The great Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, died yesterday at the age of 83. The Illini Secular Student Alliance reminds us of this excerpt from an interview he did with NPR’s Fresh Air in 2003: “I am not a religious person, nor do I have any regrets. The war took care of that for me. You know, I was brought up strictly kosher, but I — it made no sense to me. It made no sense… Read more
Security expert Bruce Schneier has taken Sam Harris to task on his proposal to profile Muslims at the airport. I don’t have time to analyze the back and forth right now (it’s late; I’m tired) but I still think it sets a good example when Harris offer up his own site for a guest post that includes this opening: Why do otherwise rational people think it’s a good idea to profile people at airports? Recently, neuroscientist and best-selling author Sam… Read more
After an online contest held in January to design their next billboard, the Mid Ohio Atheists selected two designs (both created by Elliot Fuller) and they went up yesterday in Mansfield! In addition, they put up the following billboard as a response to a sign a local church put up last summer (which strangely used the same wording). They ran a similar billboard back in November: How soon before the complaints begin? The crazies are already rearing their heads… Read more
How no one thought of this before, I don’t know: What would other belief systems say? Let us know in the comments 🙂 (via Toothpaste for Dinner) Read more
I like Crommunist’s take on the age-old question, “Why are you an atheist?” Better yet, he asks, what has changed since you became an atheist? Here’s just one of his examples: Because I am an atheist, I am on the organ donor list Far more pragmatic and less self-reflectively thanatophobic than the first one, I realize that my body is a meat machine that has a lot of parts that can be inordinately useful to others when I’m dead. I… Read more
The Backyard Skeptics are sponsoring two billboards in California and I’m just waiting for the complaints to pour in from deeply religious types: The first one was put up in conjunction with American Atheists and pays homage to the late Christopher Hitchens: You can check it out in the American Legion parking lot in Midway City. The second one, promoting the upcoming Freethought Alliance Conference at UC Irvine, pokes fun at the idea of Noah’s Flood: Apparently, it’s in the… Read more
As I write this, Edwina Rogers of the Secular Coalition for America is doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit, so feel free to post your questions there! A couple of additional interesting links: Ashley F. Miller writes the sample apology letter she wishes Rogers would send out: My final big mistake is that I’ve been trying to focus exclusively on my positives without acknowledging my negatives and without engaging with them openly and honestly. This is a fault of… Read more
Edwina Rogers’ appointment as the Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America has had the atheist blogging community in a tizzy ever since Hemant posted his interview last week. Now Greta Christina has jumped in with an audio interview (MP3) that validates many readers’ suspicions. (Additionally, a transcript of the interview is available here.) To be clear, the issue here is not about Rogers personality or intellect or even her prior involvement in the Republican party; it’s that the… Read more
Remember when the Freedom From Religion Foundation wanted to put an ad in the New York Times urging people that it’s time to quit the Catholic Church? The NYT ran it, but they changed the headline to take away a bit of the edge (“It’s time to consider quitting the Catholic Church”). Today, the FFRF is running the same basic ad in the Washington Post — this time, without editorial changes made to it (Click to enlarge): The same ad… Read more
