For several weeks now — and for hopefully one more — I’m spending a lot of time after school coaching my Speech Team kids, getting them ready for the State tournament (they compete today to see who qualifies). After that, though, I’ll begin traveling/speaking at different campuses again. Here’s my schedule for the Spring. A lot of these events are still tentative (I’ll offer updates as soon as possible), but if you’re in the area, please consider dropping by! Secular… Read more
An federal appeals court in Georgia recently affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of the case of Marcia Walden, a counselor employed by contract with the Centers for Disease Control, saying she did not have a valid free exercise claim against the CDC. Back in 2007, Ms. Walden’s employer, C0mputer Sciences Corporation, (CSC) held a contract with the CDC under which it provided counseling services to CDC employees. The issue arose when a CDC employee who was in a long-term same-sex relationship… Read more
Tammy Duckworth (a Deist) is running for Congress in the same Illinois district as Tea Party-backed Joe Walsh, who was discussed on this thread. Jacob Kramer of the National Atheist Party was at a Town Hall meeting for Duckworth Wednesday night and asked her how she would represent her atheist constituents should she be elected: Without pandering to him, I thought she gave a very respectable answer. It’s exactly what we need in regards to contraception (“Contraception is part of… Read more
My friend Paul Fidalgo has written a Kindle-only book called “Under the Stained Glass Ceiling: Atheists’ Precarious Place in Modern American Politics.” (The title is self-explanatory.) One of the chapters from the book discusses the prospect of an atheist getting into the Oval Office and Paul was kind enough to let me reprint it here (I’ve omitted all the footnotes below, but I assure you they are there): The 2000 film The Contender featured as its protagonist an avowed atheist… Read more
As I write this, here are the current NHL standings: If you look near the bottom of the list, you see the Montréal Canadiens. In 11th. Their playoff hopes don’t look great since only the top 8 teams get to go into the postseason and they’re quite a ways back in the points column, so what should their fans do? According to the Archdiocese of Montreal, they should pray. And to help them out, the Church took out a full… Read more
Dave Niose, author of the forthcoming book Nonbeliever Nation, weighs in on the things godless people do believe in (or at least tend to believe in): Everything since the Big Bang can be explained naturally We can only speculate about what “caused” the Big Bang Ethics do not require a God Religion is man-made The God of the Bible is especially implausible The idea of prophecy is even less plausible than a God Only humans can solve human challenges Dave… Read more
