Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1804

Does Gandhi’s Murderer Deserve a Bust and Hindu Veneration? One Religious Group Says Yes.

Why should Indians honorNathuram Goatse Godse, theman who murdered Mahatma Gandhi?One group of Hindushas its reasons.

AbhishekAgarwaal, district president of the Mahasabha, the oldest Hindu nationalist political party,explainsthat he and his religious compadres

… consider Godse a patriot because he killed the man they hold responsible for the country’s violent partition into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan in 1947. …

“For so many years Gandhi has been revered as a great soul by...

Vatican Says It Found Child Porn, Cocaine, Plus Evidence of Money Laundering and Other Crimes

Right under God’s nose. Cheeky, cheeky.

Two cases of child pornography possession were uncovered within the walls of theVaticanlast year, along with numerous other crimes in the city state, the Holy See’s prosecutor general has announced.

Following worldwide allegations of sex abuse by priests, Gian Piero Milano, the Holy See’s Promoter of Justice, said the Vatican was now taking action against paedophilia in the heart of the Catholic church.

Unveiling the Vatican’s justice report, Milano stoppe...

Raif Badawi Has Been Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, According to Norwegian Media

While the fate of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi (below) is still up in the air — he’s received 50 lashes of a 1,000-lashes punishment for “insulting Islam,” though the flogging has been indefinitely delayed — there’s some news that could bring even more positive attention his way.

According to a Norwegian news outlet, two members of the nation’s Parliament — Snorre Valen and Karin Andersen — have nominated both Badawi and his imprisoned lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair for the Nobel Peace Prize.

A Change...

God’s Super Bowl Press Conference

It has as much insight as pretty much every athlete interview you’ll ever see:

(via SourceFed)

I Was Subject to Pastalytizing at Skepticon

At Skepticon last year, I was touched by His Noodly Appendage. And my life is better because of it:

You, too, can join the People for the Advancement of Spaghetti Tolerance and Appreciation (The P.A.S.T.A Foundation) right here.

It’s Been a Horrible Month for Libraries, Thanks Mostly to Widespread Book Burnings by the Islamic State

Self-styled Islamist censors are on a tear again, destroying entire library collectionsby setting them ablaze or carting them off– except for certain Islamic texts they approve of.

The Associated Pressshines a light onIraq’s version of Fahrenheit 451:

When Islamic State group militants invaded the Central Library of Mosul earlier this month, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people’s ideas.Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repo...

Who Cares What Celebrity Atheists Have to Say?… Asks Columnist Who Has Nothing Interesting to Say

In a piece that amounts to nothing more than frustration with popular atheists who offend religious sensibilities, Tim Stanley embarrasses himself in the Telegraph.

It starts by ripping on Richard Dawkins for a sarcastic tweet (which was later deleted) in which he suggested sending erotica to Islamic theocracies, perhaps to shake them up:

If we’re going down this road, I also hear that Islamists aren’t very keen on bacon, so perhaps we should bombard the Iranian countryside with pig carcasses?...

These Parents Oppose Vaccines for Reasons That Should Disturb Us All

In a very disturbing story in the New York Times, we hear the perspectives of several parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids — and put everyone else at risk — for reasons that make no sense or just don’t exist:

“There is absolutely no reason to get the shot,” said Crystal McDonald, whose 16-year-old daughter was one of 66 students sent home from Palm Desert High School for the next two weeks because they did not have full measles immunizations.

After researching the issue and reading inform...

German Parliament Debates Raif Badawi’s “Murder on the Installment Plan,” Unanimously Condemns Saudi Arabia

Members of the German parliament (Bundestag) just did something thatwe won’t soon see from the U.S. Congress: they put Raif Badawi‘s case on the parliamentary calendar and unanimously stood for his release. Badawi (pictured below, with his kids) is the Saudi blogger who was convicted of blasphemy and ordered to receive a ten-year jail term, plus one thousand lashes meted out in 20 weekly installments.

Tom Koenigs, a member of the Green Party, saidthe four-and-a-half-monthflogging amounted to

…...

Watch Matt Dillahunty Explain Morality from an Atheist Perspective

In the next video for his Atheist Debates project, Matt Dillahunty explains the atheist take on morality:

I haven’t had a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but if any moments stand out, please leave the timestamp/summary in the comments!