Lying about Heaven is bad. Lying to children about Heaven is worse. But why let a little thing like ethics stop you from making money off of fiction masquerading as truth? That’s what Anthony DeStefano is doing with his new book A Travel Guide to Heaven for Kids: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Last summer, there was a kerfuffle in Milwaukee over their Mexican and Irish festivals. Mexican Fiesta, an event sponsored by the city, cost $13/person for entrance… unless you attended Mass, in which case it was only $5: The Freedom From Religion Foundation called them out on it and organizers eventually issued a compromise: they said anyone who came for the 10:30a Mass on Sunday would get a discounted ticket… but atheists wouldn’t have to participate in the Mass. They’d just have to sit around and wait for 90 minutes. I never said it was a good compromise. Now, the city’s Festa Italiana is doing the same damn thing. [Click headline for more…] Read more
You may recall that the Bossier Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana recently lost $15,000 in federal funding because of the religious nature of its Young Marine Program. Now, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is trying to pass a bill that would change that. [Click headline for more…] Read more
***Update***: I screwed up the timing of this post. The event is *next* weekend. My apologies. … Next weekend, in Queens, New York, there’s a huge outdoor rally to celebrate “secularists of color.” It’s called Blackout: Sponsored by Black Nonbelievers and Black Atheists of America, Blackout was inspired by last year’s Reason Rally: [Click headline for more…] Read more
David Silverman’s book I, Atheist: America’s Loudest Heathen Fires Back (which will be released just in time for the holidays) is now available for pre-order! [Click headline for more…] Read more
It involves Richard Dawkins, the ghost of Charles Darwin, creepy porn music, a random monkey, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster… and I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to turn me into a Christian. Somehow. Read more
How do Christian apologists like Ravi Zacharias spin logic to suit their needs? achilleshoplite compiled a series of his statements in the video below and dares you to spot the fallacies: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Nick Simon owns a bar/night club/dance club called Paradise Bar in Leesville, Louisiana. Like any bar, there are times when his customers are in no condition to drive home, so they get a designated driver to take them back. In the process, though, their cars remain in his parking lot overnight until they can sober up and get them the following day. Nick doesn’t mind that. It’s definitely better than the alternative. Hell, you could argue that it’s responsible to know yourself well enough not to go behind the wheel when you’re feeling tipsy and Nick doesn’t want to punish them for that. Recently, though, a local church has caught wind of this. Now, whenever they see a car sitting in Nick’s parking lot overnight, they put letters and pamphlets under the windshield wipers informing the drivers that they need to sober up and find Jesus. Nick compiled some of the examples for me: [Click headline for more…] Read more
A Constitutional Convention is taking place in Ireland this year and one of the major changes the committee is considering is a removal of the blasphemy law. As it is right now, Article 40.6.1 of the Constitution says: The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law. To that end, Atheist Ireland today submitted their reasons for why that law in particular must be repealed: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Earlier this month, researchers Christopher Silver and Thomas Coleman III released a study identifying what they believed were the six different kinds of atheists: Intellectual Atheist/Agnostic, Activist, Seeker-Agnostic, Anti-Theist, Non-Theist, and Ritual Atheist/Agnostic. It might be surprising to all those who assume atheists are a monolithic group: After CNN’s Dan Merica’s article about the study went viral, commenters had a ton of things to say about it, good and bad. CNN Belief Blog’s Daniel Burke took those questions directly to Silver and Coleman. Like this one: [Click headline for more…] Read more
