Paul Fidalgo, Author at OnlySky Media

March for Marriage and the Presbyterians: Contrasting Religious Responses to Same-Sex Marriage

by Paul Fidalgo

Jun 21, 2014

Reading Time: 3 minutes Here’s two diametrically opposed religious responses to the growing consensus in favor of same-sex marriage rights.
On the one more predictable side, we have last week’s March for Marriage at the Capitol. Rick Santorum was there, of course, because what else does he have to do? Heather Adams at Religion News Service reports:

Faced with a string of losses in the court and a rapid shift in public opinion in favor of gay marriage, planners of Thursday’s rally aimed to show lawmakers — and especially courts — that they will not give up without a fight.

General

UK Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband: 'I Don't Believe in God'

by Paul Fidalgo

Apr 14, 2014Dec 29, 2022

Reading Time: 2 minutes The UK’s Labour Party is out of power right now, and if it weren’t, perhaps its leader wouldn’t be able to say what he’s just said. Ed Miliband (right), Labour’s leader and would-be British Prime Minister if things go his party’s way, has admitted to being an atheist.
Talking to the Daily Mail, Miliband said:

I have a particular faith. I describe myself as a Jewish atheist. I’m Jewish by birth origin and it’s a part of who I am… I don’t believe in God, but I think faith is a really, really important thing to a lot of people. It provides nourishment for lots of people.

When Fred Phelps Dies, Let's Do Nothing

by Paul Fidalgo

Mar 17, 2014

Reading Time: 3 minutes Apparently there is talk of some turnabout-is-fair-play picketing of Fred Phelps’ funeral when he finally dies. I think that’s a pretty ridiculous idea on its face. What would be the point? “That’ll show ‘em?” He’ll be dead, guys. And if he was looking down (or up) on the whole proceeding, can you imagine anything that would please him more than to see a throng of angry protestors at his funeral?

There’s another idea being floated that, yes, the funeral should be picketed, but “with love,” with a healing kind of demonstration in which Phelps would even be forgiven.
Look, doing any kind of pro-love and pro-forgiveness demonstration is well-intended, unlike the first option, which is just spite and emulating the very thing you’d be protesting. I get it; I applaud the motivation and the capacity for forgiveness, but in my opinion it’s still misguided.
Let’s take a step back.

General

Religious Exemption from Healthcare Law Overwhelmingly Passes the House… and That's Bad

by Paul Fidalgo

Mar 12, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes Yesterday, the U.S. House voted overwhelmingly in favor of H.R. 1814 (the “Equitable Access to Care and Health Act”), a truly nefarious bill that would not allow anyone claiming a religious justification to entirely opt out of compliance with the Affordable Care Act. Whatever you think of “Obamacare,” you have to have your hackles raised by the idea that someone can entirely avoid obeying the law of the land simply by claiming it’s against some tenet of his particular religion.
As anti-“faith healing” activist Rita Swan warns us, this bill is not just popular among your standard conservative religionists, but particularly among Christian Scientists and other medicine-eschewing faiths who want carte blanche to remove themselves — and thereby their children — from science-based medicine and treatment.
And of course that affects everyone. If more and more people leave the insurance system, they put more of a burden on the health care system as a whole when they face emergencies or seek care without the safety net of insurance, making all of our costs go up.

General

Anecdotes of a Church Being Changed (Maybe) by Pope Francis

by Paul Fidalgo

Mar 12, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes An atheist friend of mine is married into a Catholic family, and he attends church with said family every Sunday, being a good sport and a general glutton for punishment.
This friend — in fact, let’s call him “GFP” for “glutton for punishment” — noticed a change of tone lately at the church his family attends, and he wondered if the let’s-all-be-nice public persona of Pope Francis (or, as I call him at The Morning Heresy, Pope Fluffy) is trickling down and beginning to genuinely change things in the Catholic Church as a whole.
Now, I realize this is all a highly-localized anecdote from one guy, but I thought it was interesting enough to share.

General

President Obama, at Prayer Breakfast, Defends Rights of Those with 'No Faith At All'

by Paul Fidalgo

Feb 06, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes Let us take it as a given that the President of the United States’ participation in the National Prayer Breakfast his highly problematic to say the least. When we make a tradition of the elected chief executive publicly kissing the ring of sectarian religion, it turns it into a quasi-official event, flying in the face of basic secularism and the Constitution. It’s a bad thing.
All that said (and said with fervency), via RNS’s Brian Pellot, we learn that at said breakfast, President Obama had a positive message that we secularists wholeheartedly embrace: the need for people of all religions and of no religion to believe and express themselves as they will, without threat of retaliation, discrimination, or criminalization.

And, importantly, it was said before a conservative religious audience. The president said:

General

The Nye-Ham Debate Was a Net Win for Science

by Paul Fidalgo

Feb 05, 2014

Reading Time: 3 minutes I think the Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate (liveblogged by me and Hemant) turned out to be a net-win for science and reason. I know that many of us in the skepto-atheosphere disagree; that the debate put reality on the same plane as nonsense, or thought that Nye wasn’t up to the task of fully enlightening Ham or his audience. I understand and respect those criticisms, but I think they overlook what Nye really did accomplish.

Education, Science

Glenn Beck Attacks Bill Nye for Being Like Galileo's Persecutors

by Paul Fidalgo

Jan 22, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes
This is almost beautiful in its absolute absurdity.
Glenn Beck, apparently from his underground bunker, used his web show to attack supporters of Common Core educational standards, specifically Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and, yes, even Bill Nye, who he compares to “the people” who persecuted Galileo. I can’t seem to remember who those bad people were, though.
Anyway.

General

President Obama Includes 'Atheists and Agnostics' as Part of America's 'Cultural Fabric'

by Paul Fidalgo

Jan 16, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes After President Obama gave a shout-out to “nonbelievers” in his first inaugural address in 2009, atheists have felt a little bit out in the cold with our president. His record on ending discrimination in hiring within faith-based initiatives has been disappointing to nonexistent. His participation in the National Prayer Breakfast events has been galling and […]

General, Politics

Secular Wedding Celebrants May Soon Become a Reality in New Jersey

by Paul Fidalgo

Jan 09, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes While Chris Christie attempts to fire and flail his way out of his bridge scandal, something actually pretty encouraging is happening under the radar in New Jersey. The Garden State may soon allow secular civil celebrants to officiate marriages. The New Jersey State Senate voted 32-5 in a favor of that bill today.
In March of 2012, a bill was introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula that adds to the list of those already authorized to solemnize marriages in New Jersey this amendment:

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