The Pennsylvania State Atheist/Humanist Conference takes place in Harrisburg next weekend and organizers have announce that Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson will give the welcoming remarks. That’s quite a surprising twist… In 2010, the American Humanist Association sent a letter to Thompson’s office requesting that she stop saying Christian prayers before her staff meetings … as mayor of the city and chief executive officer of city government, you are the person all other employees must respect and, ultimately, please. By suggesting… Read more
For the past several days, damn near every story about Texas’ Kountze Independent School District and how the cheerleaders there want to hold up run-through banners at football games which have Bible verses on them has been pretty one-sided. The local media interviews the cheerleaders or the parents of the cheerleaders and nobody seems to understand why promoting Christianity at public school events is a problem: Finally, we get to hear the other side. KFDM News in Beaumont, Texas first… Read more
This joke makes no sense… Since when do mathematicians have anyone to dump? BAM! I’ll be here all night. (via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) Read more
I can’t possibly be the only person sad that this cartoon never got off the ground: The half-hour animated television show, which centers around the wacky Jihadist adventures of the Islamic prophet and his mischievous pig friend Abrahammy, was slated to begin airing this October. “At this time, our company believes it is best to temporarily remove The Almighty Muhammad’s Porkalicious Toon Jihad from Nick Jr.’s fall programming schedule,” Viacom executive Todd Coates said. “While we still believe that thousands… Read more
Matt Dillahunty of The Atheist Experience filmed a segment for Chris Johnson’s multimedia book about atheists and what gives them joy and meaning in life. In the segment below, Dillahunty talks about how he actually has quite a lot in common with religious people when it comes to what makes him happy: (via The Atheist Book) Read more
A lot of atheists tend to support animal rights and the cover story of the latest issue of National Geographic (October, 2012) covers the intersection of both worlds… it’s not pretty. The story is about how elephants are being slaughtered “so that their tusks can be carved into religious objects.” Carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, they dispatched the elephants with a military precision reminiscent of a 2006 butchering outside Chad’s Zakouma National Park. And then some stopped to pray to… Read more
Christian evangelist Billy Graham has a syndicated column that goes out under his name (though I doubt he writes it given his age/health). In the latest one, a reader asked him a pretty good question: What was God doing before He created the world? I had an atheist friend ask me this a few days ago, and I didn’t know what to say. — Z.N. Great question! Let’s see how Graham answers it! It should be one hell of an… Read more
I’ve been following this story for the last few months, and it’s a gentle reminder that even the most mild-mannered religions can have not-so-mild-mannered followers. Case in point: Amish man Samuel Mullet (which, by the way, is the most stereotypical Amish name I’ve ever seen). 16 members of Mullet’s community were just found guilty of a hate crime carried out against others in their community… after being persuaded to do so by Mr. Mullet. The 16 members — ten men and six women… Read more
Yesterday, in response to the violence and protests around the Muslim world, a coalition of the world’s regional international organizations released a joint statement (PDF) that they called a message of “peace and tolerance.” The statement, released by the European Union, the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, and the African Union expressed “anguish” for Muslims offended by the infamous “Innocence of Muslims” video and unsurprisingly straddled the line between respecting free expression and a wish to curtail some… Read more
