I haven’t had a chance to listen to the full audio, but the Rationalist Society of Australia recently released a conversation between interfaith supporter/atheist Chris Stedman, his biggest critic PZ Myers, and ethicist Leslie Cannold in which they discussed the question “Can believers and atheist work together for the common good?” As always, if you hear anything we should all pay attention to, please leave a timestamp in the comments! (Of course, most of you won’t do that and you’ll… Read more
Continuing the conversations from here and here, I received this email from an atheist who teaches at a Christian school. If you’d like to share your experience as an atheist in a Christian workplace, please shoot me an email. … I met my husband in church. We had both been raised in fairly conservative, Bible-believing homes. Our parents are well-educated, though, and always encouraged us to think for ourselves. By the time we met, we were both fairly liberal in… Read more
This is the first in a supposed “commercial” campaign by r/atheism. (Even if that’s not true, consider it a standalone ad.) ***Edit***: Commenters point out this video’s a joke. Glad to hear it. I still think this is a conversation worth having. I think the atheist’s message would’ve been more effective without the CAPS LOCK and exclamation point… But still, I like seeing that comment in those kinds of Facebook threads. Now, is that really bravery? I don’t think it… Read more
Explaining to a die-hard Christian that you are a “friendly atheist” is sometimes equivalent to explaining you are a friendly murderer. To them, atheists are evil soulless creatures condemned to hell. God made atheists, atheists. Who are they to question his creations? Who are they to question anything? Questioning means you don’t have true faith. The word “atheist” seems to leave a sting when spoken. Maybe that’s just me. It has a subliminal negative meaning after being raised Catholic. I remember… Read more
Attorney Cheryl Bormann is in the midst of defending alleged September 11th conspirator Walid bin Attash, a member of the so called Gitmo 5. It was while meeting with her client that the Chicago-based lawyer began dressing in an abaya — a traditional Muslim woman’s garment that covers everything but the wearer’s face — to avoid distracting her extremely conservative client. Bormann herself is not Muslim. She claims: “I want him to be able to fully concentrate on the proceedings… Read more
Americans United for Separation of Church and State just scored a big victory. The town of Greece, New York has been opening board meetings with prayers since 1999 thanks to Town Supervisor John Auberger. Sure, they’ve allowed different members of the clergy to deliver the prayers… but virtually all of those clergy members were Christians. Finally, in 2008, they were called out on it by two residents of the town, Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens. After they complained, the town… Read more
Cord Jefferson, the senior editor at GOOD magazine, has a wonderful piece at Gawker about the struggles of being a black atheist: Several years ago, I pitched a freelance piece about black atheism to a prominent magazine geared toward African-Americans. The pitch was denied, but not for any real reason. “That one might be a bit, uh, hard,” is all my editor said. I’d later come to find out that he was merely sheltering me from his ultra-Christian executive editor,… Read more
[Hemant says: People have often expressed to me how much they appreciate Edward Tarte’s videos, so I’m happy to say he’ll be creating a series of videos specifically for readers of this site. This is his first.] Read more
Alabama governor Robert Bentley has called for further discussion on a controversial anti-immigration bill widely regarded to be the country’s toughest. Yesterday, lawmakers in the state House of Representatives passed a revised version of the bill 68-37 just hours after it had passed the Senate. Needless to say, both the chambers are controlled by Republicans. Viewed by critics to be draconian in some of the measures it makes available to police, instead of signing it into law or vetoing it,… Read more
