Amanda is a pie-baking, music-listening, lindy-hopping, yoga-doing, power-tool-wielding feminist, atheist, and wife. She divides her time equally between cooking delicious things, trying to make nice with the house cat, and ranting about religion.
A few weeks ago, I detailed a specific failure of the organized atheist/secular movement regarding cost and accessibility. This week, I am back with the second and final chapter — See? I don’t have that many complaints! — of specific areas where I have felt that the atheist and secular community have fallen short. Without further ado: Aggressively policing each other for not focusing “enough” on “atheist issues” and general hostility for those who deviate from the script. The amount… Read more
When I finally realized that I was an atheist, after months and months of reading, listening to lectures and debates, and countless conversations, I had never felt more relieved or liberated. Arriving at atheism was the “rebirth” of my mind that Christianity had always failed to deliver; for the first time in my life, I realized that the absence of a divine plan meant that I was completely in control. Every action I took, every decision I made was suddenly… Read more
Pop your blood-pressure meds, kiddos, because I’m about to take you on a carnival of terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad gender relations, according to one conservative Christian website. We have to start by talking about “modesty.” In my opinion, the teaching of modesty to teen and preteen girls is one of the most toxic and divisive aspects of Christian culture. It can have life-long implications in the way that women dress, act, and feel about themselves, as well as their understanding… Read more
There is no more perfect a picture of absolute sexism in Christian doctrine than the doctrine of submission of women. There is no more perfect a picture of the horror of this doctrine in action than the practice of encouraging women to stay in abusive domestic partnerships. Vyckie Garrison wishes she “had more middle fingers with which to express my extreme irritation” at this article written by Darcy Ingraham, and I am more than happy to loan my own middle… Read more
I’d wager that most readers at the Friendly Atheist are at least familiar with the “No True Scotsman” fallacy if they haven’t been on the receiving end of the argument at some point. The idea is that when someone doesn’t fit your stereotype of a particular group, instead of reassessing the stereotype, you just assume that person doesn’t actually belong in the group (“You’re an atheist who votes Republican?! You must not be a real atheist!”) I bring that up… Read more
