Imagine a couple arriving at a church in a limousine- she's in her finest dress, he's in a tuxedo. In front of their friends and family, they stand before each other and pledge a covenant- she to remain his, and he to protect and care for her. After exchanging rings, they embrace and join each other on the dance floor to commemorate their vows, as the guests eat fancy cake. Sounds like a wedding, no? Sure would be too, if the couple weren't father and daughter. While not a wedding, these " Father-Daughter Purity Balls " are designed to be enough like one to really set off my creepiness alarm. Now, it's all well and good for fathers to have strong and loving relationships with their daughters, but this seems to be taking it too far. The vow made by the daughter is strictly sexual- she is essentially ceding sovereignty of her body, and specifically her genitals, to her father. According to recent participant Mike Parcha, this arrangement "is a culmination o...

By DagoodS (Title by Voltaire) Claiming that a person does not believe in God because of their Pride is a rotten argument. Do not be surprised if it fails to even nudge the skeptic. It is often said, in the debate of why a person believes or not, that the non-believer failed to be humble, or thought too much of themselves, or was arrogant, and thus dismissed the concept of God. Since it is not true, the statement fails to compel. If you are guilty of using this claim in a debate, you can save your breath and your fingers. You see, in order to be persuasive, we must talk in concepts and ideas that the other person can relate to, not simply push out some platitude and assume that it is effective. I may find it extremely persuasive that a Chevrolet Corvette can go from 0-60 mph in less than 5 seconds. That may be the impetus by which I am persuaded to purchase the vehicle. Can you imagine my using this selling feature to a mother with three children? While she may be thrilled to hear how...

By Zachary Moore A letter to Nature published yesterday by researchers from the University of Iowa and Harvard University (including Dr. Antonio Damasio, author of " The Feeling of What Happens " and " Decartes' Error ") have shown that a particular region of the brain, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, is responsible for mediating our moral judgments. Specifically, for transforming what would be a simple utilitarian ethical calculus into something more akin to the Moral Razor. In the study, people with injuries to this part of their brain were more willing to sacrifice the lives of their fellows in order to save a larger number, even if it meant flat-out murder. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a region which is thought to allow for social emotions, like compassion. These emotions seem to be essential for correct moral decisions in high-stakes situations; they seem to provide the moral foundation for higher-level ethical analysis which preserve moral sy...

By Lorena Consider the following paragraph from the CNN article, Brain-damaged people give insights into morality. “ But when asked to make decisions in emotionally wrenching scenarios like the permissibility to kill one's own child to save other people's lives, those with the brain damage were far more likely to accept this utilitarian but harsh solution.” Or is it Bible-God who is brain damaged? According to the Bible, God did kill his own son to give life to us the wayward ones. Narrow minded Bible-God came up with the “utilitarian but harsh solution.” The article further explains, “ Another wartime scenario involved enemy troops searching for civilians to kill. The people in the study were asked about their willingness to kill their own infant whose crying was drawing the attention of enemy soldiers who would then kill the parent, the baby and people hiding with them. Again, the people with this brain damage were far more willing to judge killing the baby as the rig...

Rational Response Squad member "The Hillbilly Atheist" recently had the chance to give a presentation about atheism at his college, deep in the Buy-Bull Belt. Check out his website here: http://www.hillbillyatheist.com/

By Brett Keane

If you have high blood pressure, don't watch this video.

Da Ali G Show does science. Ali G (Sasha Baron-Cohen) invited (now federal inmate and tax cheat) creationist Kent Hovind to discuss evolution. The show erroneously lists Hovind as a "Dr," but his "doctorate" was earned from an unaccredited diploma mill. By the way, Hovind believes in Unicorns:

By Dave, the WM I'd just moved into an apartment in Japan. My daughter was two-and-a-half years old, could talk in full paragraphs, and entertained my wife and I by singing all the words to every chorus sung at the English-speaking Assembly of God church we attended. We were far from home, but the joy of the Lord was our strength, and the oddness of our surroundings only helped solidify our church family relationships and our faith. We believed we had been sent to this far country to represent the one true god. I was up every day at 4am for an hour of intercessory prayer, followed by a solid hour of in-depth Bible study and memorization. Then I was out the door for a morning run before reporting to work. The Air Force was inflexible in its scheduling requirements, so I was never late. In a short time my family and I embraced a mission to be part of the evangelical effort in Japan. The military may have assigned us here, but we believed there was a higher purpose to finding ourselve...

by J.C. Samuelson Since my first tentative steps into skepticism back in 2003, I've learned a great deal about faith, religion, critical thought, history, science, human nature, culture & society, and HTML tags. And I've had the great pleasure to meet the electronic shadows of hundreds of others - both believers and skeptics - whom I treasure for their contributions to not only my learning but to humanity. Some of them I'm very happy to be able to count as friends. It's truly humbling to meet so many great minds, though it was disconcerting to realize that I'm not the smartest person in the world after all. It's very difficult to summarize what I've learned, but if there's one thing I could suggest as an advocate of skepticism for someone just beginning to doubt religious faith it is this: Not all truth claims are equal. Question everything, including skepticism. At the end of the day, the provisional certainty it offers is, in my opinion, far m...

This is a 30-minute BBC interview of Richard Dawkins by William Crawley broadcast on February 20, 2007. Dawkins' latest book is " The God Delusion ."

