No Homosexuals in Iran?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently appeared in front of students at Colombia University and claimed that Iran does not have gays like we do in our country. A statement that controversial and said with such bigotry should certainly be on the minds of many left wingers, right? Wrong. According to this Wall Street Journal opinion piece, the crickets are chirping on this one. So while they can stand up and blast American presidents for their tough views on homosexuality, a man who wholly denies their very existence in his country escapes without a single left wing criticism? Seems very bizarre to me...

Atheist Convention Draws Crowd

An Atheist convention in Virgina drew a good sized crowd and a good amount of attention with its gathering of unbelievers. Many of the attendees say the reason for their rise in number as well as their willingness to divulge their non-belief has come from a rise in religious fanaticism. It's not hard to see why. With the "War on Terrorism" turning into the "War on Islam" it is easy to see how many people have become increasingly disenchanted with religion.

Pete Stark (D-CA) "Comes Out"

Rep. Pete Stark has come out with a shocking confession: he's an atheist. The lawmaker is the first member of Congress to publicly announce their atheism. While this has made him the target of several attacks, I think it's important to realize one thing. No matter what faith (or non-faith) you choose to practice (or not practice) the most important thing to remember is that respecting someone else's right to believe what they want to believe is the only thing that earns you their respecting of your right to believe what you want to believe. That poorly structured sentence basically is saying if you don't respect my right to make my own decisions, I won't respect yours. Pete's beliefs should have nothing to do with his duties as a member of Congress and therefore should be a non-issue in the minds of his constituents and his peers. Yeah, right...

Christian Leaders Threaten to Abandon GOP

Christian leaders, such as James Dobson, have threatened to withdraw their support, and their votes, from the Republican Party if Rudy Giuliani wins the nomination. Giuliani's pro-choice values clash with those of Christian leaders and so they have delivered an ultimatum; nominate a candidate that holds their conservative Christian values or lose a significant chunk of their votes. Personally I think this is somewhat a moot point. Christian hardliners are the only ones who vote in the GOP primaries so they really shouldn't have too much to worry about. If Giuliani makes it through the primaries and earns the party nomination they've got no one to blame but themselves. It's really a rather dumb strategy anyways since a hardliner Republican will have almost zero chance to win the Presidency against even a semi-competent Democratic candidate. You may as well go for a more middle of the road candidate like Giuliani and get at least some of the values you care about. Some is better than none.

UK Says Creationism Is Not Science

In the United Kingdom Creationism, the belief that the universe was created by a deity in its current form, has been rejected from classroom curriculum. According to The Guardian, the UK has plainly stated that Creationism will not be taught alongside Evolution in science classrooms. Personally I'm not one to care about how or why we got here, but I think it's a shame that Creationism doesn't even have a day of discussion and debate in the classroom. I think students are more than capable for analyzing evidence and their own beliefs and coming up with their own decision about our origins. Denying students an unbiased view on these ideas just makes room for the zealots to corrupt the information and unexposed minds.

Young Evangelicals Straying from GOP?

An article released a few days ago by the Pew Research Center suggests that young white evangelicals may stray away from the GOP in the upcoming elections due to an increasing disenchantment with President George W. Bush. In my opinion, while some minds may be changed, I have a hard time believing that evangelicals will seek their conservative values from a non-GOP candidate. President Bush's approval ratings have been in the tank for a long time and it didn't stop him from getting reelected so I don't see why any GOP candidate should have reason to worry about losing a significant chunk of the young evangelical vote.