… you should know they gave $1,900,000 to anti-gay groups in 2010. A portion of all the food you’re buying there is being used to impede civil rights for gay people. That brings them to nearly $5,000,000 in bigot funding over the past decade. Good thing I’ve never eaten there before, anyway. (See? Being vegetarian has its perks.) Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, I am an atheist, and have been since my teens. Although at times I struggled with my unbelief, mostly I just lived my life and didn’t worry about it too much. I have always tried to be a moral person, and have thought long and hard about values and ethics. Recently I have been overwhelmed with difficult problems in my life. My son has bipolar disorder, and my… Read more
I’ve received a number of emails recently asking why atheists focus so much on Christianity and not Islam. (Short answer: In America, at least, Christians are the ones constantly fighting to turn their private beliefs into public laws, not Muslims.) Anyway, reader Richard passed along this video of a debate between physicist Lawrence Krauss and Muslim activist Uthman Badar. The two-hour debate is over whether belief in god is prohibitive or liberating. I would at least check out the excerpt… Read more
The Foundation Beyond Belief has just announced its five beneficiaries for the new quarter — each charity will likely receive several thousands of dollars, courtesy of atheist donors: POVERTY: Nourishing USA HUMAN RIGHTS: Equal Justice Initiative CHALLENGE THE GAP: Hindu American Seva Charities EDUCATION: Kasese Humanist Primary School THE NATURAL WORLD: Animal Legal Defense Fund … The lion’s share of my donations this month are going to Equal Justice Initiative. I watched its Executive Director Bryan Stevenson give an amazing… Read more
On The 700 Club, Pat Robertson, who’s still around for some reason, was asked by a young woman about wanting to remain friends with a guy who is gay — because she really wants to bring him to Christ (i.e. turn him straight) — but she’s worried about hanging around “sexually immoral people.” What should she do? Robertson’s response? Keep ministering to him and stay out of gay bars. Meanwhile, I’m *way* more interested about Robertson’s response to the question… Read more
Richard Dawkins did an interview on Al Jazeera (English) yesterday night: He does a really nice job of coolly handling a lot of basic, biased questions. If any parts stand out to you, please leave the timestamp/summary in the comments! ***Edit***: Here’s a discussion question for you: At the beginning of the interview, Dawkins calls himself an Agnostic (saying he can’t definitively prove God doesn’t exist) and then adds that he’s an atheist in the same way he’s an a-fairy-ist…. Read more
One of the benefits of Foundation Beyond Belief is that we can coordinate a response in the case of a crisis. The Colorado wildfires are no exception. While some people are just talking about sending their prayers, we atheists know that prayers won’t help anybody. But there is a way to actually help. Here’s what we’ve learned about this specific tragedy: Every disaster event has a different profile and a unique set of needs. In Colorado, the most pressing funding… Read more
Fellow Patheos blogger Marc Barnes over at Bad Catholic has realized why the Catholic mandate against contraception enjoys such pitiful support amongst American women. It’s not because it’s an archaic, unrealistic standard that turns couples — and particularly women — into slaves of their own biology despite the existence of readily available alternatives. The actual problem is that it hasn’t been sold in a sufficiently attractive package. Enter the new website 1Flesh, which seeks to sell 19th century ideas (12th?… Read more
An unnamed woman from Virginia was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest who was performing an “exorcism” on her years ago… but she’s fighting back. Jane Doe (as she is named in the law suit) is suing the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, its bishop Paul Loverde (who is not being accused of sexual assault), and pro-life group Human Life International (which employed the defendant). The allegations say that Jane Doe went to Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, then the sitting president of HLI, believing she needed an exorcism — evidently her case was “severe.” Over… Read more
