Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) is in trouble. After nearly 30 years, the atheist alternative to super-spiritual Alcoholics Anonymous will no longer be funded in full by the Council for Secular Humanism (a part of Center for Inquiry) due to budget constraints. That means, in order to continue helping people achieve sobriety without resorting to the supernatural, it needs to raise quite a bit of money: Read more
According to research just published in the Journal of Institutional Economics, there may be a correlation between the percentage of atheists and agnostics in a state and that state’s level of entrepreneurial activity. Read more
Here’s Bill Nye the other day, referring to “Ark Encounter,” the Noah’s Ark theme park: Reached by phone Thursday, Nye said he was disappointed the project would go forward and said he hoped it “goes out of business.” “If he builds that ark, it’s my strong opinion, it’s bad for the commonwealth of Kentucky and bad for scientists based in Kentucky and bad for the U.S.,” Nye said. “And I’m not joking, bad for the world.” … Nye said he was “heartbroken and sickened for the Commonwealth of Kentucky” after learning that the project would move forward. He said the ark would eventually draw more attention to the beliefs of Ham’s ministry, which preaches that the Bible’s creation story is a true account, and as a result, “voters and taxpayers in Kentucky will eventually see that this is not in their best interest.” And here’s Creationist Ken Ham yesterday, missing the mark as usual: Read more
Like the premature news of Mark Twain’s demise, reports of Snowball Williams’ death have been greatly exaggerated. A local coroner declared him gone, but two hours later, Williams’ leg started moving. That can only mean one thing: God did it. Read more
Now that the Boy Scouts of America allows gay members, some Christians have created their own D-rated alternative and are parading it around as if it’s just as good: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, responds to the idea that I’m going to hell for being an atheist: 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
Marwa Berro is an ex-Muslim blogger whose writing has enlightened me whether she’s talking about transitioning out of Islam or why she continues to be an activist. Her latest piece may be the most eye-opening of them all. In it, she writes about growing up in “Hezbollah culture” and how thinking of the group as a “terrorist Islamist organization” doesn’t quite encapsulate its power and effect: Read more
The people of Apopka, Florida love their Jesus. That’s why, last year, a local school board gave permission to a Christian group to hand out Bibles to students (leading a young atheist activist to counter with a freethought literature distribution of his own). It’s also the city where there’s a tight race for one of the seats on the board of commissioners. The election between incumbent Marilyn Ustler McQueen and challenger Diane Velazquez takes place in two weeks and it just took a nasty turn. After a candidate forum Monday night, McQueen took to Facebook to post thoughts about her opponent. Her biggest complaint? Velasquez doesn’t appear to be a True Christian™! Read more
Christianity has roughly 41,000 denominations, all of their members quietly or not-so-quietly claiming that they are purer and better Christians than the folks in the other 40,999 groups. Think of all the pain — strife, frustration, aggression, violence, heartbreak — that radiated out from the forming of virtually each of those factions. Christians love a good schism (or at least, they don’t seem able to help themselves in causing new ones). With each new rift, the human toll in terms of shunnings, ruptured family ties, and lost friendships goes up. You’ll need a Python-strength sense of humor to see the fun in that. Splinters, as we all know, can hurt. Read more
The Bible says that Jesus spoke and listened to prostitutes with demonstrable love and acceptance, refusing to reinforce the rejection and condemnation these biblical women endured from their communities. It does not indicate that he may have arrested or detained them, threatened them with imprisonment, or coerced them into hearing hours of sex-shaming tirades. But to Project Phoenix, the organization behind the anti-prostitution initiative Project ROSE, that’s the best strategy for rescuing sex workers from themselves, whether they like it or not. Read more
