When Monty Python’s The Life of Brian was released in 1979, a group of religious leaders tried making comedian John Cleese feel very, very bad about it because the movie rips on religion. Cleese (and the other Pythons) responded beautifully 🙂 (via Boing Boing — Thanks to Gil for the link!) Read more
QualiaSoup explains the answer in a beautiful way, as he always does. It’s UK-centric, but the principles still apply in America: Here’s one of the screenshots. See if you can guess who supports a secular government 🙂 Read more
True story: My sister texts me the other night saying she’s in Vegas and can I get her into Penn & Teller’s magic show? Because I’m an atheist so I automatically get free tickets, right? I tell her I can’t, but that Penn is probably doing his Doughnut and Bacon party at The Amazing Meeting at night. If she can find her way to South Point Hotel, she can probably sneak in there. I find Penn’s Tweet about it, send… Read more
Seen in today’s PostSecret: Atheism is the only logical explanation and it can completely mess with you. It takes away any hopes of an afterlife. It removes the possibility that people who are no longer alive are watching over you. It means that your prayers won’t be (and never have been) answered. But once you get over that initial shock, you’ll find out the responsibility for making your life wonderful is entirely in your hands, and that’s a very powerful… Read more
The God Discussion recently reported on the efforts by Israeli reformers to draft the Ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi Jews, into military service… but the Haredim are pushing back: The Haredim study the Torah and pray from morning to dusk, for a lifetime. They believe that worship and duty is their purpose… The Haredim say that they already do their part to protect the country through the power of God. They also feel that they must be separated from the rest of society… Read more
Last year, a group of bloggers raised money for Camp Quest… it was PZ Myers versus all the rest of us. And the rest of us defeated him! (And then we danced. Appropriately.) This year, we’re taking PZ down again: Why should you support Camp Quest? To quote CQ Executive Director Amanda Metskas: Camp Quest builds a community for children and teenagers from atheist, agnostic, humanist and other freethinking families. We provide campers a place to explore their developing worldviews,… Read more
Why are campus atheist groups so important? Why is the Secular Student Alliance so vital to their growth? Dustin Wyatt has a long article in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal explaining the answers. It’s a lot of soundbytes and not much in the way of analysis, but the quotations are all in our favor: “I used to be afraid of what people would think of me if I told them I was an atheist,” [Makenzy Sample] said. “It wasn’t until I discovered… Read more
Remember that awful PSA video that the European Commission put out to encourage girls to get into science? If you don’t, that’s okay, too. But if I had to sum it up in an image, it would be the following: It’s not what I would call “good” or “effective” or “a thing that doesn’t make me want to vomit”. I came across a video with a similar message, but perhaps done a bit more effectively. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a woman… Read more
Michael Paul Williams has a wonderful column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch regarding how the Henrico County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors voted to stop invocation prayers at their meetings: In an increasingly diverse U.S., the stubborn idea persists that we are a Christian nation. This notion muddles public policy and leads people to cite biblical passages when they should be referencing the Constitution. It also produces an anger and intolerance at odds with spirituality. Henrico did not earn a long-standing reputation… Read more
Indonesian atheist Alexander Aan, jailed for stating his atheism, has heard us. Last week, I wrote about the significance of Alexander’s plight, making the case for putting serious energy toward his struggle both for the sake of atheism-writ-large and for Alexander himself. It moves me to no end to know that he knows we’re rooting for him. Michael Nugent posts at his blog that Alexander has written a letter from prison to his supporters. The English is somewhat broken, but… Read more
