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Another day, another tweet from Richard Dawkins proving that if non-conscious material is given enough time, it is capable of evolving into an obstreperous crackpot who should have retired from public speech when he had the chance to bow out before embarrassing himself. Date rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse. If you think that's an endorsement of date rape, go away and learn how to think.— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 29, 2014 “Date rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse,” huffs Dawkins. Seeming to have anticipated, although not understood, the feminist reaction this kind of...

Thirty-two countries have written to a U.N. General Assembly committee asking the United Nations to recognize Judaism’s holiest day, Yom Kippur, as an official holiday. The letter to the assembly’s Committee on Conferences, circulated on Wednesday, says the U.N. “recognizes the major festivals of many of the world’s main religions, yet Judaism is not represented.”“We believe that the United Nations calendar should reflect the organization’s founding principles of coexistence, justice and mutual respect,” the 32 countries said. “We urge the United Nations to correct this inequity and recognize the holiest day of the Jewish faith.” …

When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: "Ah, yes, when one is young, one has these ideals in the abstract and these castles in the air; but in middle age they all break up like clouds, and one comes down to a belief in practical politics, to using the machinery one has and getting on with the world as it is." Thus, at least, venerable and philanthropic old men now in their honoured graves used to talk to me when I was a boy. But since then I...

The Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis says he won’t resign despite criticism over the archdiocese’s handling of sexual abuse claims involving priests. Archbishop John Nienstedt made his comments in in a column that will appear in Thursday’s archdiocese newspaper, The Catholic Spirit. He says he’s bound to stay in office as long as Pope Francis wants. …

According to new research from Boston University, young children with a religious background are less able to distinguish between fantasy and reality compared with their secular counterparts. In two studies, 66 kindergarten-age children were presented with three types of stories - realistic, religious and fantastical. The researchers then queried the children on whether they thought the main character in the story was real or fictional. While nearly all children found the figures in the realistic narratives to be real, secular and religious children were split on religious stories. Children with a religious upbringing tended to view the protagonists in religious stories as...

Following the Hail Satan chant in during laws that would restrict late term abortions in the state of Texas, a new effort is underway by the Satanic Temple to interject “religious protection for women with health needs that are being complicated by unreasonable laws.” In a statement released Monday, the Satanic Temple said that it will use the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision to exempt its believers from state-mandated informed consent laws that require women considering abortions to read pro-life material. MSNBC which drank the Koolaid reports that,”in other words, the Satanic Temple wanted a conscience clause from laws...

In my columns, I often write about the swift moral decline within our nation's secular universities. That usually involves writing about corrupt university administrators. But I would be a hypocrite were I to ignore corruption by administrators at Christian colleges and universities. Right now, there is a controversy brewing at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee with moral ramifications that are simply too important to ignore. At the center of the controversy is Bryan's president Dr. Stephen Livesay. His conduct as Bryan's president has been so far outside the realm of normal professional conduct as to nearly defy description. Nonetheless, I...

Muslims are set to argue which day Eid is…right about now. The annual argument has already begun in some parts of the world and in the UK neighbours will be debating which day Eid should and should not be. Religious leaders and clerics will be trying their best to justify which day the moon was and was not sighted. And things are about to get all technical. A new survey also released today says that the Eid argument is now ranks top as the most talked about ‘Muslim front room debate’. It is followed about ‘Is Coke Haram?’ and ‘How...

Was presenting programme on Sama Dubai TV when incident occuredA Ramadan TV programme nearly turned into a tragedy after a lioness featured on the programme attacked the host. Well known Saudi MBC TV presenter Lujain Omran was presenting a programme on Sama Dubai TV when the incident occured. The lioness leaps onto the host and drops her to the floor before other TV crew come to the terrified host’s rescue, Emarat Al Youm, who carried the video, reported.

