Dear Richard, I wrote to you back in 2009 when I was in the 8th grade and you really helped me and I wanted to thank you for that. I just recently rediscovered your blog and I figured I would write to you again. I’m now a senior in high school and in the time since the 8th grade I’ve completely reassessed my faith. For a little while I kept trying to be Christian, and for about a year I was. I feel like that was good for me though. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s a very unwise thing to completely disown one’s faith in middle school. I have, however, come to the conclusion that I am an atheist, and I honestly do not see that changing. I’m just worried about any fallout caused by this, and I don’t quite know how to approach certain situations that I face on a near daily basis. I’m trying to get some answers to questions preemptively in hopes that when I’m faced with these situations (either once again or someday in the future) I will know the best way to handle them. [Click headline to read more…] Read more
This November, Virginians will be electing a new governor, and the Secular Coalition for America has just released a scorecard on the candidates. The candidates include Terry McAuliffe (Democrat), Ken Cuccinelli (Republican), and Robert Sarvis (Libertarian). (Go ahead: Try predicting this one. I promise you’ll be 100% accurate.) The full scorecard goes more in depth, but the final rankings are right here: Straight F’s for Cuccinelli. And that’s *before* you even take into account that his running mate (albeit one he didn’t choose himself) is E.W. Jackson, a guy who thinks evolution is a lie and sin leads to birth defects. [Click headline for more…] Read more
An update on a story I brought you last week: Sanjay Salve, a teacher in India, was denied traditional pay grade increases because of his refusal to visibly pray during a school assembly. According to The Hindu, however, his fortunes may be turning around. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Once again, the scandal of child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests has made it all the way to Rome. In this case, the Dominican Republic’s papal nuncio (the Vatican version of an ambassador) has been called back to Rome after his name was linked to abuse allegations. The Vatican insists that Polish-born Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, removed from office late last month, has not been accused of molesting anybody. However, official channels are withholding details about what really happened. A Vatican spokesman confirmed that the Church is conducting an investigation but refused to provide details about its subject matter. Francisco Dominguez Brito, the Attorney General for the Dominican Republic, however, has not been so reticent, and has announced his plans to investigate and prosecute Wesolowski in spite of the difficulties of criminally investigating a diplomatic figure. [Click headline for more…] Read more
I met 23-year-old Matt Skeens over the summer at the Secular Student Alliance conference. I knew he was a great activist but I had no idea he had spent the past decade fighting cancer — Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He just went back for his last check-up at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and I’m happy to say he’s finally and officially cancer-free 🙂 Of course, he didn’t just go back for a last check-up. He visited the nearby Ronald McDonald House with a present: a giant collection of aluminum can tabs that ended up filling a 10-gallon barrel (and half of another): Those tabs will be taken to a local recycling center where they will bring in around $400-500. [Click headline for more…] Read more
“Do you know where the Thomas More Church is?” Ask that question anyplace where Catholicism is a mainstream faith, and the answer is likely “yes.” I’d wager that no other Catholic saint has so many churches named after him as Sir Thomas, the 16th-century religious firebrand and statesman. He crops up like kudzu, including in yesterday’s post about the loud bell of the Thomas More Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, that is driving a neighbor batty. Catholics revere More as a martyr because he was beheaded for refusing to say that the authority of King Henry VIII superseded that of the Pope. Even in secular and humanist circles, More is often given a measure of respect, partly for his collaboration with the Dutch Humanist Desiderius Erasmus, and partly because of how More is famously portrayed in the 1966 Oscar-winning movie A Man For All Seasons. What neither group ever seems keen to acknowledge is that Sir Thomas was also a man who so abhorred Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation that he burned Lutherans at the stake with great relish. One of More’s motives for hating the Protestant heretics was that they dared to read the New Testament in English rather than Latin, which was against the law in England at the time. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses the upcoming Supreme Court case Town of Greece v. Galloway: You can read more about the case 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
Arian Foster of the Houston Texans wrote an article for Yahoo! Shine explaining what he wants to teach his daughter Zeniah. Most of it is what you might expect: Be kind, know your self-worth, handle money wisely… but then I got to the final item and did a spit-take: [Click headline for more…] Read more
It’s déjà vu all over again. My previous post was about Christian worship in public Scottish schools and looked at the galling fact that all pupils are signed up for it automatically, no parental permission necessary. As if on cue, I then came across a minty-fresh example of where this state-sponsored indoctrination can lead. British newspaper the Daily Record just revealed that a U.S.-dispatched group of Christians, affiliated with the Church of Christ, has been helping out in Scottish schools. Head teacher Sandra MacKenzie (pictured below) of the 400-pupil Kirktonholme Primary School in East Kilbride knew what the missionaries were up to — the paper says she even invited them — but the kids’ parents were left in the dark. They only realized what was happening when their children came home with Creationist books they had been given at assembly. The books … denounce the theory of evolution and warn pupils that, without God, they risk being murdered in a harmful, disgusting world. [Click headlines for more…] Read more
