GQ magazine ranks Salt Lake City and Provo among the worst-dressed cities in the country. Our fashion sense aside, Utahns are still counted among the best looking people. Maybe it’s all that plastic surgery.

Harrison Ames argues that the frequent use of corrective words and phrases like “rather” and “in other words” in the Book of Mormon is more consistent with dictation than inspired translation.

A preview of this year’s Sunstone conference, August 3-6 in Ogden.

New rule: When you lose your religion, you must blog about it. In keeping with this rule, ex-Mormon Tyler Young has posted his essay “Why I Left” as a public Google doc.

Introducing the new Scientific American blog network, home to dozens of science-oriented blogs.

How Google is changing your brain and impairing your memory.

If non-Mormons in Utah were their own state, polls show that it’d be the bluest state in the union. And given that Mormons are the most conservative religious group in the country, that makes Utah the most polarized state.

The New York Times covers the Hill Cumorah Pageant, the Mormon spectacle you won’t see on Broadway.

BYU law professor Frederick Gedicks gives a lecture on the LDS Church’s demographic trajectory, noting that the church’s growth in the last decade has been stagnant and that nearly as many people are leaving the church as converting to it.

You Are Not So Smart reminds us that we’re bad at assessing and understanding our own feelings.

LDS scholar Grant Hardy lists 10 things everyone should know about the Book of Mormon.

5 myths atheists believe about religion. And by way of rebuttal: 5 faulty arguments religious people use against atheists.

How gay marriage became thinkable for a generation of young Americans.

Dalai Lama: “I am a Marxist, but not a Leninist.”

A Fox News anchor declares on air that Romney is “not a Christian”—a claim that went totally unchallenged by her fellow co-hosts.

Do atheists belong in the interfaith movement? This is a question of particular interest to SHAFT, as we occasionally get invited to participate in interfaith discussion panels.

Business Week on why Mormon missions produce business and civic leaders.

A University of Chicago study found that a person’s morality changes with age in large part due to evolving brain circuity.

Mormons aren’t known for their sense of humor, but this clip from “Latter-Day Night Live” is a pretty funny parody of church talk cliches. This Mormon cover of Cee-Lo Green’s “Fuck You” (retitled “For the Strength of You”) is not so funny, however.

An unscientific online survey of ex-Mormons yields some interesting results.

164 years ago yesterday (Pioneer Day), Mormon pioneers settled what is now Utah in order to freely practice their religion and nontraditional marriage. How appropriate it is then that yesterday was also the first day that gay marriage is legal in New York, the birthplace of Mormonism.

Bill McKeever of Mormon Research Ministries explains his techniques for witnessing to Mormons.

ABC 4, a Utah news station, found it newsworthy that Jon Huntsman said “bullshit” in a casual interview with Esquire.

Dr. Richard Carrier debated Christian apologist JP Holding on the textual reliability of the New Testament.

A majority of medical students surveyed believe that doctors should be allowed to object to any procedure that conflicts with their personal, moral, or religious beliefs.

Ron Howard and Dustin Lance Black are working on a new project: a film adaptation of Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.” And Ricky Gervais is coming out with a new show about an atheist that dies and goes to heaven.

Austrian man and “Pastafarian” wins the right to wear a pasta strainer in his license photo.

Apologist Josh McDowell tells Christian youth that the internet is the greatest threat to their faith.

Common Sense Atheism on why and how to debate charitably.

I apologize for not being my normal prolific self lately. Maybe I need a brief stint in prison; it seems to remedy writer’s block.

When news of the bombing and massacre in Norway broke, many people suspected the culprit to be a Muslim extremist. Yet it turns out that the killer Anders Breivik may instead be a Christian fundamentalist. Sam Harris argues that European nationalism and racism is more to blame, however.

Uganda made news last year with its consideration of a bill that’d make homosexuality a capital offense punishable by death. Africa’s LGBT community has new cause for concern, as Ghana moves to arrest all gays and lesbians in that country.

KSL investigates the case of the missing ‘t’ in Utah’s peculiar pronunciation. I never thought I had much of an accent myself, but when I went to New York for a secular leadership conference, my nickname was “country boy.”

Mormon.org is a site where Mormons can create profiles with which to share their faith. The LDS Church monitors the site closely, so I am surprised that this unorthodox/uncorrelated profile is still up.

There is a longstanding divide between Israel’s secular Jews and the right-wing rabbinical community. That divide has widened recently as hundreds of conservative rabbis endorse a book, the King’s Torah, that justifies the killing of non-Jews.

An atheist confronts President Obama at a townhall last week over his position on federal subsidies to religious organizations.

Prominent atheists share their reasons for nonbelief with the New Statesman.

The Catholic Church makes a $50 million dollar bid for a large crystal Cathedral, which I think looks like something out of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Bible scholar Bart Ehrman discusses his new book Forged and writes in the Huffington Post the top things that didn’t make it into the Bible.

Woody Allen interviews famed televangelist Billy Graham, and they actually seem to enjoy each other’s company.

“Nightline” does a special on exorcism in America.

Why is there anything, rather than nothing at all? Philosophers Leibniz and Heidegger find this to be the most fundamental question. But perhaps the question is ill-posed.

Atheist writer Austin Cline explains the principle of Occam’s Razor.

This one is lengthy, sorry! I had a month’s worth of links to cover.

After being teased at work for believing the Rapture would occur on May 21st, Dale O’Callaghan brought a gun to the office and shot a coworker (who thankfully is expected to recover).

Sam Harris makes a thoughtful case for the responsible use of drugs. He notes that everything we do, from eating our favorite foods to forming friendships, is about altering one’s consciousness. Drugs are another means to this end, and, when used responsible, can yield life insights.

John Dehlin, of Mormon Stories fame, is conducting a study with USU psychology professor Dr. Renee Galliher about the experiences of LGBT Mormons/ex-Mormons. If you’re the target demographic, please take this survey.

7 Scientology secrets you didn’t know. (I’m not too familiar with Scientology; anyone care to dispute these supposed secrets?) In a similar list: 7 ‘ancient’ forms of mysticism that are recent inventions.

Joseph Smith’s youngest son, David Hyrum Smith, is one of the most interesting (and neglected) figures in Mormon history. David was a leader in the RLDS church, but harbored serious religious doubts. He suffered from depression, and was institutionalized for 27 years at an insane asylum. His biographer Valeen Avery also suggests that he might have been gay.

Journalism fail: A local Memphis TV news reporter mocks Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Totally inappropriate.

When Christians in North American cry persecution, I’m often inclined to roll my eyes. But there’s no denying that Christians endure bitter persecution in many parts of the world. Voice of the Martyrs is an organization that spotlights the most egregious violations of Christians’ religious freedoms.

Andrew S. (the brains behind Irrestible (Dis)Grace) has been fairly prolific as of late. I want to recommend two posts of his: one about his dull, prudish, naive atheist life, and the other on the irrelevance of Mormonism.

Last summer, I argued that the dearth of evidence for the destruction recorded in Third Nephi constitutes evidence against the Book of Mormon’s historicity. But at his Mormon apologetics blog, my friend Neal offers a possible piece of evidence: a recently discovered submerged Mayan city.

LDS scholar and apologist Daniel C. Petersen writes in the Deseret News that the faithful must unfailingly follow the prophet, even when you believe the prophet is wrong. Divine voluntarism is alive and well in Mormonism.

Contra Daniel C. Peterson, professor Bradley Borden argues that Mormons needn’t be of like mind in subservience to the prophet. “The rich diversity of Mormons illustrates that there is no such thing as an orthodox (or unorthodox) Mormon. Such labels merely serve to perpetuate a stereotype.”

There’s nothing like a video about the boundless expanse of the universe to make you feel very small.

Sam Harris takes an hour to answer questions submitted by users of Reddit.com—questions about atheism, morality, and other issues.

The Irreligiosophy podcast interviewed atheist and ‘Bible Geek’ Robert Price, whose latest book contends that the Book of Mormon is a work of pseudepigrapha.

