Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Richard, I have not been an Atheist for long, just a few years. To give a little history, I was raised in a very loving Southern Baptist home. I was very serious about my relationship with god, it was to me (as I’m sure it is to most Christians) a very special and personal relationship. It was not until college that I really began to question all that I had… Read more
Sean Faircloth, the Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America, has resigned from his position. He will be joining the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) as their new Director of Strategy and Policy. Dawkins explained it this way: “[Faircloth] has a proven ability to strategize, organize, and energize — qualities essential to making secularism a successful social movement. Sean wrote the Secular Decade plan while Executive Director of Secular Coalition for America and led the early… Read more
A few weeks ago, reader Keri and her boyfriend Jeff went on the Texas A&M University campus with posters and in full Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster pirate regalia to partake in some Pastafarian preaching: Later that afternoon, they began walking through the academic plaza where The Century Tree resides — the superstition says that if you walk under it with the one you love, you’ll be together forever. As they approached the tree, Jeff got down on one… Read more
Back in June, I posted about how the Kansas City Atheist Coalition was trying to get off the ground. Looks like they’re up and running! And their website looks awesome, promoting the things they’re most passionate about: If you’re interested in helping them out, you can become a member, donate, or just attend an upcoming event. Their first charity event takes place this Saturday and it involves cutting surgical bandages to help wounded animals: If this is just the beginning,… Read more
Hey, Chicagoans, here are two events you’ll want to attend! On Saturday, September 17th, from 3:00 – 6:00p, Massimo Pigliucci will lead a workshop on critical thinking. As an exercise in “intellectual self-defense,” we will explore the meaning and process of critical thinking, examine common logical fallacies, and ask why we have difficulty with numbers and statistics. We will discuss the limits of human reason — and how to understand the world better and deal with each other more rationally…. Read more
The Christian group CitizenLink (a Focus on the Family affiliate) has exposed the gay agenda in public schools! Thankfully, Education Analyst Candi Cushman is here to tell us how the homosexuals are out to indoctrinate the children by teaching them about things like (*ugh*) tolerance. I can’t believe it either. They’re teaching kids in first grade that gay couples exist! (*Cue screams*) Cushman says that elementary school is too early to talk about sexuality — as if kids don’t understand… Read more
Seen on PostSecret: I’ll admit I don’t know how many Christians really believe their god would send suicide victims to hell, and some Christian resources suggest the same thing, though they do an awful job of handling the issue — if you gave your life to Jesus before committing suicide, you might still be saved! Or, from Christianity Today, “While there are no conclusive statistics on the phenomenon, some studies suggest a high rate of suicide attempts among young people… Read more
The Onion, in true form, derides the 9/11 Cross by pointing out that, when steel girders bend into certain shapes, we see only what we want to see: “On the one hand, it’s pretty miraculous that there was a precisely shaped 80-by-80-foot swastika found in the rubble of the fallen World Trade Center, but in the end, we decided not to include it in our plans for the museum,” said memorial spokesman Stanley Morgenstern, adding that it would probably be… Read more
Here’s a video that’ll make you smile: In Portland, Oregon, the Hosford Middle School Gay Straight Alliance group made their own music video for Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”: (Seriously, where were all the kids like this when I was in middle school?) Also awesome: The principal of the school is named Kevin Bacon. Kick ass. (Thanks to Rich for the link!) Read more
If this actually happened, you would think it’d get more headlines than just this one in Charisma, a Christian magazine. As it stands, I can’t find any other information about it. They had only prepared food for 70 people. But once the service in the prison in Pochutla had started, more and more men joined in… … As soon as the service finished, it was time to pass out the food. “We prayed for God to multiply the food,” says… Read more
