Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1796

#DarwinWasWrongDay Campaign Backfires on Creationists

Creationist Ken Ham is furious that the U.S. Congress has introduced Darwin Day resolutions in the House and Senate, not to mention a couple of states.

So instead of celebrating Darwin Day, he has a different idea:

This year, on February 12, instead of celebrating Darwin’s anti-God religion, we can take this opportunity to show the world that Darwin’s ideas about our supposed evolutionary origins were wrong, and that God’s Word is true, from the very beginning. Let’s make February 12 Darwin Was...

Lawsuit Alleges That Georgia Teacher Told Child Not to Listen To His Mother Because She Doesn’t Believe in God

According to a damning new lawsuit from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, officials at Swainsboro Primary School (in Georgia) not only had children praying to the Christian God, they effectively punished the children of atheist parents by removing them from the classroom as these prayers occurred.

The plaintiffs are anonymous in the lawsuit but the children are going by the names “Jamie” and “Jesse”:

Before lunch, Jamie’s teacher, Cel Thompson, asked students to bow heads, fold hands and pr...

Progressive Mormon Excommunicated After Asking Tough Questions About the Faith and Its Leadership

Last month, we learned that the Mormon Church had moved to excommunicate progressive Mormon podcaster John P. Dehlin because he supported, among other things, marriage equality and the ordination of women. (Heresy!)

They’ve finally taken action, kicking Dehlin out of the church for good (unless, I suppose, he recants his opinions):

John Dehlin announced the decision from regional church leaders Tuesday morning. He becomes the second high-profile church member to be excommunicated in the past ye...

Female Saudi TV Host Laughs In Male Guest’s Face When He Proposes a Bizarre Solution For the Driving Ban

I’m delighted that the wonderfully tenacious interviewer in this news clip from Saudi TV eventually loses her composure and quietly busts a gut.

Her guest is historian Saleh Al-Saadoon, who thinks that women driving cars will lead to their being sexually assaulted. In America and Europe, women don’t care about being raped, he says, but Saudi women do, and the ladies ought to be grateful that their husbands and sons and brothers drive them everywhere and treat them “like queens.”

As the host’s i...

Conservative Columnist Star Parker Thinks Obama Prayer Meeting Remarks Were “Verbal Rape”

Over the weekend,Star Parker went on Mark Levin‘s radio show, and said this about President Obama‘s speech at last week’sPrayer Breakfast:

“It was verbal rape. Frankly, what the president did was verbal rape. He stole all the energy in the room. He stole from all of us. He stole the momentum in the room, he stole from our country, he stole from the world.” …

“This is what we were doing in this room, all this prayer, all these people, and then the president gets up and totally politicizes it.It...

Arizona State Representative Introduces International Darwin Day Resolution

The Darwin Day accolades keep rolling in. We’ve seen resolutions honoring the great scientist in the U.S. House and Senate. Delaware’s governor issued a proclamation, too.

Now, Arizona State Rep. Andrew C. Sherwood (below) has introduced a resolution (HR 2002) declaring February 12, 2015 “International Darwin Day”:

Whereas, February 12, 2015 is the 206th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin; and

Whereas, Charles Darwin is recognized for the discovery of natural selection as the mechanism b...

Australian Rabbis Are Surprised to Hear That Inappropriate Touching Of Children Is Against the Law

They’re so busy studying ancient texts,perhaps we ought to cut them some slack for not keeping upwith the innovationsof secular law. I mean, who knew that child molestation is illegal? Not these guys.

Australian rabbis continued to plead ignoranceregarding the proper procedures for handling suspected cases of molestation on Friday, during testimony before a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Yeshiva Center’s Rabbi Yosef Feldman — appearing before the commission...

I Suppose Unvaccinated Children Could Attend Daycare if They Were All Like This One…

Conan O’Brien introduces us to a daycare center that allows unvaccinated kids to interact with vaccinated ones.

They just take a few small precautions:

That’s one way to handle the children of irresponsible parents.

Friendly Atheist Podcast Episode 41: Linda LaScola, Co-Author of Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind

Our latest podcast guest is Linda LaScola, co-author of the book Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind, which will soon be re-released with several updates and additions.

LaScola is a research consultant perhaps best known for her work with philosopher Daniel Dennett in which they speak with pastors who may secretly be atheists. (You can read that paper here.)

She co-founded the Clergy Project — a site for religious leaders harboring serious doubts about their faith. She also blogs on Pat...

In Oregon, City Officials See Resistance to an “In God We Trust” Display

I’ve been seeing more stories lately about local city councils voting to put up “In God We Trust” plaques in their buildings. There’s no much we can do about it. All they have to do is say “It’s the country’s motto!” and the argument that it advances religion becomes moot, even if that’s entirely accurate.

In Klamath Falls, Oregon, though, at least there was some resistance to the idea:

“If ‘In God We Trust’ is going to be placed on that wall, shall we then place ‘Allahu Akbar’ on this wall for...