Last weekend, self-described “militant atheist” James Maxie went to church with his girlfriend and ended up severely beating the pastor, Rev. Norman Hayes, after Hayes asked his girlfriend if she felt safe with him: As I wrote earlier this week, Pastor Hayes did nothing to deserve the violent attack on him, while Maxie deserves whatever punishment he has coming his way. It’s also worth noting that Maxie’s atheism was pretty incidental to this whole story. He didn’t beat up the pastor because he was a pastor; Maxie did it because he was provoked by someone and he had a short fuse. (Maxie once spent two years in jail on an assault conviction, by the way.) I’m not excusing him from his actions, only pointing out that religion wasn’t the primary cause for this attack. But a headline reading “Criminal Commits a Crime” wouldn’t be very interesting… so the “militant atheist” phrase was used in every story I saw about the assault (and I feel justified in using it for that very reason). That’s what worries me. I don’t want this particular incident to affect the atheist community at large because some Christians may argue that Maxie, despite being an anomaly, somehow “proves” that godless people are immoral or violent. We know the reality is far from that, but many others in our society don’t. I reached out to Pastor Hayes (and a local reporter) earlier this week to see if there was anything we could do for him, but I didn’t hear back… until today. Read more
Customers at a Carrabba’s restaurant in Kansas this week said they received excellent service from their waiter — but they refused to tip him because he’s gay. And the hateful note they left him stings even worse than being stiffed: After the 20-year-old waiter served a couple earlier this week in Overland Park, the hostess, who is also the young man’s mother, found a disturbing note on the back of the check. “Thank you for your service, it was excellent. That being said, we cannot in good conscience tip you, for your homosexual lifestyle is an affront to GOD. [Gay slur] do not share in the wealth of GOD, and you will not share in ours,” the customer wrote. “We hope you will see the tip your [gay slur] choices made you lose out on, and plan accordingly. It is never too late for GOD’s love, but none shall be spared for [gay slur]. May GOD have mercy on you.” Read more
Philosophy professor Dr. Peter Boghossian has been talking to students about religion and faith for decades now, and he’s ready to spread the lessons he’s learned when it comes to arguing against faith (or, as he calls it, “street epistemology”). His new book is called, very bluntly, A Manual for Creating Atheists (Pitchstone Publishing, 2013): In the excerpt below, from a chapter called “Anti-Apologetics 101,” Boghossian runs through some of the common arguments theists use and how we can respond to them: Read more
Christianity Today published a piece by Trillia Newbell about women who “struggle” with pornography. They have an “addiction” to it, the article says. That’s gotta be pretty awful, right? If this is a serious issue, we’re talking about the kind of women who skip work so they can keep watching porn, women who have withdrawal symptoms when they don’t/can’t watch it, women who have an inability to derive pleasure from anything that’s not porn, etc. So how does porn addiction affect the three women who shared their lives for this story? Well, let’s see what Rachel went through: Read more
You all know David Bonney. He’s the German shoemaker who made international headlines last year when his Kickstarter for atheist shoes (with godless messages on the soles) far exceeded his goal and delivery of the packages seemed to be delayed whenever a US Postal Service worker saw the ATHEIST-branded packing tape… No matter. More than 1,000 pairs of the shoes were eventually sold and 10% of profits even went to secular charities! Now, Bonney is back with a new creation: Atheist shoes for babies! But since it wouldn’t be fair to say a baby actively disbelieves in God, Bonney made shoes that honor the higher powers they do believe in: their moms, their dads, and the sources of their nourishment: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the questions: Did Jesus exist? And does it even matter?: 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
A former Bible teacher at the Christian Academy of San Antonio will be spending the next 10 to 12 years in prison. A judge sentenced Robert Louis Rosseau to that term yesterday for sexual assaults on underage girls. Rosseau’s modus operandi was to approach teen students with a fanciful story about a “secret society” he wanted them to join, …which was based on Christianity, the occult, magic and Freemasonry,” according to court documents. He succeeded in recruiting two girls but ran into trouble with the third. Read more
Dusty Smith makes clear in a way only he can that the “militant atheist” who beat up a Christian pastor ought to be condemned and certainly doesn’t represent the vast majority of the atheist community. (If you’re offended by NSFW language, you should probably step away now…) Also: I’m a vegetarian. Just thought you all should know. Read more
Devout Christian Celestina Mba is pursuing legal action after being let go from a job for refusing to work on Sunday. Even though the former caretaker lost her case in a lower court, she is now taking it to the court of appeals. Her success could introduce a whole new set of religious “rights” into the workplace, including days off for any religious group that claims it: Read more
