So I’m sitting in the airport yesterday, heading back from Oklahoma, and CNN is on the TV. I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting to see Leah Libresco getting interviewed, but that’s what I saw when I sat down at my gate: I’m really curious why so many articles about her conversion describe her as “one of the most prominent atheist bloggers on the Internet” (as the CNN host said). I think they’re putting it in there because they don’t have a… Read more
At some point today, atheists everywhere ought to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a major Supreme Court decision — Engel v. Vitale — that helped get prayer out of public schools. Back then, a school district in New York had students recite this prayer (voluntarily) at the beginning of each school day: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.” A group of families sued, saying… Read more
AronRa is well known in the YouTube atheist community for his epic anti-Creationist take-downs. Lately, however, he’s decided to go to the root of the problem: faith, or the belief in things without evidence. Ultimately, he says, if we are to succeed as skeptics, and not simply replace religion with hippy-dippy homeopathic “spiritual” gobbledygook, it is faith that is the ultimate opponent. Aron makes the case in this great talk to Eastern Illinois University. The first half is Aron’s talk,… Read more
A new documentary called The Invisible War by Academy Award-nominated director Kirby Dick has just come out in theaters. The film tackles the issue of sexual assault in the U.S. military, and how it has come to be a systemic concern. Check out the trailer here: From the MSNBC interview with the director and producer: Last year, 3,192 sexual assaults, from unwanted sexual touching to rape, were reported across all branches of the military. Based on anonymous surveys of active-duty… Read more
Need a giggle? Check out this 2009 video from YoungCatholicMinute.com: Adam is shoving some foodstuffs into the washing machine. Guy B: Adam! What are you doing? A: I’m trying to wash my groceries, but I think it’s broken! B: Yeah, because you put your groceries in you wa– A: Don’t you try tell me how to use my washing machine! It’s mine. What do you know, anyways? B: Well, the repairman told me– A: Oh the repairman! He’s nothing special…. Read more
A poe-worthy fundamentalist Islamic group called the Popular Egyptian Islamic Association recently advised followers not to eat tomatoes because they’re just too Christian. I mean, LOOK AT THE CROSS! The group posted a photo on its page of a tomato — which appears to reveal the shape of a cross after being cut in half – along with the message: “Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah… Read more
It’s not about profiling anyone at the airport. Instead, Harris will be causing a different kind of controversy: The working title of the book is Waking Up: A Scientist Looks at Spirituality. This title could very well change, but this should give you some indication of what I’m up to. My goal is to write a “spiritual” book for smart, skeptical people — dealing with issues like the illusion of the self, the efficacy of practices like meditation, the cultivation… Read more
A few days ago, Kristen Stewart (not that one), a manager at the University Club reception hall in Moline, Illinois, turned away a potential customer because she didn’t approve of her sexual orientation. It was the same story we’re used to by this point: The owner or employee begins to tell the customer about the facility over the phone, finds out that the customer’s partner is of the same gender, and then flatly denies service to them. Taylor Shumaker says she… Read more
At the Oklahoma Freethought Convention yesterday, Seth Andrews debuted his latest video — Afterlife — and got a standing ovation from the crowd. Well deserved, too. This is a really beautiful video. A lot of popular YouTube atheists answer the question of how they get through the day knowing there’s no afterlife awaiting them. In short, they show us that a secular life is far from empty or meaningless: Read more
This is a follow-up to a recent article “Are Foxhole Atheists Really Seeking a Cure?” I reviewed an article by science writer Matthew Hutson who reported on three studies suggesting that fear of death will inspire atheists to believe in the supernatural. The studies were done out of the University of Otago in New Zealand. I also pointed out that “in discussions promoting ‘belief’ over ‘atheism’, the specific belief is often left extremely vague.” There’s now a new study distinguishing between agnostics… Read more
