The Sunday Assembly, commonly know as the atheist church, has arrived in Christchurch. Sunday Assembly Christchurch will formally launch on Sunday September 28th, 2014. Sunday Assembly is a church without god but it is not necessarily anti god. Sunday Assembly was founded in London in January 2013, and since then it has exploded across the world Read more
Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, once said, “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” It’s hard to honestly face criticism, but it’s the only way we can grow as human beings, since we are notoriously good at deceiving Read more
Tanksley has five tattoos, three of them with faith themes. A Greek Chi-Rho symbol can be found “hidden” on the inside of his left arm where the arm bends. The tattoo represents a time before Christianity was accepted and followers had to keep their faith a secret. Tanksley believes many still hesitate to express their Read more
“You believe in God? Jesus!” The irony was lost on my friend. The only funny thing he’d picked up on was that I could believe in God. I get it. As a leftie, organic pasta, and free-the-gay-whale type, people tend to think I’m atheist. At a stretch, I’m middle class enough to be a casual Buddhist Read more
In a recent interview in the New Zealand Herald, All Black, Keven Mealamu was asked how big a part faith played in his life. “It’s always with you,” he replied. “I’m Catholic. Go to church whenever I can. When we were on tour in Italy I stopped into a church with a couple of the other boys Read more
My 15 minutes of fame, courtesy of an article in the Washington Post featuring me as an atheist who prays to an invented God in order to facilitate my participation in a 12-step recovery program, provoked a little tempest in the teapot of atheist blog postings and commentary. My fellow atheists have suggested, not always politely, that Read more
I am an anti-theist. I just don’t believe in God. I am pleased there isn’t one. Nothing would irritate me more than a supernatural force knowing everything and hovering above directing all that happens in the world. It would be like suffering a metaphysical Kim Jong-il without the farce or humour. I like the organ Read more
Pope Francis has emphasised the “fundamental” importance of women in the Catholic Church, saying they have a privileged role because of their ability to pass on the faith through love. He said women have always had a special mission in the Church as “first witnesses” of Christ’s Resurrection, and because they pass the faith on Read more
Recently I viewed a YouTube video by Australian performance poetry artist, Joel McKerrow. “God Rid Me of God’ it was called. The poem explores the constraints we put on the nature of God; the shackles we use to confine God. Joel entreats that we stop shaping God in our own image: “God, rid me of Read more
Near the opening of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man(1916), James Joyce’s alter ego Stephen Dedalus opens the flyleaf of his geography textbook and examines what he has written there: Stephen Dedalus Class of Elements Clongowes Wood College Sallins County Kildare Ireland Europe The World The Universe Most of us will, no doubt, remember Read more