Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1668

So That’s How All Those Holy Books Were Written…

All you had to do was fill in the blanks:

(via Evolving Perspectives and Exploring our Matrix)

Mississippi Newspaper Will Not Publish Gay Wedding Announcements Because Jesus

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, based out of Tupelo, would like you to know that gay people are despicable and their marriages are shams. Publisher Clay Foster — who doubles as a church pastor — explained as much in a column that contained six Bible verses and no reasonable defense for his bigotry:

… last week five of our Supreme Court justices decided that neither the Bible nor their predecessors’ ruling matters any longer because times have changed.

Our response and reaction to this...

Forget God’s Not Dead. This is What It’s Like to Be an Atheist Teacher in the South

We finally know that the plot of God’s Not Dead 2 involves a religious high school teacher who gets accused of promoting religion in the classroom by a presumably-atheist student… even though what she said was hardly crossing the line. (At least that’s the story I gathered from the brief plot points that have been released so far.)

But unless it’s over-the-top proselytizing, this isn’t a very common scenario. Atheist students are used to having Christian teachers. Mentioning church or bringing...

Florida Sheriff Puts “In God We Trust” Stickers on Patrol Cars

Bay County (Florida) Sheriff Frank McKeithen came up withand instituted a horrible idea: Putting “In God We Trust” stickers on every patrol car:

In God We Trust will be visible on all Bay County Sheriff’s Office vehicles hopefully by 5 pm today. This was an overwhelmingly accepted concept by Bay County Sheriff’s Deputies and they were honored and proud to display our new motto. In case anyone has questions, the stickers were donated to the sheriff’s office by a local business.

Because they can...

Ray Comfort: Give My Anti-Gay Movie Awesome Fake Reviews Because Those Who Saw It Hated It

Ray Comfort is on a mission to make sure his film Audacity doesn’t end up at the bottom of the IMDb Worst Movies list (where his buddy Kirk Cameron‘s film ended up last year). So he tweeted this yesterday:

Atheists hijacked IMDB and gave “Audacity” bad reviews. Feel free to leave yours…

This is another one of those lies Christians tell themselves when living in a Persecution Bubble.

In Comfort’s mind, there’s no possible way his movie is just flat-out, objectively awful. So there must be some co...

Debunking the Most Common Arguments Against Gay Marriage

Cristina Rad does a nice, swift job of tearing down the most common Christian arguments against LGBT rights:

Amazing, isn’t it, how the other side keeps using those arguments as if they have any merit?

(via ZOMGitsCriss)

The Problem with Brigham Young University’s Honor Code

The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses the problem with Brigham Young University’s Honor Code. (We’ve also posted about it here.)

Be sure to check out the FreeBYU website!

A rough transcript of the video can be found on the YouTube page in the “About” section.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next!

And if you like what you’re seeing, please con...

How to Deal with Unwanted Hotel Bibles

This is an article by Steve Lowe. It appears in the current issue of American Atheist magazine. American Atheist magazine is available at Barnes & Noble and Book World bookstores in the U.S. and at Chapters/Indigo bookstores in Canada. Go to Atheists.org to subscribe or to join American Atheists. Members receive free digital subscription. It’s also available from iTunes.

…

Are you tired of always finding a Bible in your hotel room bedside drawer? It’s usually the King James Version of the Old a...

The Army Keeps Denying Heathens Official Recognition for No Good Reason

The United States Army has infringed on the rights of minority religious groups before, but this time, they risk being smitten by the hammer of Thor.

For the past six years, Heathens (their word) in the Army have been fighting for official recognition of their religion, which modernizes traditional Norse, Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon beliefs in gods like Odin and Freyja and an afterlife in the warrior’s paradise Valhalla. While the Air Force began recognizing Heathens last year, the other branche...

California Councilman Says LGBT Movement Took Rainbow Symbol from Book of Genesis

Some people really seem to struggle with the concept that not everyone shares their viewpoints. People like Newport Beach City (California) Councilman Scott Peotter. You see, in his view, it’s “ironic” that gay rights activists would use the rainbow flag as a symbol for their cause. And, more than that, it’s actually a corruption of the rainbow. Why? The Bible, of course!

The Daily Pilot reports that Peotter sent an email message (that included an image of the city seal) to constituents, in wh...