Pope Benedict XVI is on a mission; he's decided to tour Europe to fight what he's dubbed "atheist ideology" and "hedonistic consumerism" (this from the same man who quite literally eats off gold plate in a gigantic palace). His first stop is the European capital of unbelief: the Czech Republic. According to the latest polls, only about 19% of the population claims to believe in God, and those figures keep d ...

Here's Neil deGrasse Tyson showing us that the anthropic principle (the rather silly idea that the laws of the universe are tailor made to allow life to exist) is quite stupid. The Cosmos is not exactly a very safe and pleasant place to live, and studying a little astrophysics makes you realize we're pretty damn lucky to be alive right now. ...

There are only two churches in Williamsville, Illinois, and after a tornado destroyed one of them, residents are saddened by their angry deity's decision to test their faith by collapsing the roof and walls of a church that was considered a 'cornerstone of the community'. Ok, I'm actually making the last part up. All of them seem to think it was just a natural phenomenon that took the church down (would the ...

Most of the time, religious superstitions are just silly, stupid, or dangerous. There are plenty of apartment buildings in my city that don't have a 13th floor for no other reason then people are annoyingly superstitious. Obviously, irrational thinking will make you do irrational things. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Once in a blue moon, however, you come across a particular superstition that ...

I also get asked this very silly question of why, if we 'descended' from apes, there are still apes. It used to take me a long time to explain how it all works, but now that Richard has made a nice little short movie showing WHY there are still chimps, I can finally direct them to a lucid, quick explanation of where we 'fit' in the Great Ape family. There are still lots of people out there who want to belie ...

I actually have a few friends who observe the Sabbath, refusing to use any electronic devices, perform any kind of labor, and not even touching any money. I've always found their customs to be rather silly, but then again, that's how I feel about most types of rituals. I don't have a problem with people doing what they want, so long as they keep it to themselves. Well, that's not good enough for some. An Or ...

Here's a new argument: we are apparently too silly, and don't take atheism seriously enough. So, in a nutshell, atheists are both way too uptight according to some, and too frivolous according to others. Have any of these clergymen speaking on atheism spent more than 15 seconds talking to one? Barron is calling us childish and 'frivolous' for the ad campaign started by a few organizations in the US, Canada, ...

When Ann Landers died (real name Esther Pauline Friedman), her daughter took over the family 'advice column' racket. She didn't, however, take on the famous moniker. Her column is a fairly innocuous and predictable affair, except perhaps for a recent letter she received: Our daughter started college a year ago, and we’ve noticed during her visits home that she’s not the sweet, innocent girl we sent away for ...

There's always a story involving a family that refuses to treat their child for religious reasons. As we speak, one mother is facing charges in the preventable death of a young girl with diabetes, and another family in Minneapolis are being forced to give chemotherapy to their son. Colleen Hauser believes in a New Age religion called Nemenhah, a kind of glossy 'Native American' style cult (founded by a know ...

I'm sick and tired of people making toast and suddenly declaring their blurry burn marks are the divine image of Jesus. Here's one woman claiming her cheese toast has the profile of the King of Kings. It looks a lot like Eddie the Head from Iron Maiden to me, but what do I know? I'm just a silly naked ape just trying to make my way in a confusing world. I'd just eat the damn thing and go about my business, ...