Just finished it actually. A dark, interesting little book. I liked it more than Slaughterhouse Five.
I am curious about Vonnegut’s view of religion having read it – some quick research (and much of his novels) suggests he was an atheist, but I can’t see a definitive answer. His characters appear to knowingly [...]

Epic win:

I really wanted to believe that this was fake when it was first emailed to me – but no, there it is on the Catch the Fire Ministries website: Pastor Danny Nalliah, leader of that esteemed fundamentalist Christian group, tells us that the horrendous bushfires in Victoria in the past week which have so far [...]

Australia continues its proud tradition of protecting the practice and expression of (Christian) religious beliefs, but failing to do the same in respect of atheism: article.  Sigh. There are buses rolling around Adelaide with Christian messages on them as we speak.
And it’s the best form of discrimination too – the kind by private citizens and [...]

A couple of ex-Exclusive Brethren members are asking Justice North in the Federal Court in Victoria (VID904/2008) to order that the AFP investigate the cult: link.
Former Brethren members Lydia Desai and Priscilla D’Souza have accused Exclusive Brethren members in three countries of crimes including genocide, people smuggling and slavery.
Justice North is on the progressive end [...]

This is fantastic: ads on London buses advocating atheism.
I wonder how hard this would be to fund in Australia, and whether it would somehow offend our anti-discrimination/hate speech laws, which (like our constitution, according to the High Court) seem to protect every belief system except atheism.

The Age reports on the pressing issue of the growth of independent schools teaching from a faith-based curriculum in Australia.  Presenting religious indoctrination in the Howard era clothing of “choice”, some such schools are teaching creationism in science classes and directly counteracting government efforts to provide sex education to students.
For example, the principal of one [...]

The Sydney Morning Herald and Catholic News tell us that judges and other members of the legal community in New South Wales recently participated in ‘Red Mass’, a European tradition in which members of the legal profession seek divine guidance for the courts.
The image of judges – wearing the robes which represent their role in [...]

The always interesting Possum Comitatus has some analysis of voting trends and social factors at the last federal election. Tucked away in there are some very interesting graphs about religion and its correlation to several other variables (about half way down, look for “Update 2“).
In particular, two relationships stand out:

atheism is proportional to growth [...]

FYI, Mike Huckabee, potential Republican presidential candidate and by extension potential President of the United States, has this to say about creationism (and the fact that he believes in it):
If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, that’s fine. I’ll accept that.  I just don’t happen to think that I [...]

There’s quite an interesting post here about this article in the LA Times, in which the Times’ religion reporter William Lobdell describes finding and then losing his faith in the process of reporting on the subject. He was initially attracted to Catholicism:
Meanwhile, Roman Catholicism, with its low-key evangelism and deep ritual, increasingly appealed to [...]

The 2006 census has been published, and amongst many interesting trends, the figures show that people of “no religion” numbered 3.7 million at the time of the census – only 11,691 fewer than the number of Anglicans, and 18.7% of the population. In fact, if the different Christian denominations are treated separately, people of no [...]

German officials have allegedly refused to grant the makers of a new film starring T. Cruise, Crazy Cult Member, access to historic military locations for the purposes of filming. The film is about a plot to assassinate Hitler, and the German military is concerned about the portrayal of important historical figures by a [...]

Further to previous posts (one, two), here’s some great “Jesus with the little dinosaurs” art (thanks to KO):

Meanwhile Legal Eagle points to this article on the actual details of the legal battle in the Ham v Anti-Ham lawsuit.

Those wacky funsters at the Vatican are at it again – this time they’re misrepresenting Amnesty’s new policy regarding abortion and instructing Catholics not to support the organisation. Amnesty’s position is that women who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest, or whose health is endangered by pregnancy, have the right to [...]