This is a guest post written by Herb Silverman. … For years I’ve been advocating for “big-tent” atheism, which includes agnostics, humanists, secular humanists, freethinkers, and more. It’s a tent where people can choose activities according to their circumstances and comfort levels, a tent where they can follow their passion while respecting and supporting those with a different emphasis… My atheist tent is usually not big enough to include religious fundamentalists, but I’ll offer eight examples of such agreement: Read more
Kansas City Star columnist Cindy Hoedel believes 2014 is the year society should start accepting atheists and that begins by giving society someone to accept: I suspect a large number of the 33 million are in-the-closet atheists who don’t want to be the only person in their family, workplace or book club to use the “A”-word. Let me go first: My name is Cindy, and I am an atheist. I really want to like this article. I mean, she’s advocating for something I obviously support. But I’m having a hard time. It starts with the line “Let me go first.” The admission is welcome, but Hoedel isn’t even close to being first. (Hell, she’s not even the first newspaper columnist to use her platform to come out. That link’s from a decade ago, but I’m sure it happened before then, too.) Then there’s this line: Read more
A nun originally from El Salvador and working in Italy went to the hospital earlier this week complaining of stomach cramps, only to give birth to a child hours later: “I did not know I was pregnant. I only felt a stomach pain,” Italian news agency ANSA quoted her as saying. It appears the child was conceived during a trip back home last year — cue a joke about “indulgences” — though the nun hasn’t admitted to any sin. But there’s a major upside to the birth: Read more
Given that religious conservatives look down upon divorce and fight against LGBT rights in part to protect what they call the “sanctity of marriage,” you would think their rates of divorce would be pretty low. But a new study scheduled to be published in an upcoming edition of the American Journal of Sociology suggests otherwise: Demographers Jennifer Glass at the University of Texas and Philip Levchak at the University of Iowa looked at the entire map of the United States, going county by county, to examine where divorces occurred in 2000 and what the characteristics of those counties were. Their work confirms that one of the strongest factors predicting divorce rates (per 1000 married couples) is the concentration of conservative or evangelical Protestants in that county. Read more
Legislators in Bengkulu, a province of Indonesia, are in the process of drafting legislation that would make it mandatory to attend Islamic prayers every week: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: Why do atheists always seem to pick on Christians? 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
It’s an important job, it’s a wonderful organization, and all the details about the position can be found here. The deadline for applications is January 26. Read more
This Monday, the Flagstaff Freethinkers are organizing an incredible number of community service projects in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King: Just check out some of the events planned: Read more
Ned Carter has written a Kama Sutra for evangelical Christians. It’s called Zero Shades of Grey: A Christian Guide to Acceptable Sex: Read more
Already, several children have died because their parents were members of the Followers of Christ church in Oregon and believed that illnesses could be cured through prayer instead of by trained professionals. The state, in response, passed a law that removed religious exemptions in the case of such a death. In Idaho, the list of children who have died through religious neglect may be even longer, but the state hasn’t acted on it. Considering the state’s House and Senate are run by Republicans, I was doubtful that the law would change, but it looks like common sense is finally making a breakthrough: Democratic Rep. John Gannon of Boise says Idaho’s existing faith-healing exemptions for injury-to-a-child crimes should be updated. He has support from Linda Martin, an Oregon woman who left the church in Idaho decades ago and has returned this week to champion the changes. “These children need a chance to grow up,” Martin told The Associated Press Thursday. … In Idaho, someone found guilty of felony injury to a child — causing conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death or permitting a child to be injured — can get a decade behind bars. But the law has this exemption: “Treatment by prayer or spiritual means alone shall not for that reason alone be construed to have violated the duty of care to such child.” Gannon’s proposal would lift that exemption “whenever a child’s medical condition may cause death or permanent disability.” “Medical treatment for physical harm to a child should supersede every other consideration,” Gannon said. This is one of those bills that ought to be immune from debate. You can respect religious freedom while still drawing a line at preventable deaths of children due to the parents’ religious beliefs. But Republican Rep. Christy Perry seems to think the death of a child is okay as long as the parents were true believers: Read more
