Reasonfest, like Skepticon, is one of those amazing, student-run, free conferences that began happening a couple of years ago. It’s in Kansas, which only adds to its necessity. In order to put on a free massive conference, the Kansas University Society of Open-Minded Atheists & Agnostics (SOMA) have to do a hell of a lot of fundraising. Read more
It’s blasphemous, it’s violent, it has a superhero… Hollywood is gonna *love* this movie. (You’ll want to make sure the subtitles are on.) The good part begins around the 1:10 mark. (Thanks to Sandro for the link!) Read more
How’s that for timing? On Good Friday and in the middle of American Atheists’ 50th anniversary convention, U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts tossed out American Atheists’ lawsuit against the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and its display of a 17-foot-tall steel beam cross. If you need some background, AA had sued because they felt the museum was supposed to honor the victims of the tragedy — and we all know atheists, non-Christians, and Christians died on that day. [More…] Read more
In 2010, the Atheists of Florida organization sued the City of Lakeland and mayor Gow Field because they began each of their meetings with an invocation that seemed to always be Christian. In its lawsuit, the group noted that prayers at the meetings include phrases such as “in the name of Jesus Christ,” “our Savior,” “the King of kings” and “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Hardly non-sectarian. In fact, in the 25-year span between September, 1985 and May, 2010, every single speaker (PDF) was a Christian. [More…] Read more
Boston College is a university, and a fairly good one at that. It’s a Catholic institution, stating that it “is committed to maintaining and strengthening the Jesuit, Catholic mission of the University.” Like many Catholic universities, BC has to balance being a religious institution with having a large and diverse student body that is no longer expected to necessarily be of the Catholic mold. BC is very committed to its Catholic mission and, as such, it will not stand idly by as students violate one of its most important and emphasized doctrines. Refusing to help the poor? No, of course not. Not tending to the infirm? Wrong again! The intolerable violation was the distribution of free condoms: [More…] Read more
Back in December, I posted about a Ten Commandments monument that sits outside Valley High School in New Kensington, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh): Three plaintiffs (including two students) filed a lawsuit against that monument with the help of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. They wanted to remove that obvious promotion of Christianity from the school. Initially, though, there was a stumbling block: In order to proceed with the case, the students were not allowed to hide behind pseudonyms. They had to let everyone know who they were. In other words, instead of proceeding with the case on the basis of merit and defending the Constitution, they had to expose themselves to harassment from their classmates and community. As we saw in Jessica Ahlquist’s case, people are not very kind to perceived threats against their religious privilege. There were already threats coming to the third plaintiff (a parent in the district), so a judge agreed the students could use aliases. And all was well and good. But now, a state representative is disregarding all of that. He wants young atheists to deal with the consequences if they fight back against monuments dedicated to his faith. He has written a bill — House Bill 922 — that would no longer allow those students to remain anonymous: [More…] Read more
Last week, a report about the treatment of children in madrassas located in Bradford (a town in England) was released. Entitled Children Do Matter and being issued after a twelve-month period of research and consultation, the report was jointly produced by groups including the Bradford Council for Mosques, Bradford Safeguarding Children Board, National Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and West Yorkshire Police. Bradford and the West Yorkshire area in general has one of the highest Muslim populations in the UK. The 2001 census showed that 16.08% of the population identified as Muslim. To meet this demand, there are a large number of madrassas, some of which operate less reputably than others. [More…] Read more
