A couple of weeks ago, we lost a really fantastic atheist activist, Eric Broze. One of the co-founders of the Coming Out Godless project, Eric’s work was always meaningful and helpful, yet he never gave up his sense of humor in the process. (See: The United Church of Bacon, which he also helped create.) I was looking back at my email exchanges with Eric over the past several years and what stands out is how committed he was to the work he was doing, even when his name wasn’t going to be the one in the spotlight. When he had an idea, he would pursue it wholeheartedly. Ed Clint has a beautiful writeup about Eric here.) I had a chance to meet Eric and his wonderful wife Rose a few years ago in Las Vegas and they were as fun to be around as their online personas would suggest: Appropriately, his memorial service was a celebration of his life, just as he would have liked. It took place at a bar, with his closest friends sharing their favorite memories of Eric: You can read more about Eric here. Rose is accepting donations at the Paypal address rose@radful.com. Read more
Over the past week, I’ve seen this image multiple times on Facebook and elsewhere, a supposed denunciation of the Common Core version of math that kids are now learning: That picture is especially popular on conservatives’ Facebook walls… and I’m sure one of your relatives has said something about it, too. On the surface, it seems ridiculous. The top makes sense; the bottom is silly; screw you, Common Core! Except that the top doesn’t make sense, the bottom does, and the connection to Common Core is completely misunderstood. (Says this math teacher.) Here’s what’s going on: Read more
A couple of days ago, I posted about a large cross that has been sitting on the side of a road in Lake Elsinore, California in honor of a young man who died there a few years ago. The City Council repeatedly said they would remove the cross from public property… but they never did, leading the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center to send a letter warning them about the possible legal consequences for “selective enforcement of its signage ordinance”: Yesterday, the young man’s mother Ann Marie Devaney told city officials she would take down the cross she put up nearly two years ago: Read more
I’ve been to a number of wakes and funerals, and — so far so good — have never stolen anything from the deceased. For some odd reason, that urge never came over me. Now, were the recently departed friend or relative to clutch an object that I wanted, I don’t think I’d have the chutzpah to ask the family if I could have it, but I would still consider asking preferable to taking. Of course, being an atheist (one who’s… Read more
If you’re a member of a City Council, how do you not understand this by now? If you’re giving an invocation prayer, it must be non-denominational; you can’t pray to Jesus when you’re supposed to represent everybody. Hell, the Supreme Court is about to rule on this exact matter very soon. I guess no one on the Cuyahoga Falls City Council in Ohio got the memo. Ever since Councilman Terry Mader became the council’s chaplain in January, his invocation prayers have all ended with the words, “In Jesus’ name, we pray.” On Monday, local residents did their best to protect their city from a lawsuit: Read more
Was Satan, that jokester, up to his wily ways again — by burning churchgoers’ foreheads? Father Eugene Baker said he first became aware of the problem when a parishioner told him during Holy Communion they were “experiencing a burning sensation.” About 30 parishioners had received ashes to mark the beginning of Lent at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Newtownshandrum, County Cork. “I stopped the service and alerted people that there was a problem with the ash. They went to wash it off in the sacristy,” he said. Some people did get quite a nasty burn from the ash, whatever’s in it.” Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how Elevation Church in North Carolina performs “spontaneous baptisms” with a dose of deceit: You can read more about this practice 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! Read more
I scrolled through the entire thing and it was totally worth it: Mercury and Jupiter blew my mind away when I got to them. Read more
Aww. Ain’t conciliation grand? [T]here is at least one sphere of Egyptian contemporary life where interfaith cooperation perseveres, and that is at weekly exorcisms performed by one of the country’s most celebrated priests, Father Sama’an Ibrahim. He is one of the few priests in Egypt who can preform exorcisms — not even the Coptic Pope can — and his reputation for expelling demons of all kinds extends well beyond his Christian flock. … Read more
Four years ago, philosopher Daniel Dennett and researcher Linda LaScola released a groundbreaking study of pastors who no longer believed in God yet were still in the pulpit. It was a project that led to the formation of The Clergy Project, a private discussion forum for closeted atheist pastors. Dennett and LaScola released a book last November explaining what they discovered and learned from their study called Caught in The Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind: Now, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science has uploaded a video interview (in two parts) with LaScola in which she goes more in depth about her research: Read more
