A few months ago, the Sabine Parish School District in Louisiana was sued by the state’s ACLU because of its “long history of proselytizing students and promoting religion.” The laundry list of complaints at Negreet High School alone was enough to make your jaw drop: This all came to light thanks to the courage of plaintiffs Scott and Sharon Lane and their five brave children, including sixth grader C.C., a “Buddhist of Thai heritage” who doesn’t believe in God. [C.C.’s] science teacher, Rita Roark, repeatedly taught students that the Earth was created by God 6,000 years ago, that evolution is “impossible,” and that the Bible is “100 percent true.” Roark also regularly features religious questions on her tests such as “ISN’T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _____________ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” When C.C. did not write in Roark’s expected answer, “LORD,” she belittled him in front of the rest of the class. While studying other religions, Roark has told students that Buddhism is “stupid.” When Plaintiffs objected, Sabine Parish Superintendent, Sara Ebarb, told them that “this is the Bible belt.” She suggested that C.C. should “change” his faith or transfer to another district school 25 miles away where, in her words, “there are more Asians.” These weren’t just isolated incidents either: Read more
You know Fred Phelps. You loathe Fred Phelps. You despise everything he stands for, like his family members’ infamous protests at soldiers’ funerals with their awful “God Hates Fags” signs. They’ve been a symbol for many years of the religion-based animosity against the LGBT community — to the point that they’ve been labeled a “hate group” and even the most fundamentalist Christian groups denounce his church’s activities. Nate Phelps (below) is Fred’s son and a former member of Westboro Baptist Church. He left the church, and therefore the core of the family, several years ago and has since come out as an atheist, but he still keeps in touch with some of his extended family members, many of whom have also escaped from the church. Tonight, on Facebook, Nate posted this: Read more
Here’s an interesting concept for a debate: Get two scholars to debate “Jesus of Nazareth: Man or Myth.” Oh, and they’re both atheists. Richard Carrier says Jesus never existed. Zeba Crook says he did. The event takes place Saturday night, April 5, at the Centrepointe Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario. More information right here. I’ll post the video if/when it becomes available! Read more
Last night on Real Time, Bill Maher took on the Noah movie, evolution, and religion in general (with “Cosmos” producer Seth MacFarlane sitting next to him for bonus points): Read more
Skeptic Dr. Karen Stollznow describes a psychic reading given to her by a stranger that was eerily accurate: Pete paused as he connected to the other side. “Did your grandmother pass?” he asked. “You tell me,” I replied. “I have your grandmother here,” he decided. “She died about 2000.” I was surprised as this was correct. Still, I thought, it could be a lucky guess. I asked for her name. “I’m getting that she has an “r” in her name… Read more
What comes to mind when you hear the word “Separatists”? Something militant? Something evil? Though it technically refers to a group seeking independence from their country, we usually only hear the term in violent contexts (like in the image below, with the destruction caused by a separatist group). Take a look at the word in print: Read more
What is it about Chicago that draws celebrity anti-vaxers? We already have Jenny McCarthy and now we have Kristin Cavallari (reality show star and wife of Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler). In an interview on Fox Business, Cavallari admitted she didn’t vaccinate her children because she didn’t want them to get autism, a link we all know has never been proven by any credible scientist. Read more
In today’s New York Times, Mark Oppenheimer profiles the prolific atheist author S. T. Joshi: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses the evangelical Christian reaction to the anti-gay laws in Uganda: You can read more about this story 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
