Atheist blogger Leah Libresco has now begun to implement her Turing Test for religion, which I previously wrote about here. At her blog, she has recruited fifteen test participants who will first answer four questions about atheism, trying to persuade readers that they are real atheists. They will then answer four questions about Christianity, seeking […]
Archive | Religion
A Turing Test For Religion
Inspired by Bryan Caplan’s ideological Turing Test, atheist blogger Leah Libresco proposes a religious Turing test to measure the extent to which Christians and atheists understand the arguments of the other side [HT: Bryan Caplan]: Just like Caplan, I’d like to put my money where my mouth is and play in an ideological Turing Test […]
God Tells Us: No Photos of Women in Our Newspaper
Before: After: Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) has the story, with links: In a strict reading of Jewish laws on modesty, the Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung, published in Brooklyn, has a policy that it will not publish photos of women. The Washington Post reported yesterday on the controversy that this has stirred when the paper […]
UN Human Rights Council Drops Resolution Banning “Defamation of Religion”
By Ilya Somin on April 5, 2011 1:48 am in International Law, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Religious freedom scholar Nina Shea reports that the United Nations Human Rights Council recently ended consideration of a resolution requiring states to ban “defamation of religion.” The Organization of the Islamic Conference decided not to push for a vote on the resolution, which had passed in each of the several years, when it became clear […]
Interesting Religion Cases at the Supreme Court’s Conference Friday
Cert was denied in Cooke v. Tubra, 10-559, but the Court has relisted in the other case I bored you about last week, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v EEOC, 10-553, suggesting the Court is taking a careful look at it. Hosanna-Tabor involves whether the judicially recognized “ministerial exception” to the Americans with Disabilities […]
Interesting Religion Cases at the Supreme Court’s Conference Tomorrow
By John Elwood on February 24, 2011 11:56 am in Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Supreme Court
I see that two religion cases I’ve been watching are both on for the Supreme Court’s case conference tomorrow. Cooke v. Tubra, 10-559, which I’ve previously written about here, presents the question whether the First Amendment bars a pastor’s defamation claim against the church that employed him when the claim is based entirely on statements […]
New York Times on the Secular Right Blog
The New York Times recently ran an interesting article on the Secular Right blog, which I commented on here back when it was first established: As a child, Razib Khan spent several weeks studying in a Bangladeshi madrasa. Heather Mac Donald once studied literary deconstructionism and clerked for a left-wing judge. In neither case did […]
Sovereignty Watch: Vatican Refuses Service of Process in Abuse Case
By Kenneth Anderson on February 3, 2011 6:03 pm in Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that the Vatican has refused service of process in a widely-followed priest child abuse case. The Vatican has refused service of a federal lawsuit over its handling of the notorious sex offender Father Lawrence Murphy – a move that could delay the Milwaukee lawsuit for months if not years, victims’ advocates […]
Reconsidering Ground Zero Mosque Leader Feisal Abdul Rauf
By Ilya Somin on January 18, 2011 3:27 pm in Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, War on Terror
Back in August, I wrote a post criticizing efforts to use government power to stop the building of the Ground Zero Mosque and explaining why I see no good objection to having a Muslim cultural center or mosque near Ground Zero. But I was also highly critical of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the […]
Santa Showed Up at Mass Tonight
Santa Claus showed up at the end of the Children’s Mass at our parish church tonight (ably aided by Tod Lindberg). Santa (let it be noted for the official record) pronounced Your Correspondent “Nice” and presented him with a candy-cane. I’m not Catholic, and so am not schooled in the deep matters of Catholic theology. […]
UN General Assembly Committee Passes New Version of Resolution Urging Nations to Forbid Defamation of Religion
By Ilya Somin on November 24, 2010 1:19 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The United Nations General Assembly Third Committee recently passed another resolution urging nations to ban defamation of religion [HT: Elizabeth Cassidy of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which criticized the resolution here]: A U.N. General Assembly committee once again voted to condemn the “vilification of religion” on Tuesday, but support narrowed for a […]
From North Carolina Blogger to Active Al Qaeda Member
The Jawa Report reports. NPR likewise mentions the traitor (Samir Khan), though in passing, in a story that begins this way: The single biggest change in terrorism over the past several years has been the wave of Americans joining the fight — not just as foot soldiers but as key members of Islamist groups and […]
French Constitutional Court Decision Upholds Ban on Wearing Veils in Public Places
By Ilya Somin on October 11, 2010 3:54 am in Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, War on Terror
France’s Constitutional Council recently upheld the constitutionality of a law banning the wearing of veils in public places. The text of the decision is available in French here. Despite the importance of the issue and the large potential infringement on religious freedom, the opinion is very short and conclusory. For those of our readers who […]
Hire an Atheist to Watch Your Pet After the Rapture
I’m not up on the theology behind this, but I thought I’d pass it along: You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind. We are a group of […]
Explaining Group Differences in Knowledge of Religion
As I noted in a recent post, the Pew Research Center survey of public knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics, Jews, and Mormons are the groups with by far the highest knowledge levels in this field. The disparity between these groups and the rest of the population persists even after controlling for education. […]