John Hamilton of the Texas Rangers was in the Home Run Derby tonight. He needed 8 home runs in round one to advance to the next round.

He cranked out 28.

In the first round.

13 in a row at one point.

(The previous record was Bobby Abreu‘s 24 first round homers in 2005.)

At the end of that first round, Lance Berkman and Justin Morneau were tied for second place. With 8 home runs each.

Hamilton has a history of drug use — heroin and cocaine — which he has since stopped doing.

He’s also a Christian:

… on this particular night, a little boy of about 9 or 10, wearing a Reds cap, handed me a pen and something to sign. Nothing unusual there, but as I was writing the boy said, “Josh, you’re my savior.”

This stopped me. I looked at him and said, “Well, thank you. Do you know who my savior is?”

He thought for a minute. I could see the gears turning. Finally, he smiled and blurted out, “Jesus Christ.” He said it like he’d just come up with the answer to a test. “That’s exactly right,” I said.

So when Hamilton was ripping off home runs tonight, ESPN announcers were talking about his past. They mentioned how he was a crack addict and how he “found God” and turned his life around.

When Hamilton was being interviewed after his performance, he thanked God for helping him turn his life around.

At one point, announcer Rick Reilly said this:

“It’s a lousy night to be an atheist.”

Is that offensive? For me, not really. Reilly was referencing Hamilton’s faith and needed something that was the opposite of Christianity to make the phrase work. He wasn’t critiquing or criticizing atheism or purposely trying to malign atheists.

But a lot of people are starting to talk about this comment… and making a bigger deal of it than I think the phrase deserves.

Then again… if an openly atheist player had the same first round success and a commenter said, “It’s a lousy night to be a Christian,” Bill Donohue and James Dobson would be calling for his head.

Your thoughts?

By the way, since scores are reset after the first two rounds, Hamilton made it to the final round but ended up losing to Morneau.

(via Deadspin)


[tags]atheism, Home Run Derby[/tags]

Reason #8723423 to be an atheist.

When a Mormon creates a calendar featuring scantily clad male models (called “Men on a Mission”), he has to deal with a “disciplinary hearing and possible excommunication because of the project.”

A takeoff on calendars of firefighters and returned U.S. servicemen, Hardy’s project debuted with a 2008 calendar featuring 12 returned church missionaries in mostly modest poses, minus their trademark white shirts, ties and black plastic name badges. It has sold nearly 10,000 copies.

“You see more in a JCPenney catalog,” said Hardy, 31, who once worked for Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller and now has his own entertainment company. “I just feel like my right to free speech is being violated.”

The calendar was designed to shake up Mormon stereotypes, Hardy said. The pages include photos of the men dressed in standard missionary garb. In biographical sketches each missionary talks about his beliefs.

Yet, when atheists put out the Skepchick and Skepdude calendars, there is no real backlash at all. (In fact, you should go buy them now if you haven’t already.) No one’s telling you what to do or not to do. We trust you to make your own decisions and live life as you please.

(via Skepchick)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

Biblical scholar Robert Price will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana in a few weeks to talk about his new book Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today’s Pop Mysticisms.

All the details of the event can be found here. If you’re in the area, go check it out; this is an event well worth attending!


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

The Washington Post‘s Style Invitational column has a contest this week that some of you may want to enter:

Coin a religion or belief system and tell us its basic tenet or distinguishing characteristic.

They mention George Carlin‘s “Frisbeetarianism” (the belief that when you die, your soul is flung onto a roof and just stays there) as an example.

I’m sure Pastafarianism would apply as well.

Winners get fun swag, too!

Winner gets the Inker, the official Style Invitational trophy. Second place receives “Brides Behaving Badly,” a collection of wedding photos from what must have been the alumnae of the Tonya Harding School of Elegant Deportment and Apparel.

Other runners-up win their choice of a coveted Style Invitational Loser T-shirt or yearned-for Loser Mug. Honorable Mentions get one of the lusted-after Style Invitational Magnets.

The info on where to submit entries is here. You have until next Monday. Get to work!

This site’s readers better represent…

(Thanks to Diane for the link!)

A pastor was arrested for his handling of snakes.

*snicker*

More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting after Thursday’s arrests, said Col. Bob Milligan, director of law enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.

Why so many snakes?

Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed…

The verse in question is Mark 16:18:

[The saved and baptized] will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

You remember that Stephen Colbert line about George W. Bush? “He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man’s beliefs never will.”

Yeah… sadly, even the death of one of Pastor Coots’ parishioners in 1995 — in his church at the hands (mouth?) of a snake — didn’t convince him to stop doing the snake services. It didn’t stop her husband from attending them, either — he died three years later at a different church after (wait for it…) being bitten by a snake.

Zoo director Jim Harrison had the money quotation:

“… A venomous snake isn’t a pet. You don’t play with it. If you do, you’re an idiot.”

Robert Paul Reyes of NewsBlaze amused me with this thought:

I wonder if any parishioner has ever exclaimed: I am M***** F******* tired of all these M***** F***** snakes in this church!

(Thanks to Jason for the link!)


[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian[/tags]

Rudis Muiznieks offers his own take on Wafergate:

(via Cectic)


[tags]atheist, atheism, Catholic, communion, wafer, transubstantiation[/tags]

What an *amazing* coincidence.

Just days after Wafergate, someone on Yahoo asks this question:

I took a communion wafer home with me after mass this morning…
Nobody noticed and I didn’t get any phone calls all day. I figured somebody would notice that it didn’t get eaten but no one has. I’m starting to feel guilty about it. Should I return it to the church or throw it away?

So far, there are a lot of Catholics responding…

yes, Please return it to the Church as it is Jesus—The Lord. Do not take Communion again until you go to Confession as you are bringing judgment down on yourself. Are you even Roman Catholic?

…

if you are not catholic return it to the church, there will be no repercussions, if you know a catholic as a friend confide in he or she and tell them you did wrong, ask them to take to the priest, i am glad you are sorry and i am sure you will be forgiven . god bless

…

You need to return it to the church. Please dont throw it away or consume it

Not trying to open a can of worms here… but I think the page could use a few alternative points of view.

I mean, it is just a cracker, right…?

Personally, I don’t care what he does with it. (I assume the whole question is just a joke, anyway, and he doesn’t actually have a communion wafer.)

I still think it would be a mistake — and would accomplish nothing — to insult the Catholics currently responding to the question or to offer a response to the question that involves rubbing our rational beliefs in their faces (i.e. flush the wafer down the toilet, run over the wafer with a car, etc).

Would it be funny? To you, maybe.

Would it help the Catholics understand that their beliefs about the wafer are illogical? Nope. They’d just latch on to the beliefs even more strongly than before.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]