There have been several recent responses to the planned building of a Muslim community center and mosque (a.k.a. Park51) close to Ground Zero. I’m not opposed to it — more on that later — but I’ve been reading some interesting responses to the situation. President Obama supports the right for Muslims to build the mosque, [...]
Hi Friendly Atheist friends! Mike Clawson here. I know it’s been forever since I’ve posted (that’s the problem with graduate school – it doesn’t leave you much time to write anything not class related), but I recently came across an interesting article on AlterNet.org that I wanted to share with y’all. Titled “Should I Quit [...]
About a month ago I posted here asking for y’all’s help on a research paper I was doing on atheists’ experiences as outsiders here in America. It was for a seminary class on “outsider” religious groups in America, and my hope for the paper was to persuade my professor to include a segment on atheists [...]
Hey friends, Mike Clawson here again. Once more I feel like I should apologize for being such an infrequent contributor here. Graduate school keeps getting in the way of doing any extra writing. Speaking of that, however, I would like to ask for your assistance on a research paper I’m doing for a class called [...]
Fuck Pat Robertson. I keep hearing that “he doesn’t represent the Christian faith,” but he does. So does Rick Warren with his bigoted stance against gay rights. So does James Dobson with his views on women needing to be subservient to men. So do Rob Bell and Brian McLaren and Shane Claiborne and other, more [...]
Hey friends, Mike Clawson here. I’m sure most of you know by now about the massive and devastating earthquake that struck the impoverished nation of Haiti yesterday evening. I was at the gym yesterday and saw it on CNN minutes after it happened, and my stomach just dropped. Some of you may remember that I [...]
Mike Clawson here… So some of you know that I am currently back in graduate school working towards a PhD in Religious History. This affords me lots of opportunity to read fascinating books and contemplate interesting ideas, unfortunately it doesn’t often afford me much time to actually write about any of them, either here or [...]
Mike Clawson here… I just wanted to call your attention to an interesting set of articles I recently encountered. This one by Lauren Sandler cites a few scientific studies (including one highlighted by Richard Dawkins, and another conducted by Michael Shermer) to suggest that women are more religious than men because they are evolutionarily, biologically, [...]
A few days ago, the Chicago Tribune‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Julia Keller spoke out in favor of Banned Books Week: That day marked my first encounter with banned books. I probably don’t need to point out that my mother’s efforts were utterly counter-productive, that her prohibition only made true-crime books seem even more alluring. [...]
Mike Clawson here again… I’m sure many of you are familiar with those horrendous/disturbing/hilarious “Chick Tracts” – those, little cartoon tracts that express some of the most extreme Fundamentalist theology out there; e.g. Catholics aren’t really Christians and the Pope is the Anti-Christ, role-playing games are a recruiting tool for full blown witchcraft and Satan [...]
I Sold My Soul on eBay
Jim and Casper Go To Church