California passes a bill requiring its public schools to teach gay history, accomplishments. (Contrast that with a bill that passed in Tennessee a couple of months ago prohibiting any discussing of homosexuality before secondary school.) Hopefully the California bill will foster tolerance among students so as to prevent school shootings like this one.

The LDS Church released a statement on political neutrality, mandating that church leaders abstain from certain political activities. This comes in the wake of learning that church leaders have donated to political candidates.

The Onion: “Mormon Teen Loses Inhibitions After Third Benadryl.”

Sex-advice columnist Dan Savage argues that fidelity in marriage is unreasonable and unrealistic. How ’bout that sanctity of marriage? I’m reminded of Senator Penrose’s quip during the Smoot hearings that it’s better to be “a polygamist who doesn’t polyg than a monogamist who doesn’t monag.^“

The internet comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal humorously illustrates why most theodicies for the problem of evil fail.

Common Sense Atheism has a thought-provoking post about the problems of heaven. Among them: If there is no evil in heaven, is there then no free will? And if you can have free will in heaven without evil, then why have evil in this life?

A leading neuroscientist writes in The Atlantic that free will is an illusion, and that we must reform our criminal justice system to accommodate this fact.

Philosopher Paul Snowden revisits Locke’s man/person distinction. The piece involves involves an advanced discussion about dualism and animalism.

The History Channel show “How the States Got Their Shapes” does an episode on how religion has influenced our geography. Of particular interest to this audience, the episode discusses Mormonism and the shape of Utah.

Matt McCormick, a professor of atheology (the study of atheism) at CSUS, published an essay on the unlikelihood of life after death.

This month, a BYU film professor Kendall Wilcox came out as gay. He is producing a film about his journey as a gay Mormon, and how he hopes to retain both his faith and sexual identity. This man’s experience as a homosexual in the LDS Church led him to leave the church, however.

John Shook, resident philosopher at the Center for Inquiry (of which SHAFT is an affiliate), asks, “What does healthy humanism look like?”

A USU buddy of mine, Justin Jerez, was cited last week with a misdemeanor of flag abuse. He and some friends protested the war in Afghanistan and the ballooning national debt by writing “Children of Debt, Inheritors of War” on an American flag and displayed it upside down as they walked in the Logan 4th of July parade. The (unconstitutional) charges were later dropped. I’ve invited Justin to publish his experiences here, and I hope he does soon.

6 pro-gay marriage arguments for fighting with crazy people.

Mitt Romney is seeming less and less like a stiff, stuffy suit. He said he has plans to see the “The Book of Mormon”,  the critically-acclaimed Broadway musical by the creators of “South Park.” He also made a joke about his temple garments.

I could tolerate a President Romney, but a President Bachmann would be intolerable. I like her all the less after reading this report connecting her to the ex-gay Christian ministry movement.

I cannot wait to see the documentary “Tabloid”, which will be playing in Salt Lake City later this month. The documentary tells the story of a young woman who kidnapped a Mormon missionary and kept him as her sex slave.

July 10th marked the 154th birthday of the late eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla.

British journalist Johann Hari gave an impassioned and stirring defense of free speech at this year’s Independent Voices event.

Earlier this year, I wrote a critical article about Wikileaks. Well, Wikileaks has captured my attention again with a coversation/debate between Julian Assange and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. To watch just the highlights, go here.

Skepchick blogger Rebecca Watson ignited a flame war by suggesting it was inappropriate for a guy to ask her to his room in an empty elevator at 4:00 AM.  The entire atheist blogosphere has been consumed lately by a nasty debate, with critics claiming Watson is being hypersensitive, and supporters applauding her for raising awareness about sexism within the atheist community. Even Richard Dawkins has weighed in, and his dismissive response has caused many atheists to turn on him.

During the 4th of July weekend, Alan at Pure Mormonism urged his fellow Mormons not to pledge allegiance to the flag, calling it misguided patriotism and idol worship.

It’s a lie that there are no atheists in foxholes. And activists campaigning for greater acceptance for atheists within the military have found a surprising ally: Army chaplains.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. My friend Joey has decided to do his own ‘link bomb’ posts at his LDS-themed blog.