The Florida Freethought 2013 Conference takes place the first weekend in November in Orlando, and the theme is all about diversity within our movement. The speaker list is great, but I absolutely love the trailer: Registration for the conference is now open, so have at it! Read more
Atheist groups have been pushing hard lately for the military to accept Humanist chaplains. So far, they’ve said no. Congress joined them, but in addition to saying no, House members offered their reasons — and those reasons were complete bullshit: [Click headline for more…] Read more
You may recall that almost six weeks ago, the city of Evansville, Indiana approved the temporary public display of 31 eight-feet-tall plastic crosses along the public riverfront, spread out over a four-block area. The church that wanted to erect the Christian symbols stressed that they’re (supposedly) not intended to promote religion; instead, the crosses were to be interpreted as an “art display,” because Bible-camp kids would decorate them. The children will have to find other things on which to unleash their creativity. That’s because District Court judge Sarah Evans Barker ruled yesterday, just five days before the exhibit was to open, that the crosses would be a violation of the Establishment Clause. Barker’s decision (embedded below) was the outcome of a suit filed by local plaintiffs Chris Cabral and Nancy Tarsitano, who found the ACLU on their side. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Yesterday, Sikivu Hutchinson, Ronnelle Adams, Jamila Bey, and Debbie Goddard appeared on HuffPost Live to discuss the “growing number of secular minorities”: Hats off to HPL for featuring a conversation on this important topic. If any parts of the segment stand out to you, please leave the timestamp and summary in the comments! Read more
Peter Ist, who previously engraved an awesome portrait of Carl Sagan on black granite, has now done the same thing with Isaac Asimov and (again) it looks incredible: Read more
What’s amazing is how some pastors have no idea why young people want nothing to do with them. (via nakedpastor) Read more
I knew all along I would be writing this piece. I had hoped it would come a day or two later. But when people are interpreting the Pope’s words (“Who am I to judge [gay people]?”) as encouragingly tolerant, there isn’t a moment to waste. Doctrinaire cardinals must rush to assure the world that the Church is as tough on gays as ever, and don’t you forget it. Leading the pack is Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, who hastened to explain that this is just another one of those love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin deals: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Just the other day, I posted about a “prayer caravan” organized by Cullman County Schools (Alabama) Superintendent Billy Coleman. The idea was that he would lead a group of people to all the schools in the district and pray… becauseI guess that raises test scores in Alabama or something. They’ve been doing this for a few years running. We also learned from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (PDF) that the caravan wasn’t the school’s only violation of the law: We were also informed that schools in the Cullman County system recite the Lord’s Prayer over the loudspeaker each morning. We understand that an attempt to mask this illegal practice is made by giving students “the option” to participate. So why bring this all up again? Because FFRF has learned that they’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to violations of church/state separation in the district: [Click headline for more…] Read more
During Ramadan, Muslims are not supposed to eat or drink from dawn to sunset (with some exceptions). In Tunisia, the laws don’t prohibit eating during the day, though some restaurants are closed during normal business hours because of the religious holiday. Adel Almi is a Tunisian preacher who runs the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” and he has threatened to photograph and publicly shame anyone who eats during the daytime. Ditto with anyone who goes to the beach, which he says is also forbidden. He’s even gone to the Tunisian Interior Minister, asking him to enforce penalties in the case of any fasting violations. Given the religious extremism some people hold, you wouldn’t want to be “caught in the act,” or else you might face some really awful consequences… But here’s the amazing part: There’s a Facebook campaign called “Photos Taken During The Ramadan Chmeta Fi Adel Almi” and it’s a collection of people postings images of them at the beach and/or eating out! Here’s the report from the Middle East Media Research Institute: [Click headline for more…] Read more