© 2007 Tim Simmons I’d like to talk to you about a subject that rarely sees daylight. I meant that figuratively, of course. Perhaps we just take it for granted. Maybe it's just not a very interesting activity to discuss on your lunch break. It's something that most people do every day but almost no one talks about it among friends. Of course I'm talking about the taboo subject of… wiping. You're probably thinking there's not much to say about the subject. On the contrary, I'm thinking about starting a newsgroup on the very topic - alt.wipeyerbooty. As I type this, I can think of so many things I want to say on the topic but let me just spotlight one of them. The main point I'd like to make about wiping is that it is an activity that none of us can really avoid and is a daily reminder of the dirty reality in which we live. Wiping is just a bad side effect of the design of the human body and we all know who designed the human body, right? What I want to...

Contributed by Zachary Moore: By Miles Rationis 1.Which of the following is the most compelling evidence for the existence of an intelligent and loving Designer? a. A Caribbean sunset b. The screams of a baby seal as it is torn apart by a shark c. The first time your perfect new baby smiles at you d. The speed of the Ebola virus converting an African child's organs into liquid 2. A deeply devout Catholic couple has just returned from their fiftieth anniversary celebration, when suddenly the husband falls to the ground, clutching his chest. What is the most productive action for the wife to take? a. Call 911 b. Put him in the car and race to the hospital herself c. Administer CPR d. Fall on her knees and pray to the Lord to spare his life 3. You are a product tester and frequently bring your work home. Yesterday, while dressed in a flame resistant suit (up to 3,000 degrees) and carrying the latest model fire extinguisher, you discover your neighbor's house is on fire. As the fla...

By Zachary Moore Now that Congressman Pete Stark has been "outed" as a non-Christian (although he's being described commonly by others as an "atheist," he's described himself as a "Unitarian who does not believe in a Supreme Being" - a difference which is perhaps nothing more than semantic subtlety), people on both sides of the theistic/atheistic debate are taking the opportunity to weigh in. Sam Harris offered this in an op-ed today: Pete Stark, a California Democrat, appears to be the first congressman in U.S. history to acknowledge that he doesn't believe in God. In a country in which 83% of the population thinks that the Bible is the literal or "inspired" word of the creator of the universe, this took political courage. Of course, one can imagine that Cicero's handlers in the 1st century BC lost some sleep when he likened the traditional accounts of the Greco-Roman gods to the "dreams of madmen" and to the "insa...

By Zachary Moore Last year, the Secular Coalition for America offered a $1000 prize to identify the highest-ranked nontheist politician in America. Their catch: Congressman Pete Stark . According to the SCA press release: There is only one member of Congress who is on record as not holding a god-belief. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), a member of Congress since 1973, acknowledged his nontheism in response to an inquiry by the Secular Coalition for America (www.secular.org). Rep. Stark is a senior member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and is Chair of the Health Subcommittee. Although the Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office, the Coalition?s research reveals that Rep. Stark is the first open nontheist in the history of the Congress. Recent polls show that Americans without a god-belief are, as a group, more distrusted than any other minority in America. Surveys show that the majority of Americans would not vote for an atheist for president even if he o...

By John Blatt How does Christian Mind Control work? Coercion is defined as, "to restrain or constrain by force..." Legally it often implies the use of PHYSICAL FORCE or physical or legal threat. This traditional concept of coercion is far better understood than the technological concepts of "coercive persuasion" which are effective restraining, impairing, or compelling through the gradual application of PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES. A coercive persuasion program - within Christianity it is called "The Gospel Persuasion" - is a behavioral change technology applied to cause the "learning" and "adoption" of a set of behaviors or an ideology under certain conditions. It is distinguished from other forms of benign social learning or peaceful persuasion by the conditions under which it is conducted and by the techniques of environmental and interpersonal manipulation employed to suppress particular behaviors and to train others. Over time, coercive p...

by DagoodS On occasion the Christian informs us that they expect what they say will appear foolish. As if it was a badge of honor; giving a stamp of approval to the statement by someone being puzzled by it. I suspect this harkens back to 1 Cor. 2-4 where Paul states that the preaching of Christ crucified is “foolishness,” and Paul himself brags of becoming a “fool” for Christ. 1 Cor. 4:10. And what Christian does not want to be like Paul? Er…I mean what Paul said Jesus would want. Thus we hear statements prefaced by “This will sound foolish to you…” or “People believe I am a fool when I say...” often followed by some trite quip about faith or prayer. But then I look at how Christians actually live. They don’t look very foolish to me. No sirree! In fact they look quite clever. You know what looks foolish to me? Not planning for the future. Spending every dollar in your wallet seems very unwise to me. Common sense tells us we should be aware that things change, and we might need ...

By J.C. Samuelson Yes! You too can join the ranks of those blessed by the Grace of God for as little as $6.95 (plus shipping & handling). Wash away your sins, your guilt, and your thirst at the same time with Holy Spring Water&#153 . Not recommended for ghosts, ghouls, vampires, and other evildoers or creatures of the night (i.e., atheists). The latter website appears to be a parody similar to the kind found at Landover Baptist Church . Yet truth is stranger than fiction, and yesterday in the news there was an item about a man who actually does sell blessed drinking water. His name is Brian Germann, president of Wayne Enterprises, Inc.. The product is called Holy Drinking Water&#153 and can now be purchased online at the company's website . Mr. Germann got the idea for this blessed libation on June 6th, 2006 (6-6-6) after talking with his niece about the possibility of using holy water as a defense against evil. After finding a bottling company and a couple pries...