A writer from BBC News is working on an article about atheist discrimination in the workplace and it’d be great to tell some of our stories in the hopes that other people will understand what some atheists have had to deal with: I have seen a few stories on this site about people who felt excluded by their co-workers or even lost their job after expressing their beliefs. I would like to talk to people who have been through such… Read more
Todd Stiefel and I appeared on the Ask An Atheist podcast over the weekend to talk about the American Cancer Society’s rejection of an atheist National Relay For Life team. You can listen to the podcast here. Thanks to Sam, Mike, and Scott for helping publicize this story! Read more
I don’t have a better title for this. There’s just a lot of it going on lately. The Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics (AHA!) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison cleaned up garbage on State Street on Sunday. Why? No special reason. They’re just that awesome and they knew no one else was stepping up to do it: … In Austin, Texas, Atheists Helping the Homeless conducted their 31st food giveaway over the weekend: … If you want to read about more… Read more
Sean Faircloth’s new book Attack of the Theocrats! won’t be out in hardcover until February, but the Kindle version is already available! Sean just released a promotional video about it: He’s been the opening act during Richard Dawkins’ recent book tour and I suspect he’s getting crowds energized to vote as a secular bloc. If we could ever get that to happen, that’d be one hell of a demographic… though I’m not sure we’d be able to find a candidate… Read more
A few days ago, I posted about this ad seen on a Halifax, Nova Scotia bus: But weren’t religious ads banned? Wasn’t an atheist group rejected for their own ad campaign? Isn’t the transit authority breaking its own rules? Lori Patterson of the Metro Transit responded to reader Dorothy yesterday. (***Edit***: I spoke with a staffer for the advertising agency and they gave me more background on the story. Her version corroborated Ms. Patterson’s.) Here’s what she wrote: This will… Read more
Over at Harvard, Humanist chaplain Greg Epstein has been hosting a series of Sunday gatherings featuring talks and discussions: At a recent meeting, Epstein and his acolytes — they included students and people whose college years were far behind them — shared plastic chairs in the chaplain’s modest office suite. There was a guest speaker, a young man with a buzz cut. Jason Torpy, a former Army captain, had asked the military to instate a humanist chaplain of its own…. Read more
Peter’s dad was a pastor. Peter grew up with a lot of religion. In fact, Peter once sat through a sermon in which his dad quoted that song by The Bloodhound Gang… One Sunday, he took the pulpit and declared, grave-faced, that today’s sermon would be on the blasphemy of modern sexuality. He turned on his god-is-very-disappointed-with-you preacher voice. “There’s a song on the radio,” he said, “with the most evil chorus I have ever heard. It goes like this.”… Read more
So this happened over the weekend… Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy and its clones, accepted the award for Harvard Humanist of the Year. More pictures from the event are here. Someone get me video or transcript of his talk ASAP. Please…? 🙂 ***Update***: Here’s a rough video of the event. The official video will come out soon: (via Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard) Read more
Dear Richard, I recently shared concerns I have with my SIL about how my 10-year old son is having a terrible time trying to interact with the kids in our neighborhood. We just moved here so he doesn’t know anybody, and he literally runs away if approached. (We’re seeking professional help.) She was very supportive, and it was a good conversation. The next day she sent an e-mail to me and my husband, and she also copied it to my… Read more