The State Department issued a dire report Monday on the state of religious freedom around the world, with an alarming warning that the Christian presence in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East is becoming a “shadow of its former self.” The analysis was included as part of a comprehensive report on religious freedom around the world in 2013. The report cited a flood of examples of governments and militant groups cracking down on religious minorities, everywhere from Pakistan to Egypt to China. The victims included Christians, but also Hindus, Muslims and others. The report offered a pointed warning about...

A statement put out today by President Barack Obama on the occasion of a religious holiday is raising some eyebrows. […]In the United States, Eid (al-Fitr) also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy. […]The word choice here, that anyone built “the very fabric of our nation” would usually sound hackneyed and overplayed—but, in this particular instance, given that the U.S. didn’t even have its first Muslim-American congressman until 2007, the peculiar word choice has left some scratching their heads. …

SciShow News reports some promising new findings about the worldwide fight against HIV, including insights about how we can make the most of one of our newest weapons against HIV: circumcision.

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How would you react if you heard there was a sane man who hasn’t taken a bath for more than 13 years and is not smelling? Impossible, you might exclaim. may be odd, but it is true. It is the oddity of this story and curiosity that compelled Saturday Vanguard to take a two day trip to Ibadan, Oyo state, in search of this man: one prophet Wale Olagunju, the presiding Bishop of Divine Seed of God Chapel Ministries in Ibadan, Oyo State, who has neither taken a bath nor had sex with his wife since 2001! Testimonies regarding his...

Twelfth-century Hindu temple breaks with tradition after Supreme Court rules against two Brahmin families who have claimed exclusive ancestral rights to choosing priests for centuriesA twelfth-century Hindu temple that attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims annually is to admit women and lower-caste men as priests for the first time. The historic break with tradition came about after India's Supreme Court ruled against the two Brahmin families, Badve and Utpat, who had provided the temple's priests for centuries. The court ruled against their claim to exclusive ancestral rights over the earnings and rituals at Vitthal Rukmini temple, in the town of...

........But our story picks up with what happened on Thursday. That was the day when the church was supposed to honor the National Guard. They had invited troops from the nearby armory to drop by with one of their Humvees. “We were going to thank them for protecting our religious liberty,” said Pastor Hogan. “It was more of a promotion for the military – to show the kids what the military does.” But the National Guard did not visit Bible Baptist Church on Thursday night, and the reason why has caused great anger and frustration among church members ...........

A Florida judge on Friday overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage in a ruling that applies to Miami-Dade County, agreeing with a judge in another county who made a similar ruling last week. Still, no marriage licenses will be issued for gay couples in either county any time soon to allow for appeals. The ruling by Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel mirrors the decision made earlier by Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis Garcia. Both found the constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters in 2008 discriminates against gay people. They said it violates their right to equal protection under the law...

Married to Muslim in Abu DhabiA woman who had stuck to her religion despite her marriage to a Muslim finally decided to convert to Islam while she was in hospital in Abu Dhabi having treatment for cancer. A day after she converted, the woman died. The woman had been bed-ridden in hospital for months before doctors told her husband that her case became incurable after cancer spread through several parts of her body. A day before her death, her husband called the Abu Dhabi judicial department and asked them to send a woman for his wife to perform her conversion...

Pope Francis has met privately with a Sudanese mother in Rome who was put on death row for refusing to renounce her Christian faith and become a Muslim. The Vatican said Pope Francis had 'a very affectionate' meeting with Meriam Ibrahim, 27, her husband and their two small children. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope 'thanked her for her faith and courage, and she thanked him for his prayer and solidarity' during the half-hour meeting. He blessed Ms Ibrahim as she held her baby daughter Maya in her arms whom she gave birth to in prison two...

There’s plenty of bad news already coming over the transom today and we’ll get to all of it, but one story we’ve followed here has a happy ending. Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, the woman sentenced to death in Sudan for her Christian faith, has left Khartoum and landed in Rome, greeted by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the airport. Italy helped the US mediate her release with Sudanese officials in a quiet effort launched a few weeks ago: