Public education has taken a beating in a lot of states over the past few years, but what’s happening in Kentucky makes no sense at all: Over the last six years, as the state of Kentucky shrank public education funding, it spent nearly $18 million to pay for student busing at private, mostly religious schools in two dozen counties, according to state financial records. The religious schools have come to rely on government aid for their transportation — but the whole point of private schools is that they are funded by parents who want to opt out of the government system. If you don’t want to enroll your kids in public school, you have that choice, but why should tax dollars support transportation costs for schools that serve to indoctrinate? Read more
Brandon Fibbs made a video a while back — an open letter to religious believers, in a sense — that was taken down due to copyright violation claims. With the segment in question now removed, Fibbs has put his video back online and it’s a wonderful piece to watch: Read more
Every now and then, the writers on this site will be working on a post about, say, the difference between the geology of the Grand Canyon versus city streets… and we realize it would be great if we could talk to atheists who actually study that subject! Maybe we want to quote you in the post. Or (more likely) we just need to ask you a question about geology in general. It’s not just science — there are many times when we have questions about business or law or medicine or music, or need someone to help us translate an article, but we don’t know anyone off the top of our heads who can help us. Read more
It’s hard to forget the great things Daniel Dennett says in this compilation of his best moments: Read more
Two weeks ago, in anticipation of both the National Day of Prayer and National Day of Reason, atheist Justin Vacula of the NEPA Freethought Society went to the Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) City Hall, gave them a check for $50, and handed them a banner reading “Nothing Fails Like Prayer” to put up in the public square. That banner was supposed to go up on April 28. For whatever reason, city officials didn’t put it up until three days later… but it’s finally up! There’s the banner about Mental Health Month, and the banner for the National Day of Prayer, and… hey, wait, where’s Justin’s banner? Read more
Pat Robertson recently received a question on The 700 Club from a woman who said atheists frequently challenged her social media statements about faith — and she wanted to know if she should argue back. Robertson couldn’t keep himself to a yes or no answer… so he decided to insult atheists instead: Read more
It’s good to see an article about Alexander Aan in today’s New York Times. Aan,. you may recall, is the atheist from Indonesia who was thrown in jail for 19 months for “inciting religious hatred” (which is really code for: he was promoting atheism online). Joe Cochrane writes: Read more
Think about all the things that would make you feel less anxious while stuck in traffic: Talking to someone else in the car, listening to good music, knowing you’re not in a rush to get to where you have to go… But forget all that. The Archdiocese of Detroit has the solution for anyone dealing with annoying construction: Saying the Rosary: Read more
Not since the awful Trestin Meacham unsuccessfully attempted to outlaw gay marriage by starving himself have American Christians felt such hunger pangs. Read more
Two years ago today, the Secular Coalition for America — the largest lobbying group in Washington, D.C. representing non-religious Americans — announced that its new Executive Director would be a Republican who had worked under President George W. Bush and conservative senators Trent Lott and Jeff Sessions. While Edwina Rogers focused on health and economic issues with those politicians, her GOP background rubbed a lot of atheist activists the wrong way. They wondered if someone who had worked for social conservatives could really be a reliable voice for Secular Americans. Rogers was optimistic that her background wouldn’t hinder her new position — in fact, she believed she could get her foot in the door in places where liberal lobbyists might have been shut out. Still, my initial interview with her provoked a lot of skeptical (and harsh) feedback from readers and other bloggers. But that was two years ago. Has Rogers changed her mind about the Republican Party’s ability to appeal to atheists and agnostics? Has the backlash died down? I emailed her a list of questions earlier this week and her responses are posted below. Read more
