149
TL;DR: Those regions are poor areas considered as priority for public help by the French government to reduce inequalities. It has nothing to do with Islamic law or police patrols.
I'm a French citizen.
So what are the ZUS (Zone Urbaine Sensible)?
They are sensitive urban areas where the French government wants the local politics to put in effort. Those ...
138
Let's break the original claim down into several constituent components.
Islamic prayers have now been introduced into Toronto and other public schools in Ontario.
Toronto Sun, CBC News, and others have reported that some Ontario schools provide prayer space for devout Muslim children. The original claim is therefore true, although misleading. Muslim ...
100
Summary: The graphic is based on an article from the Council for Secular Humanism which is almost entirely incorrect
It seems to be the case that the infographic is based on the report "How Secular Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States"., by the Council for Secular Humanism. The figures seem to agree, so it's reasonable to ...
83
There was no poll. This was intended to be satirical, but appears to have missed its mark in many places.
It was originally posted on a Facebook page for the The Atheist Advocate.
In response to complaints, the poster writes:
The original meme is a caricature, based on the fact that many conservative Christians think about homosexuals in a negative way. ...
71
This is a situation in which inadequate understanding of terminology causes confusion.
In the referenced text, the Jews are called Adam, and the Gentiles are not called Adam. The Gentiles are the non-Jews. Adam literally translates to "Man" (hence its appearance in DevSolar's answer).
So the people who claim that it supports considering the non-Jews to be ...
54
No, Easter is derived from Eōstre, who was a Germanic divinity, a goddess of the dawn. The word is related to other dawn goddesses, but not to Ishtar, who is goddess of fertility and war. This is backed up by The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, 1971, Vol. 1, pg. 827:
Besides the lions on her gate, her symbol is an eight-pointed star. ...
53
No
House Bill 164 or the "Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019" has been passed by the House and awaits on a vote by the Senate.
It covers several areas guaranteeing the freedom of religious expression. The part closest to the claim is Section 3320.03:
No school district board of education...shall prohibit a student from engaging in religious ...
45
The question asks:
Can Mormons really distinguish other Mormons from non-Mormons based on skin texture?
That is a reasonable question given the quoted Digital Universe article says:
A study done by psychology professor Nicholas Rule, of Toronto University, shows that Mormons and non-Mormons alike can identify Mormons based on no more than their skin ...
44
Dr Kerzin (who reportedly made the claim) might have been misunderstood by the reporter and/or the editor of the article.
It might be truer to say that he is dead and meditating (for some suitably vague definition of "him", given that the self is difficult to define and that Tibetan Buddhists believe in a continuing existence after death and ...
43
Is Idaho forcing pastors to conduct same-sex weddings or face penalties?
Yes and no:
Yes:
It's a real (albeit recent) story
There is a lawsuit, and it is in Idaho
The people involved are "ordained Christian ministers"
No:
It's a city (Coeur D'Alene) ordinance, not the state's (Idaho)
That the city "would" enforce the bylaw is the opinion of the Deputy ...
40
Yes.
In 2016, there were 3 members of the Bundestag who officially stated that they are Muslim. However, a number of people did not give their religion.
The German newspaper Die Welt says that there are 6 Muslims: Ekin Deligöz, Omid Nouripour, Cem Özdemir, Özcan Mutlu, Aydan Özoguz, and Cemile Giousouf.
5 of them are in parties that primarily voted for ...
39
The Ohio House passed Bill 164 which says:
No school district board of education,
governing authority of a community school established under
Chapter 3314. of the Revised Code, governing body of a STEM
school established under Chapter 3326. of the Revised Code, or
board of trustees of a college-preparatory boarding school
established under ...
38
The mayor's 4th order of 30 April 2020 said, in part:
Religious gatherings, including but not limited to, weddings, funerals, memorial services, and wakes, of ten (10) persons inside or ten (10) percent of building occupancy (whichever number is greater) and fifty (50) people outside may resume, provided social distancing is maintained and event ...
30
Horus says yes -- he's a sky god
Osiris says no -- July 14
Attis -- I haven't found a birthday; he wasn't a god; http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/attis.html alleges that similarities between Christianity and the cult of Attis were due to the latter imitating the former, not the other way around.
Krishna says no - 18 July 3228 BCE
Zoroaster says no -- 6 days ...
30
Maimonidies (12th Century) puts it at 29.530594. His source is the Talmud (Bavli RH 25a) (~7th century quoting a rabbi from the 2nd century).
