Last year, at a conference for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, The Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik was a speaker. It made sense, I suppose: She’s on a show about nerds and she’s a “Brand Ambassador” for Texas Instruments. Hard to get more math-y than that. It turns out Bialik is also a featured speaker at the annual convention for the National Science Teachers Association taking place in just over a week. Again, makes sense on paper, given the show she’s on and how she has a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Oh. By the way. She doesn’t vaccinate her children: Read more
I don’t know why Pat Robertson offers advice on the 700 Club when the things he suggests are so completely, awfully wrong… but until he stops, he’s just a goldmine of sound bites. Yesterday, a viewer asked him if she should stop preaching to an atheist co-worker (correct answer: Yes) who got annoyed at every mention of God, Robertson explained that her colleague had serious problems if she didn’t like hearing about God all the time: Read more
After dealing with two separate cases of non-religious people having their U.S. citizenship denied because of their secular ethics, the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center is asking the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for clarification on the issue: Read more
The whole idea of “special religious instruction” is public schools is a joke to begin with, especially when you consider how much room there is for abuse. In theory, it’d be great because kids could learn about the beliefs of all different faiths. But in Victoria, Australia, for example, the religious education is primarily Christian and the education is verring into heavy indoctrination. Story after story suggests that volunteer groups — and it’s always Christian volunteers — are using the time with students to seek converts instead of merely educating them about what they believe. There’s a fantastic group called Fairness In Religions In School (FIRIS) trying to raise awareness of the abuses within the program in part because they say parents don’t really know what’s going on in their kids’ schools. To that end, they put up a billboard in Melbourne on Tuesday morning that shows parents what their kids may be learning in school: Read more
After a long history of anti-LGBT activism, World Vision, one of the largest Christian charities in the world, announced a change to its employment policy Monday that has some fellow Christians up in arms. World Vision’s American branch will now permit Christians who are in legal same-sex marriages to be employed with the organization, a decision they say aligns with the charity’s mission. World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns told Christianity Today that while the policy change wasn’t unanimous among board members, the group was “overwhelmingly in favor” of the change. (The decision applies only to World Vision U.S., not its international branches.) Read more
Normally, when we talk about Fox News’ Todd Starnes (below), it’s because he’s making up a story of Christian persecution. But Starnes actually did something decent yesterday. Appearing on Christian fanatic Rick Wiles’ radio show to discuss a story about Bible verses appearing on Air Force Academy dorm room white boards (and an atheist who complained about it), Starnes and Wiles had this exchange: Read more
The cool folks at Compass 120 Apparel created a shirt with a quotation of mine and they’re marketing it to men and women. I’ve asked that any money I would’ve made from the shirts be given instead to the Secular Student Alliance: There’s a promotional video and everything! Check it out — and consider their other goods while you’re at it. Read more
Creationist Danny Faulkner (below) of Answers In Genesis appeared on the “Janet Mefferd Show” late last week to complain about how Cosmos is being totally unfair. You see, it’s just promoting science. It’s not giving equal time to bullshit. Read more
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. The issue is whether or not a public company owned by religious individuals can deny employees contraception or birth control — items the law says have to be included in basic health coverage. Obviously, those of us who support church/state separation think that personal decisions about birth control (and the like) should be left up to the people using it, not their Christian bosses. (Of course, it’s ridiculous that health insurance is tied to employment in the first place, but that’s a separate issue.) Read more
The Salvation Army, whose volunteers you might see ringing bells over the holidays, is a primarily religious organization whose goal is to spread the Gospel. At the same time, they get government funds, to the tune of $188,000,000 in New York alone, to do social service work. As long as the two worlds don’t collide, there shouldn’t be a problem. But more than a decade ago, that’s exactly what happened: Read more
