In the span of just a couple of days, we have yet another Arkansas legislator who dismisses the legitimate concerns of his constituent with a flippant response. On Monday, Rep. John Payton responded to a mother’s concern about her atheist daughter having to sit through a moment of silence (and the inevitable bullying of students who know she’s not praying) by tossing out a couple of Bible verses calling atheists fools. But there’s more where he came from. Last week, a Pagan woman wrote to Rep. Nate Bell — a Republican, of course — urging him to reconsider the state’s strict new veto-overridden anti-abortion laws. [More…] Read more
It looks like the giant portrait of Jesus that was hanging at Jackson Middle School in Jackson, Ohio is finally coming down for good: Last we heard, it was being moved to a local high school while the ACLU and Freedom From Religion Foundation’s lawsuit was going through the court. [More…] Read more
In North Carolina, Rep. Harry Warren and Rep. Carl Ford, both Republicans who represent Rowan County, filed a bill on April 1st that’s no joke. In short: It says the state should be allowed to declare an official religion, Constitution be damned. (And I wonder what that religion would be…) [More…] Read more
The Green Street United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina said recently that they won’t perform any marriage ceremonies until United Methodist pastors are allowed to perform same-sex ceremonies, too. Right on. Now imagine you’re a young child brainwashed into thinking those pastors need to get right with God. Well, you’d stand in front of that church all Westboro-like on Easter Sunday and start protesting. His parents must be so proud… ( Read more
National Ask An Atheist Day is coming up in a couple of weeks, but a bunch of atheists in St. Albert (Alberta, Canada) are taking a different approach to having conversations with Christians: They just advertise that they’re gonna be at a local gathering place and invite theists to join them. It seems to be working, too — they’re getting a lot of takers: [More…] Read more
It’s been a rough few months for outspoken atheists in Bangladesh. Violence broke out after some bloggers were accused of criticizing Islam. They’ve been censored and threatened to no end. And one citizen has already been brutally attacked. And now, earlier today, three atheist bloggers were arrested for the crime of saying things that hurt religious sensitivities: [More…] Read more
This past Friday — Good Friday — the Secular Student Alliance at the University of South Carolina decided to have a little fun with their student body. They got together a bunch of members, their tabling supplies, some flyers, and… condoms. Taking a page out of the Illini Secular Student Alliance’s book, they decided to tell their fellow students to “Have a Good Friday… Night!” Perhaps due to the University of South Carolina’s low Catholic population, general friendliness of the student body, or the fact that they were passing out condoms, the event was a huge success! SSAUSC reports that they were out of condoms and flyers by 1:00PM that Friday. They had started tabling around 11:00 that morning. [More…] Read more
Alright, I hate linking to this, but I can’t avoid it. You have to see firsthand the gall of Thomas L. McDonald, Catholic blogger here at Patheos. He criticizes atheists based off his own prejudices while wishing us all a Happy April Fools Day: [More…] Read more
Following in the footsteps of comedian Louis CK, atheist playwright (and former Saturday Night Live cast member) Julia Sweeney is now releasing the film version of her *incredible* one-woman show “Letting Go of God” on her new website: Check out the preview below: [More…] Read more
In response to the increasingly hostile (and yet incredibly important) online atheist community, where we’re seeing written attacks on anyone and everyone who ever disagrees with you about anything ever (“There’s something wrong on the Internet!” syndrome), nearly two dozen leaders of national non-theistic organizations have joined together to release an open statement addressing the problem. To many, this will all seem like common sense… and it is. Yet, even in our community, reasonable dialogue is hard to find and humanity is often missing from our humanism. I’m sure some bloggers will inevitably think this applies to everyone but themselves, but those of us who spend a lot of time in the online atheist world (as writers, commenters, or readers) know that a lot of the people who think they’re part of the solution only end up making the problem worse. Personally, I’ve found the best course of action to be avoiding the whole world of drama altogether, but others see that as tacit support for one side or the other. The problem isn’t caused by any one person or even a small group of people. But, together, we can at least work to make the online climate a little more hospitable. This statement is a starting point. A place of common agreement. The signatories want to help make things better and they should be commended for that. Now, let’s see how the online world responds. [More…] Read more
