The board of Carroll County, Maryland, has created a very ironic situation. County employees have been “urged” to attend a training course centered on the Maryland Constitution. Legally, they’re doing fine to this point. The irony comes from who is presenting the course: The Institute on the Constitution. They champion what it calls the “American View” of the state’s constitution. This view, according to their site, is “There is a God, the God of the Bible. Our rights come from… Read more
Jonathan McLatchie, a man who believes the Bible is 100% true, has an article at the Cross Examined blog in which he details the problems with the Koran… In this article, I am going to focus specifically on the historical accuracy of the Qur’an. As we shall see, the claim that the Qur’an is historically accurate — particularly when it describes events hundreds of years removed from its writing — is not a tenable position. Umm… Jonathan… hate to break… Read more
As someone on Facebook said, it was cold and rainy outside, but there was warmth all around at the Reason Rally. Here are some random thoughts about the event along with pictures and video: The grounds, the day before the event began: Did you see these pre-Rally articles about Nate Phelps and Dave Silverman? The grounds, 90 minutes before the event began: I spent the night before the Rally at a friend’s house. The friend had a cat. I stayed… Read more
The Ottawa Citizen runs a feature each weekend called “Ask the Religion Experts” where they invite representatives from different faith — and no faith — backgrounds to comment on a general religion-related question. (So, in other words, there’s one expert…) The online version isn’t formatted well, but it’s a good use of a religion section. Let the theists dig their own graves by spouting their nonsense in the public domain. They say mostly-similar things — and the readers can figure… Read more
For all the NPR listeners out there, I’ll be on the show “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” tomorrow morning — we’ll discuss the Reason Rally, atheism, My Little Bronies, etc. It’s a live show that tapes from 10:00-11:00a (CT) and you can see where it airs in your city by going here (click on “search by program,” go to “On Point,” and find your city). There’s also a live stream here. They take callers so feel free to chime in! Read more
He has to prove Ray Comfort right! And, you know, give atheists nightmare fodder: (via Unreasonable Faith) Read more
In case, like me, you didn’t get a chance to see the episode this morning, here it is! Links to the specific segments are below: Coalescing the atheist political movement. Atheists, God and the GOP. Atheism in the public sphere. How does God fit in with global warming? Pastor comes out as a non-believer. As always, if there are any particular clips we should pay attention to, please leave the timestamp and summary in the comments! Read more
If I’ve learned one thing about conferences over the past few years, it’s that the Skepticon model works. It’s a hell of a lot of work for the student groups (!!!) to organize, but if they can make it free and open it up to the general public, people will come in droves. This is all dependent on people donating money for the cause — to cover things like the travel/lodging costs for speakers (who tend to come for free)… Read more
If you’ve never seen Jesus Camp, prepare to be horrified. The documentary is now available to watch via SnagFilms LLC: (Thanks to Jamie for the link!) Read more
If you live in the upper midwest, George Hrab is coming to Wisconsin to do a show at the House on the Rock resort on Saturday, March 31st: Hrab emceed The Amazing Meeting last summer and the crowd *loved* him. Here’s him performing a song called “God Is Not Great”: Tickets are only $20 and you’ll be surrounded by an awesome group of skeptics. (if I wasn’t out of town that weekend, I’d be there in a heartbeat.) Read more
