Imagine: You’re a priest. A group of Catholic terrorists has kidnapped another victim who they believe is a traitor. After a few days of violent interrogation, they’re ready to kill him and “disappear” his body. The devout terrorists ask you to come to their hideout to give the victim his last rites; they say that now that they’re done with him, they don’t mind him going to heaven. Do you go? Morally, it isn’t a black-and-white issue. It is your belief that if you do what’s asked, you’ll save a man’s eternal soul. You’ll also buy influence with the terrorists, potentially giving you a chance to affect the outcome of future kidnappings. But you also know that by providing your religious services, you’ll be making it easier for the captors to pull the trigger — and visit deep, prolonged anguish upon the murdered man’s family, who’ll never know what happened to him. Plus, you’ll make it easier for the gang to kill future victims. Read more
Over the summer, Paul Fidalgo posted about a popular Bible app called YouVersion — which, despite having the worst app name ever, was still incredibly useful to anyone who wanted a portable Bible. It turns out a lot of those users are atheists and they’re not using the app in the way the creator intended: Read more
If you’re interested in gazing up at a 40-feet bronze statue of Jesus, try to get to Syria before al-Qaeda fundies blow it up. From the Washington Post: A giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war. The gargantuan Son of God was resurrected erected on Cherubim mountain a few weeks ago, positioned on a base that brings the top of his head to 105 feet. The whole project is, as they say, a leap of faith. Read more
“A violation of my freedom of speech.” That’s how school bus driver George Nathaniel, who is also a pastor for two Minneapolis churches, sees his firing. Nathaniel was in his second year of bus driving. Despite an earlier warning from the transportation company that employed him, he never stopped inviting kids to pray with him on the way to school. After receiving a complaint from the district about the prayers, the bus company, Durham School Services, gave Nathaniel a warning and assigned him two new bus routes. … That didn’t dissuade Nathaniel. “I let them know I am a pastor and I am going to pray,” he said. Praying is fine, of course. However, if you’re an authority figure to children and you represent the school, as Nathaniel did, it’s against the law to do it out loud, invitation-style, on a school bus — a vehicle on which public-school kids are your captive audience. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause says so. Read more
Mike Smith, the President of the LaGrange Humanists (in Georgia), was in the hunt to become the next mayor of his city: Unfortunately, he lost. He lost badly. Read more
Alabama Media Group reporter Erin Edgemon is running a series on atheists in the state and she’s tackling some great subjects: Roger and Pat Cleveland, who run an annual gathering for atheists at Lake Hypatia; Duncan Henderson, who began a secular student group at his junior high school and currently runs the only high school atheist group in the state; and Jerald Motyka, a former pastor who eventually tossed his faith. The big picture you get from the articles is that there are a lot more atheists in the state than the stereotypes would have you believe. But many atheists, wrongly assuming they’re alone, remain silent about their beliefs Read more
The group Thou Shall Not Move, which we last covered on this blog back in July, is at it again. Quick refresher: Indignant Christians formed TSNM after the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued a McConnellsville, Pennsylvania public school for unconstitutionally displaying a Ten Commandments monument. The monument is now covered up until the case is resolved in court. Meanwhile, TSNM is taking a stand against the mean old atheists by commissioning new monuments, one after the other, and triumphantly shipping them to towns across Pennsylvania. Hence, breaking news: The North Ten Mile Baptist Church in Amity will be the newest recipient of a 6-foot-by-3-foot, 1,600-pound granite monument engraved with the Old Testament’s Ten Commandments. Did you spot the mistake in “thinking” here? Read more
Eric Fromm is the student body president at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Oregon. And last week, he publicly outed himself as an atheist: I was an atheist long before I came to NCU. I was baptized Lutheran, and raised Methodist, but as time went on I slowly came to the conclusion that God wasn’t real. For me, church was an empty ritual that I participated in so I could see friends, scripture was largely mythological, and Jesus was a great moral teacher, but he wasn’t God. Yes, yes, I know: What about the obvious question? Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how an American Legion group denied a park district $2,600 because its board’s commissioner didn’t want to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance: You can read more about the story here. I’m happy to say we’ve reached the $2,600 goal in under a week — and then some! I’ll be getting this money to the park district soon (more on that later). The coverage has been pretty positive, though one reporter asked a fair question of what will happen in future years. I hope we can raise enough this year to ease the stress in the future, but I’ll revisit this story in a year to see how the park district is doing and take it from there. 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
My state’s legislature did something useful for once — and it’s about damn time: American Atheists says that image is the most popular one they’ve ever posted on Facebook (by a factor of three). Read more
