The Red Bank Humanists (in New Jersey) have sponsored and put up their own billboard, modeled off the United Coalition of Reason model, encouraging like-minded people to come join them: So far, no vandalism, so I’d consider the campaign a success! (Thanks to Adam for his help!) Read more
The free, massive, amazing Skepticon conference in Springfield, Missouri takes place this weekend and there are already upwards of 1,000 registrants! They’re about to hit their fundraising goal, but if you have the means of donating anything, it’ll just go toward next year’s event. This is one of the few major conferences aimed at those who don’t have the money required to attend the other ones and it’s entirely run by students. Support them any way you can! (***Update***: Skepticon is fully funded for this year, but there’s still next year!) (On a personal note, while I was scheduled to speak Sunday morning, a personal emergency has come up and I won’t be able to attend. If they invite me back, though, I’ll be there next year!) Read more
Curiosity, as we all know, killed the cat. It is also responsible for humankind’s fall from paradise (thanks, Eve), for the spread of evil all over the world (great job, Pandora), and for the humiliations suffered by Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Our culture and vernacular are full of ancient warnings against inquisitiveness, but most of us no longer believe in them. On the contrary: Over the past few hundred years, curiosity has gone from an affliction born, supposedly, of vanity and lack of piousness, to a virtue that is celebrated in everything from space exploration to family movies (Hotel Transylvania, The Croods). British author Philip Ball chronicles this journey of liberation in his 2013 book, Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything. Read more
Katie J.M. Baker has an excellent article in the latest Newsweek about young New Yorkers who left their faith. Like Jacob Link, who spent much of his youth in the grasp of his evangelical Christian megachurch… until he began to change his mind: Read more
Fifteen years ago, tired of yobs and hooligans and a perceived decline in civility, British prime minister Tony Blair and his New Labour cabinet cooked up a nasty little legal concoction. It’s called an ASBO. The acronym stands for Anti Social Behavior Order. These civil orders were designed to be issued to people whose unpleasant behavior was not otherwise (easily) prosecutable under U.K. law. And as long as we’re talking about things like vandalism and public urination, no argument here. But soon, British police and magistrates were handing out ASBOs for virtually every behavior that someone, somewhere, disliked, including public cursing, loitering, using (allegedly) racist language, and “being rude to members of the public.” The standard for issuing an ASBO was astonishingly low from the start: anyone thought to be causing “harassment, alarm or distress” could find himself on the wrong end of one. Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: Can you hate religion but love Jesus?: Incidentally, Jefferson Bethke’s new book about why Jesus > Religion is now out and he spoke about his paradoxical views in the Washington Post yesterday. 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
The American Humanist Association just launched a new billboard in Moscow, Idaho encouraging people to become non-religious wedding officiants through the (AHA-affiliated) Humanist Institute’s Continuum for Humanist Education: The billboard reads “Join Your Friends in Holy Matrimony.” Read more
The other week, staunch Catholic Bridget Kurt took the Pope Francis prayer card down from her fridge and threw it in the trash. “It seems he’s focusing on bringing back the left that’s fallen away, but what about the conservatives?” said Ms. Kurt, a hospice community educator. “Even when it was discouraging working in pro-life, you always felt like Mother Teresa was on your side and the popes were encouraging you. Now I feel kind of thrown under the bus.” That’s from a piece in Sunday’s New York Times that describes conservative Catholics as feeling “abandoned and deeply unsettled.” They despair that after 35 years in which the previous popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, drew clear boundaries between right and wrong, Francis is muddying Catholic doctrine to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Wrote Catholic blogger Steve Skojec of recent papal pronouncements (including one that criticized proselytizing as “solemn nonsense”): Read more
Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll will doing a Q&A live on Twitter today morning, from 9:15a-9:45a (PST). Have a question for him? Tweet to @PastorMark and use the hashtag #AskPM. (Need ideas? You can find a few here.) Remember, don’t be rude. We’re better than that. But tough questions are perfectly acceptable. Read more
As I wrote a few days ago, the Foundation Beyond Belief is asking atheists (and anyone else who would like to join us) to help with the relief efforts by contributing to our Humanist Crisis Response program. 100% of your donations will go to Citizens’ Disaster Response Center, a community-based relief organization in the Philippines. But that’s not the only way you can help out. Read more
