Two weeks ago, I posted about how the Williston Atheists (in Florida) wanted to erect a pro-atheist monument outside the Levy County Courthouse where a Ten Commandments monument currently resides (see image below): The group was modeling its efforts after what American Atheists did outside the Bradford County Courthouse in northern Florida last summer: Read more
Banana king Ray Comfort has a new Facebook policy, revealed in a recent status update: Immediate banning for cussing, mockery of Christians, blasphemy, mocking the Bible, libel of Ray, rudeness, or not giving “God” or “Jesus” caps. A lot of atheists have already been banned today for not giving “God” and “Jesus” caps. Old habits die hard. One commenter was banned for responding “How pompous can you get?,” so Comfort means business. Read more
Yesterday, the New York State Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Lee Zeldin (Republican, of course) commemorating the 60th anniversary of the addition of “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance: For the most part, this is one of those acts of privilege for religious politicians. Zeldin doesn’t know or doesn’t care about what those words have meant to non-religious students who have been forced or pressured to stand up and say them despite not believing them. I wouldn’t care all that much if it wasn’t for Zeldin saying this in his press release: Read more
As we’ve seen, David Silverman of American Atheists recently took umbrage to the term “secular Jew.” Silverman wants Jews who don’t believe in God to assert their atheism and stop identifying as Jews. He believes that nonbelievers should “come out” to their families and friends and in some instances their work colleagues, identifying themselves as atheists. He argues that when religionless Americans avoid the word “atheist” to describe themselves for fear of sounding exclusionary, they are being dishonest. “Atheist is the correct word that has simply been made into a bad word by bigots,” he said, arguing that only the word “atheist” accurately conveys the proper meaning to people who are believers, “and telling the truth benefits everyone.” Friendly Atheist guest contributor Kate Bigam raised her voice in protest, arguing that “secular Jew” is most assuredly a perfectly fine descriptor of many people whose culture and heritage is Jewish, even if they never open the Torah or go to a synagogue. Now, at the Huffington Post, Roy Speckhardt of the American Humanist Association weighs in. Speckhardt would like all nontheists to present a more or less united front, without petty squabbling about labels. Read more
When Ken Ham first announced that he would be debating Bill Nye, my reaction was something like this: I couldn’t believe Bill Nye would agree to it. It was an easy PR win for Ham and the Creation Museum. Creationism would be on the same stage as evolution (when it shouldn’t even be in the same country) and that alone was reason enough to say no. But having watched the debate last night, I’ve come to a slightly different conclusion. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Read more
If you missed the Bill Nye/Ken Ham debate, you can catch up via our live-blog right here. In the meantime, here’s an excellent summary: (via @MacLtoons) Read more
Paul Fidalgo and I will be liveblogging tonight’s debate between Creationist Ken Ham and Bill Nye the Science Guy. You can watch a livestream of the event right here: Our commentary is below: Read more
It’s been a few months since I’ve posted anything from Pastor Steven Anderson, but this one’s worth it. Anderson’s not at all happy with the new Left Behind movie, so he spent part of a sermon ranting against actor Nicolas Cage, Hollywood, Satan, celebrities, the Left Behind series, and “ungodly wicked whoremongers”: Read more
The School of Engineering and Arts in Golden Valley, Minnesota opened up in the fall of 2012. It took them less than 18 months to violate the Constitution. According to a letter from the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center, the public school sent children on a field to a local Christian church (Calvary Lutheran Church) in order to package food for the hungry for a separate Christian non-profit group (Feed My Starving Children). Both the church and the non-profit are interested in spreading the Gospel. Even after a parent pointed out the problems with this field trip last year, the school just ignored the complaint, a fact the AHLC points out before explaining the legal issues once again: Read more
