Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1658

Spare Me Your Prayers for Lafayette

Last night, a lone gunman entered a theater in Lafayette, Louisiana and opened fire, killing two and wounding seven before taking his own life.The setting was different, but the scene very much the same. After all,as this map from Voxof mass shootings in the U.S. since Sandy Hook makes clear, this isn’t exactly a rare occurrence anymore:

The reaction yesterday evening was what we’ve come to expect in the wake of such violence. Some people state facts and statistics about gun prevalence, use, a...

Even in Antarctica, the Internet is Leading to a Decline in Catholic Church Membership

We know the Catholic Church is losing members all over the place, but who knew that included Antarctica?

The Chapel of the Snows (below) at the United States’ McMurdo Station has lost so many members that it will no longer need a Catholic priest on duty:

Father Dan Doyle, who first went to Antarctica 40 years ago, said attendance at the Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo had been in steady decline, as had the number of residents using the chaplaincy.

There had been a decline in “religiosity” but the...

The People of Lafayette Don’t Need Your Prayers; They Need Better Laws

In response to the shootings in Lafayette, Louisiana earlier tonight, Governor Bobby Jindal asked his Twitter followers to “say a prayer for the victims at Grand Theatre and their families.”

While I understand the sentiment — you want to do something in the aftermath of a tragedy — let’s all admit that prayer won’t change anything. They won’t stop another shooting in the future. They won’t bring back the victims. Maybe they’ll help the people saying them get through the night, but there’s no e...

Humanist Group Appeals Ruling Defending Public School Graduation Prayers in South Carolina District

More than two years ago, we learned that administrators at Mountain View Elementary School in Taylors, South Carolina held a “graduation” ceremony inside of a church.

Maybe they could’ve gotten away with that — other public schools have held ceremonies in similar places — but the event’s program didn’t even attempt to shy away from promoting Christianity, listing two separate prayers:

As I wrote then, “school officials didn’t just cross the line. They destroyed the line and then prayed to Jesus...

Rick Perry: The Worst Thing About Donald Trump is That He Doesn’t Ask God for Forgiveness

Yesterday, in a speech that was surprisingpartly because it took this long for a Republican Presidential candidate to deliver it, Gov. Rick Perry denounced Donald Trump and his overblown offensive rhetoric, calling Trump’s candidacy a “cancer on conservatism.”

(Also a cancer on conservatism? Most conservatives.)

He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if p...

The Virgin Mary’s Mouth Isn’t Miraculously Moving in an Australian Church’s Painting

According to parishioners at Saint Charbel’s Maronite Catholic Church in Sydney, Australia, a picture of the Virgin Mary has come to life and is joining them in prayer! Or at least her mouth is…

“Once I looked up, I had no idea what they wanted me to look at and I saw her [the Virgin Mary] mouth moving. I then asked my friend; ‘Is it her mouth?’ She replied ‘yes.’ and then I got the shivers throughout my whole body. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I kept blinking in case I was seeing things,” [Kir...

Richard Dawkins Responds to $58 Million Lawsuit from Man Who Says the Scientist Called Him Stupid

Richard Dawkins is currently being sued for $58 million in one of the weirdest lawsuits you will ever see.

The lawsuit was filed by Karl L. Dahlstrom, a self-proclaimed “modern Renaissance man” who wrote an anti-evolution book called The Organized Universe in 2013. That book offered “scientific proof” that Darwinism was a hoax. To no one’s surprise, the experts were not convinced.

Dawkins, of course, has made a career out of explaining evolution to the masses — and getting frustrated by those t...

All That Glitters is Not God

We finally have definitive proof of God’s existence and it comes by way of Jessica, a Christian who’s temporarily visiting California and writing about her trip online.

She visited Bethel Redding Church and something miraculous happened…

I got home and realized my hands were sparkling like I’d rubbed them in glitter. My flatmates informed me it was from God, glory manifested during praise. My eyebrows raised. ‘Uh huh,’ I thought. I got in the shower and scrubbed my hands with soap, but it made...

Another Christian Attempts to Disprove Evolution Through His Own Ignorance

Here’s yet another video of a Christian who doesn’t understand science explaining why evolution must be false:

Don’t let the books fool you. He hasn’t read them.

In case you’re wondering, there is a plausible evolutionary pathway for the bombardier beetle and you can read about it here.

More broadly, though, just because you can’t fathom how nature evolved a particular mechanism doesn’t mean the explanationisn’t out there.

Ignorance isn’t proof that science is wrong.

(via Christian Nightmares and...

The Duggars Are Very Sad They Can’t Spread the Word of Jesus on TV Anymore

The Duggar family, fresh off the cancellation of their TV show and not-so-fresh off the Josh Duggar scandal rocking their household, is apparently very upset they’ve lost the greatest vehicle to proselytize to the public:

The source [who has worked closely with them] says the evangelical Christian family, who often discussed their religious faith on their TLC show, is “heartbroken that they’ve now lost that platform.”

“The Duggars want to return to TV because they truly believe it was part of G...