\n Atheist News Feed

Christians Have Destroyed Almost All the Mosques In the\nCentral African Republic; an American Fan Cheers Them On

\n\nChristian and Muslim militias have been \n\nbattling each other in the Central African Republic since 2012.\nFirst, a group of Muslim combatants called the Seleka started\nan aggressive trek into Christian areas, and the Christians in\nturn organized their own armed rebel force, the\nAntibalaka, which quickly morphed from a defensive civilian\narmy into a genocidal horde that wants to eliminate Muslims\nfrom the country of 4.5 million people.The Christian\nfighters have been especially successful, if you define\nsuccess by the scope of the destruction.Via the \n\nAssociated Press:\n\nAlmost all of the 436 mosques in the Central African\nRepublic have been destroyed by months of vicious fighting between\nChristians and Muslims, the U.S. ambassador to the United\nNations said.Samantha Power spoke to reporters on Tuesday after a\nSecurity Council visit last week to the country, calling the\ndevastation \"kind of crazy, chilling\". ...Power said \n417 of the country's mosques have been destroyed.\nShe visited the one remaining Muslim neighbourhood in the capital,\nBangui, and described the residents as \"a terrified\npopulation.\"\n\n\n \n\n\n

20 Years Ago Today, the Aum Shinrikyo Cult Attacked the Tokyo\nSubway System With Nerve Gas, Killing 12

A group that's based on Buddhism and yoga sounds like it\nwould be about as dangerous as the sixth-grade chess\nteam at Pleasant Valley Elementary. \nAnd\nyet:\nOn this day, March 20, in 1995, \n12 people were killed and thousands were sickened\nin Tokyo when members of [Shoko] Asahara’s cult, Aum Shinrikyo, \nreleased sarin during the Monday-morning rush hour\nin \none of the world’s most crowded subway systems.\nMembers of the cult \nused\nthe tips of their umbrellas to puncture plastic bags\nfilled with liquid sarin on five crowded cars before hurrying off\nat subway stops and leaving their fellow riders trapped with the\ntoxic gas.It was an unusual move for \na religious movement based on Buddhist and Hindu principles\nand centered on the practice of yoga, but Asahara was an\nunusual spiritual leader. TIME described him, in a \n1995\nstory about the gas attack, as a long-haired,\nbushy-bearded bully, \“usually pictured wearing satiny pajamas,\” who\nclaimed he could levitate and promised to give his followers\nsuperhuman powers.\n\n\n \n\n\n

Sharia Spreads: It’s Now the Law in Part of Malaysia

Islamic countries that have embraced sharia include\nSudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and\nNigeria. Last year, \nBrunei\nbecame \nthe\nfirst Southeast Asian country to join that wretched\nclub, and now neighboring Malaysia has done the same. More\nprecisely, \n\nthe state of Kelantan has, despite the fact that sharia\nis incompatible with the country's constitution.Among the\npunishments: limb amputations for theft; crucifixion for deadly\nrobberies; 40 to 80 lashes for consuming \nany quantity of alcohol; and, of course, good\nold-fashioned stoning for adultery. The law also\nprescribes death for apostasy (remember that when Muslims\nquote \nAl-Baqara\n256 from the Qur'an and try to tell you that \"there is no\ncompunction\" in their religion).\n\n\n \n\n\n

VIDEO: Afghani Mob Kicks and Stomps Woman To Death For\nAllegedly Burning a Copy of the Qur’an

By my reckoning, there are more than a billion printed copies\nof the Qur'an on this Earth. Saudi Arabia alone gives away \n30 million new\nQur'ans every year. Islam's founding text is also online in\nthousands of places. The Qur'an, the most common book after the\nBible, is more indestructible than ever.But soil or burn\none copy of it and you could \n\npay with your life, as one woman in Kabul, the Afghan capital,\nfound out yesterday.Accusers who alleged that \nFarkhunda, 27, burned the Islamic holy\nbook, proceeded to kick, beat, and stomp her to death, all caught\nin a video that even in the age of \n\nDaesh is remarkable for its savagery.I can't usually watch\nreal-life violent footage, but in this case the victim has been\nentirely pixelated so that her battered face and her broken,\nbloodied body are \nnever\nseen. That allows us to focus more on the horrid brutality\nof the attackers: their physical strength, their visceral\nhatred, their body language expressing excitement, their\neagerness to submit to violent impulses with seeming impunity\n-- and, inevitably, their gleeful shouts of \nAllahu Akbar.\n\nAn angry mob in the center of the Afghan capital, Kabul,\nhas killed a woman and set her body alight for allegedly\nburning a copy of the Koran. Police and witnesses say the killing\ntook place near the Shah-e Doh Shamshira shrine on March\n19.\n\n\n \n\n\n

Congressman Introduces Legislation to Prevent \“So Help Me\nGod\” from Becoming Optional Part of Military Oaths

Until late 2013, if you were a freshman at the U.S. Air Force\nAcademy, you would have concluded your Basic Cadet Training by\nreciting this Honor Oath:\n\"We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us\nanyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live\nhonorably, so help me God.\"It's that last clause that \nMikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom\nFoundation \n\nfought to remove for so long and \n\nthey eventually got their wish:\n\n\n \n\n\n

10 Secrets the Catholic Church Hopes You've Forgotten

\n \nHere. \"Considering the catastrophic harm of the\nCatholic Church over the last half century, there is simply no\njustification for its continued existence.\" - Nathan Phelps,\nchapter 20 in \n\nChristianity Is Not Great: How Faith Fails.\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n \n

Is Reciting The Pledge of Allegiance In Arabic\nOffensive?

