Tony, Tony, Tony, what on earth were you thinking…? Tony Jones, a progressive Christian blogger on Patheos, just wrote a post explaining why he’s a Christian. And instead of offering your standard run-of-the-mill, easily-refutable apologetics, he made what may be the worst argument ever for believing in God: Everyone else does it. And he threw in some awfully ignorant remarks about atheists, too. Read more
We know that too many soldiers suffer horrible mental scars. Hundreds of thousands of American troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. (For a deeply affecting photo essay of one PTSD sufferer, click here.) They live, as the popular phrase goes, “battling demons.” Army machine-gunner Caleb Daniels is one of them. His best friend and seven other members of his unit died when their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan. Daniels was supposed to have been on it. The 2005 tragedy haunted him when he returned to his home in Savannah, Ga. At night, a tall, shadowy figure crept into his room. Sometimes the Black Thing would threaten to kill him; other times it would choke his dead best friend. Read more
Last month, a student-led revolution began at Eastside Catholic High School in Seattle, Washington. It started when Assistant Principal Mark Zmuda was forced to resign from his position after school officials confronted him about his sexual orientation and summer wedding: Before his final day at the school, hundreds of students staged a protest online, on Twitter, in the cafeteria, and outside the school: The students, like Zmuda, are all aware that the Catholic Church is an anti-gay organization and school officials are well within their right to fire Zmuda. But that doesn’t mean the students have to stand by and just watch it happen. In fact, they’re planning an even bigger protest at the end of the month: Read more
Here’s the setup: Just before the holidays, 6-year-old Isaiah Martinez (below) went to Merced Elementary School in West Covina, California with a pack of candy canes in hand to give to his classmates. Each candy cane had attached to it a religious message that told the “legend of the candy cane” which, believe it or not, has everything to do with Jesus dying on a cross. His teacher, not wanting to get in trouble, removed the messages from the candy canes, then handed them back to Isaiah to give to his friends, apparently telling him “Jesus is not allowed in school.” So, of course, a Christian group is threatening to file a lawsuit against the district: Read more
Atheists spend a lot of time talking about how to improve the world, but the four students who are part of the Pathfinders Project are actually doing that overseas right now. One of the projects they’re working on (with Children of the Border) is building latrines for people in La Fond-Jeannette, Haiti, a community still dealing with the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. If you can help them out, every $300 raised is enough for one more latrine. Read more
**Updated** Dear Richard, My girlfriend just broke up with me suddenly due to my lack of belief in god. Everything between us had been so perfect, felt so natural and right (her words), yet she went from loving me and telling me how much I meant to her on one day to telling me she can’t be with me anymore the next day. This happened a few days prior to my birthday while I was on vacation. I had disclosed about my former religious self and how I can no longer believe in god on our first date. Her best friend’s father passed away and that made her realize that she could be in front of god’s judgment any day. That scared her because she feels that she’s not good enough. She wants to be closer to god. She blamed herself for the mistreatment from her previous relationship because she wasn’t living according to god. She told me that I’m better than most people she knows in church and that no one has ever made her feel so special and beautiful like the way I made her feel, yet she cannot be with me anymore because I’m not a “man of faith”… Read more
About a month ago, the Satanic Temple made nationwide headlines when they said they wanted to donate a monument to be placed in outside the Oklahoma State Capitol building, where a Ten Commandments monument already stood: That was soon followed by a request from a Hindu group that wanted to erect a monument of Lord Hanuman. I’m sure more monument requests would have followed, but the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission voted unanimously on December 19 to declare a moratorium on… Read more
When Michael Higgins was running to become the President of Ireland in 2011, he told Atheist Ireland of his desire for a country more inclusive of the non-religious perspective, including the re-examination of the presidential oath with its godly language (“May God direct and sustain me”): Do you personally agree that, as a President elected by the people, many of whom do not believe in a god, you should be required to publicly ask a god to “direct” you in your work as our President? Clearly, if I am elected President I will take the oath: I embarked upon this campaign in the knowledge that this would be expected of me if elected. There is to be a constitutional convention in the new year — which I fully support — and it is at this forum that matters such as the oath ought to be examined. It is of great importance that the Presidency and all surrounding it ought to be fit for purpose for a modern state with a population comprising a large number of different religious beliefs as well as none. In the time since his election, he appears to have lived up to his words. Even his last three Christmas addresses have included no mention of Christ or Christianity. Read more
Christopher Schaeffer was recently elected to the Pomfret Town Board in New York. The image of his swearing-in went viral after pictures of him wearing a colander on his head (he’s a Pastafarian, after all) were published online in The Observer: I had a chance to speak with Schaeffer last night to get more insight into what he was hoping to accomplish, what message he hoped to convey, and what the response has been like for him. Read more
