Just ran into my first case of blatant discrimination. I was applying for a job helping resettle refugees in the United States. I was excited to apply since I'm quite qualified for the position and it's always been something I wanted to do. There was a mention that I had to be able to work with "colleagues, resettlement partners, volunteers and Churches in the local community" but in my experience this shouldn't be any sort of problem since many people in churches are doing some…

An issue of my webcomic guest starring a certain Muslim prophet, goes online in some 24 hours. Am I nervous? Fuck yeah.

True, our readership is currently small and I don't expect anyone will even notice, but I am tense nevertheless. I'm glad we stuck to our guns and didn't fall into the trap of fear-induced self-censorship that so many others do. Still, if anyone ever says that Islam is a religion of peace, call bullshit on them. I never lost a minute of sleep over an issue…

Here are the answers for the trivia I posted earlier, answers in bold.

Religious “crimes”

According to Mark 3:28-29 all sins can be forgiven except this.…

Recently I got together with the heathens of Seoul for Blasphemy Day and I brought along some trivia. Here are the questions. I will post the answers soon...

Religious “crimes”

According to Mark 3:28-29 all sins can be forgiven except this.…

For my upcoming atheist pilgrimage I've been thinking more and more about walking the camino instead of biking it. I don't have a singular reason for this, but it just seems more in the spirit of a pilgrimage if it is by foot. I think that walking the road will give me a greater relationship with the elements around me as opposed to the contraption I would be riding.

Of course changing my mode also requires other considerations. I was looking at doing the Arles route in southern…

This week the tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Paris are only $297 USD at the time of my pilgrimage so it's about time to make the jump and buy a ticket...(!) And, oh damn, it means spending a couple days in KL!

If this pilgrimage goes as planned, I'm looking at a couple days in Malaysia, a couple weeks in Italy, a quick peek at Vatican City to see what all the fuss is about, France, a half-way break in Andorra, Spain, and exit via the Netherlands. I'm going to be studying up up the…

This week's Freethinking News podcast:

Transcript:

Good evening and welcome to Freethinking News, September 11, 2011

I realize I’m getting this podcast out a little late and it might not actually still be September 11^th in your time zone, but it’s Korean Thanksgiving and I am a friend of the grape.

I know you’re probably sick of all the news…

What is this miraculous evidence of Jesus' love?

Jesus and his disciples were out walking around and became hungry, as you do. Jesus spied a fig tree and went up to it excited. But, when he found there was no fruit on the fig tree, Jesus got angry at it and put a curse on the fig tree causing it to wither away and then lectured to his disciples about the need for faith.

 …

A video response on the question of free will:

Check out the blog at …

"Buddhist doctrines about meditation, compassion, and well-being have begun to greatly enrich the scientific study of the human mind--but we have long needed a careful analysis of the philosophical merits of these ideas. In The Bodhisattva's Brain, Flanagan has delivered it in fine style. This is an unusually wise and useful book." --Sam…

This week's news in skepticism:

Good evening, and welcome to Freethinking News.

This is the night of Sunday, August 28^th, 2011.

In our top story, the Arab spring has reached a new level of success for freedom and democracy in the Middle East when the regions most violent and oppressive dictator, Allah, was captured in a bloodless coup. The disposed deity was tried at The Hague for crimes against humanity.…

My grandpa, I man I deeply respect, lies dying from colon cancer a million miles away from me. He is not expected to survive the night. My own father passed away unexpectedly roughly the same time last year and I never got to see him before he died. I feel so powerless, so impotent. It makes sense that people pray in situations like this.

I will not, of course, since I understand them to be more harmful than good and would go unanswered on the other side even if I did stoop…