(For the curious the precise number given is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793/1080 of an hour.)
However, lunar cycles can be calculated pretty accurately even in ancient times by counting between total solar eclipses. ...
30
So, the JewishHistory.org website touts the hygiene of the ghettos in this way:
The sanitary conditions in the Jewish neighborhood, primitive as it
may be by today’s standards, was [sic] always far superior to the general
sanitary conditions.
However, when I started digging into the citations given by Anna Foa for her claim, I soon bumped into this:
...
28
There are two relevant differences between the "Top Conservative News" summary and the actual report from Swedish Radio, to which they are linking:
The Swedish Radio report does not mention the ethnicity of the perpetrator. Since the report refers to the number of police reports and not actual convictions, the perpetrator is likely to be unknown in several ...
28
It depends.
The author did publish a peer-reviewed article in 2009 discussing the issue, with sources. I've verified most of the sources and they seem to be reliable and reputable.
Criminality and Moral Conduct
In many people’s minds – and as expressed so clearly in Psalm 14 cited at the outset of
this essay – atheism is equated with lawlessness ...
27
A Google image search suggests it comes from Villa Next Door: Graduation Show 2017; Royal Academy of Art, The Hague and is part of the portfolio created by an artist, Jaimy Gail.
Since it is described as a graduation show for an academy, it was presumably produced as part of a course at the academy.
Due to the attention the picture has been getting, the ...
26
The author published a peer-review article with sources:
Atheism, Secularity, and Well-Being: How the Findings of Social Science Counter Negative Stereotypes and Assumptions, Phil Zuckerman, Sociology Compass 3/6 (2009): 949–971, 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00247.x
But more significantly, when we actually compare the values and beliefs of atheists and secular ...
26
The key word here seems to be "in essence", ie it does not literally say that.
Gohmert is probably referencing this report, which points out (see also here) that "religious liberty" is often used as a code word:
Chairman Castro stated that, “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they ...
26
From the link posted by @SVilcans:
Fewer than 300 churches had been demolished between 1905 and 2014, the Catholic newspaper La Croix reported, out of more than 42,000 in total.
From the La Croix article, translated via Google:
According to Benoît de Sagazan, author of Patrimoine en blog, 28 churches have been demolished since 2000 - mostly in former ...
25
No; during the life of Muhammad, there was no single text, as it was more about understanding the message than how it was told:
This page cites hadiths that mention seven different ways of teaching:
The Seven Ahruf (modes of recitation) are part of Islamic doctrine and
a Muslim MUST ACCEPT IT...
Saheeh Bukhari
Volume 6, Book 61, Number 513: ...
25
The Top Conservative News web-site provides a reference from an article from Swedish Public Rado.
Using my rather rusty Swedish, confirmed by Google Translate, the original source makes NO mention of the religion of the perpetrators. The anti-Muslim slur has been added by Top Conservative News.
It says there were 300 reports of rapes of girls under 15 in ...
24
TL;DR: Yes, there is damning evidence that the relationship between the Catholic Church and the abuse of children has been systemic.
According to a recent report by the UN (CRC/C/VAT/CO/2), as reported by CBC:
The Vatican "systematically" adopted policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, a UN human ...
23
To repeat Oddthinking's answer, that is a simple NO. The mustard seed is far from the smallest. That distinction belongs to the Orchid. With over 26,000 species, many having seeds no larger than grains of dust from 0.4mm to 0.2mm in size. This document (PDF) actually gives a pretty full accounting of Orchid seeds.
23
Actually the most distinctive papal headgear, the one that popes used to be drawn wearing in political cartoons to distinguish them from ordinary bishops, is what is called the papal tiara, a tall conical shape with three crowns around it, one above the other. Of course the popes have rarely wore the papal tiara in the last fifty years or so, so younger ...
22
No, it's not true
As reported here, the new hospital does have a prayer room with washing facilities, but the prayer room isn't "exclusive" to Muslims. It merely accommodates Muslims, who wash as part of their five-times-daily prayers. Those involved in the design say that if Christians or others had a similar requirement, they would be ...
21
The Library of Alexandria was destroyed/heavily damaged at least four times.
48 BC: Julius Caesar accidentally burns the library when he sets fire to his ships and the fire spreads from the docks. (Plutarch, Life of Caesar)
272 AD (roughly): Several areas of Alexandria (including the Library) are damaged when Emperor Aurelian suppresses Queen Zenobia's ...
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