Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1731

There’s Definitely Some Magic Involved

Maybe his show, too, will vanish in a puff of smoke…

(Via Joe Nickell at the Center For Inquiry)

Creationists Are Seriously Trying to Figure Out Adam and Eve’s Skin Color

Apparently, Christians are still debating the skin color of Adam and Eve… which is about as close as you can get to arguing over the color of a unicorn’s horn.

The idea is that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and you have to find some way of explaining the diversity of skin color within that time… which to them means either Adam or Eve had to be super-duper-black.

Referencing a passage in the ESV Study Bible, Sierra Rayne of the American Thinker writes:

As this commentary reads, it is unequivo...

Contrary to Previous Research, Study Finds That Atheists and Believers Have Similar Levels of Mental Health

Common wisdom holds that religious people generally have stronger mental health than atheists. On the surface, it’s easy to make sense of that. They have a built-in community, a sense of belonging, and a feeling that a Higher power is looking out for them.

New research, however, indicates that the perceived mental health gap may not exist after all.

According a paper published in the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, by the University of Louisville’s Mark M. Leach and Jon T. Moore of the...

Surprise! Louisiana’s Creationism Law Has Let Creationism Sneak Into Public Schools… and There’s Proof

Last year, Slate‘s Chris Kirk showed us a map documenting where taxpayer money can legally be used to espouse Creationism, whether through charter schools or public schools:

Oh, Louisiana…

Zack Kopplin says that this is still a major problem in his home state and he can prove it.

There’s the letter signed by nearly two dozen current and former faculty members of the Ouachita Parish School Board saying that the Louisiana law has given them permission to challenge evolution without fear of repercu...

Swiss Native, Stonewalled by Mormon Church, Wants to Know Why His Ancestor Was Posthumously Baptized

Nicolas Ulmer, who lives in Switzerland, was doing some research about his ancestors and realized that one of them was baptized as a Mormon after his death… even though he had nothing to do with the Church. (It was big news a few years ago when people found out Mormons conducted “posthumous proxy baptisms” on Holocaust victims to give them a chance to be “saved,” a practice the Church says it stopped in 1995.)

You. On the left. You’re a Mormon now.

Since the Mormon Church won’t answer Ulmer’s q...

11 Lies from a Christian Author’s 1978 Book About the Problems with Homosexuality

Last year, for some reason I still can’t remember, I came across a book called The Unhappy Gays by Tim LaHaye (who later wrote the Left Behind series).

Imagine all the hateful, horrible things conservative Christians say about gay people today… and then imagine how much worse it was in 1978. That’s what’s in this book.

Over the weekend, I finally read through the whole thing… and I’m ready to bang my head against a wall now.

Here’s a sneak peek at the wisdom you’ll acquire if get the book. (I’m...

A Twist on the Heavenly Tourism Genre…

I would read this guy’s book:

Friend, do you have doubts in your heart about the afterlife? Have you ever wondered if heaven is a real place? I myself had questions like these once, but a near-death experience erased my doubts forever. Why? Because during those few minutes when my heart stopped and the doctors worked to revive me, I saw God’s glorious kingdom with my own eyes, and while I was there I abducted an angel.

There’s so much more where this came from

(Image via Shutterstock)

Mississippi Con Demonstrates You Can Use the Bible to Justify Anything, Even Sexual Assault of a Pre-Teen Girl

John Kirk Councilman, 45, already had a conviction forattempted murder on his record, for which he wasout on probation. Then he was arrested and indicted againin Jackson County, Mississippi, for sexually assaulting a minor –under cover of Scripture no less.

[T]o justify the amount of time he spent with the girl weekly, he told her parents he was getting together with her to study and practice going over the Bible’s teachings.

Because who better to teach a child about morality than a guy with a...

Christian Auto Shop Owner Says He Won’t Serve Openly Gay Clients in Order to Protect Children

Days after Grandville (Michigan) auto repair shop owner Brian Klawiter said on Facebook that he wouldn’t serve gay customers, he’s showing no signs of regret. Instead, he’s making things even worse for himself with his latest post:

The ignorance is strong in this one…

An unbelievable amount of things have been said about me but the most prevalent has been the idea that Jesus wouldn’t have turned away homosexuals (or similar type statements). He wouldn’t. However, Jesus did not have young childr...

Eat Your Heart Out, Ken Ham

The comic strip B.C. was created by Johnny Hart, who often pushed Christian messages in his work. That still seems to be the case even though Hart passed away and his grandsons produce the strip now.

But, for the life of me, I can’t understand today’s comic:

Why would Creationist Ken Ham be eating his heart out? A man riding a dinosaur is totally his thing.

On the Comics Curmudgeon site, Uncle Lumpy can’t figure it out either:

OK, so WTF? Ken Ham presumably wouldn’t care about the brontosaurus/ap...