Jessica Bluemke grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Ball State University in 2008 with a BA in Literature. She currently works as a writer and resides on the North side of Chicago.
I went in to this interview with Peter Boghossian sincerely not knowing what to expect. He’s a professor of philosophy at Portland State College, and my entire knowledge of philosophy comes from a single class I took freshman year of college which, to be frank, did not go well. But I loved Peter’s take on why philosophy is important and how it can actually be applied to help society at large. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Yesterday morning, I got a text from a coworker that read “#FourWordBible is trending on Twitter… I think it’s right up your alley.” Sure enough, I wasted about a half-hour online. The trend consisted of Twitterers (Twitts?) summing up the Good Book in exactly four words. To be sure, there were plenty of pro-Bible folks with cutesy things to say like “Unending love. Amazing grace,” “Let go, let God,” and “Jesus died for you.” But don’t worry, the skeptics showed up for the party, too. So far, my favorite is from @serenetwit: #FourWordBible Men rule girls drool— Athorist (@whichgodrob) August 6, 2013 Here’s my contribution: [Click headline for more…] Read more
It was just a delightful experience to sit down and talk to these two fine fellows. Bryan Bonner and Matthew M. Baxter make their living as paranormal investigators. Honest-to-goodness, “My attic is haunted,” “The microwave is possessed” paranormal investigators. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Ball State University in Indiana has produced the likes of David Letterman, Jim Davis, Joyce DeWitt, and yours truly (to save you the time it takes to scroll down and check on the author, this is Jessica. I assume Hemant probably went to U of I or something) [Hemant’s note: I went to U of I in Chicago!]. I had a great experience at BSU — I had amazing professors, met some of my closest friends, studied abroad, read Moby Dick (That’s right. Cover to cover), and, more relevantly, tried on my Outspoken Atheist Hat for the first time. I’ll be honest, that hat took a little breaking in. And I bring up my alma mater with pride today, because University President Jo Ann Gora recently released a letter saying the following: Intelligent design is overwhelmingly deemed by the scientific community as a religious belief and not a scientific theory. Therefore, intelligent design is not appropriate content for science courses. Boom. But let’s see what led up to all of this in the first place. [Click headline for more…] Read more
I humbly present to you the first in our series of interviews from The Amazing Meeting 2013. I had the opportunity to sit down with the remarkable Sanal Edamaruku. It became less of an interview and more of me just letting him tell his story (trust me, it was better that way). If you haven’t heard of Sanal, he is the president of both Rationalist International and Indian Rationalist Association and spent years traveling around India busting so-called miracles. Last year, when he was called in to explain a statue of Jesus that was “miraculously” dripping water, his entire life changed. You can read about it if you click on those links, but I recommend listening to him tell his story instead. [Click headline for more…] Read more