Administrators at a New York school, Pine Bush, are \n\napologizing after the Pledge of Allegiance was recited in\nArabic. Apparently some think it is \"un-American\". I am not\neven going to argue if it is or not. Personally, I see absolutely\nnothing wrong with it. But let's look at the context which\napparently most of these complaining 'patriots' are ignoring. The\nintention was, according to the district:\n
\n\n\“The intention was to promote the fact that those who speak a\nlanguage other than English still pledge to salute this great\ncountry\”\n\n\n \nFurthermore, the school's foreign language department arranged\nto have the pledge recited in different languages during the\nNational Foreign Language Week. Oh the irony. How this is\nun-American I simply don't understand. This seems to me to be\ncomplimentary to American values.\n
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So who are these outraged individuals? According to the\ndistrict superintendent, she received complaints from residents who\nlost family members in Afghanistan and from Jewish families. First\nof all, Arabic is not even the language of Afghanistan (it's Pashto\nand Dari). Second of all, no one is forcing anyone to speak a\nforeign language. Again, the intention was to raise awareness of\nforeign languages. But hey, they all sound the same to us so they\nmust be the same and people that speak this language must hate\nAmerica, right? Obviously, language awareness was much needed in\nthis district.\n
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As for complaints from some Jewish families, I speculate this\noffended them because they are conflating a language with a\nparticular ideology (this applies to offended non-Jews as well). I\ndon't know. Regardless of the reason, it should be apparent why the\noutrage is ridiculous given the context. Those that are outraged\nare narrow minded and cannot or are unwilling to separate something\nthat was meant to be inclusive from their own prejudices. That's\nwhat this is all about, is it not?\n
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Atlas Shrugged: The Craft of Not Acting

Atlas Shrugged Part II: The Strike In 2011, a wealthy\nbusinessman named John Aglialoro produced a movie based on the\nfirst part of Atlas Shrugged. Aglialoro imagined himself as John\nGalt, boldly speaking the truth to a complacent world. As it turned\nout, he was more like Ivy Starnes, the inheritor of a famous brand \n\n[Read More...]

David Marshall Is Mad, Reviewing the Madman's Work

\n Marshall wrote a book length response to my book, \n\nThe Outsider Test for Faith: How to Know Which Religion Is\nTrue.\n As I said\nyesterday, \"It surprises me the lengths Christians will go to\nmischaracterize an argument. It takes madness.\" This describes\nDavid Marshall's book. I wrote a review of his book on Amazon\ntitled, \nMarshall's Book Is Completely Irrelevant To The\nTruth of Christianity and He Doesn't Even Realize It. If you\nlike what I wrote any upvotes would be very appreciated. \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n \n

ISIL Declares Jihad Against Little Caesars

\n \n \n\n \n\n The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) has officially\ndeclared jihad against the American based pizza chain Little\nCaesars. The \n\ncasus belli for holy war against\nthe 'hotbed of the bacon-American-industrial complex' is the\nrestaurant's unveiling of the \nBacon Wrapped Crust Deep! Deep! Dish Pizza.\n
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Observers of the Middle East are not surprised by ISIL's\ndecision to attack Little Caesars. The restaurants are considered\nto be soft targets where security is often nonexistent. Any\nsuccessful attack will produce a large response by the media. There\nis a very real possibility that there will be a military response\nby the United States of America that will bog down western\nresources and manpower for at least a decade - if past history is\nin any way predictive of future events.\n
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And then there is the audacity of bacon.\n
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\"I knew we were all in trouble once Little Caesars announced\nthat each pizza possessed three and a half feet of bacon,\" stated\nProfessor Kannard, of American University in Cairo, Egypt. \"\nThe Qur'an is pretty clear that any food derived\nfrom swine is forbidden. It is equally clear that Allah does not\nlike those who lead those astray, and those who do such things will\nsuffer \"a painful doom.\"\" \n
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Meanwhile the White House is scrambling to communicate to the\npublic that ISIL's plan to wage holy war against deep dish bacon\nwrapped pizza is not based on \n\nany\n religion whatsoever. Anonymous sources deep in the\nadministration whisper that ISIL's move against Little Caesars is a\nresponse to the \nsecret war the US has been waging in the Middle\nEast - a war that is using the awesome power of delicious bacon to\nbring terrorists groups to their knees. \n
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\n\n \nOther restaurant chains have been altering their terrorist\npreparedness policies in light of the new threat. Wendy's has\nannounced that every one of their fry cooks will be armed with a\nHeckler-Koch vp9 pistol (nicknamed the\n\"People's Pistol\") so that their Baconator\n Burger will be protected against all enemies. McDonald's has\nnot yet officially decided what to do, but there has been boardroom\ndiscussion about discarding bacon altogether from the menu and\nkeeping Jews in a special ghettoized section in every restaurant.\n
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