At Salisbury University on Maryland’s eastern shore, a campus Christian group chalked the ground (as groups do) with the following Biblical message: Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! So what are atheists at the school supposed to do? Respond with Bible verses of their own, of course 🙂 Reader John explains what he and a few friends did: We began with Deut…. Read more
As long as there have been superstar athletes, there have been fans who confuse being really good at a sport with being a really good person. We all want to believe that the men and women we watch on TV go home from a day of shooting three-pointers to buy their kids ice cream and adopt several puppies. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? Time and again, the religious – even those who aren’t hardcore practitioners themselves – ascribe moral virtue on… Read more
Nisus Writer is a word processor for Macs and a recent update introduced a new icon for tracking changes to a document over time: Nice touch, don’t you think? 🙂 (Thanks to Robert for the link!) Read more
We know some atheists participate in religious communities for a variety of reasons, but what about atheist scientists? How many of them participate in religious communities? A new study by Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund and University at Buffalo SUNY sociologist Kristen Schultz Lee, published in the December 2011 Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, found that nearly 1 in 5 atheist scientists “attended a religious service more than once in the past year” — after they had… Read more
Penn Jillette offers his take on the 2012 presidential candidates — from an atheist perspective: His take on President Obama is spot on when it comes to his faith: Either he’s really a Christian as he claims (which means he’s not really one of us), or he’s lying about it for political purposes (which is disappointing in its own way). I still think he’s the best possible option. We could do better, but every other option right now is drastically… Read more
The week before Thanksgiving, Allen Stephenson wrote an article for the Greenville Advocate in which he discussed what we ought to be thankful for: Abel on the other hand, remembers that even the very air he breathes is a gift from God. He knows that if there is anything good in his life, it is directly from the hand of God. So his focus this weekend is take the energy he would normally devote to school and/or work, and direct… Read more
It’s always a treat to listen to former preacher Dan Barker talk about his religious past and this excerpt from his recent Skepticon IV talk shows you why. In it, he explains Christianity in a nutshell: The full talk is available here: (via HamboneProductions — Thanks to Brian for the link!) Read more
Senate Bill 48 in California passed by a 49-25 margin and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown back in July. It takes effect on January 1st. You can read the full text here. The bill broadens the scope of instruction in social science classes in CA public schools to include the “role and contributions of both men and women, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, and members of… Read more
I’m one of those people who wish that theists and atheists could just bury the hatchet and move on; I, personally, would benefit greatly from such a cease-fire, and I have no doubt that there would be plenty of atheists with theist friends and family who would benefit as well. I’m also one of those people wishing there were a magic button to push, or wand to wave, or lever to pull to make all weddings and births and holidays… Read more
