Two out of ten isn’t that bad, right?

Yesterday was Blasphemy Rights Day. A day intended primarily to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of expression, especially of opinions which are contrary to religious views. After all, why should I, a non-believer, be beholden to another’s self-imposed rules? With this thought I decided to see how well I would measure up to some of those rules. Rather than messing about with about petty things like eating bacon or wearing clothes of more than one fabric, I decided to opt for the ten commandments. Surely everyone lives their life pretty much adhering to those, right? Well, it turns out I didn’t do so well.

Keep your Bible; I want Wikipedia in my hotel room

Anyone who has succumbed to boredom in a hotel room, and begun exploring the drawers and cupboards will have almost certainly stumbled across a religious text (in Western nations, usually a copy of the King James Bible, courtesy of the Gideons). I don’t like having a Bible in my hotel room, and usually take steps to remove it. These steps range from simply opening the door and throwing the book out into the corridor to leaving it at the front desk when I head out for dinner. Some may think this an over-reaction. If I don’t like the Bible, why don’t I just ignore it? Let me explain why I object to this surreptitious planting of scripture in my temporary place of sleep.

I don’t want to be ‘saved’: vicarious atonement is immoral

 

I find myself in the unusual position of thanking the Jehovah’s Witnesses for inspiring me. After dismissing the pair who tried to “save” me yesterday, I started thinking about those who proselytize, for Christianity in particular, and this eventually lead me to the idea expressed in the title of this post: Christianity’s offer of atonement is immoral.

Church: Blackcurrant squash “cures” cancer

I used to think that selling sham cures was mainly the purview of quacks out to make some quick cash by exploiting desperate and vulnerable people, but it seems religion is getting in on the scam.