So the saying goes: one step forward, two steps back. Or so it seems with LGBT people in the media: Rupert Everett, the 53-year-old British actor who starred in the 1998 film “Shakespeare in Love,” took a few giant steps backward for the gay rights movement this week when he told the UK’s Sunday Times Magazine that there’s apparently nothing worse than having gay parents. Everett came out as gay 20 years ago and says his mother still wishes he… Read more
Alright. Spill it. Which of you naughty atheists used a Christian group’s faux grassroots-anger email system to send letters of support to schools that brought in Jessica Ahlquist to speak to the students? Because Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute is ever-so-pissed about it: Today, an unusual number of atheists from around the country have used our Take Action system to voice their support to those schools that invited teen atheist Jessica Ahlquist to speak on constitutional issues. Since… Read more
The Albuquerque chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation bought a full=page ad in today’s Albuquerque Journal marking Constitution Day, the anniversary of when the document was ratified: It’s a response to a full-page ad placed by the Hobby Lobby chain declaring the country a “Christian Nation”: “We feel it is important to respond to the full page ‘In God We Trust’ ad placed by Hobby Lobby in the Albuquerque Journal on July 4, which we have researched and found… Read more
Reader Benn recently posted this image on Facebook: He received a response from a Christian friend saying the image was too extreme — no religious person would ever say that, he said. So let’s help Benn out: Is this just a strawman argument or is it a real threat? Do religious parents ever say these things to their young children? If it’s happened to you, please share your stories. Read more
I’m giving a talk about my book I Sold My Soul on eBay at Drake University (in Iowa) this Saturday afternoon, September 22nd, at 2:00p in Harvey Ingham 104. The event is free and will be full of awesome! More information is here! Many thanks to the Drake University Secular Student Alliance for making this happen. Oh. And I will give everyone who attends copious amounts of extra credit. Read more
This is an excerpt from The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates by Howard Bloom (Prometheus Books, 2012). Reprinted by permission of the publisher. … THE PROBLEM WITH GOD: THE TALE OF A TWISTED CONFESSION Imagine this. You are a twelve-year-old in a godforsaken steel town that once helped suture the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast of North America and Europe. A city that, for you, is a desert — a wasteland without other minds that welcome you…. Read more
I love the beginning of Hendrik Hertzberg’s essay on the role of God at the DNC in this week’s New Yorker: If you happen to be a Republican campaign operative and/or a Fox News Channel chat host, that unexpectedly joyful Convention in Charlotte the other week made for glum viewing. One of the few points of light on the right was the discovery, just as the festivities were getting under way, that the Democrats had drafted a platform that –… Read more
Thing I knew: Jessica Ahlquist was coming down to the suburbs of Chicago this week to speak to some area high schools about the importance of the First Amendment and why she fought so hard for her case. Thing I did not know: She’s visiting a high school in my district (as well as a couple of other local ones). Thing all of you could’ve predicted: Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute isn’t taking this news very well. …… Read more
In his talk at the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Dan Barker put a twist on Pastor Rick Warren’s popular phrase and gave a talk on “Life Driven Purpose”: As always, if there are any bits we should pay special attention to, just leave the timestamp and a summary in the comments. Read more
There’s so much wrong with this video, but let me set it up for you. ***Edit***: The video is from July of 2010. Still crazy, but it’s not something recent. José Luiz Datena is the host of Brasil Urgente, a primetime show in Brazil. In the clip below, he reports on a crime in which a child was murdered… which makes him go on an anti-atheist rant, because surely an atheist committed the crime. He also asks for a call-in… Read more
