138
votes
Accepted
Have Islamic prayers been introduced into Ontario public schools while Christian ones have been removed?
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 ...
- 10.8k
90
votes
Accepted
Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
Are the mathematical constants e and pi encoded into the Bible?
Based on the provided evidence,
NO.
Disclaimer of bias: I consider myself a Christian who believes that the Bible is divinely inspired. ...
- 766
84
votes
Accepted
Did a survey of conservative Christians show 85% would disown their child if they turned out to be homo sapiens?
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 ...
- 141k
71
votes
Accepted
Does the Talmud say, "The Jews are called human beings, but the non-Jews are not humans. They are beasts."?
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-...
- 2,140
53
votes
Accepted
Did Ohio pass a law granting students the right to give scientifically wrong answers consistent with their religious beliefs?
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 ...
- 6,817
52
votes
Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
I've not seen anything directly addressing Vasta's claim. But this feels rather like a case of the well known phenomenon Apophenia - which is the human tendency to attribute significance to otherwise ...
- 1,624
44
votes
Accepted
Can Mormons distinguish Mormons by the texture of their skin?
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 ...
- 141k
41
votes
Accepted
Did all of Germany's Muslim MPs vote in favor of same-sex marriage?
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 ...
tim♦
- 51.9k
39
votes
Did Ohio pass a law granting students the right to give scientifically wrong answers consistent with their religious beliefs?
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 ...
- 106k
38
votes
Accepted
Must churchgoers be registered with the government in Kansas City?
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) ...
- 106k
29
votes
Accepted
Did fewer Jews die of the Black Plague because of ritual washing?
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 ...
- 44.9k
28
votes
Does the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights consider Christians a hate group "threat"?
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 ...
tim♦
- 51.9k
28
votes
Accepted
Muslim couple provocatively pictured on beach — true holiday photo or fake (i.e. staged/set up)?
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 ...
- 3,044
26
votes
Accepted
Is this an old church being destroyed in France?
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 ...
- 19k
24
votes
Is the pope's headgear adopted directly from a Mesopotamian hat, symbol of worshipping Dagon, as seen in his fish mouth looking mitre?
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 ...
- 599
23
votes
Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
Let's judge this discovery by the standards of scientific research, and note two major flaws with Vasta's thesis:
He has not provided statistical analysis that supports the hypothesis that this ...
- 4,636
22
votes
Accepted
Will the new Royal Adelaide Hospital have a Muslim-only prayer room while other religions share?
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 ...
21
votes
Accepted
Did St. Augustine say God was busy preparing hell for people who ask about what was He doing before creation?
This is part of Book 11, Chapter 12 of the Confessions of St Augustine. Augustine said he would not say this, but said that somebody else had. In one translation:
Behold, I answer to him who asks,...
- 13.5k
20
votes
Accepted
Was Glyn Barrett invited to speak at a meeting for an atheist society in Cambridge?
There are two universities in Cambridge England. (My reference is only Wikipedia, but I trust this isn't a controversial fact.)
Anglia Ruskin has a list of Clubs and Societies, and there is no ...
- 141k
20
votes
Accepted
Do certain religious traditions believe that Eve had sex with the Serpent?
Eve having Sex with the serpent
This is also called the serpent seed theory.
The idea is that the arch angel Samael was the serpent and used that form to have sex with Eve, which then resulted in the ...
tim♦
- 51.9k
19
votes
Accepted
Were beavers once classified as fish for religious reasons?
Yes, according to the 1760 book The natural and civil history of the French dominions in North and South America, vol.1 , page 27
In respect of his [the beaver's] tail, he is a perfect fish, and ...
- 106k
17
votes
Is there a place in the world where two oceans meet and they don't mix?
To answer your question, "Is there a place in the world where two oceans meet and they don't mix?" No, the water mixes it just isn't instantaneous. Saline, temperature differences, and pollutants can ...
- 1,298
17
votes
Are the outcomes of evolution too improbable to have occurred in the Earth's lifetime?
This is a fairly common objection to evolution, that appears in various forms. There is a good answer here. It can be generalised to this:
Given a biological structure made up of a specific ...
- 294
15
votes
Accepted
Does the bible explicitly forbide homosexuality?
Yes, the Bible explicitly and clearly forbids homosexuality, in the Old and New Testament. Those are the passages:
Leviticus 20:13:
If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a ...
- 30.3k
15
votes
Is this Buddha portrait genuine?
This claim is analyzed by Douglas M. Gildow in the article A True Likeness of Śākyamuni?
He concludes it is of recent Indonesian origin and definitely not at the British museum.
...managed to ...
- 106k
14
votes
Did Muhammad exist?
Reference from non Islamic sources.
The 8th century Byzantine historian, Theophanes acknowledged Muhammad's (saw) existence in his "Chronicle":
The Chronicle of Theophanes: Anni Mundi 6095-...
- 15.7k
13
votes
Are 4 out of 5 people persecuted for their religion, Christians?
According to the links offered at the CitizenGo petition, this claim is being made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“It is a fact that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the
...
- 44.9k
12
votes
Accepted
Did Christian soldiers commit the first recorded suicide bombing?
No.
Wherefore it happened that one ship of the Templars, carried away by the violence of the current, was cast over near the side of the city toward the enemy, who for a longtime assailed it with ...
- 106k
11
votes
Are the outcomes of evolution too improbable to have occurred in the Earth's lifetime?
Given the proposed mechanism of evolution (rather than the creationist parody of it) there has been plenty of time.
When Darwin was proposing his theory of evolution and long before the molecular ...
- 56.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Is owning a bible punishable by death in North Korea?
North Korea claims to have limited freedom of religion and has a few Christian churches. However, these are widely believed to be for show for the purposes of foreigners:
Except at the handful of ...
- 1,925
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible