McCain, at an event in New Hampshire some time ago, decided to express his anger with an intelligence report that downplayed the Iranian nuclear threat. Amongst other things, he had this to say:

At the end of a long list of reasons to be suspicious of the Iranians, McCain declared: “And they sure don’t share our Judeo-Christian values.”

There are several reasons why this is offensive to, well, just about everyone.

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I had been throwing this idea around my head for some time, thinking of writing a post on the subject. Luckily enough, I came across a video that pretty much sums it up for me. Ah the joys of the google for the lazy.

Russia is experiencing a religious revival, one cannot help but wonder, however, what course this revival will take. Will it result in more (religious) freedom and spirituality, or it will result in the excesses of the past, in which those who did not agree with the Russian Orthodox Church (on everything) were persecuted? (more…)

According to the Telegraph, researchers from the University of New Mexico have come to the conclusion that the development of religion may have been a way to stem the spread of disease.  Their recently released study shows that areas of the world where religious diversity is highest, diseases do not spread as far.

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Islamists have threatened a Christian Bishop in the Philippines… (H/T: UP Pompeii)

Philippine bishop reports receiving threat to convert to Islam

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — A bishop in the southern Philippines reported receiving a letter threatening him with harm if he does not convert to Islam or pay “Islamic taxes.”

Such brazenness in a country where over 86% of the population is Christian, 9% is Muslim and the remaining 5% is divided among various groups such as: Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, animists and non-believers.

Even if those who sent these letters are no more than common criminals who use religion as a mere tool, the fact that they chose to represent themselves as Muslims is in itself significant. But Muslim brazenness does not stop there, unfortunately, this one is far from an isolated case! Remember the kidnapped and murdered Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Mgr Faraj Rahho? What about the plight of Assyrian Christians in Iraq? What about the Sabian Mandaeans? Or the plight of Christians girls kidnapped in Nigeria by practitioners of the Religion of Peace? What about the treatment of Christian Copts in Egypt? Ot the threats against Western politicians like Geert Wilders or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi? The list, gentle reader, goes on and on ad nauseum…

You may read the rest at: Freedom’s Cost

Has atheism become too radicalized and militant? Some people think so. After the jump, I’ll discuss why some atheists have become disgusted with the modern face of the movement, and talk about what I’ve seen in my own experience.

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Three years ago on this day, in London and within 50 seconds of each other, there were bombings at three subway stations and an hour later, at 9:47am, there was a fourth one on a bus in Tavistock Square. Fifty two innocent people died that day while 700 were injured. Has Britain learned any lessons?

Last year there was a failed terrorist plot by Muslim doctors, also in Britain, has their government learned any lessons? Rather than putting restrictions on the preachings of extremist Imams, rather than kick them out of the country, they are allowed to freely continue preaching their hatred… all in the spirit of free speech and… multiculturalism. Freedom of Speech is one of the cardinal principles of a free society, it is in fact what keeps that society free. However, another - and at least - as important a principle also says that the right to move one’s fist stops where the other’s cheek starts. What does that mean? It means that when freedom of speech is abused by preaching violence against any other segment of society it must proscribed!

Read the rest of this post at: Freedom’s Cost

Barack Obama seems to support faith-based initiates. PoliGazette’s Michael Merrit takes a look at Obama’s plan. (more…)

For those of you who know people who can’t stop caterwauling about the looming Theocracy in America, please introduce them to what I like to call The First Church of Chavez (via protein wisdom). It’s his church, bankrolled with his stolen oil money and purposed to condemn liberty and capitalism at every turn. Lest you think I’m being hyperbolic, the church’s mission statement makes no bones about why it’s there.

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The Jewish website Forward has a highly interesting article up about Baha’is in Iran. Baha’is are members of the Baha’i religion; an offshoot of Islam. They believe that Buddha was a prophet, Moses (and the other old testament prophets) as well, same goes for Jesus and, of course, Mohammed. As a friend told me recently, the Baha’i relationship with Islam is similar to that of Christianity with Judaism; first there was Judaism, then Christianity developed as a separate - but connected - religion. (more…)

A new poll answers one of my biggest questions about religious belief in the real world.

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At AmbivaBlog I promoted this comment by Donna B. of Opining Online to the front page because it is a piece of vivid, unmanipulated evidence — from a private family gathering, not a reporter’s mike shoved in someone’s face — that needs to be noted:

I just spent the weekend with my family in SW Arkansas, a county that went for Kerry in 2004, and where most of my relatives are life-long Democrats. The discussion was mostly about voting Republican for the first time in their lives if Obama gets the nomination and it’s all about religion. These gun and religion clinging Democrats are completely repulsed by Rev. Wright and his message and having gone to church all their lives, are unwilling to forgive Obama for even joining that church. Several of them said outright that “you can’t find Jesus Christ” by immersing yourself in the hate of any other human regardless of color. Granted, it’s a small sample, but I was really quite amazed at the disappointment expressed.

