Paul Fidalgo, Author at OnlySky Media

Jesus Christ Sends a Message in a Cheesecake

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 27, 2013

Reading Time: < 1 minute A cheesecake comes out of the oven, it cools, and a crack on the top forms in the vague shape of a cross. Is it just an accident? Did someone just cut the shape into the cake? Or, as reporter Daniel Clark seems to ask without a trace of irony, “is this Jesus Christ coming back and showing support for this family’s religious beliefs?”

General

Atheism and the Need for 'Sacred Spaces' for Ritual: Are They in Conflict?

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 27, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes Suzanne Moore at The Guardian writes about the thought process that went into holding some kind of celebratory ceremony for the birth of her third child (congratulations, by the way!). In doing so, however, she found that her desire for some form of ritual to mark the event conflicted with her desire to be “a good atheist.”
Here’s how she explains the problem: She worries that “New Atheism,” whatever you believe that to be, “fixates on ethics, ignoring aesthetics at its peril,” and that “ultra-orthodox atheism has come to resemble a rigid and patriarchal faith itself.”

Education

Atheist Philanthropist Takes His Own Life, Gave Millions to Catholic Schools

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 27, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes This is a sad and frankly strange story. On Monday, Robert W. Wilson, a multimillionaire hedge fund mogul and philanthropist, jumped to his death from his high-rise apartment in New York, months after suffering a severe stroke, at age 86. The reason this story is here is because Wilson was an avowed atheist, but one whose […]

Uncategorized

Inventor of the World Wide Web Brings Atheist Response to BBC's 'Thought for the Day'

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 27, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes Apparently it’s not enough to have invented the World Wide Web, but Tim Berners-Lee also has to infect the airwaves of the United Kingdom with his godless propaganda.
For some time now, nonbelievers have been clamoring for representation on BBC radio’s “Thought for the Day” segment, which is always presented from a religious viewpoint. But in a stint as guest-editor for BBC 4’s Today, which hosts the segment, Berners-Lee was able to at least get an “alternative thought” for Boxing Day an hour earlier in the show, but notably, still wasn’t able to co-opt the “Thought for the Day” segment itself on behalf of atheism.

General

Woman Charged with Blasphemy in Revenge for Refusing Arranged Marriage

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 27, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes Atheist bloggers and antiestablishment protesters aren’t the only ones with blasphemy charges leveled against them. Sometimes the victims are the well-to-do. In February, for example, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Sherry Rehman, was charged with the crime of blasphemy for, get this, criticizing the blasphemy law on television in 2010. And today in Pakistan (again), we have the case of Eraj Sajjad.
According to The News International, Sajjad is the daughter of “a famous bureaucrat,” and had refused to take part in an arranged marriage. The would-be groom didn’t take kindly to the rejection, and filed blasphemy charges for allegedly “giving derogatory remarks on a very sensitive religious issue.”

Books, General

New Book Gazes Skeptically at the Star of Bethlehem

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 26, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Star of Bethlehem, as told in the Bible and other myths, did some impressive things that stars don’t normally do, moving in different directions, hovering in one spot, oh, and heralding the birth of the messiah. But what, if anything, was really going on?
Kimberly Winston of the Religion News Service recently interviewed Aaron Adair, the author of a new book on the subject, The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View, and they run through some of the theories, ruling many of them out. Comets and supernovae, for example, don’t fit the picture. But one idea that sticks out to me, and also to Winston, is that the “star” may have been something a little more mechanical in nature

Politics

John Hagee: Atheists Can Leave the Country if They Don't Like Christmas Displays

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 26, 2013

Reading Time: < 1 minute John Hagee, he who says Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to warn us about the dangers of The Gay, he who thinks the Holocaust had some theological merit for nudging those stubborn Jews toward accepting Jesus, would like us all to leave.
Hagee, in this video, begins with the straw man of the atheist who is horrified at being told “Merry Christmas,” gives the usual blather about the U.S. being founded as a Christian nation (it wasn’t), and then suggests that if we don’t like religious displays on government property, we can just leave the country.

Uncategorized

Nasty Church Volunteers Almost Ruin a Family's Christmas, But Atheists Save the Day

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 26, 2013

Reading Time: 3 minutes What an odd flare-up! In Chickasha, Oklahoma, Tiffany Wait and her husband brought their 7-month-old baby to the Bible Baptist Church’s toy shop for Christmas presents that the church gives away for families in need. But things got weird and nasty.
According to the Chickasha News, the church volunteers insisted that Wait hand her baby over, but I can’t make out why. To receive the gift? To be blessed or something? Just to cuddle? I don’t know.

Wait said her baby doesn’t like strangers and she’d prefer to be with him. She said the volunteer said it has to be done this way, or the family wouldn’t be able to participate.
“I stood there, fighting back tears and asked, ‘You would turn a baby away on Christmas,'” said Wait.
The volunteers held their ground, according to Wait and one woman tried to forcibly take her child.

Comedy, General

Eat This McNugget, For It Is My Body

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 26, 2013

Reading Time: < 1 minute A McDonald’s in Missouri has a message for the Savior of Man:

General

Atheist Says Challenging Religion is 'Cruel,' Nonbelief is for the Wealthy

by Paul Fidalgo Dec 26, 2013

Reading Time: 3 minutes Chris Arnade has a PhD in physics, used to work on Wall Street, and now works with the homeless. He is an atheist, but just about none of the people in trouble that he works with are, calling them, “some of the strongest believers I have met, steeped in a combination of Bible, superstition, and folklore.” In a piece he wrote for The Guardian, he seems to be saying that this is more or less how it should be. And why? Because it is this religion and superstition that they find hope.
In doing so, he unfortunately invents a heartless atheist straw man…

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