Archive for the ‘children’ Category
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
A man in New Jersey is accused of raping and beating his five daughters over a 15-year period, fathering as many as six children through them as a result. Did I mention these gals were homeschooled?
Why? Because he had convinced himself there was no god and he could indulge himself with impunity.
Ah, who am I kidding? It’s because he had apocalyptic visions that (according to his wife), “the world was going to end and it was just going to be him and his offspring and that he was chosen.”
Now, I’m not saying this nut was motivated by religion. But I am pointing out how telling it is that nuts almost never have delusions about there being no god. I’m also pointing out how the understandable reluctance of authorities to split up families often leads to years of abuse, neglect and death.
That said, I seriously doubt any jury–Christian or otherwise–is going to cut this guy much slack. I just hope his daughters can salvage what’s left of their lives.
Tags: apocalypse, new jersey
Posted in children, religion | No Comments »
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
I’m not opposed to homeschooling on general principle. I think it’s possible for reasonably intelligent parents to provide their children a decent education at home. Unfortunately, in the United States the word “homeschooler” has an incredibly strong correlation with “evangelical brainwasher.” This recent news article reveals that the vast majority of American homeschoolers do so, not because they think they are better at teaching math at home, but rather for religious reasons. Indeed, as the article discusses, there’s a frightening number of publishers who put out textbooks that are really just delivery systems for fundamentalist propaganda–especially when it comes to evolution. Alas.
Tags: evolution, homeschool
Posted in children, civil rights, evolution, news, religious rights, science | No Comments »
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Margaret Downey (former president of Atheist Alliance International, now a “freethought free agent”) announces the formation of the Unity 2013 Event Committee. What is Unity 2013? Nobody knows just yet, but what we do know is that it’ll be big, it has the blessing of such notables as Daniel Dennett, and it’ll involve many (if not most) of the major freethought-friendly organizations. To keep abreast of the details as they unfold, check out the Unity 2013 Facebook page.
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Podcast #81 - Announcing Unity 2013 [43:52m]:
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Tags: margaret downey, unity 2013
Posted in abortion, atheism, children, christianity, interviews, news, podcast, religion, women's rights | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Earthquake-devastated Haiti has become a magnet for kooky, misguided (but perhaps well-intentioned) religious groups. Scientologist John Travolta (disguised, apparently, as L. Ron Hubbard–see photo at right) has personally flown his private 707 to Haiti, delivering food, medical supplies, and “volunteer ministers” who claim the ability to heal through therapeutic touch. Meanwhile, a Christian group called Faith Comes By Hearing has sent 600 solar-powered audiobook Bibles. Finally, a group of Idaho Baptists were arrested trying to transport Haitian orphans (some of whom weren’t actually orphans) across the border into the Dominican Republic.
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Podcast #79 - E-meters for Haiti? [43:51m]:
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Tags: atsc, faith comes by hearing, gayest city in america, george tiller, haiti, jim mccormick, john travolta, proclaimer, scientology, scott roeder
Posted in children, christianity, civil rights, gay rights, humor, news, podcast, religion, skepticism | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy was sidelined with a shoulder injury early-on at college football’s 2010 Rose Bowl. McCoy had to watch from the bench as Texas lost the National Championship to Alabama. But that’s okay, ’cause it’s all part of God’s Plan.
Tiger Woods’ rumored infidelities have been all the rage with the tabloids, but who’da thunk Fox News pundit Brit Hume (not exactly an outspoken evangelical zealot) would make us forget all about it with his shoot-from-the-hip comparison of Buddhism and Christianity.
North Georgia parents Patty Jo Marsh and Jacob Bartels decided it was a good idea to give tattoos to six of their seven children. Themselves. With a homemade tattoo machine. Now they’re charged with illegal tattooing, reckless conduct, and more. Oh, did we mention the tattoos were of Christian crosses?
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Podcast #77 - Sports Losses and Southern Crosses [40:29m]:
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Tags: betty jo marsh, brit hume, colt mccoy, harold camping, jacob bartels, tattoo, tiger woods
Posted in buddhism, children, christianity, civil rights, podcast, religion, religious rights | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 16th, 2009
You may recall, from a couple of months ago, the case of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year-old Christian convert who ran away from her Muslim parents in Ohio to stay with the minister of a Florida megachurch, claiming her parents would murder her for being an apostate. Her parents assure authorities she is in no danger, but a judge ordered her placed in foster care in Florida for the time being.
Now the courts are saying she’ll be placed in foster care in Ohio, but only if her parents can provide evidence that they maintain legal immigrant status. If they can’t–and so far they haven’t–the whole family may end up being deported back to Sri Lanka!
Tags: blake lorenz, rifqa bary
Posted in children, christianity, civil rights, islam, news, religion, religious rights | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Well, I have to admit I did not see this one coming; although, in hindsight maybe I should have. Dale and Leilani Neumann, the Wisconsin couple who decided they’re rather pray over their diabetic daughter rather than pay for medical treatment, were sentenced yesterday.
They received a sentence of one month in prison per year for six years and ten years probation.
When sentencing them, Judge Vincent Howard said the Nuemanns were “very good people, raising their family who made a bad decision, a reckless decision.”
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Tags: dale neumann, kara neumann, leilani neumann
Posted in children, christianity, civil rights, news, religion, religious rights | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
A couple of incidents close to home have come to my attention. Most recently, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on an incident at Berry College (in the north Georgia city of Rome), where junior Nathan Mallory claimed to have exorcised a fellow student during a worship session in Mallory’s dorm room.
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Tags: berry college, cheerleaders, exorcism, lakeview-fort oglethorpe, nathan mallory, winshape
Posted in children, christianity, civil rights, news, religion, religious rights | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
We interview Danny Zepeda, a skeptical blogger living in Morelia, a city in central Mexico. He talks about the state of freethought South of the Border, the prevalence of superstition and alt-medicine quackery in Mexican society, and the challenges of raising children to be critical thinkers. Visit Danny’s Spanish-language blog Un Papá Escéptico (A Skeptical Papa) at papaesceptico.wordpress.com. If you can’t read Spanish, try pasting the URL into the Babel Fish text translation tool: the results are sometimes a bit iffy but readable.
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Podcast #66 - Freethought in Mexico [43:47m]:
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Tags: danny zepeda, mexico, papa esceptico
Posted in atheism, children, christianity, international freethought, podcast, religion, skepticism, superstitions | 2 Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
By now you may have read of the disturbing case of Phillip Garrido, a California man now in custody for the 1991 kidnapping of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard. Jaycee’s mother and stepfather have long since assumed she was dead; indeed, the stepfather has been a suspect for years, although he was a helpless witness to the kidnapping.
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Tags: jaycee lee dugard, phillip garrido
Posted in children, cults, religion | 2 Comments »
