There’s a summer camp for children ages 5-10 in Colorado where the kids play games and sing and draw… Sounds good so far. Then you hear about what else they do and you discover this is basically a camp for con-artists-in-the-making: When they’re ready, kids can also learn how to read auras, set energetic boundaries, set intentions and meet spirit guides. “I don’t except a 5-year-old to grasp all of this right away, but it’s like we’re planting a seed,”… Read more
This is an article by Ed Buckner and Michael Buckner. It appears in the 2nd/3rd Quarter 2012 issue of American Atheist Magazine. American Atheist is available at Barnes & Noble and Book World bookstores in the US and Chapters Indigo bookstore in Canada. You can subscribe to the magazine by clicking here. Note: Footnotes/citations were not included in this posting but are available in the print version. … American elections — all of them, at every level — are full… Read more
Mitt Romney’s pick for VP has wasted no time in appealing to religious conservatives. Vice-presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan had some bold things to say in his acceptance speech Saturday about where exactly we Americans get our rights: “Our rights come from nature and God, not from government. That’s who we are. That’s how we built this country. That’s who we are. That’s what made us great. That’s our founding. We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.” Here’s the video of… Read more
At the Secular Student Alliance 2012 Conference, Brendan Murphy gave a talk on “why atheism can handle mental health issues better and how the movement can improve to handle such situations.” This is a tough issue to talk about, but Brendan does a wonderful job of it. (And he put his slides online (PDF) so you can follow along!) Read more
Derek Miller, the incoming president of the Illini Secular Student Alliance, gave a fascinating presentation at the 2012 Secular Student Alliance conference on perceptions of atheists in society and how to change them. In short, we know atheists have a bad reputation and we know the Internet has been a blessing (you know what I mean) for atheists… but the Internet may be contributing to our bad reputation. Derek explains how r/atheism, to name one example, actually hurts atheists. I… Read more
The wisdom of Pat Robertson: You *know* The Daily Show will find a way to use the first few seconds of that video somewhere… (via Christian Nightmares) Read more
When the Secular Coalition for America released its 2011 Congressional Scorecard (PDF), Mitt Romney’s just-announced running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, received a solid F: That made him one of 230 Republicans to receive a failing grade (5 earned Ds, 6 earned Cs, and none received anything higher). The one bright spot for Ryan was RC 673, which provided “for the establishment of the Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.”… Read more
