A few months ago, Secular Coalition for America Executive Director Edwina Rogers embarked on an ambitious plan to launch affiliates in every state before the end of the year. We already have Secular Coalitions in Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. Today, the SCA is adding two more states to their list: California and Massachusetts! The Secular Coalition for California will be headed up by Roger Schlueter and Caleb Weaver: “California has a nationwide reputation as an innovative state… Read more
It’s just not possible to choose both — not entirely, anyway. If you’re taking things like God’s existence or miracles or the efficacy of prayer on faith alone, then you’re compromising your intellectual integrity. Religious people love to tell you otherwise (“I’m religious because I’m intelligent!”) but it’s all rhetoric with no substance. If you want to be religious, it requires giving up some degree of critical thought. They won’t admit that, but I don’t see any way around it…. Read more
The common wisdom about the “God Hates Fags”-believing Westboro Baptist Church is that the congregation consists only of people named Phelps, that it’s all white, and that you can’t really “join” it. Jack Wu can prove all of that wrong in an instant: He was born in Taiwan and began attending the church in 2008: Oh. And he’s running for a seat on the Kansas Board of Education: Wu’s campaign, small as it is, comes at a time when the… Read more
When it’s the Day of Silence, the Illinois Family Institute and other conservative groups encourage Christian parents to pull their children out of school for the day. Because keep your kids from getting an education is the best way to fight back against wicked tolerance… Now, the American Family Association is urging parents to keep their kids home for another reason: Mix It Up at Lunch Day, a day when students are encouraged to break free from their usual social… Read more
In case you missed the conversation about the Secular Coalition for America’s Congressional Briefing on Monday, the audio from the event is now available. (A video featuring highlights from the 90-minute event is currently being put together.) Yes, there’s a typo with the word “Agnostics.” Acknowledge it. Move on. It’s not worth discussing. If you hear anything worthwhile, please leave the timestamp and summary in the comments! Read more
Citizens of skepticism, lend me your ears! Believe it or not, a lot of negative shit has been happening in our movement. I realize that, as a bunch of people who take issues, ideas, and concepts very seriously, we often forget about how damned amazing our movement is. We forget about the LOLs and concentrate on the WTFs. So let’s take a moment to celebrate the awesome. Send me your amazing story about that one time you led a protest… Read more
Last Thursday, the Army shut down to focus on suicide prevention training. With skyrocketing rates of suicide, a problem stretching over the course of years, the Army needs to be addressing this. Collaborating on these issues are experts in the areas of psychology, behavioral health, and, of course, religion. Army Behavioral Health provides scientific approaches, including their “Shoulder to Shoulder” message of camaraderie and their “Ask-Care-Escort” (ACE) model of addressing potential issues. These approaches make good sense. In addition, the… Read more
Yesterday, the Secular Coalition for America (of which I am a former employee) held a Capitol Hill briefing, something that’s actually kind of gutsy considering the toxicity with which atheism is regarded within the Beltway. It featured a handful of big names from our movement, including Harvard’s Greg Epstein, David Niose (most recently notable for his new book Nonbeliever Nation), and of course SCA’s chief, Edwina Rogers. What ought to have been a real boon for its efforts was the attendance… Read more
The Center for Inquiry has launched a “Campaign for Free Expression” to defend the right to free speech. This brief video showcases the problem: No person should face social or legal punishment simply for speaking about his or her beliefs in public. And no topic should be off limits — especially religion, which has such an enormous impact on the lives of billions. Part of the freedom of expression is the freedom to inquire — to ask questions and seek… Read more
It’s one of my favorite Richard Dawkins passages (from Unweaving the Rainbow) and Gavin Aung Than has put it in cartoon form: The full cartoon is here. So when’s someone going to turn The God Delusion into a graphic novel? Because I would totally buy that. (Thanks to Rebecca for the link!) Read more
