Haven’t we learned anything from The God Delusion? Weren’t we all supposed to have our consciousness raised? Don’t we know that TV shows shouldn’t be given a religious (or non-religious) label before it’s ready to make that decision on its own?! We have to stop mentally abusing these TV shows… So get this right: Ricky Gervais’ new show Afterlife is not an “Atheist Comedy.” It’s a comedy that features an atheist character. Memo to publications with a religious bent: Don’t… Read more
Earlier this morning, President Obama did a town hall meeting at the University of Maryland and when it came time for the Q&A session, guess who was first up? Amanda Knief, the Government Relations Manager for the Secular Coalition for America! How perfect is that?! She asked an important question, too. The segment starts at the 19:55 mark of the video here. (***Edit***: Here’s just the clip of Amanda’s segment.) Here’s the transcript: Knief: I’m an atheist, and in Zanesville,… Read more
What’s scarier: A stranger offering your child candy or a stranger offering your child candy and a Bible verse? Kathleen Crowe says her nine-year-old daughter Angeline was playing in MacEwan park last week when she was approached by a couple from the Victory Christian Center who gave her candy and a Bible verse. Angeline was also promised more candy if she memorized the verse. “What if the next person who offers her candy doesn’t have the same good intentions as… Read more
I can cross this off my Bucket List now. Last week, I had a chance to sit down with Neil deGrasse Tyson at The Amazing Meeting 9 in Las Vegas. We discussed the future of the space program and science education, among other things. Excerpts from that conversation are below. The remarks are entirely those of Dr. Tyson, except for my own, which are [marked off in brackets]. I’ve edited our remarks for the sake of clarity without affecting the… Read more
A week ago, in Ireland, the Cloyne report (PDF) was published. The report discussed how the Catholic Church responded to abuse allegations in recent years — recent! — and it turns out (surprise!) they haven’t changed one bit. Among the findings: [The church authorities] failed to: Report cases of abuse to the civil authorities as required Put a system of support for victims in place Appoint an independent advisory panel Properly record cases of sex abuse Despicable. And it gets… Read more
Jen McCreight is doing her annual 24-hour Blogathon to raise money for the Secular Student Alliance this weekend. She’s starting at 7:00a (PST) on Saturday and posting something every 30 minutes. It’s all for a good cause, so if you want to help create and support college and high school atheist groups, feel free to chip in: I suspect it’ll get *really* fun around 3:00a the next morning… By the way, if you’re one of the top ten donors by… Read more
What do you do when saying “I accept evolution” doesn’t convey the overwhelming weight of the evidence to support it? You can read the punchline here, by the way. … Every high school science teacher should just put the same question at the end of every test, regardless of the chapter: “In the scientific community, what does ‘theory’ mean?” Maybe then, it would sink in… (via Calamities of Nature — thanks to J B for the link!) Read more
Myq Kaplan is one of the smartest comedians you’ll hear and he appeared on Conan last night. The whole clip is awesome, but around the 2:23 mark in the clip below, he gets into some hilarious material about homosexuality and the Bible 🙂 You can read my interview with Myq from just after his run on Last Comic Standing right here. Read more
I’ll set you up: A church near New Orleans was given $250,000 to help build “low-income housing for recovering addicts.” Take a wiiiiiild guess how this story ends. Yep! You’re right. Not all the money was used for the intended purpose! In fact, most of it went right back into the church itself. And into the wallet of its leader. Shocking, isn’t it…? The Living Witness Church of God in Christ in Central City, Louisiana received all that money to… Read more
Peter Boghossian, a philosophy professor at Portland State University, was faced with a dilemma recently when a student in his “Science and Pseudoscience” class wrote this on her final exam: “I wrote what I had [to] to ‘agree’ with what was said in class, but in truth I believe ABSOLUTELY that there is an amazing, savior GOD, who created the universe, lives among us, and loves us more than anything. That is my ABSOLUTE, and no amount of ‘philosophy’ will… Read more
