The Christian Hang-up On Sex – is it really just a Freudian Slip?

Christian organizations are always going on about how they want to limit sexual freedom and exposure to sex to the public. There’s never a shortage of nuts willing to proclaim that the prevalence of sex in public media like television, movies and print is the source of moral decline in our country (never mind that [...]

Break-in in Turin: Satanists or Ebay?

A thief or thieves broke into the Church of the Great Mother of God in Turin, Italy last week and took two so-called holy relics from behind the altar: a crystal sphere containing holy water and a prayer book called a missal, which contains all the prayers for mass and from psalms. Okay… the missal [...]

F***-Up, Move-up (in the Catholic Church, Anyway)

I read several religious sites and blogs and even have a couple loaded in my Google Reader.
One such blog is Divinity and Beyond (catchy name, eh? I like it), written by Susan Hogan/Albach. Her latest post as I write this one is about the Catholic priest/molestation scandals, specifically the coincidence of professional development that appears [...]

Young Muslims – A Growing Danger to Western Society?

In recent comments to two articles I wrote previously on Breaking Spells, the28 wrote that Islam-Watch.org is a site that cannot be used as a reference since the authors at that site (there are many) do not “really know Islam trully is (sic).” My response was, of course, to point out that the authors [...]

Religious Liberty?

This is an idea that Christians in the United States love. That is to say, if the religious freedom you express is Christian.
The First Amendment Center surveyed 1,007 respondents’ opinions on the First Amendment and found:
Only a slim majority (56 percent) of Americans said in a 2007 survey that freedom of worship should extend to [...]

Myths of Atheism: Hitler/Stalin/Pot Were Evil Because of Atheism

In his encyclical released on Friday, Pope Benedict states atheism is responsible for some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” in history [1].
Did Pope Ratzinger skip the new-pope class that explains the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades?
This is a common myth that arises during debates with theists or in theistic arguments [...]

A Spell to Break: the Belief in Transubstantiation

Transubstantiation – the ritual act of consuming bread and wine which are believed to transform into new substances, specifically the blood and body of Jesus Christ. This practice was defined as doctrine by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 then reaffirmed by the Council of Trent in 1551. Primarily a Catholic ritual, it is practiced [...]

Largest Religious Groups within U.S. Populations

Here’s an interesting graphic that I came across while looking for some other data. I thought I share it.

What you’re looking at here is the largest or most dominant religious groups within a given county’s population -the largest participating group in each county. The graphic and its data are located at the Glenmary Research Center’s [...]

Calling yourself “rational” might not make it so

Lately, the “Rational Response Squad” has been making a bit of buzz in the atheosphere (and even in the theosphere).
Vjack asked for opinions from his readers before writing a fair review of RRS and their site. He found them to be “immature at times” but remarked that this “is a good thing.” Their aggressive, bold [...]

Three Great Carnivals

Here’s a trio of don’t-miss blog carnivals:

And the Skeptics’ Circle #77 – The Overmedicalized Edition
I can never seem to remember to send an entry to blog carnivals, but I do spend my Sundays reading them! If you haven’t checked out one or all of these, you won’t be disappointed if you take the time [...]