My post about The Daily Universe‘s censorship of a letter to the editor critical of Prop 8 garnered quite the audience. PZ Myers, The Salt Lake Tribune, and The Huffington Post picked up the story, along with several prominent Mormon and LGBT blogs. Cary Crall, the BYU student who wrote the letter, will be interviewed live by Mormon Stories’ John Dehlin on Tuesday at 8 PM (MST). Call in with questions.
In related news, Chuck Cooper, the lead defense attorney for Prop 8, spoke to BYU law students on Thursday about the threat of gay marriage. Cooper’s disappointing performance prompted one attendee to ask: “If Chuck Cooper can’t defend Prop 8 in front of a group of BYU students, then how is he going to defend it in front of the Supreme Court?”
Patheos has a series of thoughtful articles on the future of secular humanism. We have reason to be optimistic.
In their magazine Awake!, Jehovah’s Witnesses critique the ‘new atheism,’ ironically complaining that atheists are “not content to keep their views to themselves.”
Despite undergoing chemotherapy for esophageal cancer, Christopher Hitchens marshaled enough strength to debate David Berlinski, author of The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions, last week. By all accounts, Hitchens was at the top of his game.
Our friend Craig, over at his blog, credits Mormonism for his atheism. I can relate, as I’m sure many of you can too. A disproportionate number of nonbelievers come out of institutional and legalistic religions like Mormonism and Catholicism.
A new study finds that atheist/agnostic doctors are twice as likely than their religious peers to hasten the death of terminally-ill patients.
The president of the Montana Tea Party was forced to resign after joking about hanging homosexuals.
An atheist and computer science student at Purdue has been blogging his way through the entire Bible, providing chapter summaries and critical commentary.
CTR rings are a thing of the past. Introducing CTR brass knuckles…
Atheist philosopher Keith Parsons says goodbye to the philosophy of religion. “I just cannot take [theistic] arguments seriously any more,” he writes, “and if you cannot take something seriously, you should not try to devote serious academic attention to it.”
Utah artist Jon McNaughton, who drew national attention for this painting, has produced yet another controversial piece—this one depicting President Obama standing on the Constitution while previous presidents look on in astonishment and disgust.
A professor at a Catholic college in India had his hand chopped off by the Islamic Popular Front of India for allegedly preparing a paper with derogatory references to Muhammad. Adding insult to injury (literally!), the college fired him for offending “religious sensibilities.”
The Liberal Agnostic Who Could updates the 13 Articles of Faith.
Julian Baggini, editor of The Philosopher’s Magazine, argues that science hasn’t killed god, only rendered him unrecognizable. The universe of Hawking and other scientists leaves no room for what Baggini calls “the activist god of the Bible.”
One of the members of our sister group SHIFT recently created the website LDS Origins, a resource for early Mormon history. Also at the site is the transcript of a conversation this SHIFT member had with an unnamed LDS apostle.
Robert Fisk of The Independent documents the growing problem of so-called honor killings, which claim the lives of at least 20,000 women a year.
Totally appreciate the plug! Thank you.
I don’t understand why the creators of the CTR brass knuckles didn’t mirror the CTR logo, so that it leaves the mark correctly on the victim’s body.
lol
Thanks for the link to LDS origins – will be very helpful!
I have yet to find the perfect site for Mormon history. It’s safe to check the stuff at LDS Origins against apologetic resources like FAIR LDS. You’ll find that they each leave stuff out, and that by reading both you’ll probably be closer to the truth.
What I found most valuable about the site was the person’s recorded conversation with an apostle and church historian. Very interesting.
good post, some amazing things going on
Thanks for the plug Jon. My site is basically dedicated to the points that I found concerning about church history. Do you feel my site would be better if it include more apologist responses to the facts I bring up on my site?
Welcome. Yes, I think it would be best to engage LDS apologetics on your site. I agree with much of what you write about Mormon history at the site, but I do think Mormon apologists have reasonable responses to some of your concerns. And in interacting with Mormon apologetics, you’ll be able to refine your arguments and make them stronger.
Also know that when I said your site left stuff out, I didn’t mean to imply that you were intentionally misleading people. All I meant is that it’s hard to take a comprehensive and balanced view of Mormon history and distill it into one site. I know I couldn’t do it, so you have my appreciation for trying.
If I find any egregious errors on your site, I’ll be sure to let you know. But in general, you’re probably more knowledgeable about Mormon history than I am, so I’m not in the strongest position to assess your work.
I’ve struggled with that. Originally what is on my site was written for a loved one. After that, I thought about making it a general (unsanitized) history site, but some of my friends that read it said that what made it interesting to them was hearing my voice in it. Removing a lot of my narration would take away from it.
I’m still not sure which is best.
I would probably disagree that FAIR is a good counter-balance to my site. Perhaps I’m flattering myself, but I would probably recommend “Rough Stone Rolling” instead. I find FAIR to be full of bad reasoning.
Also, to be more specific, what areas of my site do you thing need more inclusion of apologetic responses? I have them in the First Vision parts and in the Book of Abraham parts.
I’ll have to read more of your site before I’m able to give concrete specifics. My criticisms may have been premature. I’ll get back to you.