Evangelical Christians often remind me of a large overly-friendly dog in a room full of priceless glassware. Even though the dog's intentions are the best, every time it wags its tale, it breaks something.

The latest example comes in an interview with Kathyrn Joyce on Fresh Air about her new book The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the ( Read more... )

Some of the stories people shared in the comments on this story actually give me some hope for humanity ( Read more... )

Most people probably haven't heard of Joe Woodland, although we all encounter his work almost every day. Mr. Woodland invented the bar code and he passed away in 2012 at the age of 91 shortly before the "narrowly averted Mayan apocalypse". A curious phenomenon is that a small but fanatical set of people have always viewed this straightforward ( Read more... )

Here we go again. A French paper has published cartoons that demean the prophet Mohammed, threatening to inflame the Middle East further. France has closed twenty of its embassies across the Middle East in what is certainly an understandable precaution after the assault on the American consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Christopher ( Read more... )

The Catholic Church was running one of its scams in Mumbai, telling people that water dripping from the feet of a statue of the prominent mythological figure "Jesus Christ" was holy water that could cure ailments. An Indian TV station didn't buy it, so they invited a prominent skeptic to investigate the claims. The findings? The water was ( Read more... )

"So it could be that this universe is merely the science fair project of a kid in another universe. I don't know how that affects your theological leanings, but it is something to consider."

This gem was from astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute during a panel discussion titled "Did The Big Bang Require A Divine Spark?" at the SETIcon2 ( Read more... )

I've never been a particularly religious person. Most of the time, I describe myself as being in the "militant agnostic" camp, meaning that when it comes to the existence of a god or gods, I don't know and you don't either. Of course, people have their beliefs, and that's perfectly fine. You can believe what you want and I would acknowledge that ( Read more... )

In case anyone wasn't depressed enough by today's completely dismal jobs report or the fact that our do-nothing Congress continues to make matters worse by standing idly by when government action is desperately needed, here's something else to chew on.

The most recent Gallup poll on evolution and creationism shows that nearly half of Americans ( Read more... )

After some interesting conversations about science fiction I've had with some folks, I got to thinking about the Goa'uld story arc on the first seven seasons of Stargate SG-1. I was watching some behind the scenes features about the writers and producers coming up with the Ori as the new Stargate villains for the last two seasons and I got to ( Read more... )

Apparently, a significant number of Americans still actually believe that natural disasters are a sign of the end times, according to polls conducted in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake. Not surprisingly, evangelical Christians are most likely to believe this sort of nonsense. That would be those people wanting to take over the ( Read more... )