***Update***: Jason Torpy has a follow-up post here. … The Boy Scouts have every right to ban gay people (and atheists) from their group. But that doesn’t mean it’s what they should be doing. Here’s everything you need to know: After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays, ruling out any changes despite relentless protest campaigns by some critics. An 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders… Read more
David Niose, the author of the just-released-today book Nonbeliever Nation, gets some love in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette: In his new book, “Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans,” Mr. Niose explores the rising challenge of secular Americans — including humanists, agnostics, atheists and lapsed Christians — to the dominance of evangelical groups. … Mr. Niose, 49, said it’s important that nonbelievers organize, in order to become a potent force. He added that it would be beneficial for the… Read more
Sam Harris‘ Project Reason is having its annual video contest — first prize gets $10,000. Check out the videos and vote for your favorite. Voting ends on July 23rd! My vote goes to the visually-stunning Conflict by Risenape: (Though Perfect Faith makes a good point very quickly.) Read more
Last week, I mentioned that Ellwood City (Pennsylvania) planned to vote on holding a lottery to decide who could put up a holiday display in City Hall. Obviously, this was a backdoor way to let Christians put up a Nativity Scene on public property. Last night, the borough council voted against the lottery 4-3. Victory! Council President Anthony “Lefty” DeCarbo cast the deciding no vote after Councilwomen Judith Dici and Marilyn Mancini, and Councilman Glenn Jones voted against the recommendation…. Read more
Salman Rushdie’s forthcoming book — Joseph Anton: A Memoir — about when he went into hiding during the fatwa against him will be published in September and the Center for Inquiry-DC will be hosting one of his touring events: Salman Rushdie, the Booker Prize-winning former president of American PEN shares the extraordinary story of how he was forced underground for more than nine years after he was sentenced to holy death by the Ayatollah Khomeini for his controversial novel, The… Read more
Since some of you have been asking, the book is about halfway done! (Which is good since I have a month left before school starts back up again…) I think I have all the research I need for the rest of it. A few friends have read the different chapters so far, so I’m getting useful feedback from different places. I have a title. I love the title. I’m not telling you the title. Random note: I have no idea… Read more
It’s good to see Jesusophile is still alive and well: It gets really good around the 3:15 mark 🙂 Read more
***Update 3***: American Atheists’ President Dave Silverman issued this statement to me: AA will not take part in Bible or Koran desecration, although we wish to stress that we have NO respect for so-called ‘holy books’. If Ernest does it, it’s not with our support or under our name. … Well, shit. You all know how the Pennsylvania House of Representatives declared 2012 to be the “Year of the Bible” (as opposed to all the other years…?) That was later… Read more
Well, I won’t be getting a tattoo anytime soon (*phew*)… but Dustin Williams got one to mark the fifth anniversary of when he left the seminary: All I can think of when looking at that is “Ouch!”… how the hell do you tattoo people do it?! Read more
We tend to hear about the “free exercise” clause in cases like the Affordable Care Act, where the Catholic Church says it should not be required to provide employees’ insurance coverage for contraception in their non-churchy institutions (like hospitals and universities, for example). One Delaware divorcee recently thought it could apply to her, too — she used “free exercise” to challenge a court’s calculation (PDF) of the alimony she was required to pay to her husband. Vanessa Wright (A pseudonym)… Read more
