A court in Dhaka, Bangladesh has formally indicted four atheist bloggers for their “inflammatory” writing against Islam: Metropolitan Sessions Court Judge Zahurul Haque said he had accepted the charges filed by police in two separate cases, the first to be tried under Bangladesh’s recently amended Information and Communication Technology Act. … The accused — Moshiur Rahman Biplob, Subrata Odhikary Shuvo, Russel Parvez and Asif Mohiuddin — are currently free on bail after spending up to three months in jail. Asif Mohiuddin, whom I interviewed here, is one of the four bloggers who could now face 7-14 years in prison along with a hefty fine of approximately $125,000. Mohiuddin nearly died in an assassination attempt last year: [Click headline for more…] Read more
In a semi-advertisement for tomorrow’s (re-)premiere of “Crossfire” on CNN, conservative commentator (and frequent self-loathing atheist) S.E. Cupp created a video explaining why she’s an atheist and how she can be conservative at the same time: Most of the video is just fine — she became an atheist around the age of 16, she has a Masters degree in Religious Studies, she didn’t become an atheist because of some traumatic event in her life. But a few of the other comments are just plain weird. Cupp says she, like believers, “agree[s] with pretty much all of the Ten Commandments.” Really? Including the first four?! What about coveting? Isn’t that the driver of capitalism? [Click headline for more…] Read more
I hate online stores that begin sending you a barrage of promotional e-mails as soon as you place an order. They’re “opt-out” merchants, telling you belatedly — in tiny type — that you must choose not to receive their ads (to their credit, this is usually a quick and painless process, but by the time I do it, they’ve already put a bad taste in my mouth). Like most consumers, I much prefer the opt-in approach. Some merchants and brands are of enough interest to me that I like receiving their newsletters and special offers, and I’ll actively sign up. I would prefer that decision to be mine from the get-go, obviously, and I’ll wager that you feel the same way. The same thing goes for religion, times ten. It’s unwise to assume that I or my kids are dying to be anointed with religious snake oil, so please don’t sign us up unbidden for anything related to your phantasmagorical beliefs. In short, don’t be like Scotland. … If you have children in a Scottish school, it is assumed that you want them automatically enrolled in religious instruction as well as in actual worship. To say “No thanks,” you have to fill out paperwork to permanently excuse your tykes from the Jesus-y goodness that is so kindly proffered. Why doesn’t the assumption run the other way — with the default being that no child ought to be subjected to state-sponsored religious indoctrination unless parents explicitly sign their offspring up for it? [Click headline for more…] Read more
Here’s some advice for pastors: If you don’t know much about science, don’t write an article explaining why the foundation of science is wrong, exposing your ignorance for the world to see. That’s what Pastor John Martens of The Connection church in Maple Ridge, British Columbia did with his opinion piece for a local newspaper: … I just see the whole idea that one form of life (dog, donkey, dinosaur) changing into another form as impossible, even if you give it millions and millions of years. … That is just too fantastical for me. It smacks of medieval sorcery. No one ever tells me how these animals change, just that they did. Magically. Although I love myths, magic and science fiction — for entertainment — I don’t want to base my life on such things. … says the man who needs no explanation for Jesus’ miracles or a virgin birth. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses Bill Nye’s upcoming appearance on “Dancing with the Stars”: 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
While they’re still working on creating a position for a Humanist Chaplain, the Yale Humanist Community has made their first hires and they’re both fantastic additions: Paul Chiariello (Director of Operations) and Chris Stedman (Coordinator of Humanist Life). [Click headline for more…] Read more
The topics we feature on Friendly Atheist are usually plucked from the headlines. I wouldn’t want it any other way, but it does make it dicey, sometimes, to write about something noteworthy that happened decades or centuries ago. For instance, I have a historically accurate account of a medieval nun who, in the throes of religious passion, believed that she felt Jesus’s foreskin on her tongue, and orgasmed as soon she swallowed said prepuce (which, in her dream, she did over and over again. I think the proper response to that is “I’ll have what she’s having”). [Click headline for more…] Read more
An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by “Madalyn Dawkins” (a pseudonym combining Madalyn Murray O’Hair and Richard Dawkins) discusses the relative ease of being an atheist professor but the difficulty of being an atheist administrator: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Back in April, we posted a brief story about Christopher Scott Roy, an art teacher from New Zealand who said he was fired because of his atheism. At the time, details of his story were hard to come by. Now, we have a little more information — and it’s all sorts of scandalous. (So we should all take this with a *huge* grain of salt.) The biggest surprise involves Alfred Ngaro, a National Party member of the New Zealand Parliament: Roy, who taught at Tamaki College (which caters to students we Americans normally consider high-school age), now says that he once had a confrontation with Ngaro over his beliefs: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Over the course of the summer, the Catholic Jesuit order in the United States released a series of videos in which they tell LGBT people they are welcome in the church. This appears to be a recurring theme; just this week, I also posted about a new video campaign called The “Not All Like That” Christians Project in which LGBT-supportive Christians record videos basically telling LGBT people that some Christians are actually okay with gays. (The issues with that messaging are a whole other story.) This project, led by the Jesuit Ignatian News Network and officially called the “Who Are We To Judge — Gay Catholics” series, features interviews with prominent gay Catholics and supportive clergy. Here’s one example: [Click headline for more…] Read more
