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Category Archives: Religion

Taking the pledge

Put this in the “Nobody Could Have Predicted” File: Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today. […]

Comments and Spam

I get only a few legitimate comments a week, but I’m fairly inundated with spam. Most of it gets caught by a fairly efficient spam catching plug in, but the rest filters through for me to “moderate”, meaning I have to pre-approve it before it actually gets published. In fact, I have to approve every […]

Silver Linings

Even Depressions do some good: Hundreds of churches across the country have received foreclosure notices in recent months, and even more are behind on mortgage payments. An economic downturn tends to increase church attendance, but the amount each churchgoer donates tends to decrease. And newer members usually donate less than older ones. Churches can trim […]

Chickens come home to roost

When the Supreme Court allowed nativity scenes on public property several years ago, it did so by adopting the most specious of arguments:that such a scene was permissible if it was surrounded by otherwise secular symbols, since it simply represented “‘the historical origins of this traditional event long [celebrated] as a National Holiday,’ and that […]

Historical revisionism

When I read this letter in the Day this morning, I knew I just had to respond. The letter is full of distortions and historical inaccuracies, but I decided to go after the low hanging fruit. And, since I’m lazy, I decided to make my response do double duty as a blog post. Readers here […]

Bill Maher plugs his movie

Bill Maher talks about his new movie on the Daily Show. The entire interview below, split into two parts. It is great to see a movement to re-legitimize reason in this country.

Sunday Morning Sermon

Via Pharyngula: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnjfxCp92pc[/youtube]

Swallow that cracker, or pay the consequences

Things have gone dangerously awry in this country. Could Thomas Jefferson or James Madison have predicted that the religious freedom they promoted could have turned the U.S. into not only the most religious country in the Western World, but the most religiously intolerant? More to the point, would they believe that the separation of church […]

Nutmeggers smarter than almost everyone else (in the USA at least)

In its continuing drive to ignore actual current events, the Courant managed to stumble onto a fairly interesting story that reflects well on Connecticut: A poll released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that Connecticut (along with Rhode Island), though still home to many believers, ranks near the bottom of […]

Decline of the West-Roman Catholic Version

This is what comes of taking the nuns out of the schools: This just in from the myth-busting department: Roman Catholic teens feel no more guilty than other U.S. teenagers. If they cheated on an exam, lied to their parents or engaged in serious petting, it’s not bearing down on their conscience, according to a […]