Andrew James Latham is a Master’s student at the University of Auckland and a “budding cognitive neuroscientist.” For his PhD, he’s trying to start up a research program to look at “the cognitive and neural correlates of both religiosity, morality and the interaction between them.” Religion and morality are synonymous concepts to many people. Research is desperately required to disentangle them and show how they can interact. Andrew has a chance to win $10,000 NZD ($8,231 in USD) toward seeding… Read more
The women in our movement aren’t asking a lot. Those of us who are aware of the sexism need to call it out when we see it and do everything we can to not add to the problem. If we say or do something wrong — and I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of that — let’s hope it’s unintentional and that the offender is quick to apologize. (via atheistcartoons) Read more
Hey look! It’s a woman trapped by Christianity: David Hayward explains: Even though we might agree with the idea of a mutual submission, these selected words have been turned into words of servitude and slavery. They are being used to confine her, control her and keep her. Even the cross, which might be used as a metaphor of volitional suffering, has been turned into a tool requiring it. The bible laid before her which contains powerful words of liberation has… Read more
Bart Centre is the man getting all sorts of press — again — for his Eternal Earth-Bound Pets service, where (for a fee) he promises to take care of your pets after the Rapture. Brilliant. His latest book (under the alias “Dromedary Hump”) is called The Atheist Camel Rants Again! Bart’s giving away a free copy of his book, but first, here’s an excerpt from a chapter entitled “The Holy Foreskin Obsession”: It seems that Jesus’ foreskin holds a revered… Read more
Jeff Swenson at Freethunk! offers an honest depiction of a public school graduation prayer… as said by a Christian: Today’s the last day to donate to the Damon Fowler fund, by the way… as if you haven’t donated an incredible amount already. Read more
Christians have found a way to ruin The 40-Year-Old Virgin… with a movie called The Waiting Game. Instead of the main character ruining all his opportunities to have sex growing up, like Steve Carell’s character did, this one has chosen to wait until he’s married. And his love interest in played by Kirk Cameron’s sister (a.k.a. D.J. Tanner from “Full House”)… Runs in the family, I guess. As a couple commenters on YouTube point out, the trailer makes it seem… Read more
The latest episode of The Non Prophets podcast includes really great interviews (MP3) with Damon Fowler (2:45 mark) and Jessica Ahlquist (29:35 mark). I don’t listen to many atheist podcasts, but I listened to this one the whole way through and was thankful I did. If you do nothing else, check out Jessica’s segment and keep in the back of your mind that she’s only a high school sophomore. She’s a natural when it comes to public speaking. It’s encouraging… Read more
The Congressional Budget Office just released a report about the “Options for Changing the Tax Treatment of Charitable Giving” (PDF). (Bored already? Give it a second…) Here’s one of the takeaways from the report, as reported at Christianity Today: … proposed changes to the tax code could reduce charitable contributions. However, the CBO does not expect religious organizations to be affected because religious donors are less sensitive to the tax benefits of contributions. Instead, it is the charities favored by… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, I am a 24-year-old atheist living in the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia. The version of Islam here is much more relaxed (in general) than the extremism we see so much in the Middle East, but even non-religious people aren’t generally cool with atheism. If they’re not Muslim, they’re Christian, usually Protestant, less so Catholic, but they are not generally atheist, at least not publicly. I’m… Read more
This is a guest post by Jamie Bernstein. Jamie is a graduate student in public policy at the University of Chicago as well as the Vice-President of the Women Thinking Free Foundation. She has previously written about anti-vaxers here and here. … You can (and should) read Part One of Jamie’s story at Skepchick before reading Part Two below. … At this point Ken and I needed a break. As we returned from our trip to Starbucks, we decided to… Read more
