According to John Schwartz’s profile on him in the New York Times, Bill Nye isn’t just a “science guy” anymore; he’s a science warrior with a massive fan base fed up with science-deniers (which often include religious leaders): [Click headline for more…] Read more
Well, at least Nelson Mandela is giving credit where it’s due: (via a Legitimate News Source) Read more
Yesterday was Fathers Day, and I hope that all fathers, daughters, and sons were able to express their love and appreciation for each other. The feelings that fathers have for their children can be very complex and difficult for them to understand and to express clearly. This letter illustrates this, and shows how important and worthwhile it is for us to work together with our fathers to keep fear, anger, and confusion from blocking the love that should and can flow freely between us. Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, Recently, I “came out” to my father as a non-believer. Although I see myself more as an apatheist, since I just don’t care about religion in the first place, I also consider myself an atheist, as I also don’t believe in any religion to be true either. When I did tell my father, I told him I was an “atheist,” since it seemed like the simplest explanation. As a non-denominational, non-churchgoing Christian, I thought my father would take it well, and we’d maybe talk about our differences. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Ryan T. Cragun is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tampa, and he’s written a new book in which he takes a personal and scientific look at whether religion is actually helpful or harmful to you. It’s called What You Don’t Know about Religion (but Should): In the exclusive excerpt below, Cragun asks the question: “Who’s better at dying?” [Click headline for more…] Read more
Four months ago, I began looking for two full-time employees to help my publishing business with research and sales. Before I interviewed anyone, I wrote an exhaustive job description for both positions, and e-mailed it to each viable candidate. After I’d found the right duo, the contracts were signed, and I was looking forward to many pleasant office interactions — and higher revenues! But trouble soon started when my first hire, Miriam, informed me that she is Amish, and is extremely uncomfortable around computers, iPads, cell phones, routers, and anything to do with the Internet. For religious reasons, she declined to work with technology, but offered to do research using the newspapers and books in my local library, which is still powered by an old-fashioned card catalog. The other newcomer on my staff also threw me for a loop. Though Avram is a sales rep who was expected to frequently travel to book fairs and literary festivals, his Jewish faith came first. On his first Monday, Avram told me he won’t work or even fly on the Sabbath. As some of these crucial industry events take place on weekends, my company’s bottom line would be suffering. Though I liked Avram and Miriam, I told them after a few weeks that it wasn’t going to work out. I gave them each a pink slip and a pretty generous check, and wished them the best. Now I’m being sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for “violating the religious rights” of my ex-employees. What do you think? Fair? [Click headline for more…] Read more
I’m working on a project with a local professor called The Atheist Voice in which I tackle some burning question people often ask atheists. The video below answers the question: What Obstacles Do Young Atheists Face? 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
Daniel is back with another montage of some of the awful things done in the name of God over the past month: (via ConversationWithA) Read more
The Sunday Assembly, the “atheist church service” that has made a splash in London and beyond, is coming to America this summer and the first service has been scheduled to take place in Manhattan on June 30th at 12:30p at Tobacco Road, a bikini bar and concert venue: Normally a “bikini bar” and music venue that features scantily clad female bartenders, the otherwise uninvolved proprietors of Tobacco Road have agreed accommodate a family friendly crowd by asking employees to cover up. … “Lots of people are giving us warnings that it’s going to be different over there, but so far, we’ve just had a lot of support from the people in America,” co-founder and stand-up comic Sanderson Jones told the Daily News. [Click headline for more…] Read more
If you happen to find yourself in Woking, Surrey, a large British town of some 100,000 people, you might be entitled to free Sunday parking in local municipal garages. But there’s a catch: the offer is valid only if you’re religious. In that case, a local church or mosque will validate your parking stub. So count your blessings… and your savings! Woking subsidizes “religious” parking to the tune of £41,000 ($64,000) a year. Ray Morgan, Woking council’s chief executive, said people shouldn’t have to “pay to pray”: “We take a view that those people who worship… have a special role in our society,” he said. “The way austerity is going in our society, faith groups might be the only people left standing who are doing any of the lower level social care.” The view seems to be that being a worshipper “encourages one to participate in society.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
Another public school. Another prayer. Another administrator who thinks those two things belong together. The only surprising thing is that this is happening in Auckland, New Zealand. At the beginning of the day at Kelston Intermediate School, students recite karakia — a Maori prayer. The principal doesn’t see anything wrong with that: Kelston Intermediate principal Phil Gordon said he had no idea some staff were unhappy with karakia in the classroom until contacted by the union representative. … Gordon said he reassured the union representative the karakia was a cultural component of school life and an expression of beliefs that reflected the Kelston community. “I guess what they might have been inquiring about is the presence of karakia, etc, within school so we talked about what we’re doing is not a religious thing but a cultural thing.” Staff and pupils were free to abstain, he insisted. “I think perhaps there has been a mismatch in understanding.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
