A group of teenagers disturbed worship at a Rochester, New York mosque on Monday. They drove around the mosque, honking car horns, shouting obscenities and racial slurs, and firing a shotgun into the air.

Last weekend, a Phoenix Catholic church ordained another female priest—the fourth woman ordained to the priesthood in that area. The Vatican has called these ordinations a “crime against faith” and promise excommunications.

The Washington Post debunks five myths about American mosques.

Trying to co-opt the civil rights movement and its legacy, Glenn Beck held his “Restoring Honor” rally at the same place and on the same day that MLK Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech. Beck argued that America has “wandered in darkness” and needs to turn to god. Christopher Hitchens called the rally “the Waterworld of white self-pity.” Hitchens’ Slate colleague William Saletan disagrees, writing that liberals should celebrate the fact that conservatives have embraced MLK Jr., a man they once perceived as a radical.

Austin Cline of About.com: Atheism/Agnosticism provides us with a helpful overview of the various explanations for why religion exists.

In his new book, The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking concludes that no god was needed to create the universe. The universe was instead the inevitable result of the laws of physics.

The Center for Inquiry (of which SHAFT is an affiliate) released a statement defending the right to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero. A couple of popular LDS blogs urge Mormons to support the center. Mormon politicians are divided on the issue. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) backs the center, while Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitt Romney oppose it.

All this talk about Obama being a secret Muslim is silly. We all know he’s a closet non-believer.  

TheoreticalBullshit recently posted a 30-minute video about morality without god. TBS, DasAmericanAtheist, and ProfMTH are among the most thoughtful and articulate atheists on YouTube. Subscribe to their channels.

Some missionaries burned dozens of copies of the Book of Mormon and have the pictures to prove it. (It’s not what you think.)

Contra the Word of Wisdom, an extensive 20-year scientific study found that both moderate and heavy drinkers outlive non-drinkers. A similar study found that a pint of beer is slightly better than water at rehydrating the body after a workout. Too bad it tastes terrible.

A new survey reveals that 1 in 8 Americans identify as “ex-Christian.” American adults are leaving Christianity at four times the rate they’re joining it.

Conservapedia would have you believe that Einstein’s E=mc2 is a liberal atheist conspiracy.

A Mormon bishop was senselessly murdered in California in between on Sunday. The shooter, Kenneth James Ward, was a former Mormon with many mental issues. He was bipolar and had post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in the Persian Gulf War.

The Council for Secular Humanism asks, “Are secularists less generous?” The answer: Yes, but it’s complicated.

I was bored yesterday, and this was the result:

I’ve been a lazy blogger this weekend, and so recent posts (this one included) have been image-heavy. But more substantial posts are in the works.

With school starting for many of you on Monday, summer has come to a close. This pie chart effectively sums up my summer experience. Hopefully yours was more active and fulfilling. 

I look forward to what SHAFT will accomplish this new academic year. And despite my having graduated and moved to Salt Lake, I still hope to attend some SHAFT events throughout the year.

Not surprisingly, Mormons give President Obama the lowest approval ratings, and Muslims give him the highest. What I found newsworthy was that Obama’s ratings among atheists/agnostics was only 63%. I’m not sure how to interpret that statistic.  Does it mean there is significant political diversity among atheists/agnostics, or are we so overwhelmingly liberal that we are disappointed by how moderate Obama has been?

According to a poll conducted at this site, 48% of our readers are liberal, 23% moderate, 16% libertarian, 12% other, and 1% conservative.

In mining old conference talks for interesting quotes, it quickly became apparent that Ezra Taft Benson was among the most colorful and controversial conference speakers. The Glenn Beck of apostles, he would often rail against perceived communist threats and conspiracies from the conference pulpit. He taught that the civil rights movement was a front for communism and that public schools were established by Marxists for the propagation of atheism. But I recently found my favorite Benson quote:

Have we, as Moroni warned, “polluted the holy church of God?” (Morm. 8:38.) The auxiliaries of the Church are to be a help, not a hindrance, to parents and the priesthood as they strive to lead their families back to God. Do any of us wear or display the broken cross, anti-Christ sign, that is the adversary’s symbol of the so-called “peace movement”? – Ezra Taft Benson, October 1970 General Conference

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From The Onion The Salt Lake Tribune:

A Las Vegas man is suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for medical expenses after he injured his back in 2007 performing baptisms for the dead.

In a civil suit filed in 3rd District Court on Wednesday, Daniel Dastrup claims he suffered a severe herniated disk in his lumbar spine after performing about 200 baptism on Aug. 25, 2007. The then 25-year-old claims some of the young men and women he completely immersed in water in the name of the dead weighed as much as 250 pounds.

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Most of us would answer, “Of course!” We consider that evidentiary demand a truism. But Christian philosopher and apologist Dr. William Lane Craig disagrees, calling it a “demonstrably false” presupposition.

Something is awry in his argument from analogy, I think. That a particular number was the winning lottery number doesn’t strike me as “extraordinary.” There had to be a winning number—why not that one? Still, Craig’s objection is an interesting one. I’ve also heard him argue that, granting the existence of an omnipotent being, nothing is truly extraordinary.

This post is loosely a part of my general conference series, but it also makes the case that LDS teachings on sex are contradictory and untenable.

First, consider what Mormon leaders historically taught regarding birth control:

The world teaches birth control. Tragically, many of our sisters subscribe to its pills and practices when they could easily provide earthly tabernacles for more of our Father’s children. … The first commandment given to man was to multiply and replenish the earth with children. That commandment has never been altered, modified, or canceled. The Lord did not say to multiply and replenish the earth if it is convenient, or if you are wealthy, or after you have gotten your schooling, or when there is peace on earth, or until you have four children. – Ezra Taft Benson, April 1969 General Conference

God made sex, but not for entertainment. It was provided for a divinely appointed act of creation in which we, to this extent, become co-creators with him. – Mark E. Peterson, April 1969 General Conference

[I]f anything were done to postpone [the responsibility of motherhood], the Church would become a party to birth control, and the Church will have nothing to do with that evil. – David O. McKay, April 1949 General Conference

Sexual laxity among young people, birth control, and intemperance are its insidious and vicious enemies. – David O. McKay, October 1947 General Conference

Another erosion of the family is unwarranted and selfish birth control. – Spencer W. Kimball, October 1979 General Conference

We hear so much about emancipation, independence, sexual liberation, birth control, abortion, and other insidious propaganda belittling the role of motherhood, all of which is Satan’s way of destroying woman, the home, and the family—the basic unit of society. – N. Eldon Tanner, October 1973 General Conference

The above is just a small sampling of the church’s statements on birth control. You can read many others at these links.

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