(Via Pharyngula) Mark Fisher is the editor of the Faith & Values section of the Columbus Dispatch. There are often complaints from atheists that we are never featured on these pages. For some reason, “values” exclude non-religious people. Fisher wrote about the types of stories run in the F&V section: During the last two years, Faith & Values has had 290 cover stories, of which 183 (63.1 percent) have been about Christianity. Another 39 stories, or 13.4 percent, have discussed… Read more
To the surprise of no one, Obama is poised to announce tomorrow morning that he’ll be running for president. If only Springfield, IL wasn’t 3 hours away, I’d be there for the announcement. Oh well… You can watch Obama’s preview announcement here. And tomorrow morning, you can watch Obama’s official announcement live on his website beginning at 10:55 am EST. In regards to understanding church-state separation and respecting atheists while still being able to reach out to the religious community,… Read more
The initial sentence says it all: A disturbing number of doctors do not feel obligated to tell patients about medical options they oppose morally, such as abortion and teen birth control, and believe they have no duty to refer people elsewhere for such treatments, researchers say. I don’t mind the doctor not performing an operation he/she is morally opposed to if there is a qualified doctor who can perform the operation nearby. But too often, this is not the case…. Read more
Speaking of the American Humanist Association, they’re teaming up with EvolveFISH and the Rational Response Squad on a video challenge. But this one is quite different from the Blasphemy Challenge. This challenge is for all those people who asked, “Where are the positive aspects of being non-religious?” Create a video showing a “Positive Vision of Humanism” and upload it to YouTube. If you submit it by May 3, 2007 (The National Day of Reason), you might even win the $500… Read more
Until recently, the American Humanist Association had been a “religious” organization as classified by the IRS. Why religious? Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the AHA, shed some light on this in his article in the most recent Humanist Network News. He writes: The American Humanist Association (AHA) was founded with an educational tax exemption in 1941. In the 1960’s, without specific board authorization, a religious tax exemption was successfully attained from the Internal Revenue Service to enable the organization to… Read more
