Cousin Ricky

Some time ago, I heard a podcast about Toilet Jesus. The churchgoers did not appreciate the new information, and the church demanded a public apology from the investigator! After threats of violence from the parishioners, the investigator had to flee the country. P.S. No doubt some Muslims have been extremely violent in recent years, but lest anyone tell you that this is peculiarly characteristic of Islam, remember that Christians can and will be just as violent when the social conditions allow. Recall that even in the USA, where Christianity has been mostly defanged, P.Z. Myers go

“The truth will set you free.” —John 8:32b “But first, it will piss you off.” —various attributions

In light of Mark’s final letter, perhaps the cosmos will someday have a new perspective on itself from his atoms.

My 15 year old goddaughter is now on Facebook. The tricky part is I don’t know whether or not she knows of my apostasy, and last time I talked to her mom (my sister) about it, she didn’t know either. But I do not hide my atheism on Facebook, so if my goddaughter hasn’t figured it out by now, she will soon. Her mom doesn’t seem concerned about the situation. In fact, she seriously considered having her meet me in South Carolina for the solar eclipse—where I was attending the American Atheists national convention. So my nervousness is probably all for nothing.

Veronica, the patron saint of hustlers!

I don’t hurt for adults. But I hurt inside when I see a child being indoctrinated into the irrational. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all of them that I see.

Seriously? They expect non-JWs to pay for being harassed?

I tell them, “Hi, sis! Hi, DBIL!” Tell the truth. You’re an ex-Christian, been there, done that, not interested. However they respond, it’ll be easier to deal with than having to make up responses concordant with whatever you’re pretending to be.

I also know who this is (and no, I won't name him). I will not unfriend him for two reasons: first, because I don't unfriend people over differences of opinion, and second, because he sounds like he really needs friends. He knows where he's been, and I'm not about to try to interfere with his path in life. And his newfound happiness with his new church notwithstanding, he is going through very difficult times right now. As for his preaching posts, I do what I do with the preaching posts from my other Christian friends: ignore most of them. But there is one other relapse

Having no face-to-face non-believing community in my very religious locale. What can I do about it? I wish I knew; I get feedback from quite a few horses, but none of them want to drink.

Some of you may know that I experienced 2 category 5 hurricanes this past September. As you can imagine, most people in this highly religious region went full Stockholm, and simply will not quit gushing about how good their god is. For the most part, I can only grin and bear it, as they are private expressions protected by the First Amendment to the USA Constitution. But when I spotted a First Amendment violation on the front page of the local paper, I had to respond. When the public schools finally reopened, the local paper published a front page photo of a public school principal

I'm pretty sure that depends on the denomination and on the congregation. I once joined a Christian (Catholic in the West Indies) men's group, and most of the talk was about how we men had abdicated our role as the Manly Man in our (heterosexual, of course) relationships.

My thoughts? I’m not sure. Maturity demands that adults not break down every time something sad happens, but bottling up our emotions is unhealthy. I grew up in the Caribbean, where machismo rules, with a father who had some strict, though not necessarily predictable ideas on gender roles. For him, it was perfectly fine for girls to take shop class and boys to do dishes; on the other hand, he blew his stack if he spied us boys idly twirling our hair around a finger. (He perceived it as trying to style our hair like a girl, and literally called us sissies.) Most important of all, bo

No, they're moderate Catholics, but they are very devout.