What’s it like to be an atheist in Mississippi? Jesse Robinson rode along with members of the Freethinkers, Agnostics and Atheists club of Mississippi State University as they drove down to my talk in Alabama over the weekend and discovered what made them so active: For Chris Ramos, MSU physics graduate student, atheism came as a consequence of science and moving to Mississippi. “It wasn’t until I came to Mississippi that I started thinking about questioning religion and thinking about… Read more
I know Zombie Jesus day is over, but reader Joaquin Photoshopped this awesome looking shirt. Someone needs to make it exist! Joaquin adds: For ultimate scavenging, add brain shaped Easter eggs and a fuzzy basket. Don’t mind if I do. Omnomnom. Read more
I don’t understand 87% of this video, but it involves the ways religion is portrayed in video games: Extreme religious groups actively make the world a less cool place to live. Whether it’s Islamic extremists detonating themselves, fundamentalist Christians gunning down doctors, or neighbours in Northern Ireland throwing stones at each other over different interpretations of the same book. These people hijack religion to enforce their own cultural beliefs, and it’s our misinterpretation of this reality that creates the divide… Read more
In the past two weekends, I visited two different churches with various members of my family. They know about my lack of faith, and I’m at a point where I don’t feel intimidated by religious services or guilty of about my skepticism. Going to church solely for the sake of spending some time with them finally seems like a sensible solution. I don’t regret the decision, either, because the two services provided an interesting study in contrasts. The first was… Read more
Kailyn Lowry was one of the teens featured in “16 and Pregnant” and (more recently) “Teen Mom 2”: A few days ago, on Twitter, she revealed that she had no plans to go to church on Easter, choosing instead to spend time with her baby’s father: She eventually admitted the reason outright (to another fan): Word spread and Kailyn’s been responding to some of the inevitable pushback for a couple of days now: Nice comeback at the end there :)… Read more
Lisa Marie Presley has a new album out and the first single from it is called “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” Why should anyone care about it? Because if you look closely at the lyrics, it appears that she’s taking some not-so-subtle jabs at the Church of Scientology. She’s been a longtime member of the cult, but maybe she’s trying to get out for good: Lay down the truth, don’t make a sound Just a piece of fruit who’s hit… Read more
A year ago, the town of Adrian, Missouri voted to put up an “In God We Trust” sign in their town hall. At the time, Alderman Danny Ferguson did everything he could to put a stop to that, even asking the others *which* god they were referring to. In fact, his attempt to stop the sign from going up is so fantastic, you should go back and read it again. Now, there are updates to the story. First, the sign… Read more
Today we bring you yet another story of Islamic countries giving their female athletes the shaft. It turns out that Saudi Arabia, a country that has never sent a woman to the Olympics, ain’t about to start: According to Thursday’s editions of Al-Watan newspaper, an all-but-official government organ, Saudi Olympic Committee president Prince Nawaf Bin-Faisal (a member of the Saudi royal family and the country’s sports minister), told a Wednesday press conference, that he “does not endorse female participation of… Read more
There’s a Christian movie coming out soon based on Don Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz. The filmmakers want to portray it as “not a Christian movie,” but when you take a look at the clip below, you can tell that they’ve failed. During a debate between an atheist and a theist, the atheist character is basically a caricature, bringing together all those Christian stereotypes about us — we’re older, white, without any sense of compassion, only able to describe things… Read more
Last week, I took part in a panel discussion about religion. One of the other panelists was a (really sweet) Christian woman. When the moderator asked us how we arrived at our religious (or atheistic) views, I answered honestly: I started questioning my faith, and the more I explored it, the less I believed it. Eventually, I became an atheist. There was a little more to it, but that’s the gist of it. When it was the Christian’s turn, she… Read more
