DarkMatters2525 finally got God to give us the tutorial we’ve been waiting for: How to create the universe: Turns out we may need another tutorial… this one’s got too many flaws. Read more
Last year, a study released by The Chronicle of Philanthropy suggested that the most religious states were also the most charitable: Donors in Southern states, for instance, give roughly 5.2 percent of their discretionary income to charity — both to religious and to secular groups — compared with donors in the Northeast, who give 4.0 percent. Before you jump to conclusions that religion and generosity were somehow connected, keep in mind that those numbers included giving “both to religious and to secular groups”… In other words, church counted as charity. But when you excluded donations given to churches and religious groups, the map changed dramatically, giving an edge to the least religious states in the country: Read more
Nearly two years ago, the United Coalition of Reason offered to pay $5,700 to the Port Authority of Allegheny County (in Pennsylvania) to put up 12 king-sized bus ads over the course of a month to advertise the newly-formed Pittsburgh Coalition of Reason. The Port Authority said yes… at first. But just as the ads were about to run, they changed their minds, telling United CoR that the text of the ads — “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” — didn’t comply with the company’s ad policy. Yesterday, a complaint was filed by United CoR in a U.S. District Court: Read more
“Hi honey, how was school?” “Hi Mom. Okay, I guess. Ms. Crowley killed a girl with an axe, right before our eyes. Then she and Mr. Morrison, the janitor, took us on a plane to New York where three hundred men wearing clown masks did naughty things to our private areas before putting us on a flight back just in time to get on the school bus. Ms. Crowley gave us a baby’s blood to drink on the way home. Hey, I’m hungry, can I have a peanut-butter sandwich?” That’s the (admittedly) cartoon-y version of how the 1980s and 1990s conversations about so-called ritual satanic abuse went down in hundreds of American households. How could an adult with half a brain possibly believe such outlandish, impossible tales? But parents of young children that were led into telling fabrications did believe them. Then police, detectives, and prosecutors did. And ultimately, jurors did, too. Over about a dozen years, the wavelet of prosecutions for Satanic ritual abuse was as close as we got to a modern-day, national witch hunt. I still remember, by name, some of the actual victims, adults accused of unspeakable things they didn’t do, couldn’t possibly have done — not literally, not really, not within the known constraints of time and space and physics. Kelly Michaels. Paul Ingram. Virginia McMartin. Betsy and Bob Kelly. These people went to trial — and to jail — despite the badly botched police investigations, and despite the obvious hackwork performed by pediatric therapists who somehow kept seeing proof of child sex abuse where none existed. Against all common sense, juries put innocent men and women behind bars on the vilest of charges. Over time, as the moral panic subsided and new questions were raised, more and more of these prisoners were released and usually exonerated. Now, it looks like two more will finally walk free — after twenty-one years behind bars. Meet Fran and Dan Keller, who, in 1992, stood accused of doing this (the following is not for the faint of heart): Read more
You may recall that Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Saccone (a Republican, of course) has put into motion a plan to put the words “In God We Trust” in every public school — and possibly every classroom — in the state. Last month, that bill made it through the education committee. And earlier this week, Saccone visited Avonworth High School to speak to students in a “Problems in Democracy” honors-level class about politics and this bill in particular. (What the hell was he thinking? He thrives on ignorance and revisionist history, and he’s stepping into the octagon with smart seniors?! Dear lord…) If you read and listen to reporter Trina Orlando’s story, though, it seemed like everything went without a hitch: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how atheists can give thanks today and to whom we should be grateful: 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
Now that Thanksgiving is upon us, it’s time to kick off this year’s Heathen Holiday Cards! As you may recall, last year, we posted readers’ best/funniest/most irreverent/warmest non-religious holiday cards. We wanted to kick off the 2013 holiday season by featuring some cards that our readers are selling. The reason this particular post is going up earlier this year (Yes, guys, I read your gripes that the call-out for cards was too damn early. I hear your complaints) is because I wanted to give readers a chance to sell their cards, and they’ll likely need a couple weeks to get them out to you. Not only did we get responses, we had some generous offers for giveaways! Let’s start with those. First up: Noble Works Cards They have a bevy of irreverent cards for sale, like this one: Read more
It was three and a half years ago when philosopher Daniel Dennett and researcher Linda LaScola released a groundbreaking study of pastors who no longer believed in God yet were still in the pulpit. The point wasn’t that religion was wrong, but that there were pastors who didn’t believe in what they were preaching and felt stuck in their roles. They needed a way out. A year later, that study led to the formation of The Clergy Project, a private discussion forum for closeted atheist pastors. Now, Dennett and LaScola have released a book (with a foreword written by Richard Dawkins) that details what they discovered and learned from their study. It’s called Caught in The Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind: Read more
