Since 2006, this has been the view outside the Dixie County Courthouse in Cross City, Florida: Read more
This was The New York Times’ Ross Douthat, yesterday, commenting on the “end of a Catholic moment”: Read more
A new sex education bill would reward programs that reject gender stereotypes, reach out to LGBT students, and teach a range of birth control methods. It’s almost as if Congress is doing something right for once. Read more
Cardinal Roger Mahony, the man who appears to have shielded child-molesting priests for the sake of Catholicism, wrote about humiliation on his personal website. But instead of talking about the things he’s done wrong, he flipped it around and threw it back on the victims of his purported crimes and those who rally behind them: Read more
It’s an enjoyable ride, an energetic action movie with all the bells and whistles of early-21st-century cinema: Trendy (and pricy) 3-D glasses. Sexy, take-no-prisoners heroes. Monstrous reimaginings of your run-of-the-mill witch. Modern inventions gone medieval (think tasers, machine guns, and insulin injections to treat Hansel’s “sugar sickness”). Wry humour. CGI trolls named Edward. But it’s also a modern reimagining of an idea straight out of the history books. The hunting and execution of witches was real… and it usually involved targeting older, independent-living women as consorts of Satan. It was a way to punish women for acting in ways the male social leaders deemed inconsistent with the community’s Christian values. Read more
On October 12th, 2012, Richard Dawkins received the “Emperor Has No Clothes Award” at the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s annual convention. The award goes to someone who “make[s] known their dissent from religion.” The video of his talk just went up online and it’s worth a view. Dawkins begins speaking at the 14:30 mark and the transcript is available. In the speech, Dawkins talks about the problem with bad metaphors (and those who end up believing they are actually true): Read more
Created by Donald Wright (author of The Only Prayer I’ll Ever Pray: Let My People Go) in 2011, the National Day of Solidarity’s mission is to promote community and solidarity among blacks in America who identify as non-theists. In the face of the highly religious climate in the Black community, as well as the predominantly White presence in the freethought community, Black atheists often feel as if they are completely isolated. The Day of Solidarity encourages in-person fellowship, recognition of historic and current Black freethinkers, and the pursuit of Humanist strategies to solve the problems facing humanity — especially those affecting the Black community. Read more
My grandfather recently died. He was old — 91 — and had Parkinson’s disease. His physical well-being had declined over the years and it had been hard to watch, especially because he was still very mentally sharp. My grandfather was a retired professor and one of the smartest people I’d ever known. He, like the rest of my wonderful family, was one of the driving forces impressing the importance of education to me, which has had such a big impact… Read more
