The Secular Frontier

We used to have Al Franken to point out many of the lies of the BIG FAT IDIOTS on the right (e.g. Rush Limbaugh) and the of the LYING LIARS (e.g. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and more recently the snivelling racist shithead Tucker Carlson). Franken is still pointing out the lying liars, but for the TRUCKLOAD OF LIES and bullshit that came out of Trump's mouth during the Presidential debate on Thursday, we should turn to major fact-checkers to find out what specific lies, exaggerations, falsehoods, and bullshit Trump spewed out in the debate: FactCheck.org: https://www.factcheck.org/2024/06/factchecking-the-biden-trump-debate/ The Washington Post: "Trump made dozens of false claims, many of them his favorites. Biden made a few." https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/28/fact-check-presidential-debate/ The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/06/27/us/biden-trump-debate-fact-check The Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation ... Read Article

All Oklahoma schools are now required to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in their curriculum, the state's superintendent announced. The Oklahoma memorandum follows a law in Louisiana passed June 19, that requires all public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. A group of Louisiana parents and civil rights organizations are suing the state over the new law, contending the legislation violates both US Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment. See the article HERE ... Read Article

A group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools filed suit in federal court today to block HB 71, a new state law requiring all public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. In their complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, the plaintiffs, who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious, assert that the newly enacted statute violates longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent and the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. More than 40 years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court overturned a similar state law, holding that the separation of church and state bars public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms. No other state requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools. The plaintiffs in Roake v. Brumley are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United ... Read Article

It is generally believed that religion makes people morally good, or that religion is a significant factor in making religious people morally better than non-religious people. Christians generally believe that the Christian religion makes Christians morally better than non-religious people. But there is a good deal of evidence that casts doubt on these widely held beliefs. One piece of evidence is this: DIVORCE RATES. Divorce is an important moral issue, at least from a Christian point of view. There are a few reasons for thinking divorce is a moral issue. First, marriage, at least for Christians, involves promises or vows. Keeping promises or vows or commitments is a part of being a morally good person. Second, one of the Ten Commandments prohibits people from committing adultery (at least that is how most Christians understand the Ten Commandments), so Christians and Jews view adultery as a serious moral evil. Cheating or sexual infidelity is a major cause or reason for divorce. Third, because c ... Read Article

Growing up in the fundamentalist evangelical flock I believed my Pentecostal pastor when he told me God had revealed to him that I, a scrawny little schoolgirl who came to church because I had nothing better to do, possessed the gift of divine healing. I placed my little hands with their nervously bitten nails and WWJD beaded bracelets on many a searching and desperate soul and imagined the incredible power of Jesus transmitting from my soul and through my fingers to reach their every complicated spiritual and physical ailment. No one ever jumped out of their wheelchair like they did at the televangelist megachurches on TV, but I didn’t dare doubt that magical healing would eventually take place. If it never did, I knew it was my fault for not having enough faith. I left Christianity behind in my early 20’s, much too far behind to pick it up again even as a crutch after I became disabled in a car accident at age 32. Rendered a complete quadriplegic I often found myself seeking and extending solidar ... Read Article

ABSTRACT: This is Part B of a three-part literary application and defense of Robyn Faith Walsh’s recent (2021) hypothesis that the Gospels are not, as is usually thought, the product of literate spokespersons conveying the oral tradition of their community, but rather are birthed out of networks of elite Greco-Roman-Jewish writers in dialogue with one another, not downtrodden illiterate peasants. For example, what if the empty tomb narrative did not originate in the oral tradition of a Christian community, but in empty tomb apotheosis narratives that the author had read from ancient novels like that of Chariton? As a literary test of a hypothesis, I ask what predictions we can make of the kinds of concepts that we should find in the New Testament on Walsh’s literary elite education model, compared to what we should find if the oral tradition model is correct. I show that Walsh’s approach is certainly plausible and makes good sense of the evidence, such as pervasive intertextual haggadic midrash (Jewish ... Read Article

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Supreme Court rejects challenge to abortion pill mifepristone, allowing drug to stay on the market. CNN—The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone with a ruling that will continue to allow the pills to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor’s visit. The ruling is a significant setback for the anti-abortion movement in what was the first major Supreme Court case on reproductive rights since the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. See full article here. ... Read Article

MAGA pastor/Trump cultist Mark Burns has advanced to a runoff in South Carolina, putting him one step closer to Congress. Burns has promised that if elected, he'll work to see that those who promote LGBTQ rights are held "accountable for treason." See the Right Wing Watch article HERE ... Read Article

James McGrath published his major trade book on John the Baptist today: The scholarly version comes in October: John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer ... Read Article

Justice Samuel Alito spoke candidly about the ideological battle between the left and the right — discussing the difficulty of living “peacefully” with ideological opponents in the face of “fundamental” differences that “can’t be compromised.” He endorsed what his interlocutor described as a necessary fight to “return our country to a place of godliness.” And Alito offered a blunt assessment of how America’s polarization will ultimately be resolved: “One side or the other is going to win.” See RS article here. ... Read Article

If you haven't checked them out yet, do take a look at Freethinker Podcast and the Internet Infidels Discussion Board Here is a great sample podcast where our Vice President Edouard Tahmizian Interviews renowned Biblical Studies scholars Prof Dennis R MacDonald and Prof Robyn Faith Walsh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avol8ce6L9g ... Read Article

Many people believe that religion makes people morally good, happy, and mentally healthy, but I'm not so sure. Obviously, there are some very good, very happy, and mentally healthy atheists and non-religious people, and there are also some very bad, very miserable, and seriously mentally ill religious people. The same can be said of Christians in particular: there are some very bad, very miserable, and seriously mentally ill Christians. Religion does NOT guarantee moral goodness, happiness, and mental health, and Christianity does NOT guarantee them either. Nevertheless, many would claim that religion in general, or Christianity in particular, makes a significant difference in the lives of many people, helping them to be morally good, happy, and mentally healthy. I don't think so. I doubt this common belief. In any case, there is quite a bit of evidence that points in a different direction. I think it is helpful to look at religion and Christianity in terms of both TIME and SPACE, to dete ... Read Article

Saint John the Baptist, a 1540 painting by Titian Prof James McGrath's new books in John the Baptist are coming out soon and he has done 3 guest posts about them on Bart Ehrman's blog. But did Jesus know John the Baptist? Certainly, John baptizing Jesus and Jesus claiming John was greater than he was hardly seems to be something the early Christians would have invented out of whole cloth. Or is there more to be said here? I will be addressing this issue and many others in my second Robyn Faith Walsh reader response - coming soon! ... Read Article

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