An astonishing new poll from YouGov shows that British youth (ages 18-24) are rejecting religion at levels we’ve never seen before: When asked if they believe in God, only 25% say they do. 19% believe in some non-Godlike “spiritual greater power” and a further 38% believe in no God or spiritual power whatsoever. Only a quarter of British youth believe in a God! That’s an incredibly low number, and it’s only slightly higher than the percentage of youth who are “spiritual but not religious.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
Below is a compilation of graphics and press releases released by various atheist, Humanist, and pro-church/state separation groups: Foundation Beyond Belief: [Click headline for more…] Read more
In its second gay rights case of the day, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to dismiss an appeal of Proposition 8 on standing. The decision of the Ninth Circuit Court striking down Prop 8 was “vacated and remanded,” meaning same-sex couples in California will once again have the right to marry — but marriage equality is not newly legalized anywhere else. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Christian Right’s paranoia complex in a single tweet: The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable. Matter of time.— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013 Read more
The Supreme Court today finally issued its decision on one of the most landmark gay rights cases of the century. By a vote of 5-4, the Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. United States v. Windsor, the case brought by 84-year-old Edie Windsor, challenged DOMA on the premise that the law did not offer equal protection to people in same-sex marriages. After the death of her partner of 42 years, Thea Spyer, whom she married legally in Canada in 2007, Windsor was hit with more than $360,000 in inheritance taxes because the United States did not recognize their marriage, a burden she would not have faced had she married a man. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Doug Batchelor may be the World’s Worst Creationist. Which is saying quite a bit given his competition: I started to type out the crazy things he was saying… until I realized I was transcribing his whole talk. Just watch and be worried that about half of all Americans agree with him. (Thanks to Hidai for the link!) Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, answers the question: Do you have a moral obligation to come out as an atheist? 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
Earlier tonight, Ed Markey (D) beat Gabriel Gomez (R) in a race to take over John Kerry’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. Markey, who’s been a Representative for the state since 1976, earned a grade of C on the Secular Coalition for America’s congressional scorecard in 2011. More recently, however, when the SCA put out a scorecard just for this special Senate election (PDF), they gave him (and his opponent) an A: [Click headline for more…] Read more
That’s some passive-aggressive note-writing there… “You accidentally grazed my car’s door handle and most people would just let that go without incident, but I’m annoying, so I’m going to forgive you LIKE JESUS WOULD!” Someone, please add that to the Giant List of Things That Have Never Converted Anybody to Christianity. (via Stuff Christians Like) Read more
They’re popping up everywhere. Dan Merica at CNN covers Greg Epstein’s congregation, part of the Humanist Community at Harvard University (HCH): A longtime advocate for community building, Epstein and his group of atheists have begun to build their Cambridge community and solemnize its Sunday meetings to resemble a traditional religious service. To Epstein, religion is not all bad, and there is no reason to reject its helpful aspects. “My point to my fellow atheists is, why do we need to paint things with such a broad brush? We can learn from the positive while learning how to get rid of the negative,” he said. For Epstein, who started community-building at Harvard nearly 10 years ago, the idea of a godless congregation is not an oxymoron. “We decided recently that we want to use the word congregation more and more often because that is a word that strongly evokes a certain kind of community — a really close knit, strong community that can make strong change happen in the world,” he said. “It doesn’t require and it doesn’t even imply a specific set of beliefs about anything.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
