Rob Sherman, an atheist who’s always ready to file a lawsuit if there’s a church/state violation in Illinois and who loves to sing his own praises, was in a car crash over the weekend. His wife and daughter were in the car with him. He’s ok. His family is ok. The car’s not ok, but the crash wasn’t his fault. The only reason I’m mentioning this is because Rob, in true form, used the situation to assert his beliefs: Amazingly,… Read more
The Secular Student Alliance is giving up to $500 (and an engraved plaque!) to students who win the Best Individual Activist Award this year. Better yet, there are up to six of those awards up for grabs — three at the high school level and three at the college level. Individual awards are intended to recognize individuals who have done excellent activist work independent of a student group. While officers and members of SSA affiliate groups are eligible for this… Read more
The Secular Student Alliance surpassed 250 campus groups this past year: The high school groups are set to explode even more next year. Who can we thank for the surge in atheist groups? Richard Dawkins? SSA Campus Organizer Lyz Liddell? SSA High School Specialist JT Eberhard? We owe them a debt of gratitude, no doubt, but according to American Humanist Association president Dave Niose, we can thank Religious Right litigator for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) Jay… Read more
It’s been about a week since Damon Fowler’s prayer-laced high school graduation ceremony. Since then, he’s been the victim of a lot of community backlash — it almost seemed like Damon was the only person willing to take a stand for church/state separation at Bastrop High School in Louisiana. You all contributed over $15,000 toward a scholarship to help Damon out. Even after several days, I can’t get over that fact when I look at the number. Thank you to… Read more
Jessica Ahlquist, Damon Fowler, and Harrison Hopkins, three of the high-school atheists who have fought recent church-state separation battles, are doing an “Ask Us Anything” on Reddit. The questions and responses are fantastic. I can’t even imagine doing anything like this when I was in high school… and that wasn’t too long ago. Did I even know which church/state separation was all about back then? Probably not. It’s just a testament to better networking and strong online communities for atheists…. Read more
