-informants
...this deal may over time strengthen reformists in the government, eventually reduce tensions in the region, and make the U.S. less reliant on allies like the Saudis who are actually the biggest and most sustained sponsors of Islamic radicalism in the world... http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/iran-deal-hysteria-was-manufactured-bs
The decision by Pope Francis to give his personal blessing – and a rosary – to Rowan County clerk Kim Davis thrust the pontiff into one of America's m... Read more
On Monday, March 21, 2011 Bart Ehrman gave a lecture at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club of California, underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation. Moderator was Alan Jones, Dean Emeritus, Grace Cathedral. The appearance was largely related to Bart Ehrman's printed release of "Jesus, Interrupted." Bart Ehrman takes you on a journey to the ancient world and the forgery battles that have raged through the centuries. Ehrman contends in the lecture that the New Testament is riddled with contradictions about the life of Jesus and his significance. He provides compelling evidence that early Christianity was a collection of competing schools of thought and that the central doctrines we know today were the inventions of theologians living several centuries after Christ.
Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He came to UNC in 1988, after four years of teaching at Rutgers University. At UNC he has served as both the Director of Graduate Studies and the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies. A graduate of Wheaton College (Illinois), Professor Ehrman received both his Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where his 1985 doctoral dissertation was awarded magna cum laude. http://youtu.be/BvKxJc-huEA
