It was successful last year and they’re doing it again: The Atheist Film Festival will be taking place in San Francisco at the Roxie Theater on August 11th! If you submit a film, you could be eligible for a $250 grand prize: Topics concerning atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, science, or a secular approach to human are encouraged. Beyond that, it’s up to you. AFF wants a shorts program that reflects a plethora of secular perspectives and demonstrates that art and reason… Read more
The Angry Atheist just put out an interview he did with a pastor who’s secretly an atheist. While the pastor’s not currently in the pulpit, his story is just fascinating. What caused him to lose his faith? It started with the “end of the world” theories, he says. Later, his graduate school classes pushed him away from faith even further. From there, he and his wife began to lose their faith together. It’s inspiring, really 🙂 If you hear any… Read more
Dr. Tina Strobos died earlier this week. She was 91. She saved the lives of more than 100 Jews during the Holocaust by allowing them refuge in her Amsterdam home. She gave them food and medical care. She cleverly found ways to obtain fake passports for them. She was arrested nine times. Her house was searched eight times. They never found the refugees. She risked her life to help other people. And she was an atheist: “I never believed in… Read more
As you all know (and are no doubt celebrating right now), 2012 has been declared “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania. Now, one atheist group is fighting back in their own way. The PA Nonbelievers are working in conjunction with American Atheists to put up this billboard in Harrisburg: The “HR 535 – Year of the Bible Resolution” declared by the PA House of Representatives asked us to “study and apply the teachings of the holy scriptures”. After considering the… Read more
This is the full-page ad the Freedom From Religion Foundation wants to place in the New York Times: They’re looking for contributions to run the pricey $52,000 ad: If the response is enthusiastic enough, FFRF will book a full-page ad. If we don’t meet our $52,000 quota, we’ll go with a smaller ad. We can get the full-page ad in next week. The smaller stand-by ad could take up to 3 weeks to run. (Before you start complaining about how… Read more
Singer Miley Cyrus tweeted this earlier today and, based on the responses to that message, her fans are going apeshit: The picture quotes Lawrence Krauss. Actually, those aren’t Krauss’ exact words. These are: The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all… Read more
The University of Illinois’ Secular Student Alliance is looking to expand their ever-growing freethought library and they could use some help: If you happen to have copies of any of the following books to spare, please consider donating them. Simply email us at illinissa@illinois.edu for more information, or give what you can to the Freethought Library fund by clicking the “donate” button in the upper right hand corner of this page. You can donate through their page. Need some inspiration?… Read more
The city of Mansfield, Ohio is offering Christian government employees a pretty sweet deal (PDF): On Good Friday, in addition to their lunch break, employees can take an extra hour to go to church. Oh, and they’ll still get paid for that time. The Mid Ohio Atheists point out that if every employee made only minimum wage and took the city up on its offer, it would still cost taxpayers $4200. This glaring violation of the establishment clause not only… Read more
Remember when a Hasidic newspaper removed Hillary Clinton’s image from the iconic White House photo of the Osama-bin-Laden-mission situation room? While that newspaper was based out of Brooklyn, it seems like that practice happens a lot in Jerusalem where ultra-orthodox Jews have quite a bit of power: This fact does not refer to scantily clad models, who were purged from signs and posters in the city several years ago as a result of campaigns waged by the ultra-Orthodox — struggles… Read more
