Surprises generally only work ONCE, especially if they are UNPLEASANT surprises or worse, hostile, aggressive surprises which give rise to conflicts and wars.  Such surprises have happened throughout history, generally because one side thought they could gain an overwhelming advantage over some other side with an unexpected action, usually military in nature (though not always).  The United States has been subject to at least three such events in our recent history, and that is what this…

As the US House of Representatives enters its fourth day of failed attempts to elect a Speaker of the House, one of the few functions of this part of Congress has been the performance of its daily prayer ritual. Even as the House Republicans have engaged in bitter infighting and failed even to swear in new members of Congress, the current US House Chaplain, Margaret Grun Kibben, has repeatedly stood on the floor of the US House and performed her Christian prayer ritual over and over…

“Blessed day!”



“Under His eye.”



“Blessed be the fruit.”



“May the Lord open.”



These and other hackneyed catchphrases are part of the everyday conversational usages to be found in the Republic of Gilead.  This is, of course, the world of Margaret Atwood’s novel and subsequent television series, The Handmaid’s Tale, the story of what happened when, in the wake of a pandemic which impacts human fertility and reproduction on a global level [sound…

About a month ago, OpenAI released the ChatGPT chatbot, a computer program that uses artificial intelligence and an enormous set of data to imitate human communication. In one of the most commonly repeated stories about of the program’s prowess, ChatGPT composed a new bible verse about how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR, using the language of…

Christian Nationalism isn't just something that's spreading in the United States. The following article comes from Blasphemies.Org.

POLAND ADVANCES BAN OF BLASPHEMY

The leaders of the executive and legislative branches of government in…

A new report from Humanists International warns that blasphemy or apostasy is a crime in over 80 countries, and in 13 of these countries, the punishment for violating laws against insulting religion or living a non-religious life is death.

“There are legal restrictions against expressing blasphemy, defaming or insulting religion or religious beliefs, or offending religious feelings in dozens of countries,”…

The matter of installing the new Ring Doorbell that afternoon had not gone as expected by a long stretch.  Repeated attempts to download the very last element of its software had seen that step arrested at 90% of completion, and the technical support person from Ring was, to that point, unable to get the darn thing to go any further.  Finally, she acknowledged the impasse, ordered a new unit, and dispatched it to my location, a process which would likely take the proverbial two-to-three…

Christians like to believe that their religion spread around the world by people voluntarily abandoning their own cultural traditions in favor of the obvious superiority of Christianity.

Actual history shows that's not what happened.

Christianity spread around the world first at the point of a sword and then at the end of the barrel of…

On the whole, Christian Nationalism lost the midterm elections of 2022. There were some Christian Nationalist victories, with the re-election of Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, but the most extreme Christian Nationalist candidates, like Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano, lost their elections.

Apparently, no Christian god was waiting around ready to use its magical powers to help Republican candidates after all.…

Christian Nationalists believe that they have the authority to make deeply personal decisions for everybody else, because their Christian Nationalism teaches them that their god is the boss of everything and everybody everywhere.

Christian Nationalists demand that no one have the power to end their own lives, even when they are experiencing extreme suffering.

Christian Nationalism insists that transgender…

According to the Cooperative Election Study, atheists are the most politically active group in the country, with agnostics slightly behind them.

Atheists show up for more political meetings, donate more money to candidates, and attend more protests than Christians do. We hear all the time about how politically active evangelical Christians are, but atheists are more active than evangelicals in every category of political activity.

Atheists are also overwhelmingly…

As the congressional midterm elections of 2022 near their end, Republican politicians are now openly speaking as if they have the endorsement of the supernatural ruler of the universe. They are asking their followers to accept that Jesus was a Republican.

On November 6, at a rally for Republican Senator Marco Rubio and ex-president Donald Trump, Esteban Bovo, the mayor of Hialeah, Florida, gave the following prayer to the Christian god.…

Christian Nationalist preacher Julie Green, an affiliate of the Doug Mastriano for Governor campaign in Pennsylvania, has threatened US President Joe Biden with assassination in a new "prophecy", declaring that "All it takes is one shot," to kill in "a takedown of the Biden", who will not know the attack is coming "until it's too late".

More on the violent prophecies of Julie Green and other radical anti-democratic Christian Nationalism on the eve of Election Day…

Remember the bible verse where the "loving" Jesus crams all the nonbelievers into a winepress and squeezes their bodies until the blood covers the earth six feet deep for 180 square miles?

No? You can find it in the New Testament, Revelation chapter 14.

Who will save us from Christian "love"?

Jesus was not a nice guy.…

The title of this piece has to be among the most common of retorts, offered by believers when someone like us – atheists, agnostics, freethinkers – looks at God’s Plan™ and wonders at the rationality of such a “plan.”  One can generally expect a chorus of “God’s Ways are not our ways,” as well (just so you know), even as we get the same stuff from the bible:



“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

-- Isaiah…

It is cricket season again, the Australian cricket team is in Dubai playing several “friendlies” with other nations to find the most formitable opponents for the upcoming ashes clash at the end of the season.

While not actually playing cricket,, the team will go to all the tourist destinations Dubai has to offer.

This summer, I started the Stop Christian Nationalism web site and podcast because it became crystal clear with a series of Christian Nationalist Supreme Court…

Last week, the opening words of the day's session of the United States House of Representatives were delivered as a prayer to the Christian god:

"Blessed are those who trust in you. Better off are those who rely on you, and not on their own pride, who yield to your truth, and do not turn to follow false gods.”

These words came in an official federal government Christian prayer from the taxpayer-funded US House…

Ken Harrison, CEO of the right-wing Christian Nationalist organization Promise Keepers, for example, recently warned against the belief that Jesus is nice. Harrison said:

“We’ve taught a Jesus that’s an idol. That’s not the real Jesus. We’ve taught a Jesus that says love means being nice to everybody all the time. Well, when I read my bible, Jesus wasn’t very nice. He was not very nice most of the time. I mean when you’re saying you want to set the…