Patrick Mitchell has written a lengthy guide to coming out as an atheist on his website Coffee Shop Atheist. The first part deals with actually coming out, the second focuses on how various kinds of believers will react to your deconversion, and the third (upcoming) will talk about the different kinds of atheists. Regarding coming out of the closet, I thought this suggestion, in particular, was a good one: Don’t: Put it up on Facebook First This was a tremendous… Read more
The landmark Supreme Court case McCollum v. Board of Education — which put a stop to religious education in public school — originated at a school district in Champaign, Illinois. In honor of the 65th anniversary of that decision, the Illini Secular Student Alliance will be hosting a screening this Thursday night of The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today, an award-winning documentary about the case written and directed by University of Illinois Professor Jay Rosenstein. More information is… Read more
I mentioned before that the audio book version of I Sold My Soul on eBay will soon be coming out. Because it’s being released by a different publisher (Pitchstone Publishing) than the one that put out the book (Waterbrook Press), we can’t use the same cover: That’s why I’m asking readers for help. I have two options: Let Pitchstone create their own cover… or ask my readers if any of them would like to design it. I’d love to go… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Hi Hemant and Richard, My dad is a fundamentalist Christian who has only recently discovered I’ve become an atheist. Luckily, he has a very logical/curious intellect which I know has been clouded by his own religious upbringing, and now he’s interested in engaging in a decent, sincere discussion with me. I know we have a potential “convert” here… He’s given me a list of starting points. I’ve come to realize… Read more
For several months, former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron has been under fire from LGBT activists for an interview with Piers Morgan in which Cameron said homosexuality was “unnatural,” “detrimental,” and “destructive.” Cameron is a born-again Christian who speaks frequently about how his faith affects his life. As recently as July, Cameron made headlines again for refusing to meet with LGBT youth while he was headlining a religious anti-marriage-equality event in New Jersey. In an interview with Naples News this week,… Read more
This is the picture of a Ten Commandments monument in front of Connellsville Junior High East in Pennsylvania — it’s been up there since the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated it in 1957: If you’re confused, it’s because the monument is now boarded up. You can thank Americans United for Separation of Church and State for that. They sent a letter to the district last month asking for the monument’s removal — another letter from FFRF followed not long after… Read more
There’s a new Christian Right group in Toronto with a specific focus: A religious advocacy group is taking the Ontario school system to court arguing that public schools need to provide “advance notice” of their teachers’ lesson plans so that parents can vet what their children are allowed to learn. … There is a disturbing trend in Canada’s educational system which is seeing inherent parental rights get trampled by a belligerent, government ideology. This state ideology seems determined to eradicate… Read more
Salman Rushdie’s new book Joseph Anton: A Memoir is an autobiographical account of what happened before, during, and after the infamous fatwa that was put on his life. (According to the Ayatollah Khomeini, Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses was blasphemous, “against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran.”) The book’s title refers to the pseudonym Rushdie used while in hiding. This week’s New Yorker features a lengthy excerpt from the new book: 1989 Afterward, when the world was exploding around him,… Read more
Chris Hallquist is now blogging on the Patheos Atheist channel! He’s a good guy — you should read him if you don’t already. So… along with Libby Anne and JT Eberhard, that makes three former Freethought Bloggers now on Patheos. [Cue all the conspiracy theories.] Read more
