The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: How can we effectively talk to religious people about atheism? 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
My friend Dale McGowan is working on a book about mixed-faith couples (like atheists married to Christians) and he’d like some feedback from people who are in an atheist/theist relationship, whether you’re married or seriously committed to each other. If you can help, please fill out this survey! Read more
I’m always impressed by people who can create art because I’m so inept at it. Peter Ist just engraved an amazing portrait of Carl Sagan on black granite and his video below shows how he did it — simply remarkable: Read more
What percentage of prisoners are atheists? This is an important question with serious implications. If the number is high, it lends support to the idea that atheists are immoral (***Edit***: I should’ve made clear that not all prisoners are in jail for immoral reasons, though that is certainly the stereotype). If the number is low, it might provide some proof that, indeed, atheists have their own moral compass that doesn’t involve a holy book. For more than a decade, if you Googled this question, you were directed to one of two websites, both referring to the same information (though even that’s in dispute) given to a “Rod Swift” by Denise Golumbaski, a research analyst at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. According to them, atheists made up 0.2% of the prison population: There were always a lot of problems with that information: … If the statistic is wrong, we must stop using it. But can we really confirm or deny this information? Yes we can — and I finally have some definitive information to back it up. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Indonesia is not a safe place for atheists. It’s home to Alexander Aan, who was handed a prison sentence for simply proclaiming his atheism on Facebook. Despite that, a courageous group of atheist parents have created a (closed) Facebook group to discuss raising their kids without superstitious values. Jakarta Globe has the story: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: What was it like speaking at a megachurch? (You can read more about my visit here and 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
You could count on one hand the number of magazines geared toward atheists/skeptics that don’t come attached to a membership with a national organization. The team at The Celestial Teapot (an homage to Bertrand Russell’s famous analogy) is trying to fill that void with their new digital publication: We are a new magazine publication for the atheist community. We write about American History and politics, religion, science, the environment, sex, atheism, humanism and secularism. We strongly believe in the separation of church & state, rational thought and logical reasoning. but we also enjoy the lighter topics: art, comics, memes, and photography. I spoke with editor-in-chief Irene Panchuk via email about the magazine and what it offers readers: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Brandon Fibbs honors the 50th anniversary of “Doctor Who,” calling it a “consistent beacon of humanism,” with this fantastic clip compilation: Read more
Sarah Palin is coming out with a book this winter about the “War on Christmas” and she talked about it with Faith and Freedom Coalition head Ralph Reed: … It’s going to be a great Christmas book. Lots of nice, festive, joyful things within the book, like recipes and traditions of our family that are probably pretty unique because we are from Alaska and live near the North Pole, so we have access to Santa Claus and all the good things that come with Christmas. But the heart of the book is the Truth about Christmas. It’s keeping Christ in Christmas and allowing the politically correct people and the angry atheists, especially those who are armed with an attorney, tell us that Christ will not be a part of Christmas anymore, whether that has to do with the language that we use when we say “Merry Christmas” publicly and we have our nativity scenes out on our public property, or private property, for those who want to take that away from Americans who understand that the Truth behind the most wonderful holiday, Christmas, well, we tell then in this book how they can fight back and be empowered, again, to keep Christ in Christmas. As with just about everything Sarah Palin says, there’s so much wrong in her statement, the least of which is that Wasilla, Alaska isn’t actually “close” to the North Pole. [Click headline for more…] Read more
