I wanted to start this post with “Is nothing sacred?” but seeing as I write what I write about, I just couldn’t get past the irony. I discovered Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Hallelujah when I was a sophomore in high school. Because I am a regular person with ears, I immediately fell in love with it and used to drive around the suburbs in my Oldsmobile listening to it and feeling like this song “got me, in that way. Over a decade later, I still just adore it. In fact, I recently dusted off my keyboard and set about teaching myself the Wainwright version. (It’s not going great, but my boyfriend is really enjoying hearing the opening melody 289 times in a row.) My point being, this song is awesome. It’s sad and beautiful and heartbreaking. I’ve listened to several different versions since I started writing this post. I am not about to do any kind of analysis of Leonard Cohen’s lyrics, but look at this: Read more
In a desperate attempt to prolong its moment in the spotlight, the tired old Church of England has once again found a way to get what should be a positive step oh so very wrong. It’s been a busy couple of months for the church. First, we had the unsuccessful vote to allow women bishops, followed by worse-than-expected census figures, and, finally, its bizarre exemption from upcoming gay marriage legislation. This time, there’s confusion all around as the church has moved to allow openly gay priests in civil partnerships to become bishops. Read more
In case you were wondering, newly-elected Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), the sole religiously “unaffiliated” member of Congress (but, whatever you do, don’t call her an atheist), was recently sworn in by Speaker of the House John Boehner: So what is that she’s swearing on? Is it a Bible? Read more
Conor Robinson is the director of the Pathfinders Project, a “yearlong international service trip with clean water, education, sustainability, and advocacy projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.” He’s looking for four people who may be interested in joining him on this secular mission: Pathfinders Project has three primary aims To provide humanitarian service and address specific regional needs in the respective countries visited, To foster dialogue across religious, cultural, and ethnic boundaries, and To evaluate and compare countries and… Read more
Skepticamp is a mini-gathering where locals give short talks on the subject of their choosing (somehow related to skepticism). It’s a great way to meet other like-minded people, hear a lot of short-and-interesting talks, and break that public-speaking fear you’ve always had 🙂 Read more
You’ll all be thrilled to learn that The Christian Post’s Rev. Austin Miles has finally come clean about making a change to an article he wrote, denying making that change, blaming atheists for drawing attention to it, and then accusing those atheists of hacking into his writing account. Kind of. (Emphasis his.) Read more
Your daily dose of atheist inspiration (and beautiful imagery) is brought to you by Brandon Fibbs: The first 8:30 is Fibbs’ original words, while the rest of the video features movie clips that’ll make you want to take over the world. Read more
If I told you a pastor from Kansas said something about prayer in public schools, you’d probably cringe. So it was a pleasant surprise to read what Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, had to say about the call for putting God back in school in the aftermath of Sandy Hook. Read more
What better way to spend the last day of Winter Break, right? If you have any questions, throw them my way! Read more
Katherine Ozment (herself a “none”) tackles the issue of how to raise kids without religion (but not without knowledge of it) in the latest issue of Boston Magazine: Read more
