The Secular Coalition for America plans to establish state chapters across the country by the end of this year because many of the issues we fight for are put in jeopardy at the state level. Executive Director Edwina Rogers elaborates: “In our current U.S. Congress, 38 percent of Representatives held local office first,” said Rogers. “When we get to law makers at the local level, not only are we going to help curb some of the most egregious legislation we’re… Read more
Over at the Center for Inquiry, we’re trying to get a little more attention for a very troubling development in North Dakota, and I’m hoping against hope that the Friendly Atheist readership in the Roughrider State is huge. For the sake of my sanity, I will presume this to be the case. Listen: There is a ballot measure to be voted on on June 12th being pimped as a “religious liberty” amendment to the state’s constitution, not terribly unlike the… Read more
Pete Stark is in trouble. For years, Stark has represented California’s 13th congressional district in the House of Representatives. He has served since 1973. He’s currently the longest serving member of Congress from California. But now there’s a rule change in effect: In 2010, California’s voters approved Proposition 14, which replaced the conventional party primaries with a different system known as “Top Two,” copied from Washington state. Under this system, which took effect last year, all candidates appear on the… Read more
The Secular Student Alliance is hosting a BIG event online this week known as SSAweek (#SSAweek on Twitter if you want to follow it)! More than 20 people/bloggers are participating, donating their time and efforts to promote the organization and bring in funding for the upcoming school year. It began today with an AMA on Reddit with Todd Stiefel of Stiefel Freethought Foundation. Todd also kicked off the campaign with a $50,000 donation to the organization! SSAweek is actually 10… Read more
A bill recognizing same-sex marriages was signed into law in Washington State on February 13th and that law (PDF) was scheduled to go into effect 90 days later, on June 7th. But a group called Preserve Marriage Washington, which describes itself as “a coalition of pastors, community and faith groups and citizens,” has spent the last three months working to put the brakes on marriage equality. This morning, they’re scheduled to meet with election officials to deliver enough signatures to… Read more
Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found a much lower degree of theism amongst the autistic, linking their lack of belief to their diminished mentalizing capacity. Mentalizing can roughly be defined as the ability to imagine what other people are thinking and to perceive or interpret behavior in accordance to intentional mental states (understanding needs, desires, reasons, etc). Original research available here. It has long been understood that people with autism have diminished mentalizing capacity. What does this… Read more
I mentioned last week that there was now a Dallas/Ft. Worth chapter of Atheists Helping the Homeless (which started in Austin). Their first giveaway was this past weekend and it was a *huge* success. They had 23 volunteers and a large turnout from people who needed their help. Congratulations to LaDonna Davies and her crew for putting this together! If you’d like to help them continue doing this work, you can kick in a donation right here. Read more
On Friday, April 20th — the Day of Silence — Wolcott High School junior Seth Groody wore this image on the front of his shirt: That’s a rainbow with a slash through it… basically summing up Groody’s attitude toward homosexuality. The administrators at his school told him to change his shirt. He protested, saying he had a right to wear it. He wasn’t discriminating against individuals, which could be illegal at a high school. This was protesting an idea; it… Read more
Is the brain hardwired for God? Neuroscientists have found and measured chemical changes in the brain when a person is going through religious or spiritual experiences and keep coming back for more. It turns out religion makes us feel the same way we do when we meditate — the evolutionary explaination is these practices help us improve our mental state, so in a sense, we all believe in the same thing… only our vision of what “it” is comes in different forms…. Read more
