You may have heard that Costco believes the Bible is a book of fiction. I think readers sent me more links to this week’s Costco controversy than any other story they’ve sent me in a long time. I ignored it at first, telling them it was probably just someone moving labels around, not some Costco conspiracy. But the story pressed on… It all started with this tweet by Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach: Costco has Bibles for sale under the genre of FICTION Hmmmm…… pic.twitter.com/mLZVogkSfd— Caleb Kaltenbach (@calebwilds) November 15, 2013 As amusing as that might be for atheists, my suspicions held up: Costco never approved the “mislabeling” of the Bible. Turns out it was just a contained mistake: Read more
The Motor Vehicles Commission of the state of New Jersey continues its war on nonbelievers! Well, not so much a “war” as a kind of backward, archaic prejudice. You’ll of course recall the great saga of American Atheists’ Dave Silverman and his battle to exercise his right to wear his atheism on his license plate. After initial refusals to produce his plate, the New Jersey MVC relented, and there was much rejoicing. But a new gauntlet has been thrown by the Garden State’s regulatory machine. This time, the aggrieved party is one Shannon Morgan, who attempted to get her own godless license plate as such: “8THEIST” However, as you can see in the screen grab below, Shannon was thwarted. The decree from the MVC? “Requested plate text is considered objectionable.” That’s right, folks, indicating your atheism on your car is still “objectionable” to the state of New Jersey. Read more
For years now, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been in a legal battle to end the “parish exemption” that allows ministers to deduct the cost of rent for their church-owned houses from their taxable income. FFRF believes that this shows preferential treatment for religious leaders. FFRF’s own board has even paid its co-presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor $15,000 each as part of their housing allowance, but because they don’t qualify as “ministers of the gospel,” the law doesn’t apply to them. That’s one of the ways they’ve tried to prove the law is illegal. A few months ago, the U.S. Department of Justice ridiculously argued that the exemption was legal and that FFRF’s leaders were eligible for the tax breaks… because atheism, they said, was a religion: Non-theistic beliefs, including atheism, may qualify as “religious” beliefs in various contexts because they pertain to religion and fulfill a similar role in a person’s life: … Because [FFRF] can show no facts to suggest that the IRS will apply terms like “minister” and “religious organization” as if they turn on adherence to some theistic belief or other content, this Court should not presume that the IRS would act inconsistently with the governing law regarding whether atheism a religion for purposes of an atheist’s claim… … No thanks, says Gaylor. “We are not ministers,” she said. “We are having to tell the government the obvious — we are not a church.” Yesterday, in a very surprising (but legally sound) decision, U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb ruled in favor of the FFRF, writing that the “parish exemption” was indeed unconstitutional: Read more
Tomorrow afternoon, an interfaith group in Boston (including the Humanist Community at Harvard) will be packing meals for the hungry. Their goal is to package a whopping 50,000 meals in a single day — a huge undertaking, but very possible given their track record. This infographic will tell you everything you need to know: If you’re in the area, consider volunteering! Either way, you can donate to the very worthy cause right here. They need to raise $12,500 to pay for the meals and if you give at least $10, you can enter in a drawing to win Chris Stedman’s book Faitheist. Read more
Have you ever thought about reading the Bible and then thought to yourself “Naw, that writing is the worst!” Well, you wouldn’t be wrong, and we have a solution for you! Jacob Fortin of The Good Atheist fame is working on translating (for lack of a better word) the Bible into regular human words that are compelling, funny, yet still aligned with the original texts. Here’s a preview: In the beginning of everything that ever was, God created the heavens and the Earth. A boring, formless mass of liquid cloaked in darkness, the Earth had relatively low property value but tons of potential. The Spirit of God, hovering above it like a comic book villain, said “Let there be light” and the whole place lit up magically without any point of origin. To ensure this bright new creation would forever be different from the black void, the Creator named one of them ‘light’ and the other ‘darkness’. God saw what he had done, and needless to say, was extremely impressed with himself [I mean, wouldn’t you be?]. Awesome — the whole book of Genesis is ready to go and can be found here. It’s wonderfully written and will feature some awesome original drawings by Fortin, too. It’s funny and irreverent without The book is due out in March, but he needs one more financial bump to get it out in time, so he’s doing what any of us would to raise a few bucks: Holding a telethon. Read more
It’s a good thing Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian, is here to give us a template for the perfect Thanksgiving prayer: Read more
A few years ago, Jana Riess began tweeting every chapter of the Bible, one a day. Her efforts have now been compiled into an excellent book called The Twible: So what does the Bible look like in Read more
Sylvia Browne, the “psychic” whose appearances on talk shows like “Montel” and “Larry King Live” made her a well-known celebrity, died on Wednesday at the age of 77. Yesterday, a number of skeptics who have debunked her tricks for decades released statements concerning her passing — and they held very little back in their distaste of her professional life. Read more
Sioux Falls school board member Kent Alberty has had quite the week, what with the death threats and all. From across the country, he and the four other board members received messages from upset Fox News viewers. Some of the missives were respectful in their criticism, but many more were nasty, even threatening. One anonymous correspondent proposed that the board be lined up against a wall and shot. In an effort to restore some normalcy, The Sioux Falls School District has removed the board members’ personal information from its web site for now, to discourage any more misdirected feedback. What did Alberty and his colleagues do to deserve all that bile? That’s the crazy part. They decided to honor the proposal of a local war veteran to make elementary and middle-school students recite the Pledge of Allegiance. In fact, the board then went further, voting to make the same requirement of students at high school assemblies. A local news outlet published a clumsy or erroneous headline that implied the Pledge had been dropped. The Fox team got wind of it, and next thing the Sioux Falls board knew, Megyn Kelly was on the air, sneering at the godless school authorities, essentially leading the braying Fox Nation into the inevitable two minutes hate. Read more
Things a State Capitol building needs: A place where legislators can cast votes. Some conference rooms. Offices for the elected officials. Maybe a gift shop. Things a State Capitol building doesn’t need: A home for Jesus. Yet, in blueprints for the soon-to-be-renovated Capitol building in Oklahoma, House Speaker T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton) appears to have added plans for a chapel: Read more
