I’m going to be out this weekend at The New Humanism conference. One of the highlights will surely be meeting (or at least seeing in person) the writer Salman Rushdie. I’m also reminded of Rushdie’s story because of another controversy. Nawal El Saadawi is a 76-year-old, Egyptian, feminist author. She’s been under fire from Egyptians before. Once, she advocated the idea that “children [should] be named after their mothers, not fathers.” Blasphemy. Recently, she published a play called God Resigns… Read more
Don’t rent a movie this weekend. Instead, you can just download and watch the speech I gave to the Minnesota Atheists group last weekend! Even better: You can put it on your iPod and watch it anywhere you go! Part 1 tells the whole eBay Atheist story (from the original auction to the book). Part 2 is the Q & A session held afterwards. The easiest way to watch these videos is by using iTunes and subscribing to the MN… Read more
Becky Robinson, a new board member of the Secular Student Alliance and founder of a campus freethought group at the University of Texas at Arlington, wrote a great essay on how she went from being a religious “doubter” to an all out “atheist activist”: As I was exploring what I do and do not believe, I seemed to be surrounded by people very willing to tell me how they (and how I should) believe. I found this very off-putting and… Read more
Paul Thornton, an atheist and a researcher for the Editorial Pages department of the LA Times, has an opinion piece in today’s paper where he argues: Yes, atheists are disliked, but we should not pretend we face the same oppression that gays/blacks/Muslims have faced: [Richard] Dawkins, [Sam] Harris and other secularists are correct in pointing out our chances of getting elected… But they’re wrong to lump atheists with historically marginalized groups — gays, blacks and others — as sharing a… Read more
I had a book signing at Barbara’s Bookstore tonight! Let me thank those who came to the event (old friends and new ones); it was great to have an audience there! Here’s something that made my day when I walked into the store: How cool! The book is on a bookshelf! But what that right under it…? Son of a… it’s The Secret! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Anyway, I learned a number of things based on… Read more
