After the upheaval in the Muslim world over the (terribly put together) “Innocence of Muslims” video, it looks like there will be a strong push in the United Nations to criminalize blasphemy (in case you didn’t have enough of a reason to celebrate for International Blasphemy Rights’ Day next Sunday). Protesters have ignored the United States government’s denunciation of the video and Pakistan actually declared Friday as the “Day of Love” for the Prophet Muhammad. Certain Muslim leaders are now pushing… Read more
Beth Presswood, one of the hosts of the Godless Bitches podcast, filmed a segment for Chris Johnson’s multimedia book about atheists and what gives them joy and meaning in life. In the segment below, Presswood talks about the joy of her wedding and swimming with manatees (without calling any of it “spiritual”): (via The Atheist Book) Read more
The Freedom From Religion Foundation just put up this billboard in Missouri with the message “Ban Marriage Between Church and State”: It comes in response to one put up by Catholic Radio reading “1 Man, 1 Woman, For Life!” In fact, the two signs are situated fairly close to each other. (Billboard wars!) Matt Gaines is the Smithville, MO resident and FFRF member who sponsored the billboard: Gaines said he feels the Catholic-sponsored sign is offensive to gay couples –… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Hi Richard, How can I learn to be more like you? 😉 What I mean is that you seem to have such a clear-headed framework for dealing with other people in such a thoughtful and compassionate way. You seem to be able to get to the heart of people’s psychological needs, and anticipate what communication strategy will have the most success. So while I recognize that you always know the… Read more
For weeks now, Camp Quest, Foundation Beyond Belief, and the Secular Student Alliance were in the running to win a lot of money, courtesy of the Chase Community Giving Program. Thanks to your votes and your help in getting the word out, CQ and FBB won $20,000 each and the SSA came away with $50,000! That’s a *major* victory. And it’s great to see so many organizations — including ones not in the running — urging their members to work… Read more
Denny Crane was one of the co-organizers of the Reddit Atheism fundraisers for Doctors Without Borders (which raised over $200,000). Since that time, the r/atheism community has grown by over 900,000 people. The question is whether we can mobilize a good chunk of them. Now, Denny is helping create a “virtual” Light the Night team on Reddit. It’s all part of an atheist-led plan to raise $1,000,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: So, what do you say, reddit? Together… Read more
Remember how my plan was to write the book over the summer? Well, I wrote about 90% of it over the summer and I figured I could fix up the rest of it after the school year began. I didn’t realize that once I got back into the classroom, it would be *really* hard to get back into writing mode… Anyway, this weekend, I reread the manuscript after weeks of not thinking about it, removed a 5,000-word chapter that I… Read more
How do you take something excruciating and turn it into something worthwhile? The Long Beach General Geekery Meetup members are going to visit the Creation & Earth “History” “Museum” in San Diego (yep, they have one) in late October. But they have a plan to offset their inevitable WTF reactions: For every “violation of objective fact” they find at the museum, they’ll donate $1 (or more) to Camp Quest. They say the max is $20/member, depending on one’s ability to… Read more
Spencer Troxell is an atheist social worker at a homeless shelter in Ohio and he’s put together a mental health forum for victims of mental illness and their families. It takes place this October and I’m thrilled to promote it: Read more
