A female anteater at a zoo in Greenwich, Connecticut gave birth to a baby last month. That sounds perfectly normal. Until you realize that female anteaters have a six month gestation period, and a male anteater hadn’t been in the same pen with her for over eight months… [Click headline for more…] Read more
Sanderson Jones, one of the founders of the Sunday Assembly (a.k.a. Atheist Church) in London, is going to visit the U.S. this summer with the hopes of starting a few assemblies over here: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Yesterday, Rep. Juan Mendez of Arizona gave a really beautiful godless invocation in the state House of Representatives. Today, Republican Rep. Steve Smith — unable to deal with an invocation that looked inward to what we can do instead of outward to what an imaginary God could do — lashed out against Mendez: [Click headline for more…] Read more
We talk a lot about humanist/secular celebrants who can officiate weddings, but not nearly as much about atheists who can preside over funerals. In Ireland, where atheism is on the rise and Catholicism is not, “civil funerals” (as opposed to religious ones) are becoming more commonplace. Paresh Dave of Religion News Service has the story: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Hemant pointed out earlier today why it’s a backhanded compliment to profess delight at finding that an atheist is ethical. It happened to Penn Jillette, on All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, and I certainly agree that it’s annoying — whether the insult was intended or not. But it goes both ways. Did you ever see this video of Penn, in which he recounts his meeting with a Christian fan who gave him a Bible? Penn seems to confirm his own original biases by repeated statements such as these, made in apparent awe and wonder: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The people in Moore, Oklahoma need a lot of things right now: Food, water, shelter, their families… So this fundraiser is just mind-boggling: [Click headline for more…] Read more
On Sunday’s season finale of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, Donald Trump “hired” country singer Trace Adkins over atheist magician Penn Jillette. (Oh! Spoiler: The Apprentice is still on the air.) Anyway, the two men were pretty courteous to each other throughout the finale. Adkins even said this about Jillette: “Penn Jillette is the most ethical atheist I’ve ever met. But I’m bringing Jesus!,” Trace had insisted. “He’s got Teller and they do magic tricks, but Jesus makes blind people see — it’s unbelievable!” he added, saying he “needs Jesus to come through for me tonight.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
Yesterday, I posted about how Rep. Juan Mendez, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, delivered a godless invocation before yesterday’s afternoon session. Video of that invocation is now online: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Evangelist Ray Comfort is best-known for his unintentionally comical homage to the banana, a fruit that he claims proves the existence of an intelligent designer. While the man is usually just an amusing buffoon, he is not without traits that God, were He real, would surely frown upon. Malice and mendacity, to name but two. In this video below, recently released via YouTube user potholer54, we encounter Comfort interviewing two young atheists and asking them a question about ethics. Everyone seems cordial enough, but keep watching to witness the after-the-fact switcheroo. In the cut-and-edited version of Comfort’s video, he’s changed the question, the better to blacken the atheists’ viewpoint. Bad monkey, no banana! Read more
Daniel Burke of CNN reports that the #PrayForOklahoma hashtag was used 75,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon — and I think it’s safe to assume most of those times weren’t snarky. But does it help? Of course not. Prayer might make the people tweeting it feel better — though, are they even getting on their knees? — but it does nothing to help the people struggling in Oklahoma right now. At least Ricky Gervais had the right idea: “@mtvnews: Beyoncé, Rihanna & Katy Perry send prayers to #Oklahoma #PrayForOklahoma”I feel like an idiot now…I only sent money.— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) May 21, 2013 Gervais has also used the hashtag #ActuallyDoSomethingForOklahoma. [Click headline for more…] Read more
