Back in June, we learned that the UK-based Scout Association would finally allow atheists to become members for the first time in over a century, perhaps due to pressure from their counterparts at Girlguiding UK, who had just changed the wording of their “Promise” to make it more secular and inclusive. The Scout Association didn’t want to go that far. They said their Scout Promise wouldn’t change. It would still officially say “To do my duty to God and to the Queen,” but atheists would be given an acceptable alternative. Yesterday, the SA announced that alternative Promise for the first time: Read more
![FFRF to Prayer-Walking Police Department: ‘Get Off [Your] Knees and Get to Work’](https://wp-media.patheos.com/subdomain/sites/8/im/h6FETvQ.jpg)
Yesterday, I posted about how the Cincinnati Police Department was teaming up with 25 local religious congregations to walk and pray through the city in order to stop crime. Not only did the CPD support the Prayer Walks, they came up with the idea in the first place! The Freedom From Religion Foundation took action quickly. FFRF Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a letter to Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell letting him know the government-sponsored Prayer Walks have to come to an end: Read more
Members of the group Ordain Woman, an organization dedicated to gender equality within Mormonism, were recently barred from a convention concerning male priesthood because, well, they’re heretics. Read more
It was 20 years ago when Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman coined the term “God Particle” to describe what has since been confirmed as the Higgs Boson, the subject at the center of today’s announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Lederman wrote at the time: “Why God particle?… the publisher wouldn’t let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing.” Now that the Higgs Boson has been discovered, Lederman is back with a new book that continues where his previous one left off. Beyond the God Particle (Prometheus Books, 2013), written with Dr. Christopher Hill, talks about “the future of particle physics and the mysteries of the universe yet to be unraveled.” Below is an exclusive excerpt from the book — keep reading for your chance to win a copy! [Click headline for more…] Read more
Last Thursday, Wausau School District officials (in Wisconsin) sat down with their music directors to explain that their holiday concerts would have to be secular in nature. The choirs could sing Christian songs, but they’d have to sing a few secular ones, too, to balance it all out. If they couldn’t find a way to do that, the December concerts would have to be canceled. And then all hell broke loose because those terms were unacceptable to everyone: [Wausau West High School’s] elite Master Singers choir group will temporarily disband and Wausau elementary schools will no longer hold holiday concerts as the result of a Wausau School District directive to limit religious music in December. … “This group [Master Singers] sings at Christmas programs,” [director Phil] Buch said. “We sing for nursing homes, grade schools, businesses. To do that without Christmas music doesn’t make sense.” A Facebook group called “Wausau School District Cancels Christmas,” popped up, too, with a picture of the Grinch right in the profile: Even a petition began lamenting against a “decision [that] appears to be unreasonable censorship, anti-intellectual, and an unwarranted attack on people of faith.” You can understand why they’re upset, of course. How do you have a holiday concert without Christmas carols? And if you’re part of an elite choir, can you really have a strong classical repertoire that doesn’t include a large selection of religious-themed music? Read more
On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court refused a 16-year-old girl’s request for an abortion. The girl, who is a ward of the state after being taken away from her abusive parents, lacks a guardian who can provide the required parental consent, leaving her in a legal limbo. According to the ruling, the judges voted 5-2 against her because she was unable to prove that “she is sufficiently mature and well informed to decide on her own whether to have an abortion.” Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: Should we outlaw religion?: 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
No criticism here. I think this is a genuinely good idea. Internet celebrity Zach Anner, who calls himself a “religious idiot,” is learning about various religions for a webseries called “Have a Little Faith.” His first one to explore: Islam: Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, Recently my sister called to tell me that despite neither she nor my brother-in-law being religious people, and despite the fact that they both reject the idea of Jesus as a supernatural figure, she and my brother-in-law have decided to attend church regularly. Obviously, if that’s what they want to do with their Sunday mornings, that’s their business. My concern has to do with one reason my sister gave for wanting to attend church: they are planning to have children soon, and she wants to raise her children with a religion. She said she wouldn’t care if they chose to leave the church when they got older, but seems to think that some sort of religious foundation is necessary. The other, somewhat more baffling reason is that she wants to make it easier for any of her children who would want to have a religious wedding in the future, since a friend of hers had to attend a lot of classes before getting married to a Catholic man, as this friend had not grown up Christian and was never baptized. I realize the ultimate decision is theirs, but as a concerned sister and aunt-to-be, what can I do in this situation to help mitigate the harm I my sister will be doing to her children by allowing them to be indoctrinated this way? This seems as irresponsible to me as if she’d told me that she was anti-vax. Nicole Dear Nicole, [Click headline for more…] Read more
