Being judged by a jury of one’s peers is meant to be reassuring for defendants — a counterbalance to a professional judiciary whose possible ivory-tower tendencies may put it out of touch with common Americans. In practice, because any Tom, Dick, and Harriet can serve on a jury, with almost no regard to their intelligence or their ability to juggle information critically (in fact, such qualities often disqualify citizens from the jury pool), I can think of few things more nerve-wracking than the possible damage that a jury of mediocre thinkers can inflict. Take the verdict in the David Tarloff case. A Manhattan jury just convicted Tarloff, a man with schizophrenia, of the chillingly brutal murder, in 2008, of Kathryn Faughey, a psychologist. Tarloff’s lawyers had pleaded insanity on behalf of their client. Tarloff, they said, … had a long history of delusions about communicating directly with God. He told doctors who examined him that his plan … had been sanctioned by the lord. Read more
In response to May’s National Day of Prayer, those of us at Foundation Beyond Belief are promoting something called a National Week of Action. (You know, to actually make a difference.) Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, responds to a Charisma article called “7 Things That Prove God is Real”: The original article is here and you can read my written rebuttal here. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next! And if you like what you’re seeing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon. Read more
Earlier this month, the Toledo Blade published a generally positive article about Camp Quest, the summer camp for children of atheist parents: “I have talked with kids that have gone through, and they just love it,” said Ms. [Barbara] Williams, an organizer of Great Lakes Atheists in Toledo. “It was a great experience for them to come to a place which is a camp. It’s just like a regular camp, basically, but –” “– They don’t feel marginalized,” Mr. [Phil] Deckebach said. “They don’t,” Ms. Williams agreed. “They’re free to be themselves, absolutely. They’re free to express their opinions, they don’t have to be afraid, they don’t have to be in the closet.” Somehow, though, the fact that the newspaper printed a story about an atheist camp — without demonizing it — irked some of the readers. The paper’s ombudsman Jack Lessenberry explains: Read more
When Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion was published in 2006, it basically spawned an entire series of books refuting the claims he was making. It happened with Sam Harris’ The End of Faith, too. So when Bart Ehrman’s latest book How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee was being written, his publishers were thinking ahead about what the critics would say. Ehrman’s book argues that Jesus of Nazareth didn’t “become” God in the eyes of his followers until well after his crucifixion — and even that meant something very different from what Christians believe today. It’s a controversial idea (which is no surprise to anyone who has read Ehrman’s previous books) and his publishers knew that Christian authors would be itching to counter his claims. So they took the unusual step of publishing a rebuttal book at the same time. Read more
In today’s New York Times, Brian McFadden suggests the problems with religious conscience clauses: Click here for the full strip! (via Religion Clause) Read more
Rebecca Vitsmun, whom you all know from her memorable post-tornado interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, teamed up with members of the Atheists of the Puget Sound (in Washington state) on Friday as part of an event for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. They all had their heads shaved to stand in solidarity with cancer victims, raising money for the cause along the way. Here’s the before shot, with Bob Garcia (left), Rebecca, and Robert Ray: And here’s the after: Read more
Last night, during Louis CK’s Saturday Night Live opening monologue, he did an extended riff on religion that was just fantastic. Check it out (sorry, non-Hulu people!) (Edit: Here’s a YouTube link while it lasts!): Read more
On to Episode 9 of our series of interviews conducted at The Amazing Meeting 2013 — today’s episode is with evolutionary biologist Ed Clint. One of my favorite moments from this interview was when Clint shared a hypothesis about why babies have a tendency to put objects in their mouths — it may be a way to build their immune systems from an early age. Read more
Last fall, the Camden Council (London) considered a law, in response to a handful of complaints, that would make it all but impossible for street musicians to play their instruments: … the council wants to restrict performances to between 10:00 and 21:00. Under the proposals, anyone who wants to play a wind instrument — apart from the flute and the recorder — would need a special licence, as would all percussion instruments. Any form of amplification would be banned. That proposed law led to a lot of understandably upset musicians, but it was passed last week. Now, a few kazoo players think they’ve found a way around the law: They just created their own church: Read more
