Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1752

Mississippi Judge: Underage Drinkers Can Write an Essay About the Book of Revelation to Avoid Harsher Punishment

When underage drinkers get caught, Mississippi Judge Albert Fountain gives them two options to “keep the conviction off their records and avoid hefty costs”:

1) Write a 1,000-word essay about the effects of alcohol

2) Write a 500-word essay about the effects of alcohol… and another 500-word essay about the Book of Revelation

“I’ve been doing this eight or 10 years, and 19 out of 20 (offenders) read the book and write about Revelation,” he said.

“I don’t force them to do it. It’s their choice.”

…

“W...

Orleans Township (MI) Board Members Vote to Pray at Meetings; Non-Christians Won’t Get to Deliver Invocations

The Orleans Township Board in Michigan has finally figured out the problem with America: Not enough Christianity.

That’s why all five board members unanimously voted this week to say a prayer at the beginning of all their future meetings:

“I brought it up, as I know of another nearby township that has been doing this for years,” [Supervisor Jim Patrick] said. “It’s been bothering me, because in America in general, we’re doing so much to take God out of everybody’s life.”

Patrick said the invocat...

Turns Out Your Zodiac Sign Has Been a Month Off This Whole Time

“Think you’re a Leo?” The New Zealand Herald asks. “You’re not.”

The piece is highlighting a BBC Stargazing Live discussion of the zodiac, in which a curious tidbit was revealed: even if you accept the idea of astrological signs, you probably weren’t born under the one you think you were.

When the zodiac was devised by the ancient Greeks, people were assigned star signs based on the constellation that was behind the sun at that time. But the constellations are now out by about a month.

The wobbl...

I’ll Be Speaking in Vancouver This Weekend

If you’re in the area, I’ll be giving a talk at Vancouver’s Langara College on Saturday afternoon. All the details are on the British Columbia Humanist Association’s website and you can purchase tickets here.

I’ll be joined by Armin Navabi, an ex-Muslim blogger who runs the Atheist Republic website.

C’mon, people in Seattle! It’s not *that* far away!

“Bible Man” Kicked Out of Tennessee Elementary School After FFRF Inquiry

For decades now, Horace Turner (a.k.a. “Bible Man”) has been making appearances at public schools. In 2012, a school district in Alabama was threatened with a lawsuit to stop the proselytizing… and the board voted to do nothing; in essence, they dared the Freedom From Religion Foundation to sue them.

Bible Man couldn’t deflect the unwanted attention this time around. The Grundy County Department of Education in Tennessee has promised that Bible Man will no longer be allowed to “lead religious...

Messianic Misdirection

Some of you are probably scratching your heads, thinking “What the Hell?”

Allow me to explain:

Harry Houdini, nee Ehrich Weiss (Sort of rhymes with “Jesus Christ”), was Jewish and born on March 24th, about the same time of year that Jesus would have been born (if he existed).

Houdini was, as almost everyone knows, a legendary magician. One of his famous tricks involved being locked inside a water-filled milk can from which he would miraculously escape. Legend has it that he could dematerialize a...

Gay Mormon Was Attacked by his BYU Roommates and Evicted by His Landlord After Coming Out, Says Lawsuit

Earlier this year, Adam White (below), a student at Brigham Young University, told his roommate he was gay. Even at BYU, that should be fine. You can’t *act* on your sexual orientation, but homosexuality in and of itself shouldn’t be a problem. And it wasn’t like White’s orientation was a secret. He had participated in an “It Gets Better” video with other students at the school:

I guess his roommates and landlord couldn’t handle the information:

Court papers also say that the roommates said “be...

Colorado Republican Legislator: God Let a Pregnant Woman Get Brutally Stabbed Because Abortion is Legal

It looks like Gordon Klingenschmitt‘s colleagues in the Colorado House are finally realizing who the hell this guy is.

The right-wing extremist who constantly says awful things about anyone who’s not his brand of Christian may have jumped his own JesuShark when commenting on the brutal attack of a pregnant woman:

A pregnant Colorado woman had her baby cut from her womb on Wednesday during an alleged attack by a stranger who later took the dead infant to a hospital claiming that she had suffered...

Anti-LGBT, Anti-Atheist, and Anti-Anyone Discrimination Are All Legal In Indiana Now

Yesterday, Indiana Governor Mike Pence (below) codified discrimination against LGBT people, atheists, women, unmarried couples, pregnant people, and virtually anybody else who could pose a “threat” to a person’s religious expression.

The freshly-signed Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects people from governmental consequences for discriminatory acts they commit, as long as they were acting on their deeply-held religious beliefs. The exact text says that the law:

Prohibits a governmental e...

Canadian Postal Worker Complains About Delivering Mail That Goes Against His Deeply-Held Religious Beliefs

I’ve heard stories about Christian pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control because they have personal religious hang-ups about it, but this is the first time I’ve heard of postal workers refusing to deliver the mail because they didn’t like the contents:

Megan Whitfield, Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Toronto local president, said a number of workers have raised objections to a newspaper Canada Post has been paid to distribute in the Beaches-East York area.

Your Ward News, pro...