On Tuesday, the Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing on H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act which deals with the Keystone pipeline. If approved, the pipeline would carry crude oil from Canada into the U.S. Many environmentalists don’t want to see the pipeline approved because they fear that the increased access to petroleum products could accelerated global climate change. Whether you agree that the pipeline is a bad idea or that the benefits outweigh the risks, the scientific consensus regarding global climate change is that the current spike we’re seeing is, at least in part, caused by human activities. But Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) disagrees. He believes that Noah’s Flood is proof that global climate change is not human-made: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Kay Warren is the co-founder of Saddleback Church, along with her more famous husband Rick. As the Warrens are now dealing with the soul-crushing fact of their son’s suicide only days ago, the Washington Post has re-posted an interview from last year that Mrs. Warren gave to Sally Quinn, and it’s extremely revealing — and rather touching, even for a heartless atheist like myself: [Click headline for more…] Read more
This is Harun Yahya (a.k.a. Adnan Oktar) in the introduction to his book Atlas of Creation: Volume 1: Some 150 years ago, the British naturalist Charles Darwin proposed a theory based on various observations made during his travels, but which could not be supported by any subsequent scientific findings. In essence, his theory of evolution consisted of various scenarios, assumptions and conjectures that Darwin dreamed up in his own imagination. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Obviously, I’m over-generalizing in the headline, but it’s no surprise than many Christian men cannot handle women who display any sort of authority over them. David Hayward, as he so often does, says that without words: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Even though many cartoonists were quick to draw the non-religious Roger Ebert in heaven after his death, Matt Bors took the far more sensible route and mocked the whole idea of it: [Click headline for more…] Read more
A couple of weeks ago, a judge threw out American Atheists’ lawsuit against The National September 11 Memorial & Museum and its display of a 17-foot-tall steel beam cross. Judge Deborah Batts believed the giant cross was both “historical and secular” and not at all an endorsement of Christianity. (American Atheists didn’t see it that way and plans to appeal the ruling.) In case it’s not clear — and it’s usually not in reports of this lawsuit — the atheists are just as patriotic as anyone else and supportive of the memorial overall. They just didn’t want one religion to be promoted, whatever the reason, when families who were not Christian weren’t given the same opportunity. Earlier today, Mat Staver and Shawn Akers, both of the Christian legal group Liberty Counsel, were talking about the lawsuit on the “Faith and Freedom” radio program. Akers suggested that, while Muslim extremists brought down the Twin Towers, American Atheists is trying to “finish the job”: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Dannika Nash, a college student and Christian, wrote a beautiful open letter to the church that you have to read, even if you’re an atheist. Here’s an excerpt: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution recently released the results of a survey on “Citizenship, Values, & Cultural Concerns” (PDF) and a couple of the findings are very notable for what they say about atheists. First: This is no surprise to anyone, but the percentage of young people (18-29) who have no religious affiliation is just leaps and bounds bigger than any other age group (31%). [Click headline for more…] Read more
North Carolina is back in the news for more religion-related idiocy. You might remember how the Rowan County Board of Commissioners have pretty much had only Christians delivering their invocations at meetings for a long time — specifically, “97% of Board meetings in the past five-and-a-half years have featured sectarian prayer,” according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. Then, a week ago, Republican lawmakers filed a bill (since tabled) that would allow them to establish a state religion. Rep. Michele Presnell was one of the co-sponsors of that bill. Recently she wrote a letter to her constituents explaining why she supported this awful legislation: Read more
The other day, Hemant posted about the difficulties Camp Quest organizers ran into when they tried to put on a fund raiser at Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ. The fundraiser had been cancelled abruptly because the owner’s “Christian philosophy” didn’t mesh with Camp Quest’s secular beliefs. On the very same day, crew members of Ask An Atheist received an email regarding an event they had been organizing to host Australian atheist folk-singer/song-writer Shelley Segal. The email was from Anthem Beverage & Bistro, the venue where Shelley’s performance was scheduled to take place this Sunday. Originally, plans for the event were going great, with Anthem staff saying they’d even be willing to stay open late as long as there were enough people ordering food to keep the kitchen open. Of course, throughout their email correspondence, the Ask An Atheist folks made it clear that they were the ones who would be hosting this event. They never hid who they were and what kind of event they wanted to host. But Monday’s email made it clear that things had changed: [Click headline for more…] Read more