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An great interview with Anne Wilde, leader of a polygamy advocacy group.

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Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, Britain’s only Asian bishop, says that the Church of England is failing in its duty to spread the Christian faith, particularly to adherents of Islam.  Moreover, Nazir-Ali, who was born in Pakistan, understands something about Britain that many of its citizens have forgotten, something Americans would also do well to remember, given our nation’s particular origins.

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John McCain’s pastor problem, part 2, in the form of Reverend Rod Parsley, can be summed up in the minister’s own words about Islam.  Parsley’s remarks - quoted below - are ones that cannot be made in the modern world without blowback.  Now McCain has rejected Parsley’s support as a result.  No matter, their association helped push McCain past Mike Huckabee, which is what mattered at the time.  The question is:  How far wrong is Reverend Parsley?

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A news crew from KSTP, ABC channel 5 in Minneapolis, was assaulted today during a visit to Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy.  Two men confronted the journalists who had gone to the school to obtain a comment from the school about a state Department of Education finding against the school. 

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Andrea Moore-Emmett is an award-winning journalist and the author of God’s Brothel, a book detailing the history and current practice of polygamy in the United States.  She was also the researcher for Inside Polygamy, a documentary broadcast by A&E and the BBC.

We spoke by phone and discussed the abuses she uncovered in organized polygamy, the FLDs, and the raid on the YFZ ranch.

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The German newspaper the Spiegel reports that ‘[t]wo short films have appeared on the Internet featuring the German Islamist Eric B. in which he calls his “brothers” to join the jihad. The authorities have been hunting him for weeks, fearful that he could be preparing a terrorist attack in Kabul. The video messages are fanning those fears.’ (more…)

The New York Times asks its readers: “Francisco J. Ayala has expressed surprise at how many Americans believe the theory of evolution is contrary to belief in God.”Can you believe in God and in evolution at the same time?” (more…)

This post is dedicated to our Catholic readers (and people who aren’t Catholics, but who appreciate the Catholic religion and, of course, Catholic churches): ‘A life is like a stained-glass window. Colorful yet clear. Translucent yet obscured. Strong yet fragile. An arrangement of shard-moments held by a force that keeps everything in place. Miraculous things — life and stained-glass windows. Still, yet moving. Works of art that change as daylight inevitably turns to nightdark.’ (more…)

Although I seldom agree with Bruce Bawer on the issue of religion, I have to say that I do most certainly agree with him when he argues that Western media have surrendered to the demands of Islamists. This issue should concern everyone (save for Islamists themselves of course): Western non-Muslims, (Western) moderate Muslims, progressives and conservatives. It’s simple: in the West, we’ve got a culture we should be proud of. When people migrate to our country, they should adapt. If they want to live under Sharia law, they should stay in the Middle East. We should repeat that mantra time and again.

When I first read the news that the United States government has called on its officials to stop referring to Islamic terrorists as “Jihadists” or “mujahedeen,” I thought to myself “that’s silly. Is this political correctness in action or what?” But after I had read the entire article at the AP, my opinion had changed dramatically: (more…)

‘This exposes that the differentiation between Islam and the West is not about values. It is all about dehumanization of the other. Values such as democracy, freedom and tolerance are mere tools in an old game of forming inferior-superior identities,’ Nejdan Yildiz writes for Turkish Daily News. (more…)

Claudia’s recent interview with an ex-member of the FLDS group in Texas renews my longstanding concern about what can happen when religious freedom is subordinated to societal prejudices about what is “normal”. Certainly, the sexual abuse of children is a legitimate matter for law enforcement and the FLDS group provides more than sufficient cause for an investigation. But our standard for that investigation should remain focused on the acts of individuals rather than an attempt to punish all members of an entire religious group based on assumptions of group guilt, as demanded by the state of Texas and Mr. Zettig. And we should certainly be careful about doing anything so sweeping based in any part on the testimony of those who claim to be former members of that group, as such information is often unreliable. (more…)

I always find it fascinating that people who are not religious themselves, tell religious people that they should say that God is both a woman and a man. A Father and a Mother. I will never understand this strange obsession with God’s supposed gender. Does anyone really think that God looks like a man, sitting high up in the sky? (more…)

The most popular book for Americans is the Bible, according to a recently released poll. After the Bible comes a more varied pick of novels, many of the fantasy genre.

Now, you can call me cynical, but having the Bible be the most popular book reminds me a lot of how “A brief history of time” was a bestseller. That it was an inmensely popular book doesn’t actually mean many people got past the first couple of chapters.

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