The summer before Sara Sheppard began her senior year of high school in Katy, Texas, she took an Economics class. Her teacher was well-liked by the students but Sara noticed that he spent a lot of time talking about Christianity in the classroom: As the semester went by I realized that his passion for passing on his knowledge was not focused on economics but focused on religion, prayer, and spirituality. Instead of teaching economics he would teach us that certain historical people were among the greatest because of their spiritual enlightenment. He also expressed to the students that it was human nature to have a spiritual and religious component, therefore making atheists unnatural and against human nature. This teacher went so far with this idea to even compare atheism to smoking and how the body originally rejects smoking just like “the mind rejects the concept of atheism.” Even though she called him out on that last statement, explaining that he shouldn’t say things like that in the classroom, it didn’t change anything. Reporting his conduct didn’t seem like a safe option — it could have made her a target of students and other teachers. So Sara did the next best thing. She recorded the lectures with her iPhone. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Researchers at the University of Lagos in Nigeria have a new prodigy. His name is Chibuihem Amalaha, and he says he used a variety of scientific experiments to prove that same-sex marriage, now legal in 16 countries, is wrong: A postgraduate student studying chemical engineering, Amalaha spoke with THISDAY Live, a leading newspaper in Nigeria, about his latest accomplishment and why he hopes it will earn him international recognition. And while hundreds of commenters question whether the article and even the publication are satirical, it seems he and his professors stand proudly by his work. In the THISDAY article, misleadingly titled “Science of Gay Marriage,” Amalaha shares some of his past scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. For example, he says he rejected a theory attributing skin cancer to acid rain, proved that the mathematical symbol π is not actually equal to 22/7, and was the “first person in the world” to prove that watching television in a dark room hurts your eyes. (The uses of the term “prove” in all these cases are his, not mine.) But this “scientist” clearly didn’t have science on the brain when developing his most recent project, in which he sought to invalidate marriage equality altogether. Here’s how he stumbled into his research question: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Have you ever driven down the highway and seen a series of Christian signs just lodged into the ground on the side of the road, one after another, telling you to repent or you’re go to hell? I’d never seen an atheist version of that until now — but the Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison did something very similar to that on the side of Bascom Hill, a popular thoroughfare on campus. It was all part of a service they’re offering called “Faith Questioning,” the goal of which is not to create new atheists, but to help anyone unsure of where they stand come to a stronger understanding of their own beliefs: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses the atheist bloggers in Bangladesh who face jail time and hefty fines for speaking out against faith: You can read more about the Bangladeshi bloggers here. 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
If you were once religious but you’re not anymore (hello, ~97% of my readers!), Michael Caton would appreciate it if you’d complete a 10-15-minute survey where you explain what caused your mind to change. All responses will remain anonymous. He’ll be posting a summary of the results online soon enough. It’s not scientific, but it’ll be interesting to see what the trends are! Read more
The organizers of the Sunday Assembly, the atheist church service that has been so successful in London and several other cities worldwide, have announced where they will be heading on the first leg of their “40 Dates and 40 Nights” tour: [Click headline for more…] Read more
So here was the setup: Yesterday, I presented 15 brief descriptions of behaviors that were religious or spiritual in nature — some mainstream, some obscure. Three of them were fictional; the other 12 were real. Your job was to separate my fabrications from the things that people actually do to pay respect to their gods and spirits. Some readers thought the 15 bizarre practices were all made up. Rather than give them an “F,” I’ll let the gods take care of them. Be rueful and very afraid, oh ye of little faith! Others thought it was a trick question and that all 15 examples were real — and, to be honest, I’d toyed with that thought when I put the quiz together. In the end, however, it seemed more fun to concoct a few rituals of my own. So I did. Now let’s go down the list. [Click headline for more…] Read more
A week after FOX News Channel’s Dana Perino said if atheists — who are in the minority — don’t like the Pledge of Allegiance, “they don’t have to live here,” here’s an argument that it’s really Christians who are in the minority: Of course, the whole point is that the Constitution says we all have certain rights and the number of us who believe (or choose not to believe) in a god should have no impact on whether or not those rights apply to us. (via Thunderf00t) Read more
Richard Dawkins created his own controversy in a recent interview when he spoke almost nonchalantly about his own childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his teacher. My big issue with him wasn’t that he was able to get past it to the point where he said he “couldn’t find it in [himself] to condemn” his teacher. My problem with his comments were that, in speaking so casually about such a deadly-serious topic, he gave the impression that other victims who went through similar (or worse) situations should also be able to get past it. He didn’t mean to do that. Of course he didn’t mean to minimize sexual abuse. But he effectively did, and he of all people should know the power of his own words. Yesterday, in response to the controversy, my (Christian) friend Rachel Held Evans noted that she didn’t hold Dawkins’ words against all other atheists and called on us to make a deal with her: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The controversy involving Syria has 32% of Americans thinking that it’s all part of the “end times” as told in the Bible. 32%! A third of Americans seem to think there will be a Left Behind novel written about Syria. More specifically, 26% of Americans think that the Syrian conflict is foreshadowing Armageddon. This is all according to Christian pollsters LifeWay Research: [Click headline for more…] Read more
