Sunday, June 30, 2019

How the church of the flying spaghetti monster was born ARTICLE

"There are two contrasting explanations for how Pastafarianism (officially known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) came into being. The first is that an invisible monster, comprising a tangle of spaghetti flanked by two meatballs, created the universe after a bout of heavy drinking. For hundreds of years, his followers – pirates, mainly – worshipped in secret. Only recently has it become better known.

The second explanation is that Bobby Henderson, a young physics graduate from Oregon State University, wrote to the Kansas Board of Education in 2005 to protest against a proposal to teach “intelligent design” alongside evolution in secondary schools. The arguments supporting a scientific basis for intelligent design, he wrote, apply just as well to a universe created by a flying spaghetti monster."

Read more
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/18/pasta-strainers-and-pirates-how-the-church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster-was-born

Supreme Court: Pharmacies Cannot Cite Religion To Deny Medication ARTICLE

 JUNE 29, 2016 BY MICHAEL STONE

In a victory for secular Americans the Supreme Court rules pharmacies cannot cite religious objections to deny patients emergency contraceptives.

Earlier this week the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Washington state pharmacists who said they have religious objections to dispensing Plan B or other emergency contraceptives.

By refusing to hear the case, the Supreme Court affirms a ruling issued last year by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. At that time the appeals court ruled that a Washington state mandate for pharmacies to sell all prescription drugs does not discriminate against religious believers.

Read more
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/06/supreme-court-pharmacies-cannot-cite-religion-to-deny-medication/

Supreme Court surprises again on abortion ruling ARTICLE

Justices won’t revive Alabama ban on abortion procedure

By MARK SHERMAN and KIM CHANDLER
June 28, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t revive Alabama’s attempt to ban the most commonly used procedure in second-trimester abortions after the measure was blocked by lower courts.

The justices on Friday rejected the state’s appeal and declined to review a lower court ruling that blocked the law. The 2016 Alabama law sought to ban the abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation, a procedure Alabama referred to in court filings as “dismemberment abortion.”

Lower courts have blocked similar laws in Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, but this was the first case to go before the Supreme Court, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the Alabama law.

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https://apnews.com/59b5654dcad74b54bbd4c5f77938685d

Atheist posts religious stuff

News and opinions

Liberal political memes

Friday, June 28, 2019

G20: 'Get rid of them,' Trump says of journalists. Putin: I too suffer 'problem' of 'fake news' in Russia. They chuckle.

Boing Boing

Today is the one year anniversary of the 2018 Capitol Gazette mass shooting, in which a gunman shot and killed 5 people, and injured more.

At the G20 summit today on the other side of the world, illegitimate United States president Donald Trump shared a chuckle with his boss, Russian president Vladimir Putin, over their shared wish to “get rid of” of journalists.

Trump expressed mocking disdain for “fake news,” and mockingly dismissed the seriousness of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Read more...
https://boingboing.net/2019/06/28/g20-get-rid-of-them-trum.html

Still posting religious stuff