It’s the age-old question: Are atheists smarter than the religious? Let’s get the major caveats out of the way: There are brilliant religious people. There are really dumb atheists. “Smarter” is a vague term. And IQ is only one of many ways to measure it. Anyway, psychologists Miron Zuckerman and Jordan Silberman of the University of Rochester and Judith Hall of Northeastern University have published a paper in Personality and Social Psychology Review that aggregates the results from 63 studies on the issue done between 1928 and 2012. What did they find? Turns out the data supports the idea that religion and intelligence don’t always go hand-in-hand — and the researchers have some suggestions as to why that is: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Jaleesa Martin and her son’s father went to court on Thursday expecting the judge to settle their 7-month-old child Messiah DeShawn Martin’s last name. Instead, Judge Lu Ann Ballew changed the baby’s first name, too: Judge Ballew ordered the 7-month-old’s name be “Martin DeShawn McCullough.” It includes both parent’s last names but leaves out Messiah. “The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” Judge Ballew said. Ballew went on to say this was best for the baby since the family lived in such a religious area. [Click headline for more…] Read more
If you’re tired of the Virgin Mary appearing in burnt toast and the Lord Jesus materializing in bird shit, here’s a little variety: a tree that weeps “tears of God.” But ask an arborist or an entomologist and the story is a little more prosaic. The liquid falling from a Crape Myrtle tree in Fresno, CA is louse poop. The plant lice that have infested the tree are known as aphides, explains an expert: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Freethought Society, Lancaster Freethought Society, PhillyCoR, and PA Nonbelievers are coming together to plan the 2013 PA State Atheist/Humanist conference this September: They have a very impressive roster of speakers so if you can make it, get your tickets now! (There’s a great discount for students, too.) Read more
Taking the suggestion from James McGrath’s site, the Creation Museum would be wise to sell these in its gift shop: You know you’re a nerd when that joke is lost on you because you’re too busy thinking about how the situation itself is implausible. Read more
Last October, Simon Clare decided to try his hand at street-preaching. A pretty interesting idea considering he was preaching atheism: Simon is now starting up a local chapter of the Sunday Assembly in Brighton (UK). (His “preaching” might actually get an audience now!) [Click headline for more…] Read more
I watched the first episode and I just couldn’t get into it, but the Netflix show “Orange is the New Black” has an atheist lead character (“Piper Chapman”) and this scene contains the sort of dialogue I haven’t seen since that episode of “Glee” where Kurt refers to a “magic teapot” floating in the sky: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: Do the New Atheists have any new ideas? 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
We’re making a push to get people to sign up for Light the Night teams and there’s good reason to do it by this weekend! If you’re registered by Sunday night, you’ll be entered in a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. Anyone who registers as a Team Captain has a chance to win a $100 gift card. Awesome, right? Right. Whether or not you walked last year, all you have to do is join a team and you can do that here (if you join my team in Chicago, I’ll give you bonus Internet points). [Click headline for more…] Read more
This is one of those stories that’s getting passed around on a number of websites, with very little in the way of information or details… so take it with a grain of salt. As it stands, two Muslim clerics who run phone helplines in India have said it’s not okay for women to post their pictures — veiled or unveiled, I don’t know — on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. [Click headline for more…] Read more
