Egyptian Atheists

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/27/a_christopher_hitchens_dream_atheism_on_the_rise_in_egypt/

Absolutely fascinating. This gives me hope. Several of the Egyptians interviewed here related stories that resonate with my path to becoming an agnostic.

What Actually Happened

Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Losing Ground With Evangelicals?

Hopefully this article represents a trend with evangelicals.  The author says she was taught abstinence-only sex "education" ("you shall not have sex before marriage" - end of discussion) and was pregnant the next year - at age 15.  I'm particularly struck by this comment by the author:

Today, nearly half of American high schoolers, aged 14 to 18, are sexually active, according to a Centers for Disease Control survey. Even Christians aren’t waiting until marriage. Among unmarried adult evangelicals under 30, 8 in 10 have had sex. Somebody has to say it: Our approach isn’t working, and it’s time to rethink “the talk.” 

Abstinence-only sex education is worse than worthless - it is counterproductive. Even if conservative parents don't talk to their kids about sex, their kids will get it from other sources - from their friends, the internet, TV, etc. Abstinence-only isn't a conversation with kids about sex, it's basically just a statement - "you will not have sex until you get married".  Studies have shown a very high rate of early sex with kids who have only received the a/o talk.  A high rate of failure resulting in more teen pregnancies, births, adoptions and worst of all, what evangelicals really don't like - abortions.

If you teach ignorance, the results are predictable.

Anne Frank and Hell

Christians believe that to avoid Hell you must accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Anyone who does not accept Christ as their Lord and Savior goes to hell according to this doctrine.

I think we can all agree that Adolf Hitler was a truly evil person and if anybody deserved to burn in hell forever it would be him. (Although it's interesting to note that in his autobiography he claimed to be a Christian but never mind.) But what about Anne Frank? She was a Jew so she never accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

So if you want to tie conservative Christians in knots, ask them if Anne Frank is in hell with Adolf Hitler. And yes, this is a fair question.

Perfect

From an atheist character in the new Netflix show, "Orange is the new Black".  I wish I could articulate my viewpoints this well but then I'm not a Hollywood writer with years of experience who goes through who knows how many rewrites to get this:

I can’t pretend to believe in something I don’t, and I don’t [believe in this]… I believe in science. I believe in evolution. I believe in Nate Silver, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Christopher Hitchens, although I do admit he could be kind of an asshole. I cannot get behind some Supreme Being who weighs in on the Tony awards while a million people get whacked by machetes. I don’t believe a billion Indians are going to hell. I don’t think that we get cancer to learn life lessons. And I don’t believe people die young because God needs another angel. I think it’s just bullshit. And on some level, I think we all know that…

I disagree about Hitchens.  He was always more or less polite to those who were the same to him.  But if they weren't, he could use words like weapons.  

Why millennials are leaving the church

Why millennials are leaving the church – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Love the part "and I proceed to bang my head against the podium".  Evangelicals (particularly on the right) are all about style changes rather than message changes.

Fascinating

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/us/some-mormons-search-the-web-and-find-doubt.html?hp