Dan Arel's Blog, page 105

Another Atheist Watches “God’s Not Dead”

I’ve spent a lot of time criticizing God’s Not Dead only based on clips and trailers I’ve seen, so I was rather relieved to find the film on Netflix. “Finally,” I thought. “All my dreams have come true.” I then said to myself, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I jotted down my thoughts as [Read More...]

The threat of militias and domestic terrorism

Terrorists are not just a threat from foreign nations; a recent Vice documentary showed that two of the top five threats to our nations security were sovereign citizens movements and militia extremism. These groups, often formed by individuals with thorough military training and ex-members of various military groups, are anti-government and see themselves as separate [Read More...]

A New Baby, Long Nipples, and Skepticism

I’m glad to be writing again after taking some time to recover from birthing my son, Nova, and working out the kinks in newborn scheduling. Since he has entirely filled my days and nights for the past month, I can’t help but to discuss motherhood as I’ve rediscovered it. I have another son who is [Read More...]

Skull Church: A Market for Sadism

I was in high school when the remarkably commercial cult of Skull Church first made wide notice in the Flathead Valley. I remember vividly the sudden explosion of bumper stickers and flyers around Kalispell, each of them bearing the cartoonish cranium that looked suspiciously as though it had been ripped off from the SkullCandy logo, [Read More...]

Pope Francis, the Vatican, and the leniency on sexual abuse

Pope Francis; more of the same from the Catholic church. I wish there were another way to state this but, as my last article on him demonstrated, as I would imagine the posts from Dan Arel would show, Francis is the same Pope as any before. Though Francis has made several statements that appear to [Read More...]

Terrorist flight passenger? Jihad a hallucination

CNN reported on the incident from the Dulles, Virginia, airport where a man allegedly charged the cockpit during take off shouting “Jihad!” One of the witnesses, Joshua Lindstrom, stated that the man in question looked upset and nervous. Officials have found no link to the perpetrator and any terrorist groups, and no weapons were found [Read More...]

Von Daniken’s Delusion: Ignoring the Known, Part 2

As I continued to read through the chapter Improbable World of the Unexplained I slowly began to realize Von Daniken has mastered the art of both ambiguity and repetition. So to avoid addressing the same points over and over again, I’m going to focus on one particular example he provides in this chapter and share [Read More...]

Islam is responsible for the attack on Charlie Hebdo

On January 7, 2015, two Islamic extremists stormed the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. They separated the men from the women and announced the names of the cartoonists they intended to kill.* Their shooting spree left 12 people dead. Two days later, they took several people hostage in a printing warehouse outside Paris and killed four of them.As with most events like this, everyone started looking for answers and wanted to know who was to blame. The main culpr...

We Are Atheism is coming under fire for possible mishandled donations

A little over a year ago I was copied on a mass email that was calling into questions of the actions of an atheist non-profit called We Are Atheism. It seemed there was some major concern with their handling of donations and their lack of non-profit status when accepting tax deductible donations.

Pope Francis fails to lead a Christian life

Last week, several news outlets were all buzzing about Pope Francis marking the start of his third year as leader of the Catholic Church.When I saw this, a question popped into my head that often does when considering fundamentalists or other religious zealots. So, why would I not ask this when considering the leader of one of the largest religious groups on the planet.