What if all atheists left America?

Based on some of the satements/claims made in the video above, one might conclude that atheists are better people than those who believe in God. Which raises the following questions: Is this true? If so, why is this the case? If religion preaches everything that is good and moral, why do more people with religions commit crimes, for one?

No trousers for women in Sudan?

Lubna Ahmed Hussein is being charged for wearing ‘indecent’ clothing – in the form of a pair of trousers. If sound guilty, she could face 40 strokes of the cane under Sudanese law.

Of course, it’s common knowledge that wearing trousers is far from being deemed crimminal acts in other countries.

Which raises the question: what makes a crime a crime? Given that crime is subjective, how should states determine what constitutes a crime?

It’s only criminal if it’s against your religion.

Beer-drinking Singaporean model faces caning in Malaysia

Malaysia, which has large Indian and Chinese minorities freely enjoying alcohol, has a two-track legal system. Civil courts operate alongside state-based sharia courts, which can try Muslims for religious offences.

- Channel News Asia

On Harry Potter and Christianity

In 2003, then pope-elect, Cardinal Ratzinger, spoke out against Harry Potter, on the grounds of it “deeply distort[ing] Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly”.

In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Cardinal Ratzinger thanked Kuby for her “instructive” book Harry Potter – gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy. 

“It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly,” wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.

-LifeSiteNews.com

But it seems as though perceptions may be changing, with multiple Christain publications acknowledging that the books may, in fact, be promoting Christian themes.

“As ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ opens, we are once again reminded of the characteristics that make him something of a Christ figure,” Connie Neal writes for the evangelical Christianity Today.

“It is more likely that at the end of the viewing or reading, rather than the allure of magic … what remains are the scenes that evoke values such as friendship, altruism, loyalty, and the gift of self,” wrote L’Osservatore, the Vatican‘s semi-official newspaper.

-The Washington Post

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In the final book of the series, Harry reads two verses from the New Testament: The first (from I Corinthians 15) on his parents’ tombstone that says, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”; a second (from Matthew 6) on another tombstone that reads, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

“Those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric’s Hollow, they sum up — they almost epitomize the whole series,” author and Christian J.K. Rowling told MTV in 2007.

-The Washington Post

Question:

“Works of fiction may be powerful forces that influence our beliefs.” To what extent to you agree with this statement?

Ban the Burqa

“If you wanted a piece of candy, would you choose an unwrapped piece or one that came in a wrapper?” she asked.

“I am not candy,” I answered. “Women are not candy.”

- Ban the Burqa, by Mona Eltahawy

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Ban the Burqa

I am a Muslim, I am a feminist and I detest the full-body veil, known as a niqab or burqa. It erases women from society and has nothing to do with Islam but everything to do with the hatred for women at the heart of the extremist ideology that preaches it.

- Mona Eltahawy

[See here for full article]

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Question:

What do you think the author was hoping to achieve by writing this article? Do you think she succeeded?

TV gameshow offers atheists ‘salvation’

(CNN) — A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the “biggest prize ever” — the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world’s major religions.

The show, called “Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor,” or “Penitents Compete,” features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religion, according to CNN Turk.

[see full article here]

Well this certainly adds another dimension to the world of reality TV.

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Another source reporting this story states that “the programme’s makers [...] want to promote religious belief while educating Turkey’s overwhelmingly Muslim population about other faiths.”

Question: Do you think this is a good/effective means of educating the public? Why?