Can an Atheist Be in Awe of the Universe?

Michael Shermer, publisher of the Skeptic Society magazine, wrote an excellent article on this question in Scientific American. He eloquently addresses this question and the silly comment Oprah made when she was interviewing Diana Nyad about her epic 110 mile swim from Cuba. Good reading.

The Baloney Detection Kit video at www.skeptic.com (on home page, about half way down) is also great.

Pigs Do Fly I Guess

Pat Roberson, he of the conservative Christian 500 Club show, amazed and surprised me by criticizing the young earth creationists who say the earth is 6000 years old.

Robertson said science and specifically, geology, clearly show the early is much much older. I'm still shaking my head - hard to believe the guy who repeatedly has said that natural disasters are God's wrath about gays - would come down on the side of science. Wow.

And now the uber fundamentalists are accusing Robertson of all things, blasphemy.

What goes around comes around I guess. Or, perhaps the bible should be quoted.

Deadly Missionary Work

Great article on how fundamentalist Christian missionaries spread homophobic bigotry in Africa. And the moderate/liberal Christians who fight it.

Science & Jesus

This hysterical post sums up nicely why it's hard to take any religion seriously. National Geographic magazine had the same perspective of the universe represented on one of their pull out maps - except the last frame in this post wasn't included.

The Highest Divorce Rates Are Where?

In the bible belt according to this study.

I've also seen studies that the area of the county, the most religiously conservative, has the highest incarceration rate.

So remember how the divorce rate in America is geographically distributed the next time someone says religion benefits society.