AR News - Mar 17, 2018 - Lawmaker vs. Hawking, Egypt Against Atheists

Allie and Armin discuss the latest news on religion in the past week.

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A Texas State Representative took to Twitter to gloat in the “fact” that Stephen Hawking was meeting his creator. Even with a lot of backlash from the community, the rep made a statement that God exists, and he’d be praying for the Hawking family.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the Israeli Army posted a video encouraging equal gender military enrolment. A religious group took offense to this, demanded it be removed, and it was. The complaint was that women can’t be soldiers as they are weak and it encourages them to not care for babies.

A Bangladeshi sci-fi writer was stabbed in the back, and his accuser claims it was because his work was an “enemy of Islam”. He is recovering in a Hospital in Dhaka.

A U.S. drone strike killed 21 people in Afghanistan, among them, was the son of Mullah Fazlullah, the chief of the Pakistan Taliban. A Taliban spokesman has said they will be attacking soon in retaliation.

Richard Dawkins, being the scientist that he is, asked if we could “overcome our taboo views” and eat human meat if it was lab grown. Peter Hess, from Inverse, added some strange criticism, implying that atheists were more likely to become serial killers.

Iran is threatening journalists with arrest for working with the BBC, accusing them of “conspiracy against national security” and threatening their family members still living in Iran. The BBC has appealed to the UN to stop Iran from continuing their harassment.

The Scientology Network made its debut. Their website has a detailed list of programs which includes shows such as “Meet a Scientologist”.

A girl was found outside of a church holding her eyeballs in her hands last month. She thought God told her to do it as a sacrifice and says life is more beautiful now.

A Florida teen stabbed three people at a sleepover after reading the Quran to gain the courage to carry out the violent act. He told police he was mocked for being a Muslim, one person was fatally stabbed.

Egypt has banned atheism as a means to combat it. A Pew Research survey showed that many Egyptians hold extremely violent views towards atheists and “sinners”.