Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1716

Wellington is the “Godless” Capital of New Zealand… and Other Highlights from the Nation’s Census

The New Zealand Herald went through the 2013 census as well as the Deprivation index (measuring wealth) and combined them in a fascinating interactive chart:

That’s a hell of a lot of color, and the darker it gets, the less religious it is.

What they found won’t surprise you, but it’s fun to point out a couple of things:

Rich Kiwis have turned their backs on God and religion, with religious New Zealanders living mainly in poor suburbs.

The Pew Research Center found something similar in the United...

Judge Orders School District Teaching Abstinence-Only Sex Ed to Pay Parents Who Forced Them to Stop

In 2009, the Clovis Unified School District in California was teaching abstinence-only sex education. This actually went against state law that required public schools to “provide a pupil with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect his or her sexual and reproductive health from unintended pregnancy and STDs.”

But the curriculum was still one you’d expect to see in an evangelical church, not a place of learning:

For example, one approved video, Go A.P.E., compared a woman who was not a vi...

Creationist “Researcher” tells Duggar-in-Law: “There Really is No Such Thing as an Atheist”

Jessa Seewald, the child of the Duggars whose marriage last year was featured on 19 Kids and Counting, recently went to the Institute for Creation Research in Texas with her husband Ben. And since there was no actual research to discuss and the Institute’s library only has one book in it, Ben sat with Dr. Jason Lisle and asked how the Director of Research would prove to atheists that God exists:

Lisle’s response was precisely what you’d expect from someone who thinks science works by assuming...

Illinois Catholic Church Assumes Red-Stained Communion Wafer is Miracle, Unaware of Scientific Explanation

There’s evidence of a “miracle” at St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Rochelle, Illinois.

Get this: A communion wafer “was placed in water by the Deacon to dissolve on May 1, 2015, [and] four days later, May 4, 2015, it appears to have turned into flesh and blood.”

You know, this exact thing happened years ago in Minnesota. Wafer. Water. “Blood.” And there turned out to be a perfectly good explanation for it that had nothing to do with ridiculous Catholic theology:

The archdiocese sent the host to...

Catholic School Students Protest Cardinal Dolan as Commencement Speaker

After last year’s commencement kerfuffles where students protested Ayaan Hirsi Ali‘s honorary degree and Bill Maher‘s speech, my first reaction to hearing about another protest was to roll my eyes.

But I have to hand it to the students at Le Moyne College, a Catholic school in Syracuse, New York. They’re raising a fuss for all the right reasons:

Some students at Le Moyne College are angry that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York will be speaking at g...

Teen Atheist in Singapore Convicted on Charges of Obscenity and Wounding Religious Feelings

I’ll hand it to Amos Yee Pang Sang. The teenage YouTuber has some entertaining videos:

The problem is that he mocked Christianity in his videos… and he also created this image of his country’s recently-deceased founding father Lee Kuan Yew fucking former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher:

And since he did this all in Singapore, which makes Bangladesh look like a beacon for human rights, he faced up to three years in prison for his “crimes.” Yesterday, after a two-day trial, a court convi...

How Chemical Evolution May Help Us Discover the Origins of Life

How might life have started on Earth?

The team at Stated Clearly has an excellent new video explaining chemical evolution, which could help us answer that question:

It’s Biology 101 as you’ve never thought about it before. Very cool.

Christian Evangelist Promotes New Children’s Book… All About Eternal Damnation

How do you teach children about Hell?

If you’re evangelist C. Matthew McMahon, you just scare the shit out of them by introducing the concept of eternal damnation at the age of 5 with your new children’s book:

Because those little kids are sinners and deserve to be punished forever…

McMahon appears to be responding to YouTube comments, so feel free to share your thoughts there.

(via Christian Nightmares)

An Outdoor “Advance” for Atheists in the Smokey Mountains This July

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of attending the FFRF-sponsored Lake Hypatia Freethought Advance (because atheists don’t “retreat,” dammit) in Talladega, Alabama. Between the softball game (atheists vs. Agnostics), picnic-like atmosphere, great talks, and moment of bedlam (because we need to stop being silent), it was a fantastic weekend.

So I’m sad to hear that, due to some personal matters, the organizers needed some time off this year — though they will hopefully be back in 2016. But...

Swedish Group Wants to Know Why Embassy Rejected Bangladeshi Blogger’s Visa Request Before He Was Killed

We learned early this morning that blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death with machetes as he walked to work:

While there’s a lot we don’t know, one piece of information that has come out since his death is that Das had been invited to Stockholm by the Swedish branch of PEN (the same group that recently gave a Courage award to Charlie Hebdo).

Unfortunately, according to the International Humanist and Ethical Union,

… we have been informed that his application for a visa to travel to Sweden...