Quick followup to my earlier post about Rory O’Neill, the Irish drag queen who got herself in a world of legal hurt after she called specific individuals homophobes. After I wrote it, I pondered the apparent similarity of “homophobia” to words like “Islamophobia,” “anti-Semitism,” and “misogyny.” Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: Are atheists capable of love?: 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
We’ve heard of atheist student groups that volunteer or donate to charity by hosting events like blood drives, bake sales, and walkathons. All are fantastic, but what the Secular Legal Society at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Boyd School of Law is doing to help others took me by surprise because of how novel and welcome it is: Read more
A week after the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debate, it’s time to put the topic to bed, along with the viral photos of Creationists at the event holding a sketchpad with scrawled questions. And we will … just as soon as we’ve pointed you to this imgur page with clever “translations” of those questions. Here’s a sample: There, all done now! Read more
When the Jewish mashiach (messiah) finally returns, guess who won’t be overjoyed to see him? Renters in Jersualem, who fear they will be will be kicked out of their apartments. The Christian Science Monitor found that In apartment contracts around the city, there are clauses stipulating what will happen to the apartment if or when the Jewish Messiah, or mashiach, comes. The owners, generally religious Jews living abroad, are concerned that he will arrive, build a third temple, and turn Israel into paradise — and they will be stuck waiting for their apartment tenants’ contracts to run out before they can move back. It is prophesied in the Jewish scriptures that there will be no more war, murder, or theft, the Jerusalem Temple will be rebuilt (all that remains today is the Western Wall), and all the Jews will return to the land of Israel upon his arrival. This period is known as Olam Haba, or the World to Come. Read more
If you were to visit Spearville Elementary School in Dodge City, Kansas and looked up before you entered the building, you’d be in for a bit of a surprise: That’d be a giant cross welcoming children through the public school’s door. Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent the district a letter months ago — and another one last month — but the school board didn’t get around to discussing it until this week and they finally came to a decision: They’re going to pretend nothing happened. Read more
No. No it’s not. Okay, we got that out of the way. On The Stone, The New York Times’ philosophy/opinion blog, Gary Gutting interviewed Alvin Plantinga. The former is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame; the latter is a former professor of philosophy and a former president of the Society of Christian Philosophers and the American Philosophical Association. Plantinga also recently wrote a book called Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. When I initially read this article, I just skimmed it and rolled my eyes a couple of times. When I began writing something up on it, I read it more thoroughly and had this response: The conversation between the two philosophers was… interesting. It seems like to be an exercise in various types of bad arguments. But, here we are. Who’s ready to dive in with me? Read more
Last summer, the Secular Student Alliance formed a strategic partnership with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in order to protect the rights of young atheists. It was a match made in hell, in all the right ways. Looks like that partnership is being put to use thanks to a developing situation in North Carolina, where administrators at Pisgah High School in Canton are refusing to allow an atheist club to form: After first meeting with Assistant Principal Connie Weeks, the student was told that Weeks needed to “look into” the formation of the group. At subsequent meetings, the student was told by Weeks that they should just join a different club, because the secular club didn’t “fit in” to the community at Pisgah High School, and there were no faculty sponsors available — despite the Equal Access Act stating that if a sponsor couldn’t be found, the administration is required to assign one. Read more
