The Secular Coalition for America is having its first-ever Congressional Briefing this Monday, October 1st at 10:30a. That’s a big freakin’ deal: Lost in much of the discussion about religion in the public sphere is the ever growing population of Americans who feel that religion should be a private matter and that entanglement between church and the government inevitably causes problems for both. A recent Pew Center for the People and the Press study of polls in 2011 found that… Read more
If you spend any amount of time around the atheist community — on blogs, on videos, at in-person meet-ups, reading books, etc. — you quickly find that the arguments given in favor of the existence of a god tend to repeat themselves. I’m sure you’ve heard most of the following: There is a god because… Nothing can’t give rise to something. We have moral laws, so we must have a moral law giver. The eye/flagella are irreducibly complex, so something… Read more
In addition to the other organizations speaking out against potential blasphemy laws in the wake of the radical Muslims rioting against a pathetic YouTube video, a couple more have issued statements of their own. First, Atheist Alliance International: “AAI is deeply concerned that the UN member states will overreact to recent protests and violence in Muslim-majority countries — violence which itself is a grotesque overreaction to an amateur video of dubious origin — by endorsing anti-blasphemy resolutions during the General… Read more
President Obama has disappointed nonbelievers and those who take seriously the concept of church-state separation many times. In his participation in the National Prayer Breakfast, in his continuation and expansion of the Bush-spawned “faith-based initiatives,” and his general pandering to religious figures, such has his inclusion of the risible Rick Warren at his inauguration. But there are times when the president shows a side of himself that should help seculars take heart. Yesterday, Obama addressed the UN General Assembly, primarily… Read more
Here’s Joel Osteen’s predicament: His success hinges on his ability to inspire and uplift people. But, as a successful pastor, he knows he’s going to have to take stances on “controversial” issues like gay marriage. So what does he do? He stays ignorant. It’s just easier for him. When he gets asked about whether homosexuality is a sin, he tries to avoid the line of questioning by saying he never talks about that in church and he “stays in his… Read more
Congressman Stephen Fincher (R-TN) has introduced legislation in the House promoting the “importance of religion.” Here’s the purpose of House Resolution 789: Reaffirming the importance of religion in the lives of United States citizens and their freedom to exercise those beliefs peacefully. As if that was really a problem in our country… After a series of statements like “Whereas the Bible is the best-selling book of all time,” we get into what Fincher really wants: Resolved, That the House of… Read more
Rick Perry, a.k.a. “Governor Oops,” made news recently when he ascribed the concept of church-state separation to the machinations of Satan. No really, he did. And in case you thought that maybe he was being hyperbolic, perhaps talking in the heat of some spiritual passion, well… Here’s the governor on stage for a sit-down interview for the Texas Tribune Festival, talking calmly, soberly, and without a hint of irony about how scared he is of Satan. He even uses The… Read more
Here’s one way to fix local economies: Put the Freedom From Religion Foundation in charge. They just saved the city of Tucson, Arizona $1,100,000. The backstory is this: Back in July, the Tucson City Council voted 5-2 to use $1,100,000 of taxpayer funds to restore a building owned by the Catholic Church. The Marist building is a historical landmark in the city because it’s the “tallest unfired adobe building” in the state, but the Catholic Church hasn’t used it since… Read more
Preserve Marriage Washington, the group working to overturn marriage equality in Washington State wrote an exceedingly hypocritical post on their blog. Here’s the background: Washington United for Marriage recently began running the ad you see below which describes how one woman’s daughter wasn’t able to be visited by her partner in the hospital after she suffered a cancer-related seizure. Hospital staff wouldn’t even call her. Why? Because they weren’t married; they were “only domestic partners.” Preserve Marriage Washington pitched a little… Read more
You don’t always see student journalists take big risks and break stories but Alex Green, the editor-in-chief of Bryan College’s student newspaper in Dayton, Tennessee, did just that on Monday and it’s really an incredible story. Bryan College is a Christian school founded in the wake of the local Scopes Monkey Trial and David Morgan was a professor of Biblical Studies there. Over the summer, Green found out that Professor Morgan wasn’t returning to the school. When he pushed further,… Read more
