Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1814

Indiana State Senators Propose Bill That Would Allow Teaching of Creationism in Public Schools

Indiana State Senators Jeff Raatz and Dennis Kruse are sponsoring a bill, Senate Bill 562, that will allow Creationism and climate change-denial to make their way into the classroom.

Dennis Kruse

Of course, they don’t say that explicitly:

[The bill] Requires the state board of education, the department of education, governing bodies of school corporations, superintendents, principals, and other public school administrators to: (1) endeavor to create an environment within public schools that enco...

Imagining France Under a Muslim President: Michel Houellebecq Ponders the Path of Submission

Via Time:

More than 4 in 10 French people believeCharlie Hebdoshouldn’t publish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Is that because they’re afraid of more bloodshed? No, they say; they feel strongly about observingthe prohibition on depicting Muhammad because

… many Muslims find the images offensive.

Asurvey conducted byLe Journal du Dimanche, a French weekly newspaper, presented participants with this information: “Some Muslims feel attacked or injured by the publication of cartoons of the...

Conservative Professor and Colleagues Say They’ll Take Lashes on Raif Badawi’s Behalf

While Saudi blogger Raif Badawi (below) is only 50 lashes into his 1,000-lashes punishment for the “crime” of “insulting Islam,” a group of Americans have made an unusual offer on his behalf:

Conservative Princeton University professor and vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Robert P. George, along with six other advocates, have offered to take 100 lashes each for Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi…

…

“Together with six colleagues on the U.S. Commission on Inte...

Atheist Billboard Goes Up in Riverside, California

A new billboard up in Riverside, California marks the launch of the Inland Empire Coalition of Reason, made up of seven separate organizations:

Reaching out to the like-minded isn’t the only goal of the effort. “We want people to know that nontheistic folks like us are a regular part of communities all over the area,” added Jan Goings, coordinator for Inland Empire CoR. “Nontheists are your friends and neighbors, your coworkers and family members. Our non-theistic community focuses on service,...

The Three Words No President Has Ever Said In a State of the Union Address

Last night’s State of the Union address brought a long list of tweetworthy moments, from President Barack Obama‘swink at the crowd during a recap of the progress his administration has made to a snappy, unscripted comebackabout winning his last two campaigns that silenced fussy Republicans.

But the 2015 speech also gave us a few truly pivotal moments, even if they only spanned a few words. Among them: the first time any president has ever used the words “lesbian,” “bisexual” or “transgender” i...

Richard Dawkins Reads His Hate Mail… Again

A few years ago, Richard Dawkins read some of his hate mail from loving Christians and it was glorious.

Now, he’s done it again. It involves him reading a lot of nasty slurs, learning about his own sexual predilections, and trying to figure out how to properly pronounce “bee-yotch.”

They’re exactly the sort of letters Jesus would’ve written…

Well, at least Dawkins has plenty of material for his next book.

Here’s Proof That Ken Ham Seriously Overestimated How Many People Would Visit the Noah’s Ark Theme Park

By now, you all know that Creationist Ken Ham‘s Ark Encounter, better known as the Noah’s Ark theme park, is in trouble.

Last month, they were ruled ineligible to receive a tax incentive worth up to $18,000,000.

That $18,000,000 was projected based on what Answers in Genesis thought attendance figures would be like for the park in the years after its opening. They were very blunt about what they thought those numbers would be.

On the Ark Encounter website, for example, it says this:

Based on an e...

Insulted Mayor of Paris Intends to Sue Fox News Over False Allegations of No-Go Zones for Non-Muslims

Afterspreading the falsehoodthat Paris has “no-go zones” for non-Muslims, Fox News is facing the wrath of Anne Hidalgo, theFrench capital’s mayor, who says that Fox has insulted her city and shouldhave to defend itself in court.

“When we’re insulted, and when we’ve had an image, then I think we’ll have to sue, I think we’ll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed,” Hidalgo told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been...

Contest Winner: If You Don’t Say the Pledge of Allegiance, You’re Destroying America

In North Carolina, the Hendersonville Elks Lodge held a contest for kids in which they had to explain “What the Pledge of Allegiance Means to Me.”

And the winner of her age bracket was an eighth-grade student named Madison who had this to say about the Pledge:

“’America will never be destroyed from the outside,’” Ogden read from her essay. “’If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.’ So if you do not say the Pledge of Allegiance to this nation and support Am...

How to Have a Civil Conversation on Social Media

Anthony Magnabosco has made a whole bunch of videos in which he speaks to strangers about their religious beliefs for just five minutes — and then deconstructs the whole conversation afterwards. (You can see his efforts here, here, here, here, and here.)

In his latest video, he explains how to help others realize how they’re thinking (and if they’re making any errors in their thought process) in situations not involving religion… on social media. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, yet he...