The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a former soldier was killed because he was atheist. The soldier had a troubled past; apparently, he was reported missing from Ft Sill in December of 2005. It is unclear if this was a violation of his enlistment. Brittany Green allegedly told authorities that her brother [Justin Green] said he had shot Ramirez twice because he “did not believe in God and alleged that Ramirez reached for a gun,” the complaint said. Terri Green… Read more
Artist Castro Burger is responsible for these fliers seen in Los Angeles 🙂 Your move, Westboro Baptist Church. (via Boing Boing — Thanks to Gil for the link!) Read more
Remember when Oklahoma’s Rep. George Faught invited Pastor Bill Ledbetter of Fairview Baptist Church to speak to the House of Representatives? It happened a couple of weeks ago. In case you missed it, here’s the video and my take on it: Now, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter (PDF) to Speaker of the House Kris Steele urging him to discontinue the practice of praying to open House sessions and inviting pastors to deliver “Chaplain of the week”… Read more
Yesterday, the Reason Rally announced the addition of Eddie Izzard to the roster. Today — and this may be even more interesting news — they’re announcing that Nate Phelps will be there, too. Phelps is the (estranged) son of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps. Nate severed ties with his notorious family decades ago and now speaks out in favor of LGBT rights and raises awareness of religion-based child abuse. Considering that we now know his notorious family also plans… Read more
The Damsels of Dorkington, a hilarious group of heathens, are trying to raise enough money to travel for their performances in 2012. (In case you’re not familiar with them, this parody of “I Kissed a Girl” is a good place to start.) We are traveling to various conventions all across the country, and we typically don’t get much help (if any) from the conventions themselves. That leaves us stuck with pricey airline tickets, rental cars, and hotel fees. We want to… Read more
On April 29th, 2010, Mitch Kahle of the Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church and Kevin Hughes protested an invocation prayer in the Hawaii State Legislature. Long story short, the Sergeant at Arms wanted him to leave, Kahle resisted, the resulting skirmish was all caught on tape, Kahle and Hughes were roughed up in the process, and both men were arrested for disorderly conduct. All this for what was actually a very peaceful protest. You can read… Read more
It’s already the “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania, thanks to Rep. Rick Saccone’s House Resolution 535 (PDF). But apparently, the state’s not Christian enough yet, and that’s why House Resolution 609 (PDF) has been introduced by Democrat Thomas R. Caltagirone: WHEREAS, Prayer is regarded by millions as the most important utterance for the benefit of humankind; and WHEREAS, This nation was founded by single-minded men and women who sought wisdom through prayer; and WHEREAS, Prayer has aided many people… Read more
In anticipation of next month’s 2012 Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, the Atheist Foundation of Australia has purchased bus ads that raise a great point: “If God exists, I hope he has a good excuse.” David Nicholls, president of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, had this to say about the adverts: “Woody Allen’s words encapsulate the thoughts of the freethinking community and the sneaking suspicions of a growing number of religious people as well. Considering the immensity of the unnecessary… Read more
Over the weekend, I had a serious discussion on Equal Time For Freethought with Jamila Bey and host Matt LaClair about minorities in the atheist movement. A more entertaining (though less serious) interview took place at Cognitive Dissonance. There, we talked about things like what kind of blog posts are most interesting to write about and why younger Christians give me some hope for the future. Also, there was a lot of swearing. Good times. Read more
This is a guest post by Lee Moore and leaders of the National Atheist Party. … Our recent invitation to the Westboro Baptist church has sparked a bit of controversy. Kelley Freeman described our invitation as “[poking] a rattlesnake with a stick,” but we just don’t see it that way. Reactions from others have been a mixed bag. Some have patted us on the back and thanked us for sending the invitation. Others have been less than enthusiastic. We have… Read more
