Our Governor Goodhair held his fundamentalist pep rally in Houston Saturday. Though only 8000 had registered for the event about 30,000 attended as megachurches—like John Hagee’s in San Antonio—bused in the faithful. Except for a few mentions of abortion, the speakers kept it strictly apolitical, scrupulously avoiding the wedge issues that have inflamed the culture … The Day of Prayin’ and Eatin’

Since I believe in fair and balanced blogging (ahem), and since I have been very critical of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s fundamentalist pep rally to be held at Houston’s Reliant Stadium tomorrow, I am reprinting here a letter to the editor of The Houston Chronicle defending the event: Satan deceives I was totally disgusted by … In Defense of the Prayerapalloza

In South Carolina, where I live, the Confederate flag is prominently displayed on the grounds of the State Capitol. Many of us want it moved to a museum that contains artifacts of the Civil War (also referred to as “The War of Northern Aggression”). That’s why I’m somewhat conflicted about whether the cross-shaped steel beam … Militant atheism, militant Christianity

I just finished reading Richard Swinburne’s chapter “Arguments from History and Miracles”, Chapter 12 in The Existence of God (2nd ed., 2004), about the same time Taner Edis did his post “Natural miracles?” (https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2011/07/natural-miracles/).So, this seems like a good time to revisit the topic of ‘miracles’.Back in 2008, I did a series of posts on … The Meaning of ‘miracle’ – Part 1

The Houston Chronicle (7/31) has an interesting report by writer Joe Holley on Texas Governor Rick Perry’s upcoming “Day of Prayer and Fasting,” officially called “The Response,” scheduled for August 6. Now I’m a bit skeptical about the “fasting” part of this. Take a look at any crowd of Texans, and you can tell that … Theocratic Doin’s A-Transpirin’

I need to confess that I have a somewhat loose connection to Anders Behring Breivik, who recently killed 76 people in Norway. You see, he lifted words for his manifesto from the manifesto of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski. I never met Ted, but he and I were in the same research field of geometric function theory, … A conservative Christian engaged in a Christian war

I’ve been asking around, and many of my religiously liberal and secular Turkish friends are convinced that Turkish society has become more conservative. Possibly. The common examples they give show that a more orthodox religiosity has become more of a default assumption in public. One obvious sign is not just that many more women are … Creeping conservatism?

I highly recommend David Sehat’s The Myth of American Religious Freedom (Oxford UP, 2011). It has long been evident that the secular liberal story told about the history of the First Amendment and how the US has historically granted individuals free religious expression is dubious. Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s … The Myth of American Religious Freedom

I was reading a collection of essays by religious intellectuals and theologians, and a couple of them described the recent trend toward allowing gay marriage as the state interfering with the freedom of religion. On the face of it, this seems absurd. After all, if the state recognizes a certain status for gay couples, including … Gay marriage violates freedom of religion?

Well, things happen fast in our hyper-connected world and there is already a review of my chapter “Hell: Christianity’s Most Damnable Doctrine” in John Loftus’ new anthology, The End of Christianity. Someone called “jayman 777” (I’ll call him “Jayman”) reviews it at this site: https://biblicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/review-of-chapter-10-of-the-end-of-christianity/ In my essay I argue that the traditional doctrine of … First Response to my Hell Article