This morning, the Center for Humanist Activism (the political and advocacy wing of the American Humanist Association) announced at a press conference that they had formed a political action committee called the Freethought Equality Fund. The PAC will financially support candidates who are openly atheist as well as theistic candidates who support church/state separation: The mission of the Freethought Equality Fund PAC is to change the face of American politics and to achieve equality by increasing the number of open humanists and atheists in public office at all levels of government…. The FEF PAC will provide nontheist Americans the opportunity to make their voices heard in the political process by supporting candidates who identify as humanist, atheist, agnostic, and who share our goals of protecting the separation of church and state and defending the civil liberties of secular Americans. When people see respected ethical humanists and atheists serve in public office, this will begin to dispel many myths about nonbelievers. The FEF PAC will also support a number of candidates who identify as religious but who are leaders in supporting the rights of nonbelievers. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Days after making all of us *facepalm* by pointing out that 32% of all Americans think the Syrian crisis is part of the “End Times,” LifeWay Research has published another result from the same poll and this one’s equally disturbing if not worse: LifeWay Research asked four questions about mental illness as part of a telephone survey of 1,001 Americans conducted Sept. 6-10, 2013. Thirty-five percent agree with the statement, “With just Bible study and prayer, ALONE, people with serious mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia could overcome mental illness.” … Evangelical, fundamentalist, or born-again Christians (48 percent) agree prayer can overcome mental illness. Only 27 percent of other Americans agree. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Remember the Gastonguays? This past May, 26-year-old Hannah, her 30-year-old husband Sean, his father Mike, and the couple’s daughters, 3-year-old Ardith and 8-month-old Rahab, planned to sail to Kiribati, a tiny island nation, population 100,000, some 1,300 miles south of Hawaii. They didn’t want to live in the increasingly godless United States anymore due to “abortion, homosexuality [and] the state-controlled church.” The five set sail for their exotic destination but were later found to have “zero knowledge and experience in navigation.” Inevitably, they suffered one mishap after another. With their boat badly battered after a string of Pacific squalls and storms plus a collision with a Canadian cargo ship, the family ran out of supplies but managed to survive on some juice, honey, and what fish they could catch. Then the deck started separating from the hull, and the boat filled with water constantly. After 91 days of half-sailing, half-drifting, a helicopter had to airlift them to safety. Now, the family says they want to try again… [Click headline for more…] Read more
More than a year and a half ago, atheist Justin Vacula and the NEPA Freethought Society attempted to place the following ad on buses in the County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS) in Pennsylvania: That’s almost literally the least offensive atheist ad ever. It says the word, then shuts up. COLTS rejected the ad, calling it too “controversial.” Justin appealed the decision with the help of American Atheists, but the COLTS leaders didn’t change their minds. “We will not allow our transit vehicles or property to become a public forum for the debate and discussion of public issues, and since passing this policy in June, we have been very consistent in not allowing any ads that violate the policy. That’s why we didn’t permit Mr. Vacula’s ad promoting atheism,” said COLTS solicitor Tim Hinton. A week ago, Justin tried one last time. He submitted a similar ad. Once again he was rejected. And yesterday, COLTS voted on a new policy that’ll prevent this debacle from ever happening again: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses conservative commentator S.E. Cupp’s atheism: 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
It was just over a year ago when Annaka Harris launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund her new children’s book I Wonder: I Wonder is about a little girl named Eva who takes a walk with her mother and encounters a range of mysteries — from gravity, to life cycles, to the vastness of the universe. She learns to talk about how it feels to not know something, and she learns that it’s okay to say “I don’t know.” Eva discovers that she has much to learn about the world and that there are many things even adults don’t know — mysteries for everyone in the world to wonder about together! A wonderful premise. Today, that book is finally available for preorder — it’ll be published on October 15: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Southeastern Freethinkers Society at Southeastern Oklahoma State University only formed last spring, but already, they’ve experienced the sort of petty vandalism veteran groups know plenty about. This week, group leaders created flyers to promote their weekly meetings. The flyers were approved by the office of Student Life, so group members had permission to place them on certain campus bulletin boards. It features a message that we’ve seen on many atheist billboards: “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” That harmless, or dare I say “shocking,” message still rubbed some students the wrong way. Normally, when you put up flyers, you only notice a day or two later that they’ve been written on or torn down. There’s no evidence and little recourse you can take except to put new flyers up (maybe with a sarcastic message on it reading, “Please don’t tear me down! God is watching you”). This time, though, group members decided they would monitor the flyers in some of the more popular spots on campus, just to see if they could catch anyone doing the deed. Turns out they did. [Click headline for more…] Read more
I’ll admit, I tried to listen to this sermon and I got too bored to finish it. So I’ll just leave Rev. Craig Hagin of Rhema Bible Church in Oklahoma with a piece of advice: Think about what you name your sermons. Otherwise, you’re just giving people like me material. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Earlier this year, I was excited to announce that the Skeptics Annotated Bible — a Bible with annotations marking the contradictions, instances of rape, violence, absurdity, etc. — was finally being made into a print book: Now, Steve Wells has created an iPhone/iPad edition of his amazing work. You can see some of the screenshots from the app below: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Parents in Lafayette, Tennessee have been protesting the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance club at Macon County High School — but it seems their real problem is that the school’s Christian clubs aren’t receiving the priority treatment they want. According to the Macon County Times, students at the school have expressed interest in forming a GSA, but aren’t having luck in finding a faculty sponsor. The school’s Principal, Stephanie Meador, told the county’s Board of Education last week that there is no “special treatment” at play for the club whatsoever. In fact, it remains to be seen whether the club will actually get off the ground at all without an advisor. [Click headline for more…] Read more
