In Spokane, Washington, there’s an iconic sculpture of the Radio Flyer red wagon that’s been around since 1989: On Thursday night, it was vandalized with Christian messages: So far, no one’s taken credit for doing it and they have no leads on the culprits. I don’t think anyone should point fingers at Christians without more evidence, though I admit it would be really unusual graffiti for anyone else… “It’s very rare that we see vandalism based on religion,” Craig Butz,… Read more
I feel like I just posted about this… but it’s happened again. A Christian teacher at a public high school wrote about her anti-gay-rights bigotry on Facebook and people are calling for her to be fired. When Jerry Buell did it, I defended him and argued that he had every right to say what he wanted… outside the classroom. For some reason, a lot of commenters here weren’t happy with that position. However, if we want to go after teachers… Read more
Some of you wanted to know how to solve the math problem I posted yesterday. Here’s my worked out solution! Hope it makes sense 🙂 Read more
It’s disturbing because it implies that people should feel bad when they do it… Glad s/he figured out there’s nothing wrong with it. (via PostSecret) Read more
Reading so many stories about religious or conservative colleges resisting the approval of an atheist club, I noticed what seems to be a pattern of 20 steps: Club applies to college Administration for approval. Silence for several weeks. Club inquires about application. Admin. says the deadline has passed for this semester. Club resubmits application early. More silence. Club inquires much sooner this time. Admin. says they are “reviewing” the application and the club’s statement of purpose. Club inquires every day…. Read more
I’m sure a lot of you have seen this image online, featuring a quotation from House, M.D. Rational arguments don’t usually work on religious people. Otherwise there would be no religious people. I love that line — it’s funny. It’s true. And for some reason that I still can’t figure out, a Catholic Church in Dublin is using it in an advertisement: Why? Anyone care to offer an explanation? (Thanks to @bdbdbdbd for the link) Read more
A group of Redditors are trying to create a video tribute to Christopher Hitchens and they’d love to get your submissions: Make a short video. Aim for about 1 min length, give or take. Say anything you like, keeping in mind the nature of the effort. The only thing we ask is: Close your video by raising a glass. It has been pointed out that Johnny Walker Black is Hitchens’ drink, but obviously use what you like. Email your video… Read more
At a (strangely early) Halloween parade last week, two members of the Parading Atheists of Central PA marched as Zombie Pope and Zombie Muhammad. The latter proclaimed, “I am Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. I’ve risen from the dead!” Dickish? Totally. Do I like what they did? No. I think they alienated more people than they amused. Was it funny? Zombie-Pope-on-the-lookout-for-little-boys might be funny around people with that kind of humor… but not at a family parade. I’m still trying… Read more
A couple years ago in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an atheist group had their ad rejected for being too controversial. The ad in question read: You can be good without God The Supreme Court there said that Metro Transit had no right to selectively choose which political/religious messages it allowed, so the company revised its policies: This is what Chris Hammond of the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign said at the time: This is great news for free speech but also great… Read more
