Penn Jillette’s video from the Reason Rally: (There’s also some behind-the-scenes footage for that video.) … My recap of the event can be read here. Read more
The Dallas–Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is about to embark on a new advertising campaign called “Our Families Are Great Without Religion” that will highlight how “family” is not synonymous with “Christian”. Here are the images that will be cycling through on the billboard along I-30 in Grand Prairie (Tom Landry Freeway) beginning Easter weekend — each image will be up for one week: The following ad will also appear during pre-show ads at the Green Oaks Movie Tavern in… Read more
In an extremely thorough and thoughtful blog entry at the Huffington Post (seriously, I encourage you to go read the whole thing), Outsports.com co-founder Cyd Zeigler is calling for Ron Brown, assistant football coach at the University of Nebraska, to be fired. Brown is a Christian, and one who goes well out of his way to publicize his beliefs — particularly the belief that LGBT people are icky and defective. He even went so far as to speak at an Omaha… Read more
Oklahoma didn’t have an official state motto before… but Rep. Danny Morgan is about to change that. His legislation — House Concurrent Resolution 1024 — will soon make the new motto: “Oklahoma — In God We Trust”: WHEREAS, while the words “In God We Trust” were added to United States coins in 1864, it was not until 1956 that this phrase replaced “E Pluribus Unum” as the United States national motto; and WHEREAS, although the State of Florida adopted the… Read more
In response to Pennsylvania legislators declaring 2012 the “Year of the Bible,” FFRF is filing a federal lawsuit (PDF) against state officials… … and they’re doing it with a record number of plaintiffs: The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. FFRF names as defendants State Rep. Rick Saccone, author of the resolution, Clancy Myer, House Parliamentarian and Anthony Frank Barbush, Chief Clerk of the Pennsylvania House. … “We heard an outpouring of… Read more
When I wrote I Sold My Soul on Ebay, the Christian publishers had two rules regarding my writing: 1) Every mention of God had to be capitalized. (It didn’t make a difference to me.) 2) You can’t swear. (It wasn’t an issue since I usually don’t, anyway…) After that, they let me write whatever I wanted and they helped me along the way. Rachel Held Evans is writing a book for a (different) Christian publisher in which she follows the… Read more
The “Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism” is given out by the Harvard Secular Society on behalf of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and the American Humanist Association. The first year, the award went to Salman Rushdie. The second award went to Greg Graffin, the lead singer of Bad Religion. Then, it went to Joss Whedon. In 2010, it went to Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. Last year, it went to actor and comedian Stephen Fry. There’s a… Read more
Did you know that Little League Baseball has a pledge? It’s on their website, right here: I trust in God I love my country And will respect its laws I will play fair And strive to win But win or lose I will always do my best Little League is a tax-exempt American non-profit that organizes youth baseball around the world, up to and including the Little League World Series. Teams from every country often say this pledge before games,… Read more
In case you missed it, there was a *fantastic* discussion about atheism in America and the Reason Rally on “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” today. The audio is now available. Kimberly Winston, the reporter for the atheism beat at Religion News Service, knocked it out of the park with the facts about who showed up at the rally and what our demographics are like. Then, James Randi and I answered questions about the Reason Rally and atheism in general. Hope… Read more
