Larry Mendte of WXMI-TV in Michigan thinks religion is under attack. His evidence? There are people who follow a newfangled religion called “pasta-fairy-ans”… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, I have read with great interest your advice to atheist teens coming out to their theist families, and I wonder if you have any advice to someone in the opposite situation. I am an atheist parent trying to deal with my college sophomore daughter going to church regularly. I find myself feeling great sympathy for the theist parent in some of your other letters and asking myself essentially… Read more
There’s a show called “Belle’s” on TV One, a network geared toward African-American viewers. (We can add both of those to the List of Things I Learned Existed About Four Seconds Ago.) On the most recent episode, Jil Cooper introduced her boyfriend Jack to her family. (Get it? Jack and Jil!) Just one problem: Jack is an atheist — something even Jil didn’t know about — and father Big Bill Cooper can’t deal with it. Read more
February has been a strange month for the Catholic Church. While those enthralled by the bubble that is the Vatican are still reeling after the Pope’s resignation, today, the most senior Catholic in Britain has been forced to step down amid allegations of “inappropriate behavior” dating back to the 1980s. Cardinal Keith O’Brien (current holder of Stonewall’s ‘Bigot of the Year’ award) has been the Archbishop of St Andrews since 1985 and a Cardinal since 2003. He was due to step down from his post in March due to his age, but the Pope has now requested he leave early. Read more
A petition has appeared on the Edinburgh City Council website raising the issue of religious observances in non-denominational schools in the city. Currently, all schools in Edinburgh (be they non-religious state schools or otherwise) are required to provide religious education as well as opportunities to participate in religious observances. The legal mandate to do so dates all the way back to 1872. Read more
The most rewarding bit of activism I do right now is being on the board of directors for the Foundation Beyond Belief. It’s a group I mention frequently on this site and one I hope you all consider joining. Read more
Cara Santa Maria, senior science correspondent for the Huffington Post, recently filmed a segment for Chris Johnson’s multimedia book about atheists and what gives them joy and meaning in life. In the segment below, she talks about the Carl Sagan quotation “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself,” and how we’ve evolved this amazing ability to comprehend our own existence in the universe: Read more
How often do Academy Award winners thank God? Not nearly as often as I suspected. Rebecca Rolfe, a grad student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, put together a database of the speeches given by every major Oscar winner and you can now search through her results. Read more
Last year, Pflugerville school district in Texas became the first in the state to offer benefits to domestic partners of employees, whether gay or straight. But some legislators say that move goes against the values Texans apparently hold dear. Rep. Drew Springer, a Republican state representative from the state’s Cooke County, proposed a bill this week that would slash healthcare funding by 7.5 percent for school districts that offer benefits to employees’ domestic partners — a major blow to those districts and their staffs: Read more
