Remember Wichita City Council member and state Senate candidate Michael O’Donnell? He’s the guy who said he was living in and paying rent for a house owned by a church (where his father preaches). But the church, as a tax-exempt institution, wasn’t paying taxes on that property… something you’re only allowed to do if a pastor’s living on the property. That’s a serious problem. And the FFRF alerted the Sedgwick County Appraiser’s Office as soon as they found out. Now,… Read more
At Western Kentucky University, a student wrote a letter-to-the-editor complaining about a flyer put up by the school’s Secular Student Alliance affiliate: The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) has a new flier displayed around campus showing a man in a turban decapitating a cartoonist. The SSA has the freedom to display this cartoon, but their disregard for Muslim and Arab students in displaying it is morally reprehensible. Many Muslims and Arabs here are visitors from abroad and have chosen to study… Read more
This is a guest post by Michael Tracey. He is a journalist in Brooklyn, New York. *** My previous post seems to have whipped up a bit of consternation among the commenters, so I thought I would reply to a few objections raised. Why does Michael Tracey get to decide who qualifies as Christian? I don’t get to decide that, nor does anybody else. Theoretically, a UFO-worshiping Satanist could call herself a Christian, so she would, in some sense, be… Read more
If you can get past the grating voice, you will surely lose your faith in atheism: (via The American Jesus) Read more
Back in August, five secular organizations — the American Humanist Association, Center for Inquiry, International Humanist and Ethical Union, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, and Secular Coalition for America — met with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Religious Freedom. At the meeting, they presented a report on instances of anti-atheist discrimination around the world — unfortunately, there are a hell of a lot to choose from — and that report is now available online: This… Read more
For an organization that’s not quite three years old and run on a shoestring budget, I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I am with the members of Foundation Beyond Belief. As of this week, we have surpassed $500,000 in donations from atheists to various charities: Executive Director Dale McGowan explained in an email to members that the number doesn’t tell you the full story of what we’ve accomplished: As of Wednesday, September 26, the humanist members and… Read more
Remember how the Freedom From Religion Foundation asked the Kountze Independent School District to stop letting cheerleaders hold run-through banners at football games with Bible verses on them? Now, the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is getting involved. Yesterday, he sent a letter (PDF) to Kountze ISD Superintendent Kevin Weldon “offering assistance” to them: I write to offer my assistance and to provide advice about a menacing and misleading letter you recently received from an organization called the Freedom From… Read more
Atheist rapper Greydon Square just released the first singles from his newest album: Type II : The Mandelbrot Set, scheduled for release on October 16th. It’s his fourth album, “expand[ing] further on futuristic civilizations and emotional discoveries of mathematics and symmetry,” and his first in over two years. Here’s the track “Ultra Combo” with lyrics below: Me I bathe in the hotness you eject now from cockpit how you lames going to stop this i’m freeing slaves when I drop… Read more
The Vision Montréal city council adjourned for Yom Kippur on Wednesday, as usual, despite the challenge of one councilwoman. Anie Samson said that maybe there was a better way to handle religious holidays than to dismiss council meetings: The city should not suspend its work for a holiday of one religious community but not others, she said, and added that three of city council’s 65 members are Jewish. Rather than imposing a holiday on everyone, those who wish to celebrate their religions should be permitted to… Read more